In a new interview with "Reckless" Rexx Ruger of the Pod Scum podcast, former DEATH/MASSACRE guitarist Frederick "Rick Rozz" DeLillo was asked if there is any chance of his current project, LEFT TO DIE, recording and releasing original music. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't know. We talked about doing some originals, like maybe doing an EP or something like that. But, yeah, only time will tell, man. Who knows? We'll see. That would be great, though. For real."

LEFT TO DIE is the band featuring classic DEATH members Rozz and Terry Butler (also formerly of MASSACRE and currently in OBITUARY) paired with GRUESOME founders Matt Harvey (EXHUMED) and Gus Rios (ex-MALEVOLENT CREATION).

LEFT TO DIE performs most of the songs from DEATH's classic "Leprosy" album, along with cuts from DEATH's debut LP, "Scream Bloody Gore".

Asked by Pod Scum if releasing an EP with LEFT TO DIE "makes more sense nowadays than" putting out an LP, Rick responded: "I don't know. We just thought it would be a good idea. If it happens. It's talk [right now]. And my idea was that the four of us would each write a song. And, of course, there'd be other input from the other members, but the main majority [of each of the four songs would be done by the individual member who wrote it]. And then maybe do a couple of cool covers and do, like, a six-song [EP], [with] four originals. And that was just an idea that I came up with. I'm not speaking for the other guys. But an EP has been talked about. I have riffs. Gus has riffs. Everybody plays guitar as well, so everybody can write a fricking riff. But we'll see what happens, man. Only time will tell."

Rozz also talked about his songwriting process, explaining: "I don't really look at it as a job thing. And it all depends. I've got guitars sitting around. I pick 'em up every once in a while and sometimes I just play some rock guitar or I'll play some acoustic stuff. But as far as writing metal stuff — no, I don't think about it too much. I just sit down and I'll have a riff and I'll have my phone and I'll put record and I'll just play at acoustically. I'll put the riff down. And I have probably 20 riffs on my phone, just little snippets, so I don't forget. Then when it's time to really, 'Okay, shit, I need to put some stuff together…' I dig jamming by myself, but it's so much cooler to play riffs with a drummer. I miss getting in the room with people and jamming to where you can really get a good feel. You know when a riff is cool, but then maybe somebody else might not like it. And I'm not gonna go, 'Oh, it has to be there.' 'Cause somebody might go, 'Yeah, that sounds like this, that and the other.' Da da. And then we'd be like, 'Okay, cool. What you got?' [Laughs]"

The Riff Crew channel on YouTube recently uploaded professionally filmed video of LEFT TO DIE's entire March 9, 2025 concert at the Melbourne Dethfest at Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia. Check it out below.

Featured songs in the video:

00:00 Intro
00:45 Leprosy
07:29 Open Casket
12:31 Infernal Death
16:25 Sacrificial
20:05 Torn To Pieces
23:39 Regurgitated Guts
27:34 Left To Die
32:32 Scream Bloody Gore
37:10 Zombie Ritual
42:57 Pull The Plug
48:10 Evil Dead

Back in November 2023, Rozz said that it has been an "honor" to perform songs from DEATH's revered first two studio albums, "Scream Bloody Gore" and "Leprosy" as part of LEFT TO DIE. In an interview with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, Rozz was asked whether he had any trepidation over learning material he hasn't played since 1989, which is the year he was dismissed by DEATH leader Chuck Schuldiner. "It was quite terrifying at first, especially when I saw we were doing a full tour," he said. "I had my taste of anxiety before the East Coast run that we did. I was like, 'Holy crap. I have to learn all of these songs and some 'Scream Bloody Gore' songs, and we're playing in front of people. I was like, 'Ugh.' Other than that, it's cool. It's chilled out a little bit."

Rozz then went on to discuss whether he has come "full circle" in his career by playing the songs that helped start his musical career. "It's been a blessing," he said. "I've made some new friends and rekindled my friendship with Terry. We room together. It's pretty cool. Then, getting to know Gus and Matt. They're so good at what they do. They're so passionate about the music and the songs. It's a really good feeling. It's an honor. There's nothing full circle about it, but it's pretty cool."

Rozz was also asked whether he has noticed increased fan support for DEATH, particularly the band's early period. "Definitely, especially these first two DEATH records," he said. "Not that people aren't passionate about the other records. There seems to be something with these first two records. It's an honor. It's flattering. It's a blessing. All of it all wrapped up into one. Those guys could have said, 'Nah. I'm good. We have enough on our plate.' They didn't have to learn all these songs and do a tribute to these records, but they did. It really is cool. It's been a lot of fun. When you're doing something with cool people — nobody is on their high horse or thinks they're owed something from someone else, that's the coolest thing about it. Everyone is doing their thing and gets along. There's no baloney."

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.

In late 2023, LEFT TO DIE completed a run of West Coast dates that included a guest appearance from "Scream Bloody Gore" drummer Chris Reifert (also of AUTOPSY) in Oakland, California. Reifert performed the DEATH classics "Infernal Death" and "Evil Dead".

LEFT TO DIE completed its first U.S. tour in July 2022. A European run of shows followed this past March and April 2023.

Butler previously stated how LEFT TO DIE came together: "After the [2021] Chuck tribute shows that Matt, Gus, and myself did, Rick posed the question, 'Would anyone want to see some 'Leprosy' shows?' With a resounding 'yes!', the masses had spoken. Matt and Gus threw their hats in immediately and, in my opinion, they were the only real choice to bring this thing to life."

Schuldiner died on December 13, 2001 after a battle with pontine glioma, a rare type of brain tumor.

"Born Human: The Life And Music Of Death's Chuck Schuldiner", the fully authorized biography of the legendary DEATH frontman, was released in November 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.

Tyler Bates has announced his departure from Marilyn Manson's touring band.

Bates — who co-produced and co-wrote Manson's 2015 album "The Pale Emperor", 2017's "Heaven Upside Down" and the singer's latest effort, 2024's "One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1" and has toured with Manson as a guitarist — took to his social media earlier today (Monday, January 5) to write: "Hello, Good People. Every New Year prompts reflection on all that has transpired and what lies ahead. In light of this, I have decided to conclude my time touring with Marilyn Manson to focus on my artist, film, and television projects.

"I have enjoyed every minute working and performing with my bandmates, Gil Sharone, Reba Meyers, and Matt (Piggy D) Montgomery. They are stellar humans on and off stage. I will miss performing with them for the incredible audiences we met around the planet in support of 'One Assassination Under God: Chapter One'.

"I'm stepping away, but I will be actively supporting the upcoming release of 'Chapter Two', my fourth album with Manson, which I believe is our finest work together.

"I wish M, the band, and the crew the best of success and good times moving forward.

"Thank you, the fans, for your loyalty and support of our new music and performances. I wish you all the very best for a fantastic and peaceful 2026. TB"

Bates, a film composer best known for his scores for such blockbusters as "Atomic Blonde" and "John Wick" and "Guardians Of The Galaxy" flicks, originally met Manson through his work on the Showtime series "Californication".

Asked in a 2020 interview with MusicTech what the parallels are between the long and punishing hours of film composition and performing live with artists such as Marilyn Manson, Tyler said: "There's nothing like walking out in front of 50,000 people and playing, especially if it's music you’ve written. I've had the opportunity to do that with Marilyn Manson, which was a lot of fun. The immediacy of live performance is not remotely similar [to film scoring]. However, over the years, having played so many concerts both on my own and in my band, it has definitely honed my improvisational skills."

With only two days until the arrival of their eighth studio album on January 9, 2026, acclaimed rockers ALTER BRIDGE return with their brand-new single "Scales Are Falling". Another signature rocker from the acclaimed quartet — Myles Kennedy (vocals/guitars),Mark Tremonti (guitars/vocals),Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums) — the track explores the moment of realization that comes with uncovering deception, and the emotional impact that truth can carry once it's revealed.

Kennedy explains: "It's when you realize the reality of a situation where you've been deceived. You see the truth and how harsh it is."

Tremonti adds: "I was excited for this one. It has an atmospheric vibe with a lot of peaks, valleys, and moods. I solo over the bridge, and Myles plays the outro."

With more than two decades performing together, ALTER BRIDGE shows no signs of slowing down. Known for its memorable riffs, infectious vocal melodies and dueling guitar attack, the quartet has garnered massive critical and fan acclaim around the globe. The band looks to continue that trend with the release of its self-titled eighth studio album next year via Napalm Records.

"Alter Bridge" is comprised of 12 all new tracks from the band and features some of its most iconic moments on record. Songs like "Rue The Day", "Disregarded" and "Scales Are Falling" will fit alongside any of the classic songs from ALTER BRIDGE's catalog. "Trust In Me" shows Myles and Mark sharing vocal duties as Myles handles the verse duties while Mark takes the chorus. That strategy is flipped on "Tested And Able" as Mark handles the verses and Myles takes on the choruses behind one of the band's heaviest intros to date, giving way to an unforgettable melody. "Hang By A Thread" is sure to become a show favorite as it hints at some of the most popular songs in the band's catalog. The album closer "Slave To Master" is an epic track that ALTER BRIDGE has come to be known for and is the longest song the quartet has recorded to date.

"Alter Bridge" was once again helmed by the band's longtime collaborator and producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette and was recorded over two months this past spring at the legendary 5150 studio in California and Elvis's recording studio in Florida.

"Alter Bridge" track listing:

01. Silent Divide (5:06)
02. Rue The Day (4:46)
03. Power Down (4:08)
04. Trust In Me (4:48)
05. Disregarded (3:55)
06. Tested And Able (4:36)
07. What Lies Within (5:07)
08. Hang By A Thread (4:11)
09. Scales Are Falling (5:54)
10. Playing Aces (4:05)
11. What Are You Waiting For (5:00)
12. Slave To Master (9:03)

ALTER BRIDGE will be touring in support of the release. The band is heading out on the "What Lies Within" tour. The 31-date European leg of the trek will kick off on January 15 in Germany and will wrap on March 5 in Nottingham, U.K. Support on the tour will come from DAUGHTRY and SEVENDUST. The band also announced a headline U.S. tour featuring FILTER or SEVENDUST and Tim Montana as support in select markets. The tour kicks off on April 25 in Orlando, Florida and runs through May 24 where it wraps in Tampa, Florida.

Back in 2004, four lifelong musicians got together down in Florida. Even though they had traveled separate paths, similar lessons learned, wisdom earned and dues paid united these gentlemen — Myles Kennedy (vocals, guitar),Mark Tremonti (guitar, vocals),Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums) — as ALTER BRIDGE. Over the ensuing two decades, the band endured countless trials and tribulations, defied every odd, and rose to the head of the pack as a hard rock juggernaut, cementing a singular legacy by selling out arenas, gathering nearly one billion streams, inciting international acclaim, and quietly attracting a diehard audience. Beginning with the Top 5 entry of 2004's gold-certified "One Day Remains", the band has scored six consecutive Top 20 debuts on the Billboard 200. Among a myriad of highlights, Guitarist magazine applauded "Blackbird" for the "Greatest Guitar Solo Of All Time," the "ABIII" single "Isolation" vaulted to No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, 2013's "Fortress" received rare perfect scores from Kerrang! and Total Guitar, and "Walk The Sky" shook the Top Rock Albums chart at No. 1. Beyond packing O2 Arena and Royal Albert Hall, Classic Rock hailed 2022's "Pawns & Kings" as "the Rolls-Royce of ALTER BRIDGE records" in a 4.5-out-of-5-star review. Plus, the latter LP garnered praise from American Songwriter, Guitar World and Loudwire, while Billboard christened them "one of America's premiere hard rock quartets." Channeling the same hunger, the band continue to push themselves on their self-titled eighth full-length offering, "Alter Bridge". It embodies everything they're known for such as the precise riffs, towering hooks, and solos that practically break guitar strings as they burst through the clouds.

Photo credit: Chuck Brueckmann

Francis Rossi kicks off 2026 in emphatic style with two brand-new songs, released today as a digital double single and taken from his long-awaited new studio album "The Accidental", due out January 30, 2026.

"Push Comes To Shove" bursts with energy, grit and Rossi's unmistakable guitar sound, while "November Again" turns a melancholy refrain into a soaring, catchy chorus. Both tracks capture the founding STATUS QUO frontman in full flow: confident, energized and recalling the sound that made him a cornerstone of British rock.

"The Accidental", due via earMUSIC on CD, LP and digital formats, comes as something of a surprise. It was certainly a surprise to Francis, who had no plans to record an album. "This truly came out of nowhere," says Rossi. "I spend my life in and out of the studio, rehearsing, tinkering, but something happened earlier this year and, before I knew it, we had created something special."

While Rossi's previous solo albums explored his love for acoustic ballads, vocal harmonies, and the blend of British rock with country influences, this album, his first in seven years, marks a true return to the energetic, guitar-driven sound that made him a legend with STATUS QUO.

"The Accidental" sees Rossi playing to his strengths, but taking risks, cutting loose, and exploring new territory. This album is all about old bones and fresh blood.

The fresh blood in question comes largely from Hiran Ilangantilike, a guitarist who was originally a school friend of one of Francis's children, and co-producer Andy Brook. What became the sessions for "The Accidental" was initially born of just plugging in and making some serious noise, but something clicked in the studio. Lightning was indeed bottled: There was a swing and a groove, and the songs started pouring out. With John "Rhino" Edwards and Leon Cave later laying down the bass and drums parts, and Amy Smith again bringing an extra dimension on back-up vocals, this became a project with a bite and DNA all of its own; albeit Francis's playing is a distinctive as ever. Almost all of the songwriting credits reflect this fresh and collaborative ethos, though there are two that bear the classic QUO hallmark: Rossi/Young. Rossi produced "The Accidental"; co-producer Andy Brook recorded, mastered, engineered, and played on the record, and co-wrote three tracks.

Kicking off with a flourish "Much Better" segues into the ebullient "Go Man Go", teeing up future classic "Push Comes To Shove" and the plaintive yet strutting blues singalong of "Back On Our Home Ground" (who will be the first sports team to adopt this one?). By then the engine is well and truly running, and the highlights keep coming. The chug and chant and choppy chords of "Something In The Air (Stormy Weather)" give way to the cantering "Picture Perfect", which could only be a Rossi number. The long strides of "November Again" distill a melancholy refrain into a catchy chorus, and the epic "Beautiful World" channels vintage-era QUO with enough guitar to get the balcony of the Glasgow Apollo bouncing again. "Time To Remember" is built around a piano line and swaying melody and serves as a poignant and powerful coda to an extraordinarily strong set of new songs.

"For anyone who liked any of my solo albums previously, well, I've no idea what you'll make of this one because it's a real departure, but I love it," Rossi says. "It's loud, the guitars are right to the fore, and there are some great songs there."

This new album finds Rossi once more at the top of his game, with a searing yet thoughtful collection of rockers that will please anyone who likes their dose of heavy cut with melody and verve. Mark Twain said that the accident is "the greatest of all inventors" when there are no rules, expectations or preconceptions, anything can — and will — happen. "The Accidental" proves that amazing things unfold when an artist with an unrivaled track record is inspired to create new music — even after more than 50 years of success — by the sheer love of playing. That unbridled joy is where the elemental magic that animates "The Accidental" is conjured.

"The Accidental" track listing:

01. Much Better
02. Go Man Go
03. Push Comes To Shove
04. Back On Our Home Ground
05. Dead Of Night
06. Going Home
07. Bye My Love
08. Something In The Air (Stormy Weather)
09. Picture Perfect
10. November Again
11. Things Will Get Better
12. Oh So Good
13. Beautiful World
14. Time To Remember

EXHUMED will release a new album, "Red Asphalt", on February 20 via Relapse Records.

The masters of gore metal rev up and prepare for one of 2026's most frenetic, unhinged slabs of sonic obliteration with a new video for lead single "Unsafe At Any Speed".

EXHUMED mastermind Matt Harvey comments: "We're very stoked to be back in your earholes with 'Red Asphalt'. Our recent albums have taken you with us through the graveyards and operating theaters of 19th century Scotland, the horror aisles of the video rental stores of our youths, and through the band's history itself. This time around, we're inviting you to accompany us to a place that we spend a disproportionate amount of our lives, someplace familiar yet far more dangerous than it feels, a place that can take you to the hospital or the grave in more ways than you can imagine: the American roadway."

The latest wrong turn from the driving force of gore metal, EXHUMED, "Red Asphalt" crashes the band's hook-laden, high-speed deathgrind into whiplash-inducing grooves and dangerous musical curves. "Red Asphalt" is a love letter to the road — horrific accidents, vehicular homicide, defective cars, gore-filled instructional videos, zombified biker gangs, and more.

True to the band's spirit, "Red Asphalt" drags the listener through a whirlwind of riffy madness. Tracks like the aptly titled "Unsafe At Any Speed", the horrifying "Shovelhead" and "The Iron Graveyard" ooze with sleaze and groove while retaining all of the high-octane, full-throttle, white-knuckle madness you've come to demand from EXHUMED. Take the album for a spin and get your kicks on Route 666!

"Red Asphalt" track listing:

01. Unsafe At Any Speed
02. Red Asphalt
03. Shock Trauma
04. Shovelhead
05. The Iron Graveyard
06. Crawling From the Wreckage
07. Signal Thirty
08. Death On Four Wheels
09. Symphorophilia
10. The Fumes

EXHUMED will take "Red Asphalt" on the road throughout 2026 starting with the U.S. from February 19 through March 21 with OXYGEN DESTROYER and NO/MÁS. Following a quick pit stop, EXHUMED returns to Europe this spring with labelmates GRUESOME from April 4 through May 2. Tickets are on sale now.

EXHUMED on tour with OXYGEN DESTROYER, NO/MÁS:

Feb. 19 - The Ritz - The Ritz San Jose, CA
Feb. 20 - Brick By Brick - San Diego, CA
Feb. 21 - Nile Underground - Mesa, AZ
Feb. 22 - Dive Bar - Las Vegas, NV
Feb. 24 - O' Death - San Antonio, TX
Feb. 25 - The Lost Well - Austin, TX
Feb. 26 - The End - Houston, TX
Feb. 27 - Siberia - New Orleans, LA
Feb. 28 - Merry Widow - Mobile, AL
Mar. 01 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
Mar. 03 - Super Rad Arcade - Lynchburg, VA
Mar. 04 - Chapel Of Bones - Raleigh, NC
Mar. 05 - The Wormhole - Savannah, GA
Mar. 06 - New Brookland Tavern - Columbia, SC
Mar. 07 - Conduit - Orlando, FL
Mar. 08 - The Orpheum - Tampa, FL
Mar. 09 - The Handlebar - Pensacola, FL
Mar. 11 - Double Wide - Dallas, TX
Mar. 12 - 89th St.- Oklahoma City, OK
Mar. 13 - TBA - Lubbock, TX
Mar. 14 - The Launchpad - Albuquerque, NM
Mar. 15 - The Rock - Tucson, AZ
Mar. 18 - Humdinger Brewing - San Luis Obispo, CA
Mar. 19 - Moroccan Lounge - Los Angeles, CA
Mar. 20 - Café Colonial - Sacramento, CA
Mar. 21 - DNA Lounge - San Francisco, CA

With GRUESOME:

Apr. 04 - Lords Of The Land Festival - Glasgow, UK
Apr. 05 - The Grove - Newcastle, UK
Apr. 07 - Rebellion - Manchester, UK
Apr. 08 - Exchange - Bristol, UK
Apr. 09 - The1865 - Southampton, UK
Apr. 10 - The Black Heart -London, UK
Apr. 11 - Backstage By The Mill C Paris, FR
Apr. 12 - DVG Club - Kortrijk, BE
Apr. 13 - Little Devil - Tilburg, NL
Apr. 14 - Pitcher - Düsseldorf, DE
Apr. 15 - Logo - Hamburg, DE
Apr. 17 - 2Progi - Poznan, PL
Apr. 18 - Barrak - Ostrava, CZ
Apr. 19 - Escape - Vienna, AT
Apr. 21 - Kornfehl - Solothurn, CH
Apr. 22 - Backstage (Halle) - Munich, DE
Apr. 23 - Cafe Central - Weinheim, DE
Apr. 25 - Traffic Club - Rome, IT
Apr. 26 - Slaughter Club - Milan, IT
Apr. 28 - Rex - Toulouse, FR
Apr. 29 - Groove Club - Portugalete, ES
Apr. 30 - SWR Fest - Barroselas, PT
May 01 - SWR Fest - Barroselas, PT
May 02 - Revi Live - Madrid, ES

EXHUMED is:

Matt Harvey - guitar, vocals
Ross Sewage - bass, vocals
Mike Hamilton - drums
Sebastian Phillips - guitar

Photo by Ross Sewage

Veteran rock vocalist John Corabi, known for his powerful voice and rich legacy with bands like MÖTLEY CRÜE, THE DEAD DAISIES, UNION and THE SCREAM, played his first show under the "John Corabi & Friends" banner this past Tuesday (December 30) at Basement East in Nashville, Tennessee. Joining Corabi (vocals, guitar) on stage for the performance were Michael Devin (THE DEAD DAISIES, WHITESNAKE) on bass and vocals, Paul Taylor (WINGER) on keyboards, guitar and vocals, Jeremy Asbrock (ACE FREHLEY) on guitar and vocals, Troy Luccketta (TESLA) on drums, and Marti Frederiksen (STEVEN TYLER) on guitar and vocals. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.

As previously reported, John will release his debut full-length solo album, "New Day", on April 24, 2026 via Frontiers Music Srl.

A trip down memory lane with a nostalgic mood, the lead single "New Day" moves from intimate acoustic moments to richly layered rock arrangements. It's a journey through the heart of rock, infused with soul and blues sensibilities and inspired by the melodic grandeur of early BOSTON and QUEEN.

"New Day" marks Corabi's first full-length solo album of original material. Recorded in Nashville during the summer of 2025 and produced by multi-platinum songwriter and producer Marti Frederiksen (AEROSMITH, Ozzy Osbourne, BUCKCHERRY),the album fuses classic '70s rock, soul, and blues influences into a sound that feels both timeless and deeply personal.

The record features the previously released singles "Così Bella (So Beautiful)" (2021) and "Your Own Worst Enemy" (2022),now presented as part of a rich collection of tracks that spotlight his commanding vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and masterful songwriting. Throughout the album, Corabi is joined by Marti Frederiksen, who adds backing vocals, guitars, piano, and percussion; Evan Frederiksen on drums, bass, B3 organ, electric guitar, mandolin, and programming; Richard Fortus (GUNS N' ROSES) on lead guitar; Paul Taylor (WINGER, Steve Perry) contributing piano, organ, and clavinet, as well as Charlie Starr (BLACKBERRY SMOKE) offering guitar solos. Together, they create an organic, instrument-driven sound built on real performances, melodic interplay, and soulful energy.

With a European tour planned for February/March 2026 and additional shows running through late spring and summer, Corabi is poised to bring this new music directly to fans, delivering both powerful live energy and genuine emotional resonance.

More than just a solo debut, "New Day" serves as Corabi's personal testament to rock's enduring spirit — an exploration of melody, soul, and authenticity, played with passion and conviction at every turn.

John shares: "I'm very excited for everybody to hear this new collection of songs! I wanted to put together an album of eclectic, organic songs that are reminiscent of the music I grew up listening to, and I truly believe the mission was accomplished! This is a 60's-70's sounding classic rock and roll record…Turn it up, and enjoy!!!"

Corabi is a journeyman singer-songwriter and guitarist who burst on to the music scene with Hollywood Records recording artists THE SCREAM in 1991. Touring extensively throughout the United States on the strength of their songs "Man In The Moon", "I Believe In Me" and "Father Mother Son", John attracted the attention of radio, MTV, fans and critics alike.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's Nikki Sixx reached out to John after the departure of Vince Neil in 1992 and asked him to join the band for the writing and recording of their 1994 self-titled record. During the recording process of the follow-up "Generation Swine" album in late 1996, Neil returned to the band, and John started the band UNION with former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.

UNION headed into a studio to record its debut self-titled album in 1998. With UNION, John released three albums between 1998 and 2001. Afterwards, John left UNION to join the band RATT on their 2001 summer tour, handling guitar and backing vocal duties. Touring constantly from 2001 to 2008, John eventually left the band to go out on his own.

John released the acoustic album "Unplugged" in 2012 and a live album, "Live 94, One Night In Nashville", in 2018, as well as multiple original and tribute singles. John received a phone call in 2015 to join the all-star collective called the dead daisies, and has since recorded the albums "Revolución", "Make Some Noise", "Live And Louder", "Burn It Down", "Light Em' Up" and a recently released blues covers record "Looking For Trouble".

For the last ten years, with THE DEAD DAISIES and as a solo acoustic artist, John has toured extensively in Europe, the United States, Japan, South America and Australia, playing all the major festivals and selling out shows to a growing, loyal fan base.

With his 2022 autobiography "Horseshoes And Hand Grenades" and 19 full-length records under his belt, spanning a 35-year career, John is anxious to release record number 20, and play the new songs live.

In February 2018, Corabi released a live album of his performance of MÖTLEY CRÜE's entire 1994 self-titled album, recorded on October 27, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. "Live '94: One Night In Nashville" documents the album in its entirety along with the bonus track "10,000 Miles", which was originally released as a bonus track on the Japanese version of the "Quaternary" EP.

Corabi's autobiography, "Horseshoes And Hand Grenades", came out in June 2022 via Rare Bird Books. It was written with the help of MÖTLEY CRÜE historian/author Paul Miles. The book's description promised to detail the singer's "life from the mean streets of Philadelphia to the Sunset Strip." It featured stories from Corabi's tenures in MÖTLEY CRÜE, UNION, RATT and THE DEAD DAISIES, as well as personal tales including "his parents' difficult divorce, his family's dark history of abuse [and] his run-in with a serial killer."

TONIGHT! We've got John Corabi with Cody Parks and The Dirty South in the house at 8 PM. Doors open at 7 PM. Grab tickets now at the link or at the door. https://bit.ly/3Jv9Qd3

Posted by The Basement East on Tuesday, December 30, 2025

PRONG will release a new live album, "Live And Uncleansed", on March 6 via SPV/Steamhammer. Recorded over seven nights in July and August 2025, the LP sees guitarist/vocalist Tommy Victor and bandmates Christopher Dean (bass) and Tyler Joseph (drums) deliver eleven powerful live songs (plus three live bonus tracks),all pure and unadulterated, authentic and honest, which is the reason why the result is so incredibly captivating.

Victor states: "We were really well rehearsed. This is truly a live (!) record, everything is as is. You can hear some of the little mistakes here and there, but that makes it cool!"

Track listing:

CD

01. Revenge…Best Served Cold
02. Inheritance
03. The Descent
04. One Outnumbered
05. No Question
06. Sublime
07. Not Of This Earth
08. Home Rule
09. Ultimate Authority
10. Snap Your Fingers,Snap Your Neck
11. However It May End

Bonus tracks:

12. Out Of This Misery
13. Corpus Delicti
14. Whose Fist Is This Anyway?

LP

Side One

01. Revenge…Best Served Cold
02. Inheritance
03. The Descent
04. One Outnumbered
05. No Question
06. Sublime

Side Two

01. Not Of This Earth
02. Home Rule
03. Ultimate Authority
04. Snap Your Fingers,Snap Your Neck
05. However It May End

At last October's Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California, Victor told Rock News Weekly about "Live And Uncleansed":  "It's from the last tour we did. We picked and chose from a European tour — picked and chose from a selection of 14 different shows. They really centered around — it came down to four shows that were good, and we picked from them. It's a short record, though. It's gonna be just a single vinyl and a single CD. And then we're going in — we signed to Napalm Records, and the [new PRONG] studio album will be out in October [of 2026]."

Formed in 1986 by Victor and cemented into American metal legend, PRONG have never released their grip on the scene. From the '80s club basements of New York City to the MTV "Headbangers Ball" era with '90s classics "Beg To Differ", "Prove You Wrong", "Cleansing" and "Rude Awakening", to their official return in the late aughts and today, PRONG have stood their ground as household names in the metal universe, continuing to put out grippingly gritty, provocative and vital records for the next generation of heavy music fans.

PRONG's new partnership with Napalm Records was announced in June 2025. It came on the heels of the band's European headline tour celebrating 31 years of their aforementioned 1994 album "Cleansing".

Asked by Metal Insider if he had any fond memories of making "Cleansing", Victor said: "Yeah, in the studio, there's a lot of fond memories. The preparation for it and the chaos that consumed the whole pre-production period, and I've been through it so many times in my career. Member changes, namely Troy Gregory leaving, and again the bulk of the work being thrown on me to solve all these problems while handling the business and personal matters. I remember that being extremely stressful. I think it catered to the inevitable/possible disappointment with 'Rude Awakening', and I just remembered how much work and how much sacrifices I had to make in order for those records to come into fruition. But the process was great. I mean, working with Terry Date was always a pleasure, more so on 'Cleansing'. I got to mix a record with him at Electric Lady Studios in New York, which is an experience I will never forget. We had a lot of fun with the guitar tracks, and again with PRONG, it wound up being a solitary experience. That's just the way it is. I mean, people tend to think a lot of times that when you're making records, and I guess if you're a rap artist this may not apply, you're surrounded by this posse and everyone's partying, you're in the studio listening to the same track over and over again, bringing your buddies in to hear stuff, like as if that was the '90s. It wasn't like that for PRONG at all. I was in the studio all day long with Terry, making decisions, laying guitar tracks on it, vocals, and the traveling. At that point, the budget was enough where we did sessions in multiple places. Then when you finish the mixes, there's always the mastering problem. That record was mastered four times before we settled on the brilliant mastering that we inevitably had. So, I mean, it's a great-sounding record. There is an amazing magic to that record, and a lot of that record came together by accident. It was just one of those great moments in my life."

"State Of Emergency" came out in October 2023 via Steamhammer/SPV. The LP was helmed by producer Steve Evetts (SEPULTURA, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) and included a cover of "Working Man", originally written and recorded by the legendary RUSH.

Prior to "State Of Emergency"'s arrival, Victor stated about the LP's stylistic direction: "It's a very PRONG record. I think it's totally genre-transcending and definitely ignores what's going on out there these days."

Commenting on his artistic approach, he said: "I like all kinds of music. This record totally reflects that because it covers lots of different angles. At the same time, 'State Of Emergency' is very guitar-oriented and a typical example of my style.'"

Photo credit: Peter Vangelder (courtesy of Palmer Turner Overdrive for SPV/Steamhammer)

Gibson Films — the storytelling studio from Gibson dedicated to original, artist-driven content that celebrates music history, culture and the instruments that shape sound — has announced the worldwide premiere of Volume One of its new limited music docuseries, "Iommi: The Godfather Of Heavy Metal", streaming exclusively via Gibson TV throughout 2026. Watch the global premiere of Volume One — the first installment of the limited series — below.

From the smokestacks of Birmingham, England, to stages around the globe, "Iommi: The Godfather Of Heavy Metal" traces the life and legacy of Tony Iommi, the pioneering guitarist whose sound and vision forged the foundations of heavy metal. Beginning with his working-class upbringing and the birth of BLACK SABBATH, the series shows how Iommi's genre-defining riffs and groundbreaking albums reshaped rock, ignited a global movement, and inspired generations to pick up the guitar.

Volume One features Tony's music history and a deep dive his massive influence on countless other luminaries of heavy music with in-depth interviews with Tony Iommi and a star-studded lineup of peers and disciples — including Brian May, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Yungblud, Scott Ian, John 5, Philip Anselmo and Blackie Lawless — plus appearances by Tom Morello and Troy Van Leeuwen, and firsthand accounts from Birmingham icons Rob Halford and Justin Broadrick.

The series examines how Iommi's innovations — and the groundbreaking work of BLACK SABBATH — continue to reverberate across musical styles and eras, cementing their legacy as the architects of one of the most enduring and influential genres in modern music history.

"I'm very grateful to Gibson for this new documentary series and for honoring my role in the story of heavy metal" says Tony Iommi. "Hearing the kind words from so many incredible artists is really humbling. Thank you all for telling the story with such heart—and to the fans who've kept it alive. Long may it continue!"

"Tony Iommi is the godfather of heavy metal — the creator, the sonic architect, the rifflord who started it all. El Padrino, as I like to call him" says Cesar Gueikian, president and CEO of Gibson. "It's an incredible honor for all of us at Gibson to pay tribute to Tony with this epic Gibson Films release."

"No matter what regional metal scene or sub genre we explored, every artist we interviewed always pointed the finger back to Tony," adds Mark Agnesi, director of brand experience at Gibson. "He is the Riff Lord!!!!"

"Tony Iommi remains the undisputed godfather of heavy metal. Through his iconic riffs and uncompromising vision, he gave birth to a sound that was rooted in darkness and became the foundation for generations of musicians," continues Todd Harapiak, media director at Gibson and producer of the series. "It's been truly remarkable to have so many artists unite for this series and hear how BLACK SABBATH changed the course of their musical lives. The Godfather Of Heavy Metal not only celebrates the journey of Lord Iommi and SABBATH but also shines a light on the stories of the countless bands who carried their torch forward."

Late last month, Iommi shared a year-end video message in which he said that he will "definitely, definitely" release his new solo album in 2026. "I'm really looking forward to that," he said. "I'm enjoying doing it, and it's been great fun, and I really hope you enjoy it."

Tony previously talked about his long-awaited new solo album during a July 2025 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". He said at the time: " I was doing my own album until [the 'Back To The Beginning' event] came up, and then, of course, I had to stop and concentrate on [preparing for] the SABBATH [performance]. But I'm continuing next week on trying to finish off what I started with this album. And then who knows what I'm gonna do then? It's great, really, 'cause if something pops up, I'll do it, if I want to do it. So it's a good thing."

Asked if his upcoming album is a Tony Iommi solo record with guests on it, like he has done before with 2000's "Iommi", the guitarist responded: "At the moment, no. I've got one singer on it at the moment, which I originally thought of different singers. But it started off as it's gonna be an instrumental album, and it's gone from I've got some instrumental stuff, but then I thought, 'Oh, I wanna try it with a singer.' And so that's what I've been doing."

Tony also spoke about his appearance on "Rocket", the first single from British pop singer Robbie Williams's "Britpop" album. The rock track, which was written by Robbie, Karl Brazil, Tony Iommi and Tom Longworth, features a signature guitar solo from the heavy metal pioneer.

"[Robbie] asked me if I'd play on this track, and I didn't realize he was gonna release it as a single," Iommi said. "And then he wanted to do a video with it. Oh my God. But it was great to do that. And I enjoyed doing that. And it's great now — I can do different stuff when I want, really, and I'm enjoying it."

Tony added: "I can't stop. I have to carry on. I enjoy what I do. And it's great being creative. And I love to create music. That's what started me off and that's what will finish me off, probably. But I love it. And there will be — yes — more from me. And I'm getting more involved in — we spread our wings with the [BLACK SABBATH] ballet and different things. And there's a lot more things to come. So I'm looking forward to that."

In 2024, Iommi released an instrumental track, "Deified", to accompany the arrival of another new fragrance. The song saw Iommi reunite with longtime collaborator Mike Exeter, who played keyboards and handled production, with Laurence Cottle (who played on BLACK SABBATH's "Headless Cross" album) on bass. The recording lineup was rounded out by FEEDER and Robbie Williams drummer Karl Brazil, with Ben Andrews scoring the orchestrations.

Three years earlier, Iommi unveiled "Scent Of Dark" — his first new music in eight years at the time — alongside an accompanying cologne.

At the time of "Scent Of Dark"'s release, Iommi revealed that he had "four or five hundred" unused riffs on his phone, with plans to arrange and record some of them for his various projects.

"Scent Of Dark" and "Deified" were the product of a friendship struck up during the pandemic between Iommi and Sergio Momo, acclaimed perfumer, and designer for Xerjoff, well known for its unique and individual creations and collaborations in the fragrance world. Sergio is also an accomplished guitarist, and his fine fretwork can be heard on both songs.

Iommi previously spoke about his upcoming solo album during a June 2024 appearance on Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show. He said at the time: "I am writing stuff now for my own, for an album. So that's exciting too. And there's no pressure. I just do stuff when I feel like it, because, obviously, I've got a life to live and I like to do all the different stuff. But I've really enjoyed doing this stuff, as I did with Ozz [BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne] when I'd done a couple of tracks for his last [solo] album ['Patient Number 9'], which was good, to work with Ozz again. And I'm quite open for all that now. Whatever comes, and I like it, I do it."

Asked if he is going to release a "proper record" or if he will just make individual songs available whenever he feels like it, Iommi responded: "No, I'm gonna do a record. And I've got a lot of stuff. But now we're actually getting around to sort of putting it together, myself and the engineer. So it's been good fun, really. And as I say, there's no pressure. I can just do it — I don't have to do it by next week. And because of everything else [that has] been lurking around, I have to take my time in doing things. But it's been fun. And that's what it's all about, really. And I'm looking forward to actually doing it and an album coming out."

When and if Iommi's new solo album surfaces, it would be his third, after 2000's "Iommi" and 2005's "Fused".

Joining Iommi on "Fused" was ex-DEEP PURPLE bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes and drummer Kenny Aronoff, whose resume includes the "Iommi" album and a long run with John Mellencamp.

Nearly two decades ago, Iommi told Launch that he, Aronoff and Hughes had a great time making the "Fused" record. "It was like a load of nutters, quite honestly," he said. "We all let loose in the room. It was just like being kids, because Kenny, you know, [laughs] he was, like, he's so, like, up, and full of energy, and you've got Glenn [makes crazy sound] and Kenny [makes crazy sound] — bloody hell! It's almost too much, you know, but it worked."

SMASHING PUMPKINS frontman Billy Corgan and Dave Grohl of the FOO FIGHTERS are among the guests who were heard on "Iommi". The LP also featured guest appearances from Philip Anselmo of PANTERA, Henry Rollins and SYSTEM OF A DOWN's Serj Tankian as well as Skin of SKUNK ANANSIE, Peter Steele from TYPE O NEGATIVE, and THE CULT's Ian Astbury.

In February 2017, SABBATH finished "The End" tour in Birmingham, closing out the quartet's groundbreaking 49-year career.

"The End" was SABBATH's last tour because Iommi — who was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 2011 — can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

Iommi revealed his cancer diagnosis in early 2012, shortly after SABBATH announced a reunion tour and album. He underwent treatment throughout the recording of the disc, titled "13", and the subsequent tour to promote it.

The BLACK SABBATH guitarist successfully underwent an operation in January 2017 to remove a noncancerous lump from his throat.

"13" was the first album in 35 years to feature Iommi, Osbourne and Butler all playing together.

Bill Ward was on board for the SABBATH reunion when it was first announced 14 years ago, but backed out soon after. The drummer later claimed that he sat out the recording and touring sessions because of unfair contractual terms, although the members of SABBATH have hinted in other interviews that he wasn't physically up to the task.

All four original members of SABBATH were present when the band announced its final reunion in late 2011. But Ward split from the group in 2012, citing an "unsignable" contract, and Osbourne, Iommi and Butler carried on with their Rick Rubin–produced "13" LP and extensive international touring without him.

The July 5, 2025 "Back To The Beginning" event at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom marked the original BLACK SABBATH lineup's first performance since 2005 and the quartet's final live appearance.

Ozzy played a five-song set with his solo band before being joined by Iommi, Butler and Ward for four classic SABBATH tracks: "War Pigs", "Iron Man", "N.I.B." and "Paranoid".

Ozzy's death certificate revealed that he died on July 22 of a heart attack. The certificate filed in London also said Osbourne suffered from coronary artery disease and Parkinson's disease.

BLACK VEIL BRIDES have released a new single, "Certainty". The track will appear on the band's upcoming album, due later this year via Spinefarm.

BLACK VEIL BRIDES frontman Andy Biersack comments: "The concept of 'Certainty' is central to this record and appears throughout the album. The song was inspired by the film 'Conclave', particularly its reflections on religious certainty and how rigid belief systems can become prisons of our own making. When certainty hardens, curiosity, growth, and the willingness to change become impossible. Much of today's political and social discourse exists inside these echo chambers of absolute belief, and that tension drives the narrative of this record."

To coincide with the single's release, BLACK VEIL BRIDES have unveiled a striking new music video for "Certainty", directed by George Gallardo Kattah (CHELSEA WOLFE, MÅNESKIN) and filmed while the band was on tour in Colombia. Featuring stunning cinematography and an intensity reminiscent of an A24 motion picture, the video mirrors the song's themes. Further, it exemplifies the bold visual identity BLACK VEIL BRIDES have cultivated throughout their career.

Biersack adds: "This was the final song written and recorded for the album. It started from an idea Jake [Pitts, guitar] sent over, and it came together quickly over the course of a few days. It felt essential both narratively and musically, capturing the overall tone of what we're aiming for. The music video, directed by George Gallardo Kattah and his team in Bogotá, Colombia, is one of our favorites we've ever done. His interpretation of fear and pride as biblical twins is stunning, and the visuals are incredible."

Last September, Biersack spoke to PK of the ALT 105.1 radio station about BLACK VEIL BRIDES' 2025 track "Hallelujah". The Tampa, Florida-based choir One Voice Ensemble lent its talents to the song, which was produced by Biersack and Pitts and was made available in July 2025 by BLACK VEIL BRIDES' label partners Spinefarm. Andy said: "We just wrapped the [new BLACK VEIL BRIDES full-length] record. We put that song out… In the old days, they used to be called a 'street track', right? It's not a single; it's just showing 'this is what we're working on' kind of thing. So we did that before the record was done. We just wanted to get something out, because it had been a year since we had released anything. And so now the [full-length] record is done. It's fully mixed. It's going into mastering. Our work's getting done. I think that we'll probably have another song out before the end of the year. And the record will get announced early next year."

He added: "I'm hyped, man. I really love the record. We're really excited about it. We produced it ourselves. And it's our first record with Spinefarm as a label, and so it's just a great relationship, a great situation."

Asked if this is the first time members of BLACK VEIL BRIDES have produced their music themselves, Andy said: "Yeah. We've been able to work with really great producers over the years, and so Jake and I feel like we learned a lot from them. We worked with Bob Rock, John Feldmann, Erik Ron, all these guys who are top of the game. And so we wanted to try our hand. And we're never gonna do what they do, but we felt like it's our record and we wanted to take ownership over it and see how good we can do on our own. And I think the result is, at least for us, it's pretty exciting. I think it's one of the best things we've done because it's unfiltered us. If you're a fan of what we do, it's going to be the most of what we do, 'cause without anybody else's voice in the room, you're left to your own devices."

He continued: "As from a writer and a singer perspective, for me, one of the things I found to be the most exciting about this record was when you write a song and you work with a producer, a lot of times the producer hears it a certain way. So I get in the booth to sing it and the phrasing, they'll say, 'Ah, sing it this way' or 'that way.' And so for this, it's exactly how I pictured it in my mind as I'm writing the thing down. And so for better or for worse, it feels the most complete."

Seven months ago, BLACK VEIL BRIDES released an animated video for "Hallelujah", directed by Marco Pavone (THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, PINK FLOYD, SHADOW OF INTENT).

"Hallelujah" received its live debut at Warped Tour in Long Beach, California on July 26, 2025.

When "Hallelujah" was first made available, Biersack said in a statement: "'Hallelujah' is an important song for us, not only because it is the first track from the new record, but also as a signifier of what's to come for the band. On a narrative level, it represents the themes and ideas I am exploring lyrically on the album.

"I am fascinated by the current state of discourse and how often we seem to prioritize ideological certainty over the heart and soul of humanity. Over the years we have developed a tremendous connection with our audience, which is often dismissed or misinterpreted by the 'scene.' We stand at a unique inflection point culturally and I want to be able to speak openly about how much I believe in being true to yourself over the fear of mass hysteria or in-group recriminations.

"When my grandfather's voice spoke to 'the outcasts' in the first moments of our first record in 2010, it was a sincere call to arms for all those who feel different. In many ways this record is the natural evolution of that same idea. This is the heaviest and most vitriolic BVB record by far but more importantly I believe it is the most sincere and honest record we have ever made."

Earlier in 2025, Andy credited Feldmann and Ron with helping him develop the skills in the studio to oversee a BLACK VEIL BRIDES recording from beginning to end. Biersack told Brandy-Baye Robidoux of Idobi Radio: "I wouldn't know how any of this stuff functions without particularly those two. Jake and I have always said we learned how to be people in a studio from John Feldmann. And then that carried over to where when we started working with Erik, who also had worked with Feldmann as an engineer in his early career, we come from that same school. And so I think in a lot of ways we brought that same sort of means of production to our record. It's just that we were doing it on our own. But it really comes from that for us."

Asked if it was "more challenging or easier" to produce the new album themselves, Andy said: "I would say it was a little bit more challenging in the capacity that you've gotta make sure that you get it right. I would say the easier thing is for me vocally, sometimes — and I guess this will be determined by how people hear it — but sometimes when you're singing, if you're working with a producer who is also a singer, they have a way that they want to hear something. So if I go, 'This melody goes this way,' and they go, 'Oh, this melody should go this way.' And then you're, like, 'Oh,' and that's unnatural. I always say, like, there's certain times when I can hear on records where I would've wanted it to be pushed this certain way, and then somebody else wanted it to go this other way, and then I just end up sounding like I don't know what I'm saying in the song. With this, it's just the way I want it, for better or for worse. So we'll find out whether that was the right way or not. We'll find out. We'll see if people like it."

Regarding whether BLACK VEIL BRIDES is "pulling from any unexpected influences" this time around, Andy said: "Well, I think we have a total lack of interest in any commercial crossover. We've been in the major label system for most of our career, where even though we were a band with a lot of shreddy guitars and I'm writing about theological ideas, they're, like, 'But where's the single?' And so you'd always kind of have to temper that with, 'We've gotta make sure that there's a single.' And what we have found, and thankfully working with Spinefarm now, 'Bleeders' was not a song that was made to be a hit. And yet it was a song that, because the label believed in it, did really well at radio and traditional places. So we want to be able to make songs that are enjoyable and that people at radio wanna play — we sincerely want that — but we are not in a position now where we're going to the studio going, like, 'Okay, but we've gotta make sure that we have the song that it's cool for the executives' kind of thing, which is kind of something that we had been bogged down by for a lot of years… And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. In some cases, you make a concept record that's an hour and a half long, but you happen to have a song that is a platinum single on it. People are, like, 'All right, fine. You could do weird stuff.' If you do that same thing and then you don't have that platinum single, yeah…. And we've seen both sides of that. So, at this point I feel like the best bet is just to make the coolest thing we can make as opposed to trying to go, 'I hope we've got that big hit on there,' 'cause you can't prescribe those things."

In May 2024, BLACK VEIL BRIDES released the title track from their "Bleeders" EP, inspired by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's "Sweeney Todd". The band paid tribute to the classic musical with a music video for the title track that is inspired by the musical's 2007 Tim Burton-directed film adaptation.

Released in June 2024, the three-track EP, which included "Bleeders", a cover of "My Friends" from the Sondheim classic, and a cover of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday", was BLACK VEIL BRIDES' first release for Spinefarm.

Photo credit: Jonathan Weiner

The all-star hard rock collective BLACK SWAN — featuring Robin McAuley (MCAULEY SCHENKER GROUP),Reb Beach (WINGER, WHITESNAKE),Jeff Pilson (FOREIGNER, THE END MACHINE, ex-DOKKEN) and Matt Starr (Ace Frehley, MR. BIG) — will release a new studio album, "Paralyzed", on February 13 via Frontiers Music Srl. The official music video for the LP's title track can be seen below.

McAuley commented on the song: "Nowadays it's difficult not to become submerged in the news and negative comments presented to us through all media sources. That feeling of being numb and unsafe with an overpowering feeling of anxiety. Desperate for change, get back to the good old days when things seemed simpler. Craving to hear something positive and yet helpless and repeatedly overwhelmed by so much negative space, leaving us feeling paralyzed."

Pilson added: "'Paralyzed' is another Robin McAuley story that speaks to that anxiety most of us are feeling about the state of the world right now. It's scary, overwhelming and seemingly never-ending! We need to find the positive in all the negativity and we need it soon! Plus — it rocks!!!!!"

Starr stated: "'Paralyzed' kicks ass! This is one of the things that BLACK SWAN does best… Hard-driving, high-energy rock 'n' roll with great melodies, tons of hooks, thought-provoking timely lyrics and exceptional musicianship. I'm really proud of this track."

Beach said: "With 'Paralyzed' I was going for a BLACK SABBATH 'Neon Nights' vibe when I started writing it, and then it blossomed into the title track when Jeff and Robin got their hands on it. It's a very cool song guitar-wise, and I hope we get to play it live one day because it really rocks!"

With all songs written and composed by McAuley, Pilson and Beach, and expertly produced by Pilson, "Paralyzed" showcases BLACK SWAN at their peak performance — offering a dynamic mix of towering vocals, razor-sharp riffs, and hook-laden melodies. The band's chemistry continues to shine, elevating their songwriting and musical delivery to new heights.

Tracked at Pilson's Los Angeles studio, the album reflects the tight-knit synergy among its members. McAuley's commanding vocals remain as ageless, while the instrumentalists deliver with precision and fire. Much like its predecessors, the new record is a testament to the individual and collective talents of these seasoned musicians.

"Paralyzed" is fresh, heavy, and melodically rich — a cohesive and compelling album that feels both classic and contemporary. Building upon the blueprint laid by their debut, "Shake The World", the band expands their sonic universe.

The result is a record that not only meets but surpasses expectations, cementing BLACK SWAN as a formidable force in the modern hard rock scene. Whether you've followed these legendary musicians since the heyday of '80s rock or you're just now discovering their magic, "Paralyzed" is essential listening — a masterclass in melodic hard rock delivered by artists who continue to defy time and expectations.

McAuley expressed his enthusiasm for the "Paralyzed" album by saying: "Can't wait for you guys to hear our new record. We feel we've taken our songwriting to another level on this one, with amazing guitar riffs that once again show the brilliance that is Reb Beach, pounding bass, as you'd expect, from Jeff, and Matt Starr leaving no doubt about where the thunder comes from. Soaring melodies with strong lyrics are what we do best, combine that with sheer heaviness and we have a record we think you the fans are going to love".

Beach said: "BLACK SWAN is old-school '80s rock that is all about good guitar riffs with badass vocals. No one is better than Robin at singing this kind of music. I think the combination of my riffs and his vocals are what makes the band stand out."

Starr stated: "I think the fans are going to love our new record. It builds on the first two records taking the songwriting, playing and energy to another level. I'm so proud to be part of this great group of musicians and guys."

Pilson commented: "We're all very excited for the release of BLACK SWAN's 'Paralyzed' and can't wait for all the fans to hear it. We wanted to come up with a real step forward in melodic heaviness, and I strongly believe we delivered. Enjoy!"

The genesis of BLACK SWAN was sparked by a conversation between Jeff Pilson and Frontiers' president and head of A&R, Serafino Perugino, who wanted a project that would not only showcase McAuley's vocal prowess, but have a mighty musical backbone to stand skyscraper tall behind him. Thus, the initial seeds were planted and Pilson ran with it from there.

BLACK SWAN released its debut album, "Shake The World", on February 14, 2020. Their sophomore album, "Generation Mind", followed in 2022, a powerful hard rock statement that consolidated the unique sound of the quartet and highlighted the talent of each of the members.

"Paralyzed" track listing:

01. When The Cold Wind Blows
02. Death Of Me
03. Different Kind Of Woman
04. If I Was King
05. Shakedown
06. The Fire And The Flame
07. I'm Ready
08. Paralyzed
09. Carry On
10. Battered And Bruised
11. What The Future Holds

Regarding how BLACK SWAN has managed to stay together to record a second studio album despite the fact that most so-called "supergroups" don't last very long, McAuley told VWMusic in a 2022 interview: "'Shake The World' was a great first record from BLACK SWAN, and I don't think any of us likes the supergroup reference attached to the lineup. We set out to write some great music together. Music that we enjoy playing and listening to. On 'Generation Mind', I think we achieved that cohesive band sound that is very BLACK SWAN, and the production reflects that very much. It's fresh sounding, high energy, and fun. We're not caught up in having to sound a particular way because the label [Frontiers] put us together. This is who we are as a band."

In a recent interview with Japan's Young Guitar magazine, ex-MEGADETH guitarists Marty Friedman and Kiko Loureiro reflected on Marty's February 2023 guest appearance during the Dave Mustaine-fronted outfit's first-ever gig at Tokyo, Japan's famed Budokan. Friedman came up on stage for three songs toward the end of the main set on February 27, 2023: "Countdown To Extinction", "Tornado Of Souls" and "Symphony Of Destruction". Marty said: "Oh, for me, when I played with MEGADETH at Budokan, it was wonderful. When I heard them playing, I thought, 'This sounds better than when I was in MEGADETH originally.' [Laughs] It just sounded better. The whole thing just sounded better. And I'm, like, 'Wow, I'm gonna play in this-sounding MEGADETH now.' It was so fun. And watching the Japanese audience, it was a thrill. People were crying, people were smiling, people were screaming. It was great. I enjoyed it a lot."

Kiko, who was MEGADETH's lead guitarist at the time of the Budokan show, added: "Yeah, I think what Marty is saying, I cannot compare. And actually, I remember watching the videos from the '90s, and then I always thought that there was some sort of attitude or freshness or excitement that was very hard to reproduce. But, of course, you have the technology, and the sound of Dirk [Verbeuren, MEGADETH drummer], the drummer, is really solid. So when you play with him, you feel like how solid the band is because of the drums.

"Yeah, I think it was a very important concert for the band and for Dave Mustaine," Kiko continued. "And I felt that tension there, probably because of the respect for the place. But also it was a weird feeling, because I'm playing [Marty's] solos [in some of the other songs from Friedman's MEGADETH era] and he's right here. He doesn't go and play [those songs himself at the show]. So that's this weird, mixed feeling. Because we were opening with 'Hangar 18', and that's, for me, one of the best guitar works in MEGADETH, the solo [and] the whole [thing]. And then [I was], like, 'Marty should play this,' because I knew he was right there. So there was this extra pressure — 'I'm playing his solo, and he's right here checking me out.'"

Marty chimed in: "You totally nailed it, man. You totally nailed everything."

Marty rejoined MEGADETH twice on stage over the course of a six-month period in 2023 — first in February 2023 at the aforementioned Budokan gig and then in early August 2023 at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany.

At the 2023 Wacken Open Air, Marty performed four songs with MEGADETH: "Trust", "Tornado Of Souls", "Symphony Of Destruction" and "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due".

In December 2024, Marty was asked by France's Metal Obs' what it was like to rejoin his former band on stage after more than two decades: "It was good fun — nothing but pure fun. And [it was] wonderful to watch the audience react to it, because it was just a wonderful experience for everybody, especially those of us on stage because the audience was… We did it because we knew that the audience would get something that they can remember, something they can go home with and have a memory. And we just enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot."

Regarding what it was like meeting up with MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine again, Marty said: "It was great. We never really lost touch. But there's never much that we have to talk to each other about, so we don't talk to each other every month or anything. But it's always been friendly, so when the chance came for us to play together, it was just natural."

Friedman and his solo band performed as the support act for MEGADETH on September 22, 2025 at Maçka Küçükçiftlik Park in Istanbul, Turkey. Marty did not take the stage with his former band at the show, but he took to his social media right after the gig and wrote: "My band and I had an incredible time playing in Istanbul! … After our show Naoki [Morioka, a member of Marty's Japanese touring band] and I watched as [current MEGADETH guitarist] Teemu [Mäntysaari] absolutely NAILED my solos with ease and MEGADETH tore up the place! We can't wait to come back."

DIRKSCHNEIDER, the band fronted by former ACCEPT singer Udo Dirkschneider, kicked off its "Balls To The Wall 40th Anniversary - Encores Tour 2026" this past Thursday night (January 8) at Musichall Geiselwind in Geiselwind, Germany. Fan-filmed video of the entire concert can be seen below.

Featured songs:

00:01 Fast As A Shark
03:31 Living For Tonite
07:08 Up To The Limit
11:41 Balls To The Walls
19:32 London Leatherboys
23:58 Fight It Back
27:31 Love Child
31:20 Turn Me On
36:33 Losers And Winners
40:45 Midnight Mover
44:00 Breaker
48:20 Flash Rockin' Man
52:40 Metal Heart
59:36 Princess Of The Dawn
1:09:58 Burning

DIRKSCHNEIDER is the name of Udo's band which performs ACCEPT material exclusively.

Although Udo announced 11 years ago that his initial DIRKSCHNEIDER tour would mark his final time performing ACCEPT songs, he has continued to play select shows under the DIRKSCHNEIDER banner for more than a decade.

DIRKSCHNEIDER recently reimagined ACCEPT's iconic album "Balls To The Wall" to celebrate the LP's 40th anniversary. The band, which also features Udo's son Sven Dirkschneider on drums and former ACCEPT bassist Peter Baltes, celebrated the 40th anniversary of "Balls To The Wall", which was originally released in late 1983 and is the most commercially successful and best-known album by ACCEPT, by performing the LP in its entirety on recent tours of South America and Europe. They are also taking the "Balls To The Wall" 40th-anniversary tour to the rest of the world during 2026.

Last October, DIRKSCHNEIDER and Udo's long-running band U.D.O. recruited Alen Brentini as their new guitarist.

A 48-year-old Croatian guitar player, singer and songwriter who started playing guitar at the age of nine and became a professional musician aged 19, Brentini joined U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER as the replacement for Andrey Smirnov, who announced his exit from the two groups earlier in October.

On October 27, 2025, U.D.O. released the following statement via social media: "We are excited to welcome guitarist Alen Brentini to our lineup. Alen will be with us on guitar as we move into the next chapter of U.D.O. on stage and in our day-to-day creative work. His sound and energy fit the band perfectly and we're looking forward to raising hell together!

"Please join us in giving Alen a loud welcome to the U.D.O. family. You'll hear him with us at the upcoming shows. See you out there!"

Brentini has performed on some of the biggest live TV shows in Germany and Austria, stadium tours as well as "MTV Unplugged". As a solo artist, he has released several records like "Treca Dimenzija", "Behind The Walls Of Silence", "Soul'd Out" and "Black Tears". In 2020, the first album of SOMETHING ON 11, his collaborative project with Jen Majura (ex-EVANESCENCE),was released.

When Smirnov announced his exit from U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER on October 17, 2025, he said in a statement: "After nearly 13 years, U.D.O. / DIRKSCHNEIDER and I are parting ways.

"It's both overwhelming and exciting to close a chapter that has shaped my life.

"I've been living in the fast lane since 2012 — flying straight from my last show with Paul Di'Anno and Blaze Bayley to recording 'Steelhammer' with U.D.O. Since then, we've written and released 8 studio albums, 4 live records, even reimagined the legendary ACCEPT album 'Balls To The Wall' — and played hundreds of shows all around the world. I'll always treasure those nights when the crowd's roar became my heartbeat. But every journey has its horizon — and mine is calling me forward.

"I will continue to write, record, mix, and play music — for you, and with you.

"Let's stay connected through music — because that's what unites us all.

"Thank you for being part of my story. I love you all!"

U.D.O. added in a separate statement at the time: "After many years of successful collaboration, U.D.O. / DIRKSCHNEIDER and guitarist Andrey Smirnov have decided to part ways. This decision was made amicably and with mutual respect.

"The band would like to thank Andrey for his outstanding musicianship, dedication and contribution to U.D.O. over the years. We wish him continued success in all of his future endeavors.

"U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER will continue with all upcoming projects and live shows as planned."

Smirnov joined U.D.O. in January 2013 as the replacement for Stefan Kaufmann, who left the group in late 2012 for health reasons.

The 41-year-old Andrey is a Russian rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who was previously the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter and founder of the Russian modern metal band EVERLOST. He was also the session guitarist of Paul Di'Anno, Blaze Bayley (ex-IRON MAIDEN) and once was a part of famous Russian metal bands MASTER, EPIDEMIA and few others. Andrey is a well-respected studio musician.

U.D.O.'s latest album, "Touchdown", came out in August 2023 through Atomic Fire Records.

🔥 BALLS TO THE WALL – ENCORES TOUR 🔥
And another one bites the dust:
Regensburg is now SOLD OUT. ❌

If you’re still...

Posted by U.D.O. on Tuesday, January 6, 2026

In a new interview with Japan's Prog Project, OPETH guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt was asked if it is a "challenge" for him "to stay progressive or to keep evolving" when he is writing music for his band. Mikael responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, good question. I'm not sure if it's so important for me to feel that we are progressive, because I don't really know what it means anymore. Back in the day, I think that it was easier to define a progressive band because they were mixing styles and stuff like that, but now progressive means fast guitar solos, and it's become a sound and maybe not so progressive. I think progressive music, especially in rock and metal, has become a bit regressive. And it's also, I don't know if I can decide if we are progressive or not. I think it's up to the audience to decide, but for me, it's become less and less important to be labeled progressive because I don't know what it means anymore. But when I write music, it's easy to, I think, make progress for our own music, because I have so many different kind of influences and I'm very passionate about my music and stuff like that. So I try, but at the end of the day, I just wanna write emotional music."

Asked to clarify that he doesn't "think about trying to be progressive" when composing music for OPETH, Mikael said: "No. I don't wanna repeat myself. Many of our fans want us to maybe repeat what we did in the early 2000s, but I'm not really interested in that. I like for us to progress, but not necessarily just so we fit into the progressive rock/metal genre."

Åkerfeldt also addressed the fact that his listening preferences tend toward the retro, acknowledging that OPETH's music incorporates influences from classic death metal and earlier bands like '80s metal and '70s prog. Asked why there aren't many new bands who capture his interest, Mikael said: "I don't know. Maybe because I don't really listen. I don't search for new bands. I don't know what's going on in the music scene. I don't know what's popular or what's happening or original or progressive, to be honest. I'm stuck with my old records. And I still have so much music to listen to. So I have no idea what's happening."

Back in 2017, Åkerfeldt told Rolling Stone magazine about his lack of interest in newer metal bands: "I'm born in 1974, so I grew up with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and the German scene and the U.S. scene of the '80s and that kind of stuff, so I think today's metal scene is a bit too sterile for my own taste. I'm not excited about a new metal band or a new metal record because I've tried, and most of the time, I just feel it's just too un-metal-sounding — too polished and too streamlined to fit the genre. It's just not interesting enough for me, you know?"

OPETH was honored in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal" category at this year's edition of the Swedish Grammis awards (Swedish Grammy equivalent),which was held on March 27 at Annexet in Stockholm.

"The Last Will And Testament", OPETH's fourteenth studio album, was released in November 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget. The LP was written by Åkerfeldt, with lyrics conferred with Klara Rönnqvist Fors (THE HEARD, ex-CRUCIFIED BARBARA). "The Last Will And Testament" was co-produced by Åkerfeldt and Stefan Boman (GHOST, THE HELLACOPTERS),engineered by Boman, Joe Jones (KILLING JOKE, ROBERT PLANT) and OPETH, with Boman, Åkerfeldt and the rest of OPETH mixing at Atlantis and Hammerthorpe Studios in Stockholm. The strings on "The Last Will And Testament" were arranged by Åkerfeldt and returning prog friend Dave Stewart (EGG, KHAN) and conducted by Stewart at Angel Studios in London. Visual artist Travis Smith returned to the fold, crafting his 11th cover, a haunting "photograph" reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's infamous "Overlook Hotel" photograph. Miles Showell (ABBA, QUEEN) also revisited mastering and vinyl lacquer cutting at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Åkerfeldt rolled out the red carpet for storied flautist and JETHRO TULL mainman Ian Anderson. Not only do Anderson's signature notes fly on "§4" and "§7", he narrates on "§1", "§2", "§4", and "§7". Joining Anderson, EUROPE's Joey Tempest lends a backing vocal hand on "§2", while Åkerfeldt's youngest daughter, Mirjam Åkerfeldt, is the disembodied voice in "§1".

Making his recorded debut alongside OPETH's long-established lineup of Mikael Åkerfeldt, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, bassist Martin Mendez and keyboard maestro Joakim Svalberg on "The Last Will And Testament" is new drummer Waltteri Väyrynen, who joined the band in 2022.

In a new interview with Tone-Talk, TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick was asked about the "vibe between thrash bands in the mid-to-late '80s" and whether there was "major rivalry and competition among the bands or more camaraderie and encouragement". He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Interesting question. I think overall more camaraderie and encouragement, because I don't think any of the bands ever sounded the same. I grew up listening to EXODUS and early METALLICA. I discovered METALLICA. They were already touring for the first record. By the time I played on my first record, METALLICA was off to the races; they were already on 'Master Of Puppets'. SLAYER had a few records out; I think 'Reign In Blood' came out the same year. ANTHRAX had a few records out; they'd already been through a couple singers. So all those bands — even MEGADETH had a couple records out — they were already off and running, so I never really saw them as competition."

Alex continued: "I think the only time where I did feel a sense of competition was after I'd been in my band for about a year — yeah, I think it was just over a year — EXODUS parted ways with their singer [Paul Baloff], and they poached our singer [Steve 'Zetro' Souza, from the pre-TESTAMENT band LEGACY]. Gary Holt is a great friend — SLAYER [and] EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt — I'm actually reading his book ['A Fabulous Disaster: From The Garage To Madison Square Garden, The Hard Way'] now, and I just got to the part where he's talking about that. And I didn't know this. Apparently they had split from their singer, Paul Baloff — may he rest in peace — either way. We didn't know that at the time, but at the time we thought, 'Oh, they're coming after our guy. They're trying to be more like us.' And so there was a little sense of competition. But then we found a new guy — his name's Chuck Billy, and he's still in the band today. And it kind of made us sound really different, and we couldn't have sounded like EXODUS. And then they found a different sound once they had their singer, Steve 'Zetro' Souza, who had been in our band. So only for that time period, suddenly it felt, like, 'Okay…' It's like a team. 'Oh, they took our guy.' But other than that, no — I think everybody that got along surprisingly well, especially for how crazy everybody was. It was kind of a hard-partying scene. [We were] young and wild… And everybody's great friends now."

Skolnick was also asked about his experiences of working in a two-guitar band TESTAMENT and how he and fellow TESTAMENT guitarist Eric Peterson split guitar leads. He responded: "Yeah, I think it's different for everybody. There's different types of two-guitar situations. I think for the genre that I came up in, which became known as thrash heavy metal, yeah, you had to have two guitars; it's two-guitar music. So all the essential thrash bands — I mean, METALLICA is not really a thrash band now; they're mega supergroup, but they started out kind of leading this thrash movement with two guitars. MEGADETH, two guitars, SLAYER, two guitars, and it was modeled after groups like IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST. And there's different types of situations. There's some groups where you have — SCORPIONS, for example. You have one guy who's just the rhythm guy, main songwriter, Rudolf Schenker. AC/DC [is] the same model. And then you have other groups where you have somebody who's, they're the same ability [and] they play similar solo styles — IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST — and it's always different. And then you have somewhere — MEGADETH is a good example where there's a guy that's very dedicated and more of a virtuoso player, but another guy that also plays solos — Dave Mustaine — and he's got his own personality. And you have to figure out what type of group it is."

Skolnick continued: "When we started out, Eric Peterson didn't play many solos. He was more of influenced by groups like MOTÖRHEAD and VENOM and just sort of more raw, heavy stuff. And I was coming from [Eddie] Van Halen, Randy Rhoads; I'd studied with [Joe] Satriani. But over the years he's developed a style. So I think nowadays it's a little more like MEGADETH, where he's kind of like the raw player, but he's got his sound and he's like the Mustaine and I'm the Marty [Friedman] or the Kiko [Loureiro]. [Laughs] And every song is different too. There's certain songs where it fits to have one guy or to have another. If it's a solo like 'Practice What You Preach', where it goes through a number of different keys and tempos and modes, that's probably for me. But then we've got some newer stuff, a song like one of the new singles, 'Shadow People', where it's just this raw vamp, and he plays great over that. So, you have to evolve and you have to work it out. You have to figure out, what kind of band are you? Are you the AC/DC type or the SCORPIONS type where it's rhythm and lead guy, or is it two lead guys or is it somewhere in the middle? So it's different for every band."

One of the elite breed of guitar shredders from the 1980s, Skolnick was famously a student of Joe Satriani, along with Steve Vai and METALLICA's Kirk Hammett, and was even sought out by Ozzy Osbourne, playing a gig with the BLACK SABBATH legend in the U.K. in 1995.

Skolnick joined TESTAMENT in 1985 at the age of 16 and stayed with the band for eight years before leaving in 1993 and going on to study at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Skolnick's long-running Brooklyn, New York-based jazz-rock band ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO (AST) recently released its sixth album, "Prove You're Not A Robot", via Flatiron Recordings. Alongside Skolnick's inventive guitar work, bassist Nathan Peck and drummer Matt Zebroski bring rhythmic complexity and emotional depth, with odd-time signatures and genre twists that have become AST hallmarks.

Since forming in the early 2000s, AST has reimagined the jazz guitar trio, melding influences as far-reaching as Wes Montgomery, BLACK SABBATH, Prince, tango, calypso and Western swing. Known for their adventurous covers of rock and metal classics, they've earned praise from outlets like Billboard, Downbeat, Jazziz, The Village Voice and NPR, and have toured internationally, captivating audiences from Norway's Larvik Guitar Festival to Paris's The Olympia and New York's Radio City Music Hall.

In addition to playing with ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO and TESTAMENT, he has worked as a sideman with such artists as vocalist Ishtar of the French band ALABINA and Jewish folk singer Debbie Friedman. He has also guested on an album from RODRIGO Y GABRIELA.

Last summer, Australian thrash metal pioneers MORTAL SIN announced that they will return to the stage in 2026, 15 years since their last tour on the 2011 "Thrashfest Classics" European run. MORTAL SIN's 2026 lineup will see original members Mat Maurer (vocals) and Andy Eftichiou (bass) joined by Nathan Shea (guitar) and Ryan Huthnance (guitar),along with the band's latest addition, Sydney drummer George Delinicolis of LIVEWIRE and BASTARDIZER.

2026 signifies MORTAL SIN's place in thrash metal history celebrating 40 years of "Mayhemic Destruction", 20 years of "An Absence Of Faith" and 15 years since the release of "Psychology Of Death".

MORTAL SIN fans can expect to hear classics spanning the band's full catalog on dates throughout 2026, with the first show seeing MORTAL SIN appearing at Australia's Froth & Fury festival in on January 31 in Adelaide.

Asked in a new interview with Metal Roos about the chances of MORTAL SIN writing and recording fresh music in the not-too-distant future, Mat said: "Yeah. It's been discussed. No one's agreed to anything yet. We will. I mean, yeah, we might. [Laughs] The thing is that let's get all of these shows out of the way. Let's see what the feeling is. Let's see what the vibe is. I'm sure they're all gonna say, 'Look, let's just fucking write.' I mean, I've already asked them, 'You guys got any material? Have you got anything? Have you got anything? Throw something at me.' I need to start now. If I'm gonna write something, even if it's like in two years' time, I need to remember how to write again. It's always a problem with me."

MORTAL SIN will embark on an Australian tour in March, to be followed by an appearance at Germany's Keep it True festival in April. A couple of more Australian shows will take place in May and June before MORTAL SIN returns to Europe in August to play at Czech Republic's Brutal Assault and Belgium's Alcatraz festivals.

Last August, Maurer was asked by the Heavy Metal Mayhem radio show if the Keep it True festival appearance was the main motivation in bringing MORTAL SIN back. Mat said: "No, that came afterwards. Although Oliver from Keep It True has been trying to get us for the last — I don't know how many years. Every year I seem to get an e-mail from him saying, 'Oh, will you do this?' And I go, 'I can't, I can't, I can't, can't.' Because I don't know if you know, my wife was quite ill and passed away in January this year. That sort of took up a big part of my life and that was the priority. When she passed away in January, I kind of needed a bit of purpose and I saw Andy and Nathan. We all sort of went to the same concert together, and I said, 'Look, I know that it's been me that's held us up for all these years, and I appreciate that you waited and everything, but if you guys wanna do something, next year's our 40th anniversary, if you're up for it, I'm up for it.' And they all just said — straight away they said yes. And then so we sat with those three, with us three for probably two months while we were sort of getting into the sort of sense that we're gonna do it. And then we sat there and thought, 'Well, who are we gonna get on guitars?' And Andy suggested getting Paul [Carwana], the original guitarist, but I was a little more inclined to use Ryan from the last lineup that we did with in 2011, just to keep some kind of — I can't say continuity, 'cause it's been — what? — 14 years since then. But I liked Ryan. Ryan was a pretty superior player. And, yeah, because we were losing Luke [Cook], our drummer, I didn't wanna have too much change. Changing one member's okay, changing two members kind of gets — everyone sort of [thinks], 'Yeah, you bloody change your members all the time,' that sort of vibe. So we've got four of the members who were basically together — I don't know what — since 2005 till 2011. And then George has joined us this year. Because he is a drummer, he plays in about 37 bands. But the two notable ones are LIVEWIRE and BASTARDIZER. You may have heard of BASTARDIZER. You may have heard of LIVEWIRE."

Regarding how far he and his MORTAL SIN bandmates are planning to take the reunion and if there is a chance of new music being released in the not-too-distant future, Mat said: "Well, look — one step at a time. When we said we'd start this, we said, 'Let's just do something for the 40th anniversary.' We feel we deserve to do that. And then let's just see. If the reaction is good, if we get shows out of it and all that sort of thing, if there's enough there to push us into doing more, then we'll do more. But we'll get past the first hurdle first, and then we'll see how we all feel together. Also having a new drummer on board… Yeah, it's basically a look-see for now. It's not a full commitment to writing a new album, but we have discussed it, and it's sort of not out of the question, but it's also not a hundred percent, 'Yes, we'll do it.'"

Asked if there are MORTAL SIN songs that are left over from different eras of the band that he and his bandmates could work on to create a new album, Mat said: "I wouldn't do it. I feel that's cheating. When METALLICA brought their 'Death Magnetic' [album] out, to me it sounded like they just went through and found all these old songs and [said], 'Let's redo these.' I don't know. That was my opinion.

"Look, we've already put out — on various bootleg CDs — we've put old tracks, stuff that we never released," he explained. "So we've already done all of that, and I think it's such a long time between now and when we were playing and did release an album that I think you've gotta come at it with fresh ears, fresh eyes, fresh head, all new, because it might be better. Sometimes old is not better. Sometimes new is better… It's kind of like looking at photos. A photo is a snapshot in time. An album is a snapshot in time as well. It's what you did at that time. It's what creativity you had at that time. And everybody changes. In 14 years, so much happens in your life. You've got a whole new bunch of material that's in your head of all your experiences and all the things that happened in your life. So why would you go back? Let's just draw on those experiences."

When the MORTAL SIN reunion was announced in July 2025, Eftichiou said in a statement: "Picking up the bass again for MORTAL SIN after all these years feels like coming home — loud, chaotic, and a hell of a lot of fun. We've still got something to say, and I can't wait to hit the stage with the boys and bring that energy back to the fans."

In July 2025, the Australian thrashers dropped a new lyric video for "Mayhemic Destruction", the title track of the debut album they started recording at Sydney's Studio 301 on Friday, July 25, 1986.

MORTAL SIN's latest album, "Psychology Of Death", was released in Europe in November 2011 via NoiseArt Records. The effort included the group's classic debut LP, "Mayhemic Destruction", as a bonus disc in the limited digipak version. The follow-up to 2007's "An Absence Of Faith" was mixed with producer/engineer Darren "jENK" Jenkins and marked the recording debut of guitarist Ryan Huthnance, who replaced Mick Sultana.

MORTAL SIN in 2009 released a live album, "Into The Inferno (Live In Oslo)" , via Riot! Entertainment. The CD, which contained the group's March 2008 performance in Oslo, Norway, was described by the band as "possibly the best live show MORTAL SIN have ever had recorded."

Once hailed as the next METALLICA, MORTAL SIN have become legends in their home country Australia, having been inducted into the Kerrang! Heavy Metal Hall Of Fame in 2005 and being the only Australian band to have played with the big five of thrash — METALLICA, SLAYER, ANTHRAX, MEGADETH and TESTAMENT — on tours in Australia and overseas.

LORDS OF NWOBHM, the new supergroup featuring members of PRAYING MANTIS, DIAMOND HEAD, RAVEN, TANK and PERSIAN RISK, performed its first show last night (Thursday, January 8) at Cart & Horses in London, United Kingdom. Fan-filmed video of the concert — courtesy of Gary Bowers — can be seen below.

With the ever-growing interest and respect around the world for the rock music genre known as the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) — the monumental British metal and European metal movement from 1979 through 1982 — there has never been a better time to celebrate the music of those pioneering bands from the era.

Several musicians who were key members of some of the biggest bands of that time have come together as LORDS OF NWOBHM to faithfully perform many of those classic songs that are now a major part of rock music history.

LORDS OF NWOBHM's setlist features classic tracks from the above bands plus a carefully curated selection of songs from several of the other iconic artists from the era to make this the ultimate NWOBHM show.

The official LORDS OF NWOBHM lineup comprises:

Tino Troy (PRAYING MANTIS) - Guitar
John Gallagher (RAVEN) - Bass
Karl Wilcox (DIAMOND HEAD) - Drums
Cliff Evans (TANK) - Guitar
Carl Sentance (PERSIAN RISK) - Vocals

Gallagher says: "The cream of British metal playing the best of the NWOBHM!"

Adds Evans: "This music is in our blood!"

Wilcox states: "A hefty salute to the genre that spawned some of metal's biggest bands!"

Sentance says: "NWOBHM never dies!"

Troy comments: "The second wave is imminent!"

In an April 2023 interview with Japanese music critic and radio personality Masa Ito of TVK's "Rock City", Lars Ulrich spoke about METALLICA's enduring appreciation for New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and how it continues to influence METALLICA's music to this day. He said: "[New Wave Of British Heavy Metal is] a big part of the reason that METALLICA exists and it's a big part of the reason that, obviously, we're still sitting here.

"My playlists in my iPhone and the playlists in my car and the music that I listen to… Yesterday — I kid you not — I was listening to DEF LEPPARD's 'Good Morning Freedom', I was listening to HOLLOW GROUND, the single by this band HOLLOW GROUND, one of the lesser-known bands of British heavy metal, on one of my playlists in my car as I was driving to take my son to and from school and to his sports practices.

"New Wave Of British Heavy Metal is a big part of me, it's a big part of METALLICA," Lars continued. "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal is for us in METALLICA a gift that keeps on giving. And it's something that we circle and have circled in and out of forever.

"I know there's a lot of people that connect [METALLICA's recent single] 'Lux Æterna' to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. And I can tell you and look everybody in the eye and go, that wasn't necessarily the battle cry. When we sat down, we didn't say, 'Let's write a New Wave Of British Heavy Metal type of song.' But, obviously, I can hear those connections in the song when I disconnect myself from the recording and the writing process. And, like I said, I'm always proud to fly the flag for New Wave Of British Heavy Metal at any level that I can."

A self-proclaimed NWOBHM fanatic, Ulrich spent much of his time in the early 1980s tracking down obscure recordings from his favorite groups of the era. Ten years after the NWOBHM's glory days of 1982, Ulrich took time out to put together a multi-band compilation, "'79 Revisited: New Wave Of British Heavy Metal", along with journalist Geoff Barton, whose work in the now-defunct weekly U.K. rock paper Sounds had kept Ulrich posted while he was in the States.

At METALLICA's first-ever concert, which took place on March 14, 1982 at Radio City in Anaheim, California, Ulrich, James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine and Ron McGovney ran through a nine-song set, including no less than seven NWOBHM covers: four tracks by DIAMOND HEAD and one each from BLITZKRIEG, SWEET SAVAGE and SAVAGE.

Back in 2010, Lars was asked by Australia's long-running rock station Triple M about the band that was responsible for inspiring him to launch METALLICA. Ulrich said: "It was the summer of '81 and I'd been trying to get a band off the ground in California, but not much happened, so I sort of got fed up with the whole thing.

"DIAMOND HEAD were my favorite band, and I landed at Heathrow Airport (in London) and I went down to Woolwich Odeon, it was called, which was sort of a baby Odeon; it was about the size of this room we're in here. And there they were — DIAMOND HEAD. And I brown-nosed my way backstage and got a chance to meet them afterwards. I had actually written them a couple of fan letters. I was stunned to find out that they actually knew who I was. Maybe they didn't get as much fan mail as I expected, because the letter that I had sent them were actually on their radar. But then I ended up staying with them for the better part of the rest of the summer and ended up sleeping in the singer's front room.

"A lot of these bands that came out of that period, everything about the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal that I really liked was that all these bands were really grounded. There was a relaxed atmosphere around them, it wasn't sort of... Everything that had been going on in the '70s with bands like QUEEN and PINK FLOYD and DEEP PURPLE and LED ZEPPELIN, it was all about this larger-than-life type of thing and all these bands that were so grand and so majestic and so kind of out there. And a lot of these new bands — IRON MAIDEN and DIAMOND HEAD and all these bands — they were just kids, and they had their feet very firmly planted on the ground. So, in some way, the spirit of that whole movement was about keeping it real and all those attitudes just kind of rubbed off on us and rubbed off on me and made me want to start a band and really have the fans involved and give the fans as much access as possible."

Start your New Year with some Classic British Heavy Metal! Only UK Show! Tickets on sale Now! https://wegottickets.com/event/674388

Posted by Lords of nwobhm on Monday, December 29, 2025

Jay Buchanan — frontman of American rock band RIVAL SONS — will release his debut solo album, "Weapons Of Beauty", on February 6 through Sacred Tongue Records via Thirty Tigers.

The official visualizer for Jay's latest single, "True Black", can be seen below.

With "Weapons Of Beauty", Buchanan — the hard-eyed, preacher-voiced frontman of Grammy-nominated RIVAL SONS — steps fully into his own. A debut solo record that trades the thunder of the stage for something slower and more cinematic: a high-and-lonesome desert song from a man unsteady under the weight of his past, carrying it like a heavy sack of gold into his future.

Buchanan stands tall among the breakthrough vocalists of the last two decades — just as comfortable singing with Jason Isbell, THE BEE GEES, Miranda Lambert, MASSIVE ATTACK, THE BLOODY BEETROOTS or Brandi Carlile as with the arena-rock band he's best known for. His voice remains his signature instrument: powerful, earthen, and impossibly expressive — a gritty echo of the California mountains themselves.

In preparation for "Weapons Of Beauty", Jay disappeared into the Mojave Desert for three months, holed up writing in an underground, windowless bunker. His goal wasn't escape so much as renewal: living simply in the tiny space, powered by a gas generator, writing by firelight at the foot of abandoned gold mines.

"The silence," he says, "was both terrifying and liberating. A caterpillar knows when it's time to get into the cocoon."

Out there, surrounded by heat and horizon, Buchanan began shaping songs about longing, endurance, and an almost romantic celebration of the hard-worn miles living by prospect across the American landscape.

Spanning ten tracks, "Weapons Of Beauty" traces Buchanan through the sun-bleached dust of an American-gothic wilderness. The album opens with "Caroline", a spare, aching letter to a lost home or lover, introducing a recurring theme of return and forgiveness — a song that promises to bring a tear to the eye, a classic wounded tale of loss told in a way that is wholly his own.

"I suppose that writing about unquenchable grief allows you a kind of permission to pay respect to those deep chasms in your life without wallowing in them," Buchanan states. "Putting it in a song lets you buy the ticket and take the ride — and then move on."

Filmed in the same gold mines Jay frequented while sequestered in the Mojave Desert, the video illustrates the journey of a couple in sickness and in health. Buchanan performs to the camera as their memories play out through projections on the cave walls behind him.

"I can see a parallel here," Buchanan adds, "spending twelve hours deep in the earth, trying to mine our own treasure, knowing full well so many have perished in those same caves chasing a future cut dangerously short. That's a hell of a way to spend a Sunday!"

Most recently, Buchanan delivered an explosive performance as the frontman of the Stone Pony house band in the Bruce Springsteen biopic "Deliver Me From Nowhere". Talking about his involvement, Buchanan states: "More than anything, it was just a really good hang. I played a band leader, so no acting there. Being on stage together playing music was about bringing Jeremy [Allen White] into my world, and being on camera in a film was about him bringing me into his. It was amazing. Jeremy and Scott [Cooper] made me feel like I belonged there — and that was just what I needed."

"Weapons Of Beauty" displays nearly fifty minutes of masterful storytelling and heart-breaking lyricism. If it feels cinematic, there's a reason: Buchanan entrusted acclaimed filmmaker Scott Cooper (who directed him in the Springsteen film) to sequence the album — a task Cooper generously took on.

"On the flight home after the film wrapped, Scott and I had a conversation that stayed with me as I went directly to the desert," Buchanan says. "I don't want to get too personal, but we were kind of living on opposite sides of the same coin that day, and he was the last person I spoke to before my desert exile. Months later, the night the record was finished, when I listened to the playback for the first time, I immediately thought of him sequencing it. The whole undertaking had left me so raw that the pan was just too hot for me to pick up. I knew I could trust him — if he'd help me."

Cooper wasn't the only friend to lend a creative hand. Buchanan enlisted lauded American realist painter Jeremy Lipking to create the album's rich, romantic cover painting — a perfect companion to its vision of the American landscape.

"Jeremy Lipking is an old friend and family on my wife's side," Buchanan explains. "We've been wanting to work together forever. He was the only person to hear some of my demos direct from the desert. I told him I was writing a Jeremy Lipking painting. It was important to me that the music have a scenic quality — the America I've seen over decades of touring: lonesome sunsets, big-clouded skies, silhouetted by our dreams and failures."

"Weapons Of Beauty" track listing:

01. Caroline
02. High And Lonesome
03. True Black
04. Tumbleweeds
05. Shower Of Roses
06. Deep Swimming
07. Sway
08. The Great Divide
09. Dance Me To The End Of Love
10. Weapons Of Beauty

"As music continues to be choked out by technology, I wanted to draw pictures in the dirt," states Buchanan. "This approach is right with me, and I've just come to a point where there is no longer a choice. 'Weapons Of Beauty' is the sound of these plates shifting within me, too loud to ignore. Surprisingly, I've never known a vulnerability to feel so empowering."

Born in San Bernardino, California, Buchanan began writing songs as soon as he could hold a guitar, honing his craft through busking, home recordings and constant artistic reinvention. Widely respected by his peers, Buchanan has collaborated with artists such as Jason Isbell, THE BEE GEES, Miranda Lambert, MASSIVE ATTACK, THE BLOODY BEETROOTS and Brandi Carlile, in addition to his work as frontman of the two-times-Grammy-nominated rock band RIVAL SONS — Buchanan (vocals, acoustic guitar),Scott Holiday (lead guitar),Mike Miley (drums) and Dave Beste (bass). Hailed as "one of the best live acts around" (Glide),the group has released eight studio albums to date, toured extensively across the globe, including sharing stages with BLACK SABBATH, THE ROLLING STONES, AC/DC, AEROSMITH and Lenny Kravitz, and performed on "The Late Show With David Letterman", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "The Late Late Show With James Corden", George Lopez's "Lopez Tonight" and "Later… With Jools Holland".

Photo by Matthew Wignall

Legendary rock icons and 2025 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nominees THE BLACK CROWES today announce the release date of their highly anticipated new studio album, "A Pound Of Feathers", due out March 13 via Silver Arrow Records. Produced by Jay Joyce, the new album pushes THE BLACK CROWES' iconic blend of blues, soul and rock into electrifying new terrain. With a career spanning four decades, the band's upcoming release stands as a towering testament to their enduring artistic fire and significance in rock and roll.

The first two singles from the album, "Profane Prophecy" and "Pharmacy Chronicles", can be heard below.

"We made this record in eight to ten days," says THE BLACK CROWES singer Chris Robinson. "Bringing the high and inspiration from 'Happiness Bastards' into this album, it was a natural progression. We experimented more, we wrote on instinct and how we were feeling in the moment. [THE BLACK CROWES guitarist] Rich [Robinson] brought a spontaneity to the record that I can't describe, but it's the best shit he's ever done."

Rich adds: "This album feels transformative to us. Going back to our roots, we felt that spark in the studio and how we work together. Lighting a fire that hits harder, more jagged but is still true to our musical essence."

"A Pound Of Feathers" marks a bold creative evolution — marrying the rugged swagger of their early classics with fresh perspectives and dynamic, hard-hitting rhythmic textures. Recorded in Nashville with Grammy-winning producer Jay Joyce and curated with visionary energy and deep musical empathy, the record showcases a fearless band operating at the height of their powers.

Drawing from a legacy of emotive songwriting, formidable musicianship, and true rock 'n' roll grit, the project — solely written by the brothers — moves effortlessly between the weightless beauty of "A Pound Of Feathers" and the heavy truth of "a pound of lead," infusing all 11 tracks with an ambivalent depth and honest purity.

Released today, the spiked opener "Profane Prophecy" sets the trajectory for the whole album, packing the track with cheeky, fun and funky lyricism only Chris and Rich could bring to life, while the cynical slow-burning "Pharmacy Chronicles" sings of reckoning rather than retreat, urging people to face their vices, as freedom comes with recognition.

Affirming THE BLACK CROWES as one of today's most compelling and influential rock bands ever, "A Pound Of Feathers" follows their critically acclaimed 2024 effort "Happiness Bastards" — which was nominated for "Best Rock Album" at the 2025 Grammy Awards.

"A Pound Of Feathers" track listing:

01. Profane Prophecy
02. Cruel Streak
03. Pharmacy Chronicles
04. Do The Parasite!
05. High And Lonesome
06. Queen Of The B-Sides
07. It's Like That
08. Blood Red Regrets
09. You Call This A Good Time
10. Eros Blues
11. Doomsday Doggerel

JUDAS PRIEST's Rob Halford is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of his getting sober.

Earlier today (Tuesday, January 6),the 74-year-old singer shared a video message in which he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " Hi, everyone. Today I stand here with deep gratitude and thankfulness as I celebrate 40 years of sobriety.

"Four decades ago, I made a decision to change the entire course of my life, stepping out of darkness into the light, toward the future I couldn't see. As I've said before, it wasn't easy, and still isn't.

"Recovery asks for complete honesty, humility and a willingness to grow one day at a time. With the love and support from my higher power, my family, friends and fans helping me guiding the way, I kept moving forward.

"Over these years, I've learned that sobriety isn't just about staying clean, it's the presence of clarity, purpose and connectivity — a gift of showing up for my life each day for the people I love.

"I'm grateful for the person I became and every challenge I've faced that made me stronger.

"To those of you who may be considering that first step on to the journey with me, I hope that my own journey proves that recovery is possible. Hope is real, and each day at a time is a chance to begin again.

"I love you."

During a question-and-answer session with former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson at last November's Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp in Scottsdale, Arizona, Halford spoke about how he became clean and sober four decades ago. He said:  "My first sober show [with PRIEST] was at the Tingley Coliseum in [May] 1986 in New Mexico, Albuquerque. That was my first sober show, and I was absolutely terrified. I was terrified. And the first time I sang clean and sober was just something so remarkable. [I was] so elevated, just to feel the music for the first time in its purest sense, uncluttered, in reality. And to hear yourself and your voice, what it can do, your bandmates. I didn't need this stuff — I didn't need any of that to get me where I am."

Rob continued: "Our business used to have a horrible trail of losing people and people getting into really bad ways. A lot of us have recovered. Nowadays when the tour bus pulls up [to a venue], the guys [from the bands] jump off the bus and they pull out weights and are skipping rope by the luggage racks, and that's great. It's less of a thing now, 'cause it was peer pressure. You'd read these rock and roll stories about rockers doing crazy stuff, dangerous stuff. You felt like it was a rite of passage, that you had to go through that, for some extraordinary reason. 'Oh, I do that because so-and-so did that.' And then you're giving your life away for some other purpose, which you should never do."

Halford added: "So anyway, by the grace of God go I, and one day at a time. And I never wanna wake up feeling sick and tired, which is what I used to do."

Asked if there was "a particular moment, a moment of clarity" that changed him, Rob said: "Um, yeah. Yes. It's difficult to express that moment, but when you've had your stomach pumped, because you were so sick of feeling sick and everything around you was so black and dark that you just wanted to leave all of that, that was part of the first major mental crisis that I went through. And then shortly afterwards, after punching the wall for the umpteenth time… I would need my walls fixed, 'cause I was a puncher. After so many drinks, I'd become angry at myself and start punching walls.

Rob continued: "Anybody in recovery will tell you that there's a point where they're just sick and tired of feeling sick and tired anymore, and then you make a change. And you think it's gonna be easy from that point on. No. Every day — for me every day, when a beer commercial comes on, or a hard liquor commercial comes on, I'm [feeling an emotional effect]. It's amazing. It never, ever leaves you. That's why it's called an addiction. I'm an addict. I'm a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. So it never, ever leaves your body. The strength and power that you pull on from your higher power, from the tools that you have from staying clean and sober is a reference right now. It's always ticking in the back of your mind. So, I'm just so happy and grateful that I'm at this place and living in the moment."

Back in 2022, Halford spoke to Spain's Mariskal Rock about how he managed and avoided the urge to relapse since 1986. "I think about it all the time," he said about drinking alcohol. "It's an addiction. When I'm watching the Phoenix Cardinals play on TV the other day, there's constantly adverts for beer and for alcohol and stuff. And I know it's there. And it's a temptation. So you have to have all of the mental tools ready to get you through that instance. 'Cause it's all about instances. And I live one day at a time. I've lived one day at a time for [more than] 35 years now. And that's all that matters. It's the moment. You live in the moment — not yesterday, not tomorrow; it's now. And you have to be ready for when that little beer devil comes on your shoulder and goes, 'Come on, Rob. Have a little drink of beer.' 'Fuck off.' [Laughs] Because I don't wanna feel that way again, man. I don't want to be that person. I was miserable. I wasn't happy. I was bad to people. I don't wanna go through that again. So that's also part of my finding a balance in my day-to-day life."

Rob previously spoke about how he manages to stay clean on the road in a 2020 interview with the "Across The Board" podcast. "It's not easy," he said at the time. "It's very much a day at a time. You're given all the tools and resources from your rehab experience. I use 'em every day. A lot of it is just like mental notes — talking things through. Sometimes I speak 'em out; a lot of it is internal. So that's really vital on a day-to-day level of sobriety.

"When I was in rehab [in 1986], there's anonymity in rehab, but at the same time, you have to tell everybody your life story, so everybody knew what I did. And I remember we talked about the fact that I'm gonna go back to this world of sex and drugs and rock and roll and booze. I don't know how I'm gonna be able to cope, because it won't be a gradual reimmersion into society, so to speak. I won't be able to go tiny steps; I'm just gonna go straight into the deep end. I cannot go to work and say to my bandmates, 'You can't drink. You can't do this. You can't do that,' because it's control. Accept your powerlessness.

"I don't think we ever in the band had a sit-down conversation about this, but I think that there was caring and understanding — as there still is," Halford continued. "But I'd be the last person to say that I have to set a set of rules, because then this whole business of living my life on my terms [turns into something] you push on to other people: 'Well, now, you can't do this,' 'You can't do that.' That's just hypocrisy on the highest level.

"Even now, when we're flying after a show, and the guys are having a beer or a cocktail or whatever, man, I would love that cold beer. I would love a slug of Jack and Coke. I can smell it, 'cause we're in a plane together. It's like this little angel on one side and the devil on the other side. My instant thought is I never wanna be sick again. I never, ever wanna feel that bad ever again. I never want to be in that terrible, dark, lonely place ever again. So it's fleeting. But, again, it's always there.

"When I'm home, especially [during] this COVID thing, [my longtime partner] Thomas doesn't drink. When I first met Thomas, he quit drinking. So that's a support to me. I'm never really around alcohol that much, or drugs, when I'm not working. But, yeah, when my fans, or when PRIEST fans come to see us, yeah, they're gonna have some drinks; they might have a couple of spliffs [and] do whatever else recreationally. They're entitled to. And they are living their lives and they are partying and they are having the time of their lives, as they should. They don't have an alcohol problem; they don't have a drug addiction. There are people that can enjoy these things in life and it [has] no effect on them, in a physical sense and in a mental sense.

"So, it's an absolute miracle," Halford added. "I can only say it's a miracle that I've got that far from January the 6th, 1986 to December the 1st, 2020 without slipping once. And I'm not boasting, because it's all the past — that's the past; it's gone. I live in the moment. I don't think about yesterday or tomorrow; I'm living now. But I'm grateful that I've been able to get this far without failing. Not failing — that's the wrong word. Without a slip off the wagon — whatever the term is. I'm grateful that I've been able to get this far and stay clean and sober. Because if I didn't, who knows where I would have gone and where I would have ended up?"

Halford credited his belief in a higher power for helping him in his recovery. "When I got clean and sober, that was a major change in my life," he said during an appearance on HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta's official podcast, "The Jasta Show". "And part of my recovery is just having this higher-power belief. And it works. It works, man. It really, really is important."

Halford added: "There probably will be people listening to [this] podcast who don't have anything like that in their life, and that's great; it's all about acceptance. But I always say to people, if you're thinking about it, the simplest thing I do is I pray. I pray quite a bit, actually. And even if you don't believe in prayer, just have a go. Pray for a good day, or just pray for your friend, or whatever it might be. And it's amazing, man, 'cause it absolutely works. I guarantee, it genuinely does work. And now I'm sounding like [American evangelical Christian evangelist] Billy Graham, but I'm just trying to express some of the things that are important to me on a day-to-day basis that make me able to walk out on that stage each night and do my work."

In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Halford said that he quit using substances because he "was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I will always remember the first show I did clean and sober… It was in New Mexico, in Albuquerque," he recalled. "I literally felt elevated, as everything was coming with such clarity. I was able to really… enjoy the performance of JUDAS PRIEST without having all of the other things in front of it. Since that day, it has been a miracle."

Halford added, "Everybody has to face things in their lives at some point. It [doesn't have to] be booze and drugs. You can eat too much, or you can not exercise, or whatever… It is not easy staying clean and sober in rock and roll. There are temptations galore from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, especially when you're on the road. [But] I think we're some of the strongest people, my friends and my sober brothers in metal."

Rob's autobiography, "Confess", in which he discusses his journey to sobriety, arrived in September 2020 via Hachette Books. It was written with Ian Gittins, co-writer of "The Heroin Diaries" by Nikki Sixx.

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A freshly re-recorded version of the CRO-MAGS classic track "Hard Times" can be streamed below. The song arrives just in time for the 40th anniversary of the hardcore legends' "The Age Of Quarrel" debut album. This version, dubbed the "Wired for Chaos Session", also celebrates the recently released documentary film of the same name based on the life and career of CRO-MAGS founder/frontman Harley Flanagan.

During a December 13, 2025 question-and-answer session at Generation Records in New York City, Flanagan spoke about the decision to re-record some of the band's music for inclusion in "Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos", which charts his tumultuous life and survival. He said: "That's why you'll see in a lot of films, you'll hear re-recordings of songs. And you'll be, like, 'Why did they do that shit?' … And more often than not, it's because it was too fucking complicated to get the rights or too expensive. So we wound up in a situation. Obviously most people here don't know and don't care, so I'm not gonna bore you with the history of the CRO-MAGS madness and legal drama over the first two albums, which we've never still gotten paid for. But the one thing I will say is this: we did have the opportunity to get the shit back, and it just would've required me and some of the other bandmembers coming to the table and saying, 'Yo, guys, let's get this shit back and just do something with it and all get paid.' And the other guys were just too — I don't know, man. They wouldn't come to the table and have that conversation. So, more or less because of that, I was left with no choice but re-recording some of the songs."

Although Harley's initial plan was to re-record a few of the songs from CRO-MAGS' debut album, 1986's "The Age Of Quarrel", as instrumental covers, the sessions with producer Arthur Rizk progressed to the point where he ended up re-recording the whole thing.

"I wound up going in, and 'cause I was having such a good time and the session was going so well, I said, 'Fuck it.' The 40-year anniversary of the album's coming out next year, so I tracked the whole fucking album," Harley said. "So y'all be able to hear that next year. And I gotta say it sounds kind of like 'Age Of Quarrel' meets [CRO-MAGS' second album, 1989's] 'Best Wishes' in the sense that it's played like 'Age Of Quarrel', but it's got me on vocals, so it just has a deeper voice, let's just say."

"Wired For Chaos" arrived in theaters last June. A trailer for the film can be seen below.

Flanagan burst on to the punk music scene at the age of 11 in the late 1970s as drummer for his aunt's New York-based band THE STIMULATORS, later founding the seminal hardcore act CRO-MAGS. Flanagan tells his inconceivable story through gritty footage of NYC's downtown 1970s and '80s music scene as the backdrop, alongside stories from friends and peers like Flea, Ice-T, Henry Rollins, Michael Imperioli, members of BAD BRAINS, BEASTIE BOYS, CIRCLE JERKS, ANTHRAX and many others.

While Harley's journey as a musician is certainly explored, "Wired For Chaos" centers on the lasting effects of trauma and its integration into his present-day life. Harley Flanagan was a child prodigy musician, who raised himself in the very adult world of rock 'n' roll. He was born to a Warhol Factory "it" girl, enmeshed in the Lower East Side artist sub-culture of the late '70s and '80s, surrounded by copious amount of sex, drugs and violence (as victim and later perpetrator),simultaneously achieving punk rock legend status.

In addition to touring with his band CRO-MAGS all over the world, today Harley Flanagan is also a jiu-jitsu professor (under the tutelage of Master Renzo Gracie),devoted husband (having married a Park Avenue attorney),the father of two sons and a deeply introspective human. He confronts his past, hoping that it can bring him some peace, and pass what he's learned forward to others struggling. Though he has moved on from the violence of his youth, it is never far away as he works through his very pronounced PTSD. His primal instincts to survive remain sharp. The film is built around a vast archive of material, scenes with Harley and his friends, several intimate interviews with Harley and his wife, and abstract imagery and animation.

Harley's childhood with iconic artists (Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Joe Strummer, Alan Ginsburg) looks enviable on the surface, but ultimately his DNA is riddled with the trauma of abuse and sexual violence, laying the groundwork for an unstable adolescence and rocky young adulthood.

The career of filmmaker Rex Miller, who directed "Wired For Chaos", spans more than 25 years and has yielded two Peabody Awards, several Emmys and two Oscar shortlists. He recently directed (with Sam Pollard) the film "Citizen Ashe" (CNN Films),which won "Best Documentary" at both the 2022 Critics Choice and Grierson Awards and was nominated for a Sports Emmy for "Best Feature Documentary".

In a new interview with SLAM: Music Survival Guide, OVERKILL singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to their latest album, "Scorched", which came out in April 2023 via Nuclear Blast. "We're 10 songs deep at this point… It's gonna be a full year. We've gotta, make sure D.D.'s happening to get all this stuff together," he said, referencing OVERKILL bassist D.D. Verni's recent shoulder surgery and ongoing recovery (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "If not, I'm sure we'll make it, and the studio will be fine."

He continued: "When [D.D.] does his other band [DD VERNI & THE CADILLAC BAND], it's totally different than punching holes in the floor because he plays that bass as low as anyone ever in the history of metal. I mean, that shit sits right on shoe tops, and I think it's probably one of the reasons he has a bad shoulder. But it's gonna be business as usual. [There'll] be a ton of new news coming out pretty soon. We're 10 songs deep. I expect to be recording by January, and let's see — let's see what happens from there."

As previously reported, OVERKILL will support San Francisco Bay Area thrashers TESTAMENT on the U.S. leg of their "Thrash Of The Titans" world tour. The trek, which will launch in March, will feature additional support from German thrashers DESTRUCTION.

Last October, Ellsworth told the Metal Mayhem ROC podcast that he and his OVERKILL bandmates had "demoed out" the material for the group's upcoming album. "Jeramie Kling's playing drums for us now," he said. "[Former OVERKILL drummer] Jason Bittner moved on to other things… So we're just moving along as if there is no issue with D.D.."

Last September, Verni, who is the main songwriter in OVERKILL, told Jeff Gaudiosi of MisplacedStraws.com about OVERKILL's upcoming LP:  "We are demoing stuff right now. We probably have maybe nine or 10 songs kind of scratched out that I gave to Blitz a little while ago. Usually the process is I'll demo everything up musically [and] then I'll give it to Blitz. He'll spend some time with it and kind of do his thing with them. Then we get everybody together, kind of that. So I gave it to Blitz maybe not too long ago."

As for a possible release date for the new OVERKILL album, Verni said: "I would think next year, for sure. Just when will it be — spring? Will it be fall? Somewhere in there. But [in] '26 [there] will definitely be a new OVERKILL record."

In August 2024, OVERKILL confirmed Kling as the group's new drummer. Kling joined the veteran New Jersey thrash metal outfit as the replacement for Bittner, who announced his exit from OVERKILL earlier that month.

A founding member of THE ABSENCE, Kling appeared on VENOM INC.'s second album, 2022's "There's Only Black", and has played with such acts as FORE, RIBSPREADER, GOREGÄNG and NECROMANCING THE STONE. He was also briefly affiliated with the reunited Florida death metal band MASSACRE, which led to the formation of INHUMAN CONDITION, alongside Terry Butler (OBITUARY, ex-DEATH) and Taylor Nordberg (DEICIDE). In addition to being a drummer, Kling is a recording engineer, producer and live sound engineer.

Bittner joined OVERKILL in 2017 and played drums on the band's last two studio albums, 2019's "The Wings Of War" and the aforementioned "Scorched".

In November 2024, Jason admitted to "Reckless" Rexx Ruger of Pod Scum that he "hadn't been happy" in OVERKILL "for, like, two fucking years. It wasn't a surprise that I quit. I'd been dissatisfied for a long time, but I'm a team player. I don't like to leave things. I love the guys personally. So I just kind of just hung in there, but I was not happy where I was career-wise, let's say, within the confines of that band. I wasn't a bandmember. And that's the main thing for me to keep doing this at this point in my lifetime." He added that he felt he wasn't "being paid fairly" for his time" but clarified that there was "no animosity" and called his decision to leave "just a business thing." He explained: "I can play five shows with SHADOWS FALL and make more money than playing 30 with OVERKILL."

In September 2024, Verni told Capital Chaos TV about Bittner's departure: "We kind of knew that that was coming. He had told us a while ago that he was just kind of burned out on too many things and had his hands in too many pots. So I think we kind of knew that was coming."

OVERKILL played its first concert with Kling on August 30, 2024 at the Posada Rock festival in Câmpulung Muscel, Romania.

Due to a "minor health issue" that requires his attention over the upcoming months, Glenn Hughes, the legendary former bassist and singer of DEEP PURPLE, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee and current frontman of rock supergroup BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, has made the difficult decision to cancel his previously announced 2026 USA tour. The trek was scheduled to kick off on March 27 at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, California and wrap up on May 10 at The Marquee in Tempe, Arizona.

Glenn comments: "I'm taking advice from my medical team, who I am working closely with. Hoping to see you on the road of happy destiny."

Ticket and VIP upgrade refunds will be available from your point of purchase.

When it was announced last October, "The Chosen Years" show promised to be a dynamic, turn-back-the-clocks, two-hour live extravaganza paying homage to Glenn's illustrious career spanning five decades in music — featuring songs from TRAPEZE, DEEP PURPLE, HUGHES/THRALL, IOMMI/HUGHES and BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, some of music history's most seminal and influential rock and roll groups. Not only that, the shows was also supposed to feature brand new music from Glenn's latest solo album, "Chosen". Joining Glenn on lead vocals and bass guitar were supposed to be Søren Andersen on guitar and Ash Sheehan on drums.

"Chosen" came out on September 5, 2025 via Frontiers Music Srl.

In early June 2025, Hughes released the official music video for the "Chosen" title track. It was followed by the "Voice In My Head" video a month later. In August, Glenn shared "Into The Fade".

2025 saw Hughes busy touring across Europe and South America, with "The Chosen Years" tour starting in Zoetermeer, Netherlands, on September 2 and ending on November 29 in Bogota, Colombia.

Glenn, a native of Cannock, England, absorbed all kinds of influences, including early British hard rock, THE BEATLES and, most importantly, American soul and R&B. The sleek Motown sound from Detroit and the gritty Stax/Volt sound from Memphis left their mark on him.

Hughes first found success in the early '70s with the band TRAPEZE before joining DEEP PURPLE in 1973 during a pivotal lineup change that introduced him and David Coverdale to the group. Despite initial skepticism, the revamped band silenced critics with the release of "Burn" (1974),a powerful album that revitalized PURPLE's sound and remains a classic. During this era, the band headlined the iconic California Jam in front of over 300,000 fans, toured the world aboard their private jet The Starship, and released two more studio albums, "Stormbringer" and "Come Taste The Band", before disbanding in 1976.

Glenn's first solo album "Play Me Out" was released in 1977. He joined former Pat Travers guitarist Pat Thrall to form HUGHES/THRALL, which released an acclaimed self-titled album in 1982. Throughout the '80s and '90s, Glenn Hughes made countless guest appearances (both credited and un-credited) as a vocalist, bass guitarist or songwriter on other artists' albums. The endless list includes — among others — Gary Moore, John Norum and Tony Iommi of BLACK SABBATH.

Since 1992, Glenn has started a prolific solo career with a dozen studio albums where he explored all the different sides of his songwriting and influences: from hard rock to funk and more contemporary sounds. He collaborated — among others — with such musicians as Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),Dave Navarro, John Frusciante and many others. He also founded or took part in some amazing musical alliances such as CALIFORNIA BREED (with Jason Bonham and Andrew Watt),BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION (with Joe Bonamassa and Jason Bonham) and THE DEAD DAISIES.

Glenn has collaborated with Robbie Williams on his new single "Rocket", which was released on May 22, 2025. The track also features a collaboration from Iommi and will be the first time Glenn has been featured on a record with Tony since 2005, when they released "Fused" together.

Glenn also recently joined forces with SATCHVAI, a new collaboration by legendary guitar icons Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, by writing and singing on their new single "I Wanna Play My Guitar".

Posted by Glenn Hughes on Friday, January 9, 2026

Finnish hard rockers THE 69 EYES have signed to BLKIIBLK, the heavy metal imprint of Frontiers Label Group.

Starting a brand new chapter in their career, they proudly unveil their new track, "I Survive", along with an official music video, available below.

The song features American guitarist Steve Stevens, best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the theme to "Top Gun" ("Top Gun Anthem"),for which he won the Grammy for "Best Pop Instrumental Performance" in 1987.

THE 69 EYES comments: "Our new single 'I Survive', written by guitar legend Steve Stevens and Jyrki 69, is THE 69 EYES at our best: simply rocking! The track is mixed by Barry Pointer (OZZY OSBOURNE, MÖTLEY CRÜE, etc) to bring the extra Hollywood magic in."

Once you've survived the 1980s rock scene, you become unstoppable — and THE 69 EYES are living proof. Formed in Helsinki in 1989 and still going strong with the same line-up some four decades later, the Helsinki Vampires have earned their legendary status.

In a world with fewer and fewer true believers in leather jackets, midnight sunglasses and low-slung guitars, THE 69 EYES keep the Johnny Thunders's flame burning like an endless sleazy club night back in the day.

Their biggest hit, "Lost Boys" from 2005, was made into an iconic music video by MTV's "Jackass" star and skater Bam Margera and the song still remains on annual Halloween rock playlists.

One foot on glam, another one on goth, THE 69 EYES have released thirteen albums, reaching gold and platinum and a mainstream status in their native Finland. They have been touring without any notable breaks all over the world the last twenty years.

Vocals, a lead and a rhythm guitar, a bass and drums are the classic rock band lineup. THE 69 EYES have the magic on stage that is needed for these elements to carry on beyond the rock 'n' roll dreams, both theirs and those of their cult following.

THE 69 EYES is:

Jyrki 69 - Vocals
Bazie - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Timo-Timo - Guitar
Archzie - Bass, Backing Vocals
Jussi 69 – Drums

Photo credit: Marek Sabogal