Former IRON MAIDEN vocalist Paul Di'Anno will release a new album, "The Book Of The Beast", on September 27 via Conquest Music.

The vinyl double album (available in blood red, virgin white and cold steel colored vinyl) and two-disc CD/DVD include five previously unreleased tracks, along with a carefully curated collection of songs that distills many of the best moments from Di'Anno's fascinating and formidable career.

The CD/DVD also includes rare live, promotional, and acoustic video footage.

Deep cuts from albums going back to Paul's BATTLEZONE, KILLERS and solo days have been painstakingly remastered to give them a more up to date and polished production plus some of Paul's rare acoustic, rehearsal and demo recordings have been added as a special bonus.

Perhaps the most interesting addition to this album is the unexpected reworking of two IRON MAIDEN classics, but with a dark twist. Both "Remember Tomorrow" and "Wrathchild" have been treated to a facelift with Paul dueting alongside Tony Martin (BLACK SABBATH),ZP Theart (DRAGONFORCE) and Lidya Balaban (CROWLEY).

"I suppose it might sound like an unusual combination, but Lidya has got a brilliant voice," Paul enthuses. "I've been trying to get it together to see CROWLEY, but it hasn't happened yet.”

"I'd be very interested in working on something special with Tony and ZP in the future," Paul adds.

The vinyl albums feature Paul dueting with Lydia Balaban while the ZP Theart and Tony Martin duets are on CD/DVD and also digital.

Di'Anno is very excited at the possibility of this collection bringing belated attention to many of his songs that may have slipped past the casual listener.

"I've never felt that my albums were ever given the promotion they deserved, and record labels just didn't take me seriously," Di'Anno comments. "The guys at Conquest Music are really on the case so I hope more people will get to hear my music now."

With an exhaustive CV that includes BATTLEZONE, KILLERS, DI'ANNO (the band),PRAYING MANTIS, THE ALMIGHTY INBREDZ, WARHORSE and the metal supergroup GOGMAGOG, Paul Di'Anno is one of the most colorful and controversial characters in hard rock and heavy metal. But of course, Paul is best known for having been a member of IRON MAIDEN from 1978 to 1981, appearing on their two iconic albums "Iron Maiden" and "Killers", his voice bringing the band far more of a raw, punky edge than was present on subsequent records.

For that reason, MAIDEN's first two albums still inspire strong reactions. Though the band became bigger than ever after his exit, there are fans that stopped liking them when Paul exited the picture. In later years, Di'Anno met members of METALLICA, PANTERA and SEPULTURA who all respectfully told him how much those first two LPs had influenced them.

"That's always bloody brilliant to hear," Paul enthuses. "It's nice to know that you are worth something in the grand scheme of things."

Paul will be touring Europe from August 21 through to mid-December 2024.

Photo credit: Marco Benjamin Alvarado (courtesy of Central Press for Conquest Music)

During an appearance on the new episode of the This Past Weekend With Theo Von podcast, Tommy Lee addressed a story in the MÖTLEY CRÜE biopic "The Dirt" about Ozzy Osbourne allegedly drinking his own pee and snorting a line of ants.

In "The Dirt", which premiered in 2019 on Netflix, a young Ozzy (played by Tony Cavalero) holds an impromptu gross-out contest of sorts with MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx at a Lakeland, Florida hotel swimming pool in 1984 during the two acts' joint U.S. tour. After exposing himself to some hotel guests, Ozzy asks CRÜE for cocaine. Sixx (played by Douglas Booth) hands over a straw, and Ozzy kneels on the ground and snorts a crawling line of ants. Then he urinates on the ground and licks it up, challenging Sixx to do the same. Pressured, Sixx urinates on the ground as well — but before he can get to it, Osbourne kneels down and laps it up first.

Asked by Theo if it's true that Ozzy drank his own pee, Tommy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Full-on true. I know people ask that all the time. They're, like, 'Dude, really?' I'm, like, abso-fucking-lutely. You can't make that shit up."

The MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer continued: "Dude, he was so high. All of us [were]. We had just been on an overnight bus ride, and Ozzy rode with us. So we're doing rails the whole way. No one slept; everyone [was] just drink[ing]. So we're at the hotel, and no one wanted to go to their room. Everyone wanted to still keep partying. So we go, 'Let's go to the fucking pool.' We go to the pool.

"At that time, it was just kind of a thing — everybody was into [trying to] out-rock star and out-gross somebody out, like out-partying," Lee explained. "So Ozzy's wasted. He sees there's a little trail of ants going all the way to this kid's popsicle that he left on the ground. And Ozzy looks down and fucking just snorts the line of ants going to the popsicle. And Nikki's, like, 'Okay. Well, fuck that.' So Nikki pulls his dick out at the pool. This is a hotel. This was, like, the Four Seasons [hotel], I think, in Dallas. And [there were] people, kids, everything. Nikki goes, 'Fuck that. Watch this.' Nikki goes to pee on the ground and Nikki's gonna lick up his own piss to outdo Ozzy. And before Nikki could do it, Ozzy fucking beats him to it and licks up his piss. And we're, like, 'All right, Ozzy. You win. You win, dude.'"

According to Tommy, what happened after the pool incident was potentially even more gross. He said: "What they don't show in the movie there is Ozzy's tour manager goes, 'Dude, Ozzy's fucking on one. You're responsible for him. Here's his hotel room key. Fuck. I'm done. I can't deal with this anymore.' I'm, like, 'I got him. Cool, I'll take him to his room.' So anyway, after we get kicked out of the pool area for all that bullshit, they don't really go into it in the movie. I'm, like, 'Come on, Ozz. We're getting kicked out. I'm gonna take you up to your room.' He goes, 'All right.' We get in the elevator. We're going up, and there's people in the fucking elevator. And he pulls his pants down and he just starts fucking [pushing hard]. He's shitting. I'm, like, 'Ozzy, dude. No! Fuck! Dude, no.' And we get to the floor. I'm just trying to get him to his fucking room, close the door and let him — he just needs to go to bed. So I take his room key, fucking open it up, push the door open. I'm, like, 'Okay, buddy. See you later.' And he goes, 'Come here.' I'm, like, 'I'm gonna go.' He's, like, 'No, you come here.' I go in, and now he's gonna finish. He just starts shitting in the middle of the room. He bends down, picks it up and starts painting the walls with his shit. I'm, like, 'I've gotta go, dude.' And I fucking bailed. And I don't know what happened after that. But they don't show that part in the movie."

Last October, Ozzy's son Jack asked Sharon Osbourne during their "The Osbournes" podcast if it's true that Ozzy snorted a line of ants. Sharon said: "I was not there, thank God. I used to try and stay away from MÖTLEY when they were with Ozzy. And I don't know. I honestly don't know. All I know is that I think it made their movie. And I wanna know why, now we're on the subject, of why, when they advertise their movie on Netflix, it's a picture of a guy imitating Ozzy. Why isn't the ad campaign a picture of MÖTLEY CRÜE? Why is it a picture of your father?" Jack said: "Well, I know, I know the answer to that. 'Cause Ozzy Osbourne's bigger than MÖTLEY CRÜE", to which Ozzy replied: "No. No. No. Stop. Stop. Stop. Let's move on." Sharon continued: " The thing is I just think it's an invasion." She then went on to call Sixx an "asshole." After Ozzy said, "No, he's not," Sharon countered with, "Yes, he fucking is."

Pressed by Jack if Ozzy did in fact snort the line of ants, Sharon said, "I say no." But Ozzy claimed otherwise. "Yes. Yes, I did," he said. "I was there. I did it. [In] my nostril… I was drunk and I did it."

Back in April 2019, guitarist Jake E. Lee, who played guitar for Osbourne on the 1984 tour, disputed the Ozzy ant-snorting story, telling Tone-Talk: "I was there, and I never saw ants. I was right there. He snorted a little spider. There was a not a trail of fucking ants there. Tommy [Lee, CRÜE drummer] says it, Nikki says it, Ozzy says it — they were fucked up. I was not. I was just trying to get a fucking sun tan. That's all I was doing. They were getting fucked up. Ozzy snorted a little tiny stupid spider that was crawling across. There was no ants — there was no fucking ants. I don't care what the other guys say — there was no ants."

As for the "urine" portion of the story, Jake said: "Oh, that was true. It started with a contest. It was Nikki and it was Ozzy. I think it started in the pool. They were in the swimming pool, and they kind of raced, and, of course, Ozzy lost. And [they had] a push-up contest, and, of course, Ozzy lost. Ozzy was getting tired of losing, and he stepped it up. I do remember at one point, Ozzy was sitting there. He got this weird look on his face. He was sitting on the concrete, and piss started flowing out underneath him. And he was obviously doing a lot of vitamins, 'cause [the urine] was, like, lime green. So Nikk Sixx, I remember, pissed on the girl he was with. She was lounging. She was not happy about it. Ozzy pissed on the ground. [Nikki] saw that and he went over and pissed on the girl that he was with in the lounge chair. And that's when Ozzy bent over and started licking his own green piss up. That's where I said, 'Okay, I'm outta here.' Not only is that happening, there's families on the other side of the pool — children and mothers and fathers looking horrified, like, 'What the fuck is going on over there?'"

Jake added: "That is my recollection. And Ozzy snorted this little spider that was crawling across. There was no ants. It's a minor detail."

In MÖTLEY CRÜE's 2001 autobiography, "The Dirt: Confessions Of The World's Most Notorious Rock Band", Sixx recounted the episode in detail, writing: "I handed [Ozzy] the straw, and he walked over to a crack in the sidewalk and bent over it. I saw a long column of ants, marching to a little dugout built where the pavement met the dirt. And as I thought, 'No, he wouldn't,' he did. He put the straw to his nose and, with his bare white ass peeking out from under the dress like a sliced honeydew, sent the entire line of ants tickling up his nose with a single, monstrous snort.

"He stood up, reared back his head, and concluded with a powerful rightnostriled sniff that probably sent a stray ant or two dripping down his throat. Then he hiked up the sundress, grabbed his dick, and pissed on the pavement. Without even looking at his growing audience — everyone on the tour was watching him while the old women and families on the pool deck were pretending not to — he knelt down and, getting the dress soggy in the puddle, lapped it up. He didn't just flick it with his tongue, he took a half-dozen long, lingering, and thorough strokes, like a cat. Then he stood up and, eyes blazing and mouth wet with urine, looked straight at me. 'Do that, Sixx!'"

Ozzy told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that what little he remembers of the '84 tour with the CRÜE was pretty wild. "The 1984 tour was the most craziest tour I think I've ever done in my life," he said. "I don't remember it, but I remember I used to wake up every morning or come around thinking, 'What the fuck went on last night?' I mean, everybody keeps asking me, 'Hey, Ozzy, did you really snort a line of ants?' You know what, the answer to that is: I don't know, but it's very possible."

When asked by Page Six if the story was true, Sixx reconfirmed it. "Of course," he said. "We were a wild young band and he kind of took us under his wing. We thought we could compete with that, but you can't with Ozzy. He won."

Ozzy Osbourne photo credit: Ross Halfin

From Ashes To New have released a lyric video for “Monster In Me” featuring rapper Yelawolf, one of the six bonus tracks featured on the deluxe version of their #1-charting 2023 album, Blackout. The album is available across digital platforms here.





Following several sold-out shows supporting Blackout earlier this year, From Ashes To New will continue to bring their blend of hard rock, hip-hop, electronic, and alternative music to audiences across the US this fall. The band will join Nothing More and Set It off along with Post Profit from September 3 to 24 before breaking off on a co-bill with Set It Off from September 21 to November 2 with special guests New Years Day and If Not For Me.




(Photo - Sarah Carmody)







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"Rush At 50", the new book by rock journalist and author Daniel Bukszpan, will be released on September 17, 2024 via Motorbooks, an imprint of the Quarto group.

Like previous titles in the "@" series, "Rush At 50" is a comprehensive, beautifully produced, photo-packed bio of the beloved rock trio, examining the history of the Canadian rockers through the lens of 50 milestone events and an illustrated gatefold timeline.

Bukszpan offers a distinct perspective on RUSH's career trajectory and covers it all, down through the decades:

* The band's formation by bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson in suburban Toronto
* Their early gigs and constant touring opening for the likes of KISS
* Their breakthrough in the United States thanks to a Cleveland DJ
* The role of co-founding drummer John Rutsey
* RUSH's early LED ZEPPELIN-influenced efforts and their breakthrough, "2112"
* The band's ever-evolving musical style through the 1970s and 1980s
* The controversial influence of novelist Ayn Rand on Neil Peart's lyrics
* Geddy Lee's instantly recognizable vocal style
* Album recording sessions with various producers in Wales, Quebec, and elsewhere

It's all here: from their humble beginnings playing in Toronto bars to becoming international mega-platinum headliners with one of the most devoted fanbases in rock, the band's evolution is vividly portrayed. "Rush At 50" also includes captivating photography — live shots, candid off-stage moments, studio photography and images of albums and single artwork, record company advertising, concert posters and more.

Bukszpan has been a freelance writer for over 25 years. He has written for such publications as Fortune, CNBC, Condé Nast Traveler and more. He is the author of "The Encyclopedia Of Heavy Metal", "The Encyclopedia Of New Wave", "The Art of Brutal Legend", "Woodstock: 50 Years Of Peace And Music", "Ozzy At 75" and "Rush At 50". Dan also contributed to the Quarto titles "AC/DC: High-Voltage Rock 'N' Roll", "Iron Maiden: The Ultimate Unauthorized History Of The Beast", "Metallica: The Complete Illustrated History" and "Rush: The Illustrated History".

In a mere 42 days, my next book, "RUSH @ 50," will be available to discriminating consumers of great literature the...

Posted by Daniel Bukszpan on Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Marco's HIGH VOLTAGE Music Channel has uploaded video of AC/DC's August 4 concert at Messegelände in Hannover, Germany. Check out the clips below.

The setlist for the show was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:

01. If You Want Blood (You've Got It)
02. Back In Black
03. Demon Fire
04. Shot Down In Flames
05. Thunderstruck
06. Have A Drink On Me
07. Hells Bells
08. Shot In The Dark
09. Stiff Upper Lip
10. Shoot To Thrill
11. Sin City
12. Rock 'N' Roll Train
13. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
14. High Voltage
15. Riff Raff
16. You Shook Me All Night Long
17. Highway To Hell
18. Whole Lotta Rosie
19. Let There Be Rock

Encore:

20. T.N.T.
21. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

The "Power Up" European tour marks AC/DC's first with the band's new touring lineup consisting of singer Brian Johnson, guitarists Angus and Stevie Young, drummer Matt Laug and the latest addition to the group's touring lineup, bassist Chris Chaney.

The 24-date trek will run through August 19 at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. The European tour is the first run of gigs since AC/DC's return to the stage at last year's rock Power Trip festival in Indio, California.

AC/DC's last tour took place in 2015 and 2016 and had a $180 million gross, with 2,310,061 sold tickets reported to the Pollstar box office.

Laug is an American drummer who has played with many bands/artists such as Alanis Morissette, Alice Cooper, SLASH'S SNAKEPIT and Vasco Rossi. Matt moved to Los Angeles after graduating from South Florence High School in 1986 and after attending college in L.A., Matt became a sought-after studio drummer.

In 2001, Laug supported AC/DC as part of SLASH'S SNAKEPIT on the North American and European legs of the "Stiff Upper Lip" tour.

In its announcement about Laug's addition to the band's Power Trip lineup, AC/DC offered no explanation for the absence of the band's longtime drummer Phil Rudd, who rejoined AC/DC for the recording of the group's comeback album, "Power Up", which came out in November 2020.

Rudd was ousted from AC/DC when he was sentenced to eight months of home detention by a New Zealand court in 2015 after pleading guilty to charges of threatening to kill and drug possession. He was replaced on the band's "Rock Or Bust" tour by Chris Slade, who had previously served as AC/DC's drummer between 1989 and 1994, playing on the album "The Razor's Edge".

Rudd, who appeared on all but three of AC/DC's 18 previous studio albums, toured in support of his 2014 solo debut, "Head Job". It was the release of that album that led indirectly to Rudd's arrest, with the drummer allegedly so angry at a personal assistant over the way the record was promoted that he threatened to have the man and his daughter killed.

AC/DC postponed the last 10 dates of its spring 2016 North American trek after Johnson was advised to stop playing live or "risk total hearing loss." The band went on to complete the European and North American legs of its "Rock Or Bust" tour with GUNS N' ROSES frontman Axl Rose as a "guest vocalist." At the time, Johnson had been AC/DC's singer for 36 years, ever since replacing the late Bon Scott in 1980 and making his debut on the classic "Back In Black" album.

To enable him to perform live with AC/DC again, the now-76-year-old Johnson worked with audio expert Stephen Ambrose, who said he could help resolve the singer's hearing problems.

Ambrose, who invented the wireless in-ear monitors that are widely used by touring artists today, claimed to have invented a new type of ear-bud that would allow Johnson to perform without causing further damage to his eardrums. After three years of experimenting and "miniaturizing" the equipment, Johnson previously said the technology could allow him to tour again.

Chaney is best known as the bassist of JANE'S ADDICTION and as a member of Alanis Morissette's touring and recording band. Chaney was also a member of TAYLOR HAWKINS AND THE COATTAIL RIDERS and CAMP FREDDY, as well as being a prolific and versatile session musician, having played with artists including Joe Cocker, Shakira, Slash and Avril Lavigne to Sara Bareilles, Gavin Degraw, Cher, SHINEDOWN and Celine Dion. Chaney is also a founding member and partner in the all-star supergroup ROYAL MACHINES along with Dave Navarro (JANE'S ADDICTION),Mark McGrath (SUGAR RAY),Josh Freese (FOO FIGHTERS) and Billy Morrison (BILLY IDOL).

Bassist Cliff Williams announced his retirement at the end of AC/DC's 2015-2016 "Rock Or Bust" tour, which also saw Johnson leaving. However, Williams — and Johnson — took part in the recording sessions that resulted in "Power Up". Both of them were also part of the AC/DC lineup that performed at Power Trip.

During an October 2020 interview with Dean Delray's "Let There Be Talk" podcast, Cliff was asked if Johnson's departure from the road was what led to his desire to stop touring. Cliff responded: "It was before then. I spoke to Angus about it initially. I was at a point — and this is at the beginning of the 'Rock Or Bust' tour — that I just felt, for me, it was time to hang it up. I knew that I didn't wanna keep doing these two-year tours, and I didn't wanna hold them back, so I made them aware of the fact that this was gonna be my last go-round. It was a tough tour to finish. God bless Axl for coming in and helping us out, finish it up. He did a great job. And at the end of that, I was definitely — that was it for me. Done — just done. That compounded the whole thing."

According to Williams, he wanted to take part in the recording sessions for "Power Up" as a tribute to Angus's late brother, founding AC/DC rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, who died in 2017 from effects of dementia at age 64. Malcolm is credited as a writer on all 12 tracks on "Power Up".

"If 'Back In Black' has [late AC/DC singer] Bon Scott all over it, for me, 'Power Up' has got Malcolm Young," Cliff said. "This is for him. And it's the band that we played together with for 40-plus years. And I wanted to do that — I wanted to come back and do that.

"We did some rehearsals earlier [in 2020] before this darn COVID thing popped up, and we had great rehearsals," he continued. "The band was playing really well. So [they asked me], 'Do you wanna do a few shows? 'Sure'. A few shows. We were planning on doing that. Everyone goes home to their respective homes, and bang, we've been here ever since [because of the coronavirus-related shutdown]."

Cliff went on to confirm that his commitment to AC/DC was only for "a few" dates in support of "Power Up".

"For both [my mental and physical] health," he said. "I definitely have some physical issues, which I won't bore you with the details of. But, yeah, it's tough. I'm very grateful for everything. It's been fantastic. But I just don't wanna do that anymore."

Williams previously revealed that a "terrible" bout with vertigo contributed to his 2016 retirement. He also admitted the return of both Johnson and drummer Phil Rudd convinced him to rejoin the group. "It was like the old band back together," he told Rolling Stone. "It was not like starting over again, but as close to the band that's been together for 40-plus years as we can possibly make it. I didn't want to miss that."

The follow-up to 2014's "Rock Or Bust", "Power Up" was recorded over a six-week period in August and September 2018 at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver with producer Brendan O'Brien, who also worked 2008's "Black Ice" and "Rock Or Bust".

ANTHRAX vocalist Joey Belladonna played his second show with DIO DISCIPLES on Sunday (August 4) at Rockefeller in Oslo, Norway as the support act for MR. BIG. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.

DIO DISCIPLES consist of members of Ronnie James Dio's band, supplemented with top-shelf musicians who have more than earned their stripes. In addition to keyboardist Scott Warren (DIO, HEAVEN & HELL, WARRANT) and drummer Simon Wright (DIO, AC/DC, UFO),the band's current lineup is completed by vocalist Oni Logan (LYNCH MOB),bassist Bjorn Englen (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, QUIET RIOT),guitarist Ira Black (BULLETBOYS, LIZZY BORDEN, VICIOUS RUMORS, VIO-LENCE) and the latest addition, the aforementioned Belladonna.

Billed as a "celebration of the music and legacy of the greatest singer in the world, Ronnie James Dio," DIO DISCIPLES have been playing Ronnie's music on tour in a bid to keep their old bandmate's memory alive.

Belladonna made his live debut with DIO DISCIPLES on August 1 at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany.

Four years ago, Wright told The Metal Voice that the proposed DIO DISCIPLES debut album had been put "on hold" so that he and his bandmates could focus on the "Dio Returns" tour. At the time, Simon said that "about four or five demos" had been laid down of "different songs" that he and former DIO guitarist Craig Goldy had been working on. As for the material's musical direction, Wright said: "It's difficult to pin it down, because some of [the tracks] are a little different. Still a little bit of [the] DIO [sound], the way Ronnie would write, obviously, 'cause that's rubbed off on Craig, and I hear things too. But at the moment, it's a little bit eclectic. So that was gonna be one thing we were gonna approach. We need to consolidate it and make it into a DIO DISCIPLES sound. So that was a conversation we were having: 'We need to figure out where we're going with this.' At the moment, it's a bit all over the place. But they sound good. They're great ideas."

Several years ago, Goldy revealed DIO DISCIPLES were planning to start work on a project of original material, and they debuted three of the new songs during their May 2016 appearance at the "Ride For Ronnie" motorcycle rally and concert in Encino.

Craig previously told "Talking Metal" that he has been collaborating with fellow former DIO member Jeff Pilson on the material for the debut DIO DISCIPLES album.

Goldy joined DIO during the "Sacred Heart" tour in 1986 after original guitarist Vivian Campbell was fired from the band following a contentious business disagreement with the singer and Ronnie's management.

Pilson is best known for playing bass with DOKKEN and FOREIGNER, but he also toured with DIO in the 1990s and performed on three of the group's albums — "Strange Highways" (1993),"Angry Machines" (1996) and the group's tenth and final studio release, "Master Of The Moon" (2004).

Owens told Canada's The Metal Voice about DIO DISCIPLES' forthcoming LP: "We're not making a DIO record. We couldn't do that. The best thing is, we've all done different types of records, but there's always some similarity to the classic metal and classic rock format, because we have this in us. But we still always move forward a little bit. But that's what it's gonna be. JUDAS PRIEST, DIO, AC/DC — all these influences are in us, and they're not gonna leave us. It's just us writing songs. It's not us writing songs to sound like something; it's us going in and writing songs."

In 2018, Wendy said that DIO DISCIPLES' debut album would be released via BMG.

Belladonna recently launched a tribute band to Ronnie James Dio. The new group will play four shows in Florida in August, performing music from DIO, BLACK SABBATH and RAINBOW.

A decade ago, Belladonna spoke to Jay Nanda of the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner about the ANTHRAX frontman's involvement in "This Is Your Life", the tribute to album to Ronnie James Dio. Asked why ANTHRAX chose to record a cover version of the BLACK SABBATH classic "Neon Knights", Belladonna said: "I think I suggested it. When we talked about doing something, collectively, we all like the song, so it was a no-brainer. We could pretty much pick anything… I went for the heavier."

Asked if recording the "Neon Knights" cover was a more emotional experience than some of the other cover versions ANTHRAX had recorded over the years, Belladonna said: "For me, no. I just love doing that type of thing, and it was another day for me to sing something of his. Obviously, I'm excited, because it is a record, but I don't think I did it any different. In fact, I only did a couple of takes. I mean, I actually have on video the first time I tried it, and it pretty much sounds like what it sounds like already. It was business as usual for me."

Regarding what Ronnie meant to him, Joey said: "Ronnie's an inspirational singer for me." He added: "I really believe that as you grow up, you're inspired by the people that perform and things that you would like to hear yourself be in that kind of category and have such a talent like he did and just be inspired. [He was a] great human being, great musician — just all that… He was just the slickest. He was so heavy but melodic, as well as his attitude about everything. He had great charisma."

Belladonna also spoke about the first impression Ronnie made on him. "He made me laugh big time," Joey said. "He just want[ed] to be funny. And yet he [was] so sincere and [could] have that serious point of view. You need to be enthralled with that when you're around him, to have him speak to you with that kind of attitude and spunk that he had. And I'd been around him when things weren't so good, which I won't bring up right now, but to have him share that with me, which was more private, about being in his band — things like that. Just to engage in that with me and run that by me."

Belladonna, whose most recent return to ANTHRAX was officially announced in May 2010, was originally the lead singer of ANTHRAX from 1984 to 1992, and was considered part of the influential thrash metal group's classic lineup (alongside guitarists Dan Spitz and Scott Ian, bassist Frank Bello and drummer Charlie Benante),which reunited and toured during 2005 and 2006. His voice was featured on over 10 albums, which reportedly sold eight million copies worldwide.

Front Row Bobby has uploaded video of Marilyn Manson's August 7 performance at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan as the support act for FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH. Check out the clips below.

Manson's 13-song set included his hits like "The Beautiful People" and "The Dope Show", as well as his latest single, "As Sick As The Secrets Within", which was made available last week.

According to Setlist.fm, Manson's setlist was as follows:

01. We Know Where You Fucking Live
02. Disposable Teens
03. Angel With The Scabbed Wings
04. This Is The New Shit
05. Say10
06. Deep Six
07. Tourniquet
08. mOBSCENE
09. The Dope Show
10. As Sick As The Secrets Within
11. Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (EURYTHMICS cover)
12. The Love Song
13. The Beautiful People

Marilyn Manson returned to the stage on August 2 for his first live performance since before the pandemic at the kick-off concert of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's summer arena tour. The show at Hershey, Pennsylvania's Hersheypark Stadium marked Manson's proper gig since the completion of his fall 2019 headlining tour.

Joining Manson on the current tour is his current band, consisting of returning members Tyler Bates on guitar and Gil Sharone (ex-THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) on drums, alongside the latest additions, Reba Meyers (CODE ORANGE) on guitar and Matt Montgomery (a.k.a. Piggy D.; ex-ROB ZOMBIE) on bass.

"As Sick As The Secrets Within", which was recorded and co-produced with collaborator Tyler Bates, marked the shock-rocker's first release via his new deal with Nuclear Blast Records.

The news of a partnership with Nuclear Blast came in May, just weeks after rumors suggested that Manson had already completed work on a new album.

Prior to the arrival of "As Sick As The Secrets Within", Marilyn hadn't released new music since his 2020 "We Are Chaos" LP.

Manson's 30-date arena/amphitheater tour as the support act for FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH is slated to wrap up on September 19 in Houston, Texas.

Over the past three years, Manson has been embroiled in a series of court battles and has been accused by several women — most notably "Westworld" star Evan Rachel Wood — of sexual, emotional and physical abuse.

Manson, who has denied all the allegations, has countersued a number of his alleged victims and judges have dismissed several of the abuse lawsuits against him.

The 55-year-old musician, whose real name is Brian Warner, has been off the road since the final August 18, 2019 date on the "Twins of Evil: Hell Never Dies" joint tour with Rob Zombie.

In 2022, Marilyn confirmed he was dropped by his record label, Loma Vista Recordings, and talent agency CAA after he was accused of sexual assault.

Manson has consistently denied sexually assaulting or abusing anyone, claiming that his "intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners".

Manson's first release through Concord imprint Loma Vista was "The Pale Emperor" in 2015.

"We Are Chaos" debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums chart.

Bloodstock Festivals has shared the video below, along with the following message:


"Relive the energy and excitement of Ugly Kid Joe's phenomenal performance at the Bloodstock Open Air metal festival on August 13th, 2023. Performing on the prestigious Ronnie James Dio Stage, the band delivered a high-octane set that captivated fans from start to finish. Known for their irreverent and infectious style, Ugly Kid Joe treated the audience to a mix of their classic hits and fan favorites, showcasing their enduring talent and showmanship.


"The highlight of the night was a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead. Ugly Kid Joe's rendition of the iconic 'Ace Of Spades' was made even more special with the appearance of Sepultura's guitarist Andreas Kisser, who joined the band on stage for this touching performance. The crowd erupted as the powerful chords and gritty vocals paid homage to one of heavy metal's most revered figures, creating a moment of unity and respect among metalheads."







Ugly Kid Joe are back in Europe this summer for several festivals as well as a handful of intimate headline shows. Tickets for all dates are on sale now at this location. Upcoming dates are listed below.





August
14 - Concentracao Internacional de Motos - Gois, Portugal
17 - Jailbreak Festival - Horsens, Denmark
18 - Knust - Hamburg, Germany
19 - Mezz Concerts & Dance - Breda, Netherlands
20 - The Black Lab - Wasquehal, France
21 - Zik Zak - Ittre, Belgium
23 - Riverside Open Air - Aaburg, Switzerland
24 - Stonedead Festival - Newark, UK -
25 - Arts Club - Liverpool, UK
26 - The Parish - Huddersfield, UK
27 - Zumhof - Birmingham, UK
29 - Concorde 2 - Brighton, UK
30 - M11 - Milton Keynes, UK
31 - The 1865 - Southampton, UK


September
1 - Princess Pavillion - Falmouth, UK







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In a new interview with São Paulo, Brazil's 89 FM A Rádio Rock radio station, AVENGED SEVENFOLD frontman M. Shadows spoke about the making of the band's latest album, "Life Is But A Dream…" Written and recorded over the span of four years, it was produced by Joe Barresi and AVENGED SEVENFOLD in Los Angeles and mixed by Andy Wallace in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. The album is a journey through an existential crisis; a very personal exploration into the meaning, purpose and value of human existence with the anxiety of death always looming.

M. Shadows, whose real name is Matt Sanders, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The production, in terms of the album, we just grind on writing. And we had a narrative that we wanted to attack. The narrative was simply that life is quick and life is what you make it. And as cliché as that sounds, at the end of the day, there are no rules and you can kind of create your own purpose with your own life. And as soon as you realize that, the world opens up in a lot of ways. And so the album's narrative was directly influencing the actual music that was made, which is a lot of left turns, a lot of stop-and-go, a lot of unique styles. So it turned out to be a very avant garde record, which I would argue that life is very avant garde, if you kind of look at it from 30,000 feet. So I just think the production on it was wild, it was fun, it was exciting. And the band gets in there and we grind it out. And we try to make sure what we're trying to say gets articulated well through the music."

Regarding AVENGED SEVENFOLD's rise from playing small clubs to headlining arenas and festivals around the world, M. Shadows said: "It feels like a dream, but there's always a North Star of never having become a victim to audience capture, always writing the records you wanna write and understanding that in the long run, if you are true to yourself and true to the music and true to your sort of North Star, which is you, then things will work out. Now, listen, people do that all the time and it doesn't work out for them. We're extremely grateful. We're extremely lucky. We're extremely lucky that we came up in a scene of California where there was a lot of bands that had built an audience already. We're close to L.A., where there's a lot of record label folks. We were able to get a kickstart in a way that a lot of people can't get. And we were extremely lucky to grow up together with someone that played guitar and someone that played drums and someone that wanted to write songs and sing. And so there's so much luck that gets involved. And so I look back on it and I just go… I mean, [I'm] just extremely grateful."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD launched the 2024 leg of the "Life Is But A Dream…" North American tour on March 6 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. The band's 2024 run included AVENGED SEVENFOLD's first-ever performances in Manchester, New Hampshire; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Newark. The group performed in Des Moines, Iowa for the first time in 18 years; Cleveland, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the first time in 15 years.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD has been touring in support of its latest album, "Life Is But A Dream…", which sold 36,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD made its first festival appearance in five years on May 19, 2023 at Welcome To Rockville at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD's first concert since June 2018 took place on May 12, 2023 at AREA15 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

To date, AVENGED SEVENFOLD has sold over 10 million albums worldwide and earned two consecutive No. 1 albums on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart (2010's "Nightmare" and 2013's "Hail To The King") to go along with over a billion video views and a billion-plus Spotify streams, as well as multiple No. 1 singles on rock radio.

Catfight Coffee, which is co-owned by guitarist Acey Slade (MURDERDOLLS, MISFITS),has announced an exclusive contest in collaboration with the legendary band MASTODON, offering fans a chance to win an incredible prize pack. The contest celebrates the launch of MASTODON's Single Origin Sumatra coffee Leviathan, a must-have for both coffee aficionados and metal enthusiasts.

Contest details: Fans can enter the contest by purchasing one of the following products:

Single Origin Sumatra Coffee Bag: Each purchase grants one entry into the contest.

Limited Edition Coffee Can: Each purchase grants two entries into the contest.

Prizes include:

* A signed MASTODON drumhead
* A MASTODON tee shirt
* Additional exclusive merchandise

The winner will be chosen at random, ensuring everyone has a fair shot at winning. The winner will be picked on September 1.

About the coffee: MASTODON's Single Origin Sumatra coffee is a reflection of the band's meticulous taste and dedication to quality. The band personally selected the origin and varietal, resulting in a coffee that embodies their unique spirit. This full city medium dark roast is wet-processed and hails from the Kerinci area of Sumatra, grown at elevations between 1600 and 1800 meters. The coffee's robust flavor profile is both bold and smooth, making it a perfect choice for those who appreciate a rich, full-bodied cup.

This is a unique opportunity for fans to own a piece of MASTODON memorabilia while enjoying the rich flavors of the band's custom coffee blend. The contest is open to participants nationwide.

Catfight Coffee is renowned for its high-quality, ethically sourced coffee blends that cater to the tastes of the discerning coffee drinker. Partnering with iconic bands like MASTODON, Catfight Coffee combines a passion for music and coffee to create unique, memorable experiences for fans.

MASTODON is a Grammy Award-winning American heavy metal band known for their innovative sound and dynamic live performances. With a dedicated fan base and a string of critically acclaimed albums, MASTODON continues to push the boundaries of metal music.

EXODUS singer Steve "Zetro" Souza joined ARMORED SAINT on stage this past Sunday (August 4) at the Rockstadt Extreme Fest in Râșnov, Romania to perform the song "Can U Deliver". Fan-filmed video of his appearance can be seen below.

Two months ago, ARMORED SAINT released a rendition of "One Chain (Don't Make No Prison)". The classic track was originally written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter and was first released by PEOPLE in 1970. Additional covers include THE FOUR TOPS (1974),SANTANA (1978) and THE DOOBIE BROTHERS (1989).

"One Chain (Don't Make No Prison)" was produced by Joey Vera, mixed by Jay Ruston and mastered by Maor Applebaum.

More than a year ago, ARMORED SAINT's long-awaited documentary, Armored Saint: Band Of Brothers", had its world premiere in the band's hometown at the Harmony Gold Theatre in Hollywood, California.

ARMORED SAINT's eighth full-length album, "Punching The Sky", came out in October 2020 via Metal Blade Records.

ARMORED SAINT released the "Symbol Of Salvation Live" CD/DVD in 2021 via Metal Blade Records. The release came in celebration of the seminal album's 30th anniversary. "Symbol Of Salvation Live" was a combination live album and video of the band playing the album in its entirety at New York City's famed Gramercy Theatre during its 2018 tour.

ARMORED SAINT recently wrapped up a successful North American tour with QUEENSRŸCHE and is currently working on music for its upcoming full-length album.

In July, the band returned to European stages for a 16-date run of shows, which includes appearances at Headbangers Open Air, Wacken Open Air, Fezen, Brutal Assault and more.
.@rockstadtfest was amazing, our first time playing Romania!

ZETRO of @ExodusAttack came up and sang “Can U Deliver” with us during our set!

Exodus, Lacuna Coil & KKs Priest also crushed it!https://t.co/YXN0ySv6hRpic.twitter.com/1Ojl0A2Gmc

— Armored Saint (@thearmoredsaint) August 6, 2024

Inside The Trojan Horse finds Jibe lead singer and solo artist Joe Grah joining forces with his long-time friend and collaborator Charles Lee Salvaggio (Gemini Syndrome guitarist and Filter/Theory Of A Deadman bassist) and Pat Gerasia, drummer from Red Sun Rising and The Violent. The trio makes their official debut with the gritty, self-produced “Burn,” which takes listeners on an unruly mission to reclaim the lost. Fueled by intricate drums and layered with heavy, ethereal guitars and driving bass, “Burn” sets the bar high for what’s to come from the new group. 


BraveWords is premiering the music video for the debut single – watch below!







The band comments on “Burn”:


“We've been working on this material for quite some time now as we grind through the trials and tribulations of finding our way through it all. The feeling is unreal in the sense that it's happening. This music means everything to us and has taken over our lives, pulling us through the wringer, squeezing out every last drop, all while reflecting some of our most intense and revealing moments. With Burn's birthday finally upon us, we are so proud and grateful to release this beautiful child into your arms and ears. Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us.”


“Burn” was self-produced and was mixed by Evan Rodinache (Lacey Sturm/Flyleaf, Escape The Fate, Powerman 5000).





Joe and Charles initially met while working in the Island Def Jam group Loser featuring current Motley Crüe guitarist John 5. Over several years, in between projects, the pair wrote and recorded dozens of songs, ultimately developing a unique and heavy sound unlike any other. In search of a powerful and articulate drummer to complete the group, they enlisted Pat. 


Together, the trio has recorded a series of songs with music coming out throughout the remainder of the year and more to come in 2025. When performing live, the members of Inside The Trojan Horse have chosen a character to represent themselves in a way that highlights the music and message first by performing with balaclava masks and monikers with Joe as NoOne, Charles as NoThing, and Pat as NoBody.


(Photo: Robert Brunswich)

At last weekend's Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany, OPETH guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson spoke to Marcus Schleutermann of EMP about the band's upcoming album, "The Last Will And Testament", which will arrive on October 11 via Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget. Mikael said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We recorded [it] in February, I think." Fredrik added: "I'm really happy with it. We recorded once again at Rockfield in Wales. So this is the third time we went to Rockfield. I would say it's different from every other album. Definitely."

Asked how "The Last Will And Testament" is different from other OPETH albums, Mikael said: "I don't know. It's weird. That's not really different for us, I guess. But I'm doing some of the screams again, which I haven't done for a long time. And there's some guests on there. Ian Anderson from JETHRO TULL is on there doing spoken word and playing flute. And Joey Tempest [of EUROPE] is on it. But, yeah, it's a concept record. Somebody said it sounds claustrophobic. It's a claustrophobic-sounding record. And there's a lot of ideas. It's a restless record. There's not meandering stuff happening all the time. Even I don't really know the songs yet. But, of course, I would say that, but I think it's good — it's a good record."

Regarding Joey's contributions to "The Last Will And Testament", Mikael said: "Tempest doesn't sound like Tempest on [EUROPE's biggest hit] 'The Final Countdown'. I had him over at my house. I asked him, 'Could you sing a few lines?' 'Let's push the record button,' he said. At the time I didn't have the lyrics ready, so I was, like, 'I'm sorry. I have to record it from somewhere else.' But he's really going for it. He sounds amazing. I mean, I'm a big EUROPE fan, being Swedish. I love them. And I think for him to be on this record, it's a bit different by his standards because it doesn't really sound like a EUROPE record at all."

Asked if he and Joey are friends, Mikael said: "I guess. I guess we're friends. Yeah. He sent me a text one day. It's, like, 'What's up?' And I was, like, 'Hey, Joey Tempest.' And we met at festivals, and he invited me over to his house. I mean, we know the EUROPE guys. Fredrik, one of his best friends is [John] Norum, the [EUROPE] guitar player. So, we're good friends with the whole band. But, yeah, Joey Tempest, we hang out every now and then."

On the possibility of a OPETH/EUROPE joint tour, Mikael said: "We talked about it, but it's hard to know… Ultimately, we make the calls for who we gonna tour with. For instance, we gonna tour in North America soon with TRIBULATION, and they're friends. And then we're going to tour in Europe with GRAND MAGUS, which is also friends. And EUROPE, we have talked about touring together, but it's hard to know if people like that package or not. I'm not sure… I think [EUROPE] would have to play after us then, because you don't want to go up after 'The Final Countdown'."

Asked if the songs on "The Last Will And Testament" all stand on their own or if they are all connected in some way, Mikael said: "They are connected lyrically, but also to a certain extent that one song bleeds into the other, which I always liked anyways. It's basically the reading of a testament. So it's like paragraphs. There are no real songtitles on there. It's a bit odd by our standards even. But you could, of course, extract any song from — we don't have to play the whole record."

OPETH's fourteenth album 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. Not one to miss a beat, visual artist Travis Smith returns to the fold, crafting his 11th cover, a haunting "photograph" reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's infamous "Overlook Hotel" photograph. Miles Showell (ABBA, QUEEN) also revisits mastering and vinyl lacquer cutting at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Åkerfeldt rolls 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".

"The Last Will And Testament" is a concept album set in the post-World War I era, unfolding the story of a wealthy, conservative patriarch whose last will and testament reveals shocking family secrets. The narrative weaves through the patriarch's confessions, the reactions of his twin children, and the mysterious presence of a polio-ridden girl who the family have taken care of. The album begins with the reading of the father's will in his mansion. Among those in attendance is a young girl, who, despite being an orphan and polio-ridden, has been raised by the family. Her presence at the will reading raises suspicions and questions among the twins.

"The Last Will And Testament" is the darkest and heaviest record OPETH has made in decades, and it is also the band's most fearlessly progressive. A concept album recounting the reading of one recently deceased man's will to an audience of his surviving family members, it brims with haunting melodrama, shocking revelations and some of the wildest and most unpredictable music that Åkerfeldt has ever written.

The follow-up to 2019's widely acclaimed "In Cauda Venenum", "The Last Will And Testament" is set in the shadowy, sepia-stained 1920s. It slowly reveals its secrets like some classic thriller from the distant, cobwebbed past, with each successive song shining more light on the stated machinations of our dead (but definitely not harmless) protagonist. The emotional chaos of the story is perfectly matched by OPETH's vivid but claustrophobic soundtrack, which artfully winds its way towards a crestfallen but sumptuous finale. Masters of their own idiosyncratic musical domain, OPETH have never sounded more unique.

"The Last Will And Testament" is destined to be a milestone in OPETH's illustrious recorded history. The band's first out-and-out concept record, it features guest cameos from JETHRO TULL legend Ian Anderson and Joey Tempest, frontman with Swedish rock gods EUROPE. Only one of the album's eight songs has a title: closing ballad "A Story Never Told". The rest are simply labeled as numbered chapters in this slowly unfolding saga of deceit, recrimination and betrayal. Enigmatic, unsettling and immersive, "The Last Will And Testament" is a turbulent, prog metal tale like no other.

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.

OPETH will embark on a North American tour this fall. The trek, which will kick off on October 11 in Milwaukee, includes stops in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin, Denver and more.

Cleveland, Ohio-based masked metal masters MUSHROOMHEAD have released the official visualizer for their latest single, "We Don't Care". The track is taken from MUSHROOMHEAD's upcoming ninth album, "Call The Devil", due out August 9 via Napalm Records. 30 years into their groundbreaking history, the band shows no signs of slowing down, proving innovative without losing sight of their trademark sound and imagery.

Returning after a 12-year hiatus, longtime guitarist Dave "Gravy" Felton — who performed on several of the band's biggest albums and is credited as a primary songwriter on classic anthems like "Along The Way", "Sun Doesn't Rise" and "The Dream Is Over" — contributes his trademark skills to two "Call The Devil" album tracks. The album once again features production by band mastermind/drummer Steve "Skinny" Felton, as well as the return of Matt Wallace (FAITH NO MORE, 3 DOORS DOWN) on mixing, also recognized for his work on MUSHROOMHEAD's iconic album "XIII". The album is also the band's first to feature mastering from Jacob Hansen (VOLBEAT, EPICA, ARCH ENEMY).

MUSHROOMHEAD's "Fall In Line" music video offered a first-person look at the band's new masks, featuring design elements and sculpting by Jordan Patton and guitarist Joe Gall. The track pummels with electro-industrial injections and spine-tingling keys, boasting a twisting vocal attack balancing both brutal and melodic sounds from vocalists Scott Beck and Jackie LaPonza.

Steve "Skinny" Felton said about "Fall In Line": "One of my favorite things about the 'Fall In Line' video is the use of the color red. It's a powerful and emotional color palette. 'Fall In Line' was actually the last song we recorded for the LP. It came together really fast. Upbeat, aggressive and fun."

Resulting in debuts at No. 2 on the U.S. Current Hard Music Albums chart and No. 8 on the Current Rock Albums chart, and with the unveiling of the band's first woman vocalist, Jackie LaPonza, MUSHROOMHEAD introduced a whole new slew of accessible, hard-hitting anthems on the "artistic breakthrough" (Loudwire),"A Wonderful Life", and have only aimed to expand on it with their ninth auditory onslaught.

Bursting with ominous intensity, album opener "Eye To Eye" launches with warning sirens and a grooving riff provided by Gravy, proving the band wastes zero time with filler on "Call The Devil". Eclectic tracks like the emotive, surprisingly jazzy anthem "Emptiness", dramatic carnival creeper "UIOP (A Final Reprieve)" and haunting "Hallelucination" showcase the more experimental side of MUSHROOMHEAD, while heavy burners such as the gripping "Prepackaged", charging and melodic "Hideous" and aggressive drum-forward "Torn In Two" cement the band's lauded metal renown. Featuring guitar work and writing from Gravy, the winding, dark "We Don't Care" proves to be a future live favorite with its chanting chorus and earworm hook as vocalists Steve Rauckhorst and Jackie LaPonza split leadership duties. "Call The Devil" brings the cinematic, signature style of musical mastermind and bassist/keyboardist Ryan "Dr. F" Farrell to the forefront, exploring piano-driven balladic auras and compelling with eerily Vaudevillian three-part vocal achievements on songs like "Decomposition", "Grand Gesture" and "Shame In A Basket", eventually veering into welcomed bizarre territory with album closer "Doom Goose".

Steve "Skinny" Felton said about the album title: "We played around with a few different album titles, and apparently 'Shout At The Devil' was already taken... so we figured we'd just try calling."

"Call The Devil" track listing:

01. Eye To Eye
02. Fall In Line
03. Emptiness
04. We Don't Care
05. UIOP (A Final Reprieve)
06. Prepackaged
07. Decomposition
08. Grand Gesture
09. Hallelucination
10. Hideous
11. Torn In Two
12. Shame In A Basket
13. Doom Goose

MUSHROOMHEAD is:

Steve Rauckhorst - Vocals
Scott Beck - Vocals
Jackie LaPonza - Vocals
Dave Felton - Guitar
Joe Gall - Guitar
Ryan Farrell - Guitar, Bass, Keys
Aydin Kerr - Drums, Percussion
Robert Godsey - Drums, Percussion
Steve Felton - Drums, Percussion, Keys, Vocals

In a recent interview with Belgian Jasper, Steve "Skinny" Felton spoke about the countless lineup changes MUSHROOMHEAD has gone through since its formation more than three decades ago. Asked if it is difficult finding members who are the right fit musically as well as on an artistic level, he responded: "I think when you're with the right creative people and there's a very similar mindset, and being very collaborative and open to critiquing and just hearing other people's ideas through, there's a bit of a balancing act, for sure; it's not always easy. But there's also an excitement. New blood brings new character to the table in many respects, and sometimes you don't know what you're going to get. So I think that is a little intriguing to me personally, especially in the artist realm. It's almost like stepping out of your comfort zone into the unknown. And you end up with something that you never thought you would or never really imagined before. So, it's a yin-yang type of thing, man… It's difficult, and if you have the patience and you have the like mindset with the people you're collaborating with, man, you can come up with some things that you never dreamed of."

Felton also addressed MUSHROOMHEAD's musical evolution and how it has been affected by the constant changes in personnel over the years. He said: "Well, I definitely think it definitely keeps it surprising because we don't even know what's gonna happen sometimes. There is the fear of that probably with many artists, that you get stale working with the same people, being, like I said, in your comfort zone. Getting out of your comfort zone to the point of you don't even know if it's gonna be anywhere near what you had before, sometimes that's scary for artists So, again, it is a difficult balance, for sure."

Referencing "Call The Devil", he said: "This is album number nine. And if people have like a good grasp on what we've done, and if you even are kind of new to it, if you looked at it almost more of like art and cinema than a traditional band and think of, like, say, Quentin Tarantino and all his movies, you know what kind of world you're getting into. And a lot of times it's the same actors and a lot of times it's the same style of movies, as far as there's gonna be comedy, there's gonna be drama, there's gonna be violence. You know what kind of world you're getting into, even if you don't know the exact characters. And he brings back a lot of the same people in different roles and same crew people, same cinematographers. So if you think in that kind of regard, that's kind of like a different way to look at what MUSHROOMHEAD does."

Photo credit: SK1

U.S. black metal pioneers NACHTMYSTIUM have released the first single, "Predator Phoenix", from their forthcoming ninth full-length album, "Blight Privilege". The LP will be made available on November 1, 2024 via Lupus Lounge.

NACHTMYSTIUM mastermind Blake Judd comments: "The pandemic, along with the many insane riots during 2020 opened my eyes. I thought, as a canceled person with nothing to lose, I'll point out things with fearlessness and total conviction. It was that which this track became the point of origin."

"Blight Privilege" track listing:

01. Survivors Remorse
02. Predator Phoenix
03. A Slow Decay
04. Conquistador
05. Blind Spot
06. The Arduous March
07. Blight Privilege

NACHTMYSTIUM is back! And after all that was said and done, Judd, a.k.a. Azentrius, is still standing. Not only that, but Judd has clawed himself back from the abyss of a most extreme life imaginable to a much more quiet, observant and matured artist and person.

His return will not be met with universal applause — even from the black metal scene. For anybody following the tumultuous career of Blake Judd and his pioneering band that has pushed the borders of their genre into new territories, this comes hardly as a surprise.

With their ninth studio album "Blight Privilege", NACHTMYSTIUM are once again presenting a masterpiece that can even compete with the trilogy of albums that many view as the peak of the earlier career of the American black metal (USBM) trailblazers: "Instinct: Decay" (2006),"Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. I" (2008) and "Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II" (2010). Like an infernal sniper, every song on "Blight Privilege" hits straight on target. All the darkest elements, required and longed for, are there: harsh, rasping vocals, the fierce hum and whirr of guitars burning with an ice cold fire, moments of ecstatic and exalted beauty in hellish soundscapes. Yet there are still those fine details that the musically well-versed Judd has always cunningly hidden in the general sonic onslaught such as post-punk and wave elements, and now even a knife-tip of outlaw country.

"Blight Privilege" connects NACHTMYSTIUM to its glory days — not as a nostalgic reminiscence but as a forward-looking continuation and next evolutionary step. If anything, this ninth album is marked by a maturity derived from experience and learning. Judd's often diabolically catchy tunes are sharper than ever and have lost none of their bite. This might be due to the fact that it is the first album of the USBM spearheads which Judd composed in a fully sober state.

Blake Judd has been open about his drug addiction. With "Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II" the artist spelled it out clearly. This album came out in 2010 when NACHTMYSTIUM had already hit an artistic high. The Americans scored high praise in the international metal press. This opened the doors to the influential and prestigious festivals such as Inferno in Oslo, Norway and Roadburn in Tilburg, the Netherlands for them. Yet the cracks were beginning to show. The band was often plagued by internal trouble and lineup changes. Friendships, business, relations with fans, trust, and money also went down. People got burned, people got hurt, and few cared to ask themselves about their own role when dealing with someone who is suffering from addiction.

Blake Judd survived all of this, and kept coming back. Every downfall and relapse was countered by a fierce will to claw himself out of the hole again. Releases followed on announcements that the band was dead. The EP "Resilient" (2018) being the latest of these. Having gone through the crucible of sobriety and the pandemic, Judd added an element to NACHTMYSTIUM that he previously took great pains to stay in a safe distance away from: politics.

The album's title "Blight Privilege" is a deliberate and obvious take on the concept of "white privilege". Coming from rural America and in Judd's case the Midwestern regions in particular, this slogan has a different ring than in the big cities. As the artist explains: "There are large sections of this country where impoverished whites are just as poor as impoverished black or brown or whatever color of skin you care to name. Poverty affects all people and all places in the same way. For many of these poor, the notion of 'white privilege' causes people to hate one another, instead of the billionaire pigs that are orchestrating the multitude of crisis' at hand."

The first half of the album is a somewhat unexpected reaction to the current affairs of the last five years. It's a warning to get prepared to live a different life in a different world and the coming fight to determine what that world will look like. What it is not, is taking any side on the partisan spectrum. The other half of the album is unrelated to this and describes Judd's life of the last decade, which includes his coming off the streets.

With "Blight Privilege", NACHTMYSTIUM demand the throne of USBM back. This album clearly has the musical force and lyrical daring to do give credit to this claim. Love it or hate it, NACHTMYSTIUM have set a tall milestone with "Blight Privilege".

Lineup:

Blake Judd - vocals, guitars, keyboards, all compositions, lyrics

Guest contributions

Matt Thomas - console steel guitar, additional guitar solos
Ken Sorceron - bass guitar
Francesco Miatto - drums
Andrew Marksuzewski - about half of the lyrics

Symphonic metal veterans NIGHTWISH have released "The Day Of...", the second single from their upcoming album, "Yesterwynde", due on September 20, 2024 via Nuclear Blast. It marks the band's tenth studio LP, following on from the release of "Human. :II: Nature." in 2020.

NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen told Kerrang! magazine about the first single from "Yesterwynde", a song called "Perfume Of The Timeless": "When we had the first meeting with Nuclear Blast, talking about the new album and singles, I told them the first single will be a song called 'Perfume Of The Timeless' and it's eight and a half minutes long and the chorus comes in at 3:30. And they were, like, 'Perfect!' I think that has to do with the fact that we have a long legacy. You know, we can do whatever we want, and I do, but it says something that we can do that, when I heard that for Spotify it's good to have the vocals start after 15 seconds, or people skip it; they don't have the attention span anymore."

Asked if he had to adjust his writing style because "Yesterwynde" marks NIGHTWISH's first album since 2002's "Century Child" without bassist/vocalist Marko Hietala, Tuomas said: "No, it doesn't really change anything, except that now we had two voices instead of three, only Floor [Jansen, lead singer] and Troy. But that's it — it really didn't change much at all. And Jukka [Koskinen], the new bass player, is such a grounding personality that it's so easy to work with him. And his bass playing skills are tremendous, quite different from how Marko played the bass, which also brought a new spice into the music. So nothing but positive things to say about it all.

"There are many bands in the world that don't have a single original member anymore," he continued. "And I think it comes down to the fact that if the music is good, then that’s all that matters, in the end. Maybe for some people, certain bands are so holy that they can stand if they don't have certain members in it, even though the music would be good, but I don't really think like that. I just listen to the music, not the personnel behind it. That's all that matters to me."

Holopainen also addressed the fact that NIGHTWISH has no plans yet to tour in support of "Yesterwynde". The band previously explained that the reasons for the touring break were "personal" but unrelated to Jansen's then-pregnancy. (Jansen gave birth to her second child in October 2023.) Asked if it feels weird to be talking about an album that, for the first time, he won't be supporting on the road, Tuomas said: "No, it doesn't feel weird. It just feels right. But people shouldn't get worried. It's not the end of the band. We just signed a multi-record deal with Nuclear Blast, so there will be more music coming, definitely. But as far as shows, we're just gonna have a long breather now and see what happens. That's all I can say at the moment. We got our fair share in 2022 and 2023 when we did a lot of shows. So that helped."

"Yesterwynde" track listing:

01. Yesterwynde
02. An Ocean Of Strange Islands
03. The Antikythera Mechanism
04. The Day Of...
05. Perfume Of The Timeless
06. Sway
07. The Children Of 'Ata
08. Something Whispered Follow Me
09. Spider Silk
10. Hiraeth
11. The Weave
12. Lanternlight

In a press release, Holopainen stated about "Perfume Of The Timeless": "You are the result of an unbroken chain of millions of ancestors and their loves. 'Perfume Of The Timeless' reminds us all of this amazing fact. And if you're not amazed, listen to it again, because it's important."

In January, NIGHTWISH drummer Kai Hahto spoke about the band's upcoming follow-up to 2020's "Human. :II: Nature." album in an interview with Laureline Tilkin of Tuonela Magazine. He said: "At least it's not gonna be the same as 'Human. :II: Nature.', so… Probably, let's say that we go back to more heavy, heavier things on the new album, but also there's a lot of, again, new winds to blow, so to speak. So, different new elements. But, of course, it's still NIGHTWISH, but, of course, we brought back the big symphony orchestra again to the new upcoming tenth album. Yeah, it's gonna be exciting. And quite challenging music to play as well."

Earlier in January, Hahto told Chaoszine that "it look[ed] like" NIGHTWISH wouldn't play any shows in the next two or three years.

In December 2022, Holopainen said NIGHTWISH's upcoming follow-up to "Human. :II: Nature." would be the third part of a trilogy that began with 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" album. He told Metal Hammer: "I immediately knew after getting that album ['Endless Forms Most Beautiful'] done that, 'Okay, we have to do more songs about this, because there's so much more to explore and tell the world. We're not done with this.' And the same thing happened after 'Human. :II: Nature.'; we're still not done. So let's do one more. At least one more.

"In a way, [the next album] is the third part of a trilogy, which started with 'Endless Forms…' and then 'Human. :II: Nature.' There are some major surprises there again, but it feels like a natural continuation to 'Human. :II: Nature.'"

In September 2022, Tuomas was asked if NIGHTWISH's upcoming LP will once again be an exploration of evolutionary science, as was the case with the previous two releases. Tuomas said: "Yes and no. It sails on the same waters, but there's some new surprises there as well."

In August 2022, Tuomas told Rock Sverige that he spent "about a year" working on the music and lyrics for the next NIGHTWISH album.

Asked if he got any kind of inspiration from the pandemic, Tuomas said: "Yeah, lyrically there's a couple of things that reflects the pandemic, but not in the way you would expect."

"Human. :II: Nature." was released in April 2020. The follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" was a double album containing nine tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters, on CD 2.

In August 2022, NIGHTWISH announced the addition of Jukka Koskinen (WINTERSUN) as an official member of the band. Koskinen, who made his live debut with NIGHTWISH in May 2021 at the band's two interactive experiences, had spent the previous year touring with NIGHTWISH as a session musician.

In November 2022, Jansen revealed that she was "cancer free" after undergoing surgery to have a tumor removed following a breast cancer diagnosis.

Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe (courtesy of Nuclear Blast)

Emerging metallic hardcore outfit MANY EYES, fronted by ex-EVERY TIME I DIE vocalist Keith Buckley, will release its debut album, "The Light Age", on September 6 via Perseverance Media Group. In celebration, the newcomers are now unleashing the latest single, "Harbinger", along with a lyric video. Check it out below.

Buckley comments: "'Harbinger' feels like the end of the world is suddenly happening, so that's what the lyrics are about."

The cover artwork for "The Light Age" was directed and designed by Nick Steinhardt and Ryan Sanders for 23in.

"The Light Age" track listing:

01. Revelation
02. Future Proof
03. Mystic Cord
04. Third
05. Harbinger
06. Speechless
07. Servant
08. Amateurs
09. Enough
10. The Rainbow

MANY EYES has previously revealed a run of headlining performances in conjunction with their upcoming tour in support of SUM 41 as well as three very special album-release shows.

MANY EYES began in the winter of 2022 when Buckley connected with brothers Nick (producer/owner of Dexter's Lab Recording) and Charlie Bellmore (CORPSEGRINDER, TOXIC HOLOCAUST) through their mutual friend, Jamey Jasta, frontman for metal legends HATEBREED. "The Light Age" was written and recorded over a few weeks in both Buffalo, New York and Milford, Connecticut, where the members reside. Taking cues from the grunge rock and hardcore of the 1990s that was so influential to them growing up, the members of MANY EYES skillfully blend chaos with melody.

MANY EYES' live performances, including their tour with post-hardcore icons THURSDAY, have demonstrated their ability to deliver high-energy shows with precision and emotion. With Craig Vittorio now on guitar and Sean Vallie on bass, alongside Nick Bellmore's powerful drumming and Buckley's commanding vocals, the band remains focused on pushing forward and exploring new creative horizons.

As they embark on the next phase of their journey, MANY EYES remains committed to their core ethos — creating music that resonates deeply with listeners, blending raw power with melodic depth, and continually evolving as artists. The future looks bright as they continue to chart their path forward.

"This is an expression of who I am," Buckley proclaimed. "I'm letting the music do the talking. I really trusted my collaborators. I'm not interested in being known as a frontman. I just want to be another part of the band who uses his own instrument to complete the picture. that's what I'm doing with MANY EYES."

A long and winding road brought Buckley to MANY EYES. the Buffalo native has fronted metalcore stalwarts EVERY TIME I DIE as well as THE DAMNED THINGS (featuring Scott Ian of ANTHRAX and Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley of FALL OUT BOY),and lent his instantly recognizable vocals to everyone from KNOCKED LOOSE to SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY and SAY ANYTHING, played countless shows, and even penned two books.

In 2021, after fronting EVERY TIME I DIE for over two decades, he reached an impasse and needed to make a change. focusing on his mental health, he chose sobriety, spent a month in a recovery facility "to learn how to live soberly," and reorganized his priorities as a father and husband.

Ultimately, he gained new perspective all around.

"After the pandemic, I realized I had made a lot of really bad decisions in life, and I was reaping what I had sown," he admits. "There was no meaning anymore. So, I vowed to do things differently. I started getting sober. When you do, most of your relationships based on alcohol go away. My current wife and my daughter were my entire support system. During that time, i didn't think about music at all."

That's until Jasta reached out. He suggested Keith consider working with Charlie and Nick Bellmore. "It was wonderful to hear a friendly voice say, 'Hey, this could be good for you,'" he elaborated. "I just got in my car and drove to Connecticut. They showed me what they were working on, and the music was exactly what I wanted — while their trust and patience were exactly what I needed."

As it turns out, the three musicians bonded over a shared deep-seated appreciation for nineties hard rock and alternative, including SOUNDGARDEN, ALICE IN CHAINS, NIRVANA, PEARL JAM and JANE'S ADDICTION. Locking into a groove, they struck a delicate balance between pit-splitting intensity and arresting infectiousness with brothers Charlie playing guitar, Nick playing bass/drums and also producing the new music, while Jamey Jasta took on the role of executive producer.

"I was super excited to fully incorporate huge hooks into devastating mosh riffs," he grinned. "It's something I'd always wanted to do. For me, it's a complete release to express anger through big sweeping choruses."

The single "Revelation" introduces MANY EYES. From the jump, a guttural guitar riff underlines Buckley's vitriolic screams. Melody only enhances the drama on the catchy chorus, "Look me in the eyes again, look me in the eyes. I dare you."

"It's a very aggressive song, and it's confrontational lyrically," he reveals. "I was still at a point in my sobriety where I thought I had to speak bluntly in order to heal. Then, I found recovery was about a lot of acceptance. I wrote 'Revelation' before I went to this facility in Salt Lake City. While I was there, I did the 12 steps, and I was diagnosed with bipolar 1. I had unknowingly been living with that my whole life and self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. the message of 'Revelation' is, 'I can do this if I have love.' I don't need anything else. it's very punk rock."

"Future Proof" represents the other end of the spectrum. on the track, uneasy guitars toss and turn beneath the verses, and the refrain echoes with naked emotion.

"It was the first song back after recovery," he goes on. "I had found out what was wrong with me. Now, I'm fully prepared to deal with anything that happens in the future — any loss or any gain. nothing will shock me anymore, because of everything i already went through."

Out of the flames, Buckley's still standing, and he's ready to tell his story like never before.

"From all of these experiences, I've become wiser," he left off. "I'm the same person, but i have a better understanding of my own purpose now. I want to use these experiences to help people get out of situations where they feel helpless. I'm trying to show that hope and recovery are possible."

Recording Lineup:

Vocals - Keith Buckley
Drums/Bass Guitar and Additional Percussion - Nick Bellmore
Guitar/Bass/Keys - Charlie Bellmore

Live Lineup:

Vocals - Keith Buckley
Drums - Nick Bellmore
Bass - Sean Vallie
Guitar - Craig Vittori

Photo by @clay_patrick_mcbride

In a new interview with Spain's Mariskal Rock, drummer Mike Portnoy was asked to name one "difficult" thing about his return to DREAM THEATER last October after a 13-year-absence. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I wouldn't say difficult. It hasn't been difficult; it's been very smooth, and the guys have made me feel immediately back at home. I would just say that the thing that I needed to get used to was being the 'new guy,' being the new guy in a band that I helped form when I was a teenager. So it's a bit of a transition for me to go from being a bit of the leader, as I was back when I left the band, now I have to kind of find my way back into the chemistry and I need to respect the fact that they've been doing this for 13 years without me and they have maybe new ways of doing things, new ways of making decisions. So I wouldn't say it's been difficult, but I have had to be very respectful for my role as the new guy and finding my way back into the chemistry of the band."

This past June, Portnoy was asked by Brazil's Marcelo Vieira and Matheus Ribeiro if DREAM THEATER's upcoming sixteenth studio album picks up from where the last DT LP he played on, 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", left off or if it's a different thing entirely. He responded: "If I'm being honest, I think it picks up right where 'Black Clouds' left off, to be honest. There's a certain style that the five of us have when we write together. And if you listen to the album with this lineup from 1999, '[Metropolis Pt. 2:] Scenes From A Memory', through 2009's 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings', if you look at that string of five or six albums, that's the sound and style of these five people. So I think that's a good indication of what you can expect with the new DREAM THEATER album. It definitely sounds like classic DREAM THEATER."

DREAM THEATER's upcoming effort will mark the progressive metal legends' first LP since Portnoy's return to the group.

Portnoy co-founded DREAM THEATER in 1985 with guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung. Mike played on 10 DREAM THEATER albums over a 20-year period, from 1989's "When Dream And Day Unite" through 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", before exiting the group in 2010.

Mike Mangini joined DREAM THEATER in late 2010 through a widely publicized audition following the departure of Portnoy. Mangini beat out six other of the world's top drummers — Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy — for the gig, a three-day process that was filmed for a documentary-style reality show called "The Spirit Carries On".

This past April, DREAM THEATER announced the European leg of its "40th Anniversary Tour 2024 - 2025". The trek — presented as "An Evening With Dream Theater" — is the first outing since Portnoy's return.

The European leg of DREAM THEATER's "40th Anniversary Tour 2024 - 2025" consists of stops in 23 cities and kicks off on October 20 and runs through November 24.

In April, DREAM THEATER singer James LaBrie was asked by Rolling Stone magazine why he and his bandmates wanted Portnoy to return. He said: "I think we had to return the band back to its strongest form." Petrucci added: "It wasn't one singular thing; it was sort of a series of life events that caused an organic conclusion. We all talked about it. It was like, 'Yeah, this makes sense right now.'" Keyboardist Jordan Rudess chimed in: "There's so many factors involved, and each of us has our particular relationships. And it was just a moment when everything seemed to come together, and we went, 'You know what? Let's do this. Now's the time.'" Myung concurred, saying: "It was a collective moment of certainty."

Asked if he was surprised when he was invited back into the band, Portnoy said: "Before the Covid pandemic, if you had asked me or any of these guys, 'Was a reunion in the cards?' I probably would've said I doubted that it could happen. I think if the lockdown hadn't happened, you guys probably would've been on tour, and I would've been on tour with one of my 48 bands. But once we were all locked down, John asked me to play on his solo album. Then, from there, Jordan, John, and myself did the LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT album. And then I did John's tour. So there were just these series of events of reconnecting us — not only on a musical level but also on a personal level for many years prior to that.

"All of our families are friends," he continued. "And my daughter and John's daughter shared an apartment together for many, many years. And John Myung lives right down the block from me, and his wife's at my house every night. There was just a series of events both personally and musically that started to feel like, 'Well, maybe this really is in the cards. Maybe this is the right time.'"

Asked if they see this reunion as healing a fractured band, Portnoy said: "I don't want to be over-philosophical about it, but as we're all getting older. Here we are in our 50s and 60s. You start to think of the reality of, 'How much time do we have left?' I would hate it if this were to become a Roger Waters-PINK FLOYD or Peter Gabriel-with-GENESIS situation where the fans want it, but it never happens."

Petrucci added: "When Mike left the band, it was traumatic for all of us. We had to figure out how we were going to move our career forward. And those years that went by, they were also healing years because you don't just have something like that happen, and all of a sudden, you're all best buddies a week later. There's some trauma there that had to heal. Thirteen years was enough time for that to happen and be, like, 'Hey, you know what, man? We love each other like we're brothers.'"

Purveyors of their own genre-blurring sound "Thrash Grass", The Native Howl has breathed new life into Johnny Cash's brooding "God's Gonna Cut You Down" with their fresh reimagination of the song and accompanying music video (via Sumerian Records). Speaking about the track, the band commented:


"It was a privilege to honor Johnny Cash by following Frankie Nasso’s vision for this project. This song and video have a very different tone than anything in our repertoire thus far, and the writing/arrangement process was just as unique to us. We are grateful to Jay Ruston for helping us capture the studio magic of its’ assembly, and create a new Howl soundscape, of which we are very proud!”


Stream "God's Gonna Cut You Down" here and watch the music video below.










After winning Season 1 of the hit TV series No Cover and signing with Sumerian Records, The Native Howl released tracks "Can't Sleep", "Sons Of Destruction", and most recently, "Mercy" featuring the inimitable Lzzy Hale of Halestorm. 











Don't miss your chance to see The Native Howl's incendiary live show on the Age Of Entitlement Tour with the legendary GWAR, Brujeria, and Brat. Grab your tickets now at this location. Confirmed dates are as listed:


September 
12 - Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom
13 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's
14 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue
16 - Millvale, PA - Mr. Smalls Theatre
17 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
18 - Little Rock, AR - The Hall
20 - Fayetteville, AR - JJ's Live


The Native Howl is:


Alex Holycross - Guitar, Bouzouki, Lead Vocals
Jake Sawicki - Guitar, Banjo, Vocals
Mark Chandler - Bass, Vocals
Zach Bolling - Drums, Percussion


For further details, visit The Native Howl on Facebook.


(Photo credit: Bryan Beasley)


 


 

Panini America, the world's largest sports and entertainment collectibles company, announced a partnership with THE ROLLING STONES to produce the first fully licensed career spanning trading card set of the world's most legendary band.

Coming off the group's celebrated "Hackney Diamonds" 2024 North American tour, Panini will release Prizm The Rolling Stones. The card set will celebrate more than 60 years of THE STONES as a band and chronicle their music and record-setting tours. The Prizm brand will provide a broad canvas to celebrate THE STONES' inimitable style and iconic artwork.

"THE ROLLING STONES are an iconic brand, are integral to the history of music, and have millions of dedicated fans across the globe," said Mark Warsop, CEO of Panini America. "We are proud to be partnering with them and to share our products celebrating their legacy and so many of their memorable moments. We think that fans will be very excited."

The collection will be headlined by the case-hit Panini's Color Blast featuring frontman Mick Jagger, drummer Charlie Watts and guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood in front of a color burst tongue-and-lips logo. This will be featured in both the hobby and retail cases.

Bravado president Matt Young said of the partnership: "We're thrilled to be working with Panini on this career spanning collection that celebrates the history, success and continued global appeal of THE ROLLING STONES. Panini's focus on premium design and collectability make this a perfect partnership for ROLLING STONES fans all around the world and we can't wait for them to see what is planned."

Panini will also develop special die-cut cards including Albums that show off their discography married with Prizm's unique card styles. The die-cuts will also include Hot Lips (the band members in front of the signature tongue logo die-cut at the top),International Licks (more than 20 different Tongue and Lips featuring regional flags and colors) and Stubs (covering the gamut of tours thought the years.)

A second group of inserts will include The Original Stadium Show (covering the unique stage designs throughout the years),Behind the Scenes (backstage and in-studio),Singles (the cover art of their chart-topping hits) and Poster Perfection (original concert and tour documentary posters.)

The Prizm collection will also include a 100-card base set with more than 15 different color parallels.

Additional ROLLING STONES collections will be announced throughout the terms of this agreement.

Panini America is a subsidiary of The Panini Group, established over 60 years ago in Modena, Italy with subsidiaries throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States. Panini is the world leader in officially licensed collectibles and is the most significant publisher of collectibles in the U.S., with official licenses for NFL, NFLPA, NBA, NBPA, NASCAR, FIFA, LIV Golf, WWE, the Professional Fighters League, College, Disney and other key properties from many other licensors. Panini is also the exclusive trading card and sticker partner of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Elite 11 and Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc.

Panini has distribution channels in more than 150 countries and employs a staff of over 1,200.

For more information, visit www.paniniamerica.net.

When THE ROLLING STONES began playing gigs around London in 1962, the notion that a rock and roll band would last five years, let alone six decades, was an absurdity. Times and attitudes quickly changed, and THE ROLLING STONES took on the world and won. The band are among the most important reasons for the dramatic breakthroughs and transformations that have taken place in music over the last six decades. It is impossible to overestimate their importance in rock and roll history. Only a handful of musicians in any genre have achieved their stature. They exist in a pantheon of the most rarefied kind with recorded music sales of over 200 million, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

EXCLUSIVE: Panini America will release Prizm The Rolling Stones celebrating more than 60 years of the Stones as a band.

Posted by License Global on Monday, August 5, 2024

Jäst, the new modern rock act featuring former Grave Digger guitarist Axel Ritt, have released their new single, "Ten Years Plan".





With "Ten Years Plan", the band is sending out its third single. After the first two songs, "Heartlight" and "In The Thrill Of The Night", were very well received, the band now follow up impressively. The song was composed and produced by Axel Ritt, the lyrics are by Steven Wussow.




Axel Ritt says: The lyrics of the Jäst song 'Ten Years Plan', which was written by bassist Sreven Wussow, are about a man who has completely structured his life and then is shocked to discover that his "ten year plan" is not working. All of his plans with his job, family and career evaporate into thin air, leaving a broken man behind. Conclusion: "When people make plans, fate falls off their chairs laughing."


Singer Jessica is the narrator in the accompanying video, while guitarist Axel, bassist Steven and drummer Timmi slip into the role of the broken man.


Listen to "Ten Years Plan" here, and watch the video below:





But who is Jäst actually? Behind the powerful melodies and stirring vocals is a talented group of musicians: Axel Ritt, known for his work with Grave Digger and Domain, brings his baritone guitar skills, while Steven Wussow, bassist for Orden Ogan and Domain, with his distinctive bass playing the fabulous addition. Timmi Breideband, formerly of Bonfire and Freedom Call, provides the solid rhythmic basis on the drums. The heart of the four-piece band is the charismatic singer Jessica Conte, whose impressive rock voice gives Jäst's sound its own distinctive sound.








Jäst are:


Jessica Conte - Lead Vocals
Axel Ritt - Baritone Guitar
Steven Wussow - Bass
Timmi Breideband - Drums

SLIPKNOT kicked off the North American portion of the "Here Comes The Pain" tour Tuesday night (August 6) at the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. This year the nine are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their seminal debut album, "Slipknot", which catapulted the band back in 1999.

SLIPKNOT's 14-song set consisted of nothing but material from that LP, including two tracks which hadn't been performed in almost 25 years.

"Nothing you will hear tonight was written after 1999," SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor told the crowd at one point during the show, which opened with "(sic)", "Eyeless" and "Wait And Bleed", and included "No Life" and "Scissors", neither of which had been played live since 2000. Other rarely performed songs included "Get This" (played for the first time since 2019),"Me Inside" (first time since 2015) and "Only One" (2012).

As has been the case with all of SLIPKNOT's shows in 2024 so far, the band adopted a classic look, bringing back the 1999 red jumpsuits and elements of their early masks into their modern versions, tying into the fact that SLIPKNOT is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The setlist was as follows:

01. (sic)
02. Eyeless
03. Wait And Bleed
04. Get This (first time since 2019)
05. Eeyore
06. Me Inside (first time since 2015)
07. Liberate
08. Purity
09. Prosthetics
10. No Life (first time since 2000)
11. Only One (first time since 2012)

Encore:

12. Spit It Out
13. Surfacing
14. Scissors (first time since 2000)

Produced by Live Nation, the "Here Comes The Pain" tour's highlights include New York City's Madison Square Garden, Los Angeles' Intuit Dome, Austin's Moody Center and more with direct support from Kentucky's young and vibrant hardcore/metal forerunners KNOCKED LOOSE. ORBIT CULTURE and VENDED are confirmed as support on select dates.

There actually was a time when SLIPKNOT and the maggots (the loving name for their fans) did not completely rule the world. 25 years ago, the Des Moines band were just some guys trying to get their new LP noticed — a record that would start their metamorphosis into the most crucial band of the 21st century. That record would change rock as we know it, measuring success with a yardstick bigger than music, one for the influence on youth culture writ large. But these faceless demons from middle America would not only capture the hearts of the youth, they would help guide their tastes, and challenge them and their kin towards a new future.

Released on June 29, 1999, SLIPKNOT's self-titled debut was a smash hit with critics and an instant classic with fans. It was, and is, a molotov cocktail signaling a revolution — embracing a creative direction that eschewed metal traditions in favor of fresh ideas. While the jaw-clenching riffs coupled with Ross Robinson's venomous production were crucial to the album's success, it was the care and attention to detail in the songcraft that moved the needle from "great" to "benchmark." Not too shabby for a bunch of guys that only hoped to be heard.

"We loved what we did with the first record but we didn't even know if there was gonna be anything after that," recalls guitarist Jim Root. "We just wanted people to hear it. Selling out of records and shows, having successful tours– those are goals for any band. But the dream scenario in some ways, came true for us."

In the years following, SLIPKNOT's popularity nipped at the heels of elder statesmen and even the band's heroes, eventually navigating this brave new world with unending drive, fresh ideas and a bloodlust for odometer clicks. Tens of billions of streams and tens of millions of subscribers and followers later, the accolades tell the story: 64 award nominations and 27 wins including a Grammy for "Before I Forget" from "Vol. 3". A seemingly endless number of tour dates. Headlining slots at some of the biggest festivals in the world such as Download, Rock In Rio, Hellfest, Wacken and many more. Not to mention RIAA certifications by the truckload — 14 platinum certifications and 40 gold across more than 30 million in record and video sales.

In addition, SLIPKNOT positioned themselves for success with the creation of their own festival Knotfest in 2012, a traveling, multi-stage and experiential event that has appeared 28 times across several countries and locations. The festival has since spun off into a successful entertainment media hub — Knotfest.com, which became a juggernaut of its own making, giving a platform to young freethinkers and like-minded artists.

All of SLIPKNOT's achievements have helped them claim their rightful seat as pioneers and thought leaders, establishing them as a generational talent — loved by parents and their children alike. And, of course, with all those incredible live performances, all that influence, and all that history of playing all those incredible songs, SLIPKNOT has only attracted the most dedicated of fans, reaching all the way back to that fateful self-titled effort.

SLIPKNOT is approaching this 25th anniversary by making the conscious decision to connect to fans as closely as possible, in a similar way to how they encountered SLIPKNOT all those years ago.

"Every time I've walked on stage, it's never been about how many people have been there because my culture, the maggots, always show up," says founding member Shawn "Clown" Crahan with a smile. "But as we've grown as a band, we have had fewer and fewer of those intimate, personal moments, trading them for massive ones. So we're gonna make it more personal on the anniversary, but how remains to be seen. Just get ready to have your face kicked in. Because we just do what we do, spread that maggot culture – that disease. And you've been infected."