Sharon Osbourne has once again accused Bruce Dickinson of being "jealous" of Ozzy Osbourne.

The IRON MAIDEN singer was involved in a verbal battle with Ozzy's wife and manager nearly two decades ago when his band was pelted with eggs, lighters and ice during the final performance of its headlining performance on the 2005 Ozzfest tour.

Sharon reportedly ordered interference with MAIDEN's PA system, delayed the stage entrance of the band's mascot Eddie, and even encouraged the crowd to throw bottles at Dickinson because she took offense to remarks she said the singer made concerning the quality of the tour's sound system and criticisms he made about Ozzy. Among the comments she objected to was Dickinson telling fans during MAIDEN's set that they would never see his band featured "in a reality show," presumably a reference to the MTV series "The Osbournes" and "Battle For Ozzfest".

When Billboard recently interviewed Sharon and Ozzy as part of an "oral history" of Ozzfest, Sharon stated about her issues with MAIDEN: "It was just the singer. The other guys in the band are great, great people. No problem at all. But when you've got a singer that is so eaten up with jealousy for the headliner, it never goes well."

Ozzy said: "He would go on the stage and turn to the audience and say bad things. Be disrespectful. 'I didn't condone the fucking lights,' and all this. If you don't want the gig, just say, 'I don't want the gig.' But it's pretty fucking stupid if you accept the gig and all you do is complain about it."

Added Sharon: "I just kept saying, 'Let him do it. Let him do it. He'll get it.' And on the last day, he did."

During MAIDEN's final show of the tour, when audience members began hurling eggs and other debris at the stage, Dickinson addressed the crowd: "You may have noticed a few wise asses that decided they would go down to the supermarket and buy a few fucking eggs and start throwing them at us down in the front. I guess they thought it would be funny. Well, this is an English fucking flag and these colors do not fucking run from you asswipes."

Sharon told Billboard: "I had been having cancer treatments, and all the nurses that I had met over my year in chemo came to the show and they said, 'Can we do anything for you?' And I'm, like, 'Yes, you can.' I loaded them up with cans of bean soup, vegetables, eggs, and I said, 'Pelt the singer.' And that's what they did. It was, like, 'You wanna talk? You think you're clever? Well, watch this — you're gonna get covered in tomato soup in L.A."

Sharon added: "I just thought, 'You're taking the money to be on this tour, and you're disrespecting the namesake of the tour. You're disrespecting him by knocking him every night to the fans.' I don't like that. It's not in the spirit of what we do."

Ozzy chimed in: "If you feel that bad about the tour, fucking leave."

Back in November 2022, when Consequence interviewed Ozzy, the site asked the metal icon if he felt he was underrated as a singer, compared to other legendary vocalists like Dickinson, Rob Halford and the late Ronnie James Dio.

"Bruce Dickinson is a great singer, but as a person, I've worked with him, and he's not very nice," Ozzy said. "Ronnie James Dio is no longer alive. He was a great singer. I didn't really know him so well. I'm not one of these guys who says many things about people. The truth is the truth. I met Ronnie James Dio a couple of times. He took my [BLACK SABBATH] gig. But at the same time, I can't complain because I did great on my own."

Ozzy continued: "But I don't sing for a judge. I sing for my fans. If my fans don't buy my music, that would tell me my singing isn't any good anymore, but they're still buying my records. I'm my own worst critic. I don't rate myself more than Ronnie James Dio or Bruce Dickinson. That's not my gig. I don't care. I have fun doing what I do. My goal is to turn my fucking audience on. And that's what I try to do. I'm not interested if someone thinks I'm a fucking joke. That's fine. That's their opinion."

Sharon, who was interviewed for the same Consequence cover story, was far more scathing in her remarks, saying: "Bruce Dickinson is a fucking prick. Well, no, he's not a prick because a prick's nice. He's a fucking asshole. Because the situation is he was on a tour called Ozzfest. And Ozzy Osbourne was paying him every night to perform. He accepted the gig. He knew what he was doing. He accepted the gig. And every night he would go onstage and say bad things about Ozzy. And the crew and everybody in all the other bands would be like, 'Are you letting him get away with it?' And I'm like, 'I sure am.' But the last gig was [just outside of] L.A. And I thought, 'You motherfucker, now you're gonna get it.' And so I had about 20 people in the audience and a lot of them were nurses from Cedars Sinai, because I had cancer at that time. And they were all my chemo nurses. And they all came down, and they fucking pelted the shit out of him. And my thing is, you play, you pay! And the thing is, if you're being paid to do a gig, but you don't like the person, then fuck off. But don't stay, take the money, take all the good that's coming to your band through being on a festival, doing 24 shows and still slagging the person that's paying you. It's like, 'No, that makes you a fucking asshole.' And he is. And he's never apologized, he never even went up and said hello to Ozzy. The thing about him is that he is just so jealous. And always has been of Ozzy. And that's his problem."

Sharon continued: "Because the thing is about Bruce Dickinson, he's hugely successful. He's got a great fan base, a great fan base that have been loyal. The band are great guys. All the band are great. And they do great. You know, they're a great band, you can't take it away, and neither would I take that away from them. But the thing about Bruce is, he is unknown to the public. Bruce Dickinson could walk into anywhere and nobody would know who the fuck he is. Do you know what I'm saying? He's a faceless singer to the general public. People aren't scrambling to get him for an interview. And the thing is, he's not interesting. But the thing is, Ozzy is original and Bruce isn't and that's what eats Bruce away."

In a 2017 interview with NME, Dickinson downplayed the friction between him and the Osbournes, saying: "It's a complete storm in a teacup. I grew up listening to early SABBATH with Ozzy. Ozzy and SABBATH are icons so that's that, end of story. The fact that I don't like reality TV shows, well, I'm not gonna offer an olive branch to the Kardashians either," he added.

In a 2010 chat with The Quietus, Ozzy defended his wife over the Ozzfest incident, saying: "Unbeknown to me, every night [on the Ozzfest tour, Bruce] was going on stage slagging me off. And that wasn't fair. If he didn't like the fuckin' tour, he should have said, 'I'm jumping [off] the fuckin' tour,' but to go on stage and fuckin' slag me off for no reason… I'd never said a fuckin' bad thing to him. The bass player [Steve Harris] came round at the last gig and said, 'I'm sorry about Bruce,' and I'm like, 'What the fuck are you talking about?' Nobody had told me, you know. I said, 'You know what? I don't understand what the fuck you're talking about here.'

"And so, I mean, Sharon got pissed off… it was nothing to do with me. I suppose Sharon got pissed off. I'll back my wife up to the hilt, but I didn't know what was going down. But you know what? [MAIDEN were getting] a few fuckin' quid out of that Ozzfest. If you've got something to talk to me about, be a man. Come to my face and say, 'I think you're a fuckin' asshole.' Don't be a fuckin' idiot. It's so pathetically childish.

"Unfortunately, the rest of the band had to suffer: I suppose they were pissed off with him. But it's wrong: I've never, ever, ever spoken to the guy… No, I tell a lie, one night they were about to go on stage and I didn't know anything was going down, and I said to them, 'Have a good show, guys.' But I don't like all that shit going down. If you don't like me, just say 'I don't like you, I'm doing this festival but I think you're a cunt.' That's all right. But to go on my stage and start slagging me off — that ain't fair. They weren't fucking slagging me off when they got paid every fucking night."

He added: "To this day I don't understand what the fuckin' beef was. I just don't get it. To go on the Ozzfest and slag [people] off, that's crazy. I really think he needs a fuckin' psychiatrist if he does that, he's fucking nuts. It's an irresponsible fuckin' thing to do. Sharon must have got pissed off with this cunt, you know."

In a new interview with Chaotic Riffs, former TESLA drummer Troy Luccketta was asked if he has had a chance to meet the man that replaced him in the band, Steve Brown. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When it all went down, I went and got with Steve and put my blessing on it and we hung out. Yes, I know Steve — sweet guy, great player… He's doing a fantastic job, and the band still sounds great, and they're doing great, and I couldn't be happier for all of them. And, yeah, man, I give them my blessing on everything. I love the band. I'm a TESLA fan, man…

Asked if he has had a chance to see TESLA perform with Steve yet, Troy said: "No, I haven't caught up with the band yet. Not as of yet, but I'm very proud and very honored that I had the 36 years that I did with the band. And nothing but praise for everybody.

"That's a beautiful part about bands like TESLA and bands that have that legacy," he continued. "'Cause I was just out [playing] with THE GUESS WHO, and, really, when I was out there, there wasn't anybody [from the original band] there because I took Garry's [Peterson] place, the original drummer. And it's like FOREIGNER [which continues to tour without any original members]. But my point is it doesn't matter who's there. It really doesn't. When it comes down to it, people wanna hear the music. And that's it… We've learned — [JOURNEY can still pack arenas] with no Steve Perry. I think it would be hard to do AEROSMITH without Steven Tyler. But outside of that, it seems like it all works."

Luccketta concluded: "TESLA [has] got a beautiful catalog of music, and I'm proud of it, to be part of it."

This past May, Troy spoke to Jeff Gaudiosi of MisplacedStraws.com about his decision to leave TESLA nearly three years ago. He said: "First of all, the COVID thing happened, and that shut us down. That gave me time to take some time off and reflect and really think about where I was at in my life and re-evaluate it. And I couldn't be more grateful for the guys in the band, all those years. I love all of them, and it was a remarkable 30-plus years — 36 years, I think it was. And for me, there wasn't really much left for me to do there, quite honestly, other than tour and play and do the same shows and do everything that they're [currently doing], which is great. It's nice that that legacy has gotta go and continue to move, but it gave me an opportunity to step back."

Troy is currently a member of RIZZ & THE BELIEVERZ, which recently released its debut EP, "Everyday People", on Blessings & Love Records with distribution via Select-O-Hits. The EP is available on all digital outlets.

In September 2021, Luccketta announced that he would "take a little time from the road" to spend with family and friends. He has since been replaced at TESLA's gigs by Steve Brown, the younger brother of former DOKKEN drummer Mick Brown.

TESLA bassist Brian Wheat discussed his longtime bandmate's absence from the group's concerts during an April 2023 interview with Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of the Rock Interview Series. Asked if Troy is still a member of TESLA, Wheat said in part: "He's not touring [with us]. There'll be an official statement soon — very soon. But no. He's kind of doing his own thing, and we're kind of doing our own thing. And we're working out all that stuff.

"Listen, I love Troy Luccketta; he's my brother," Brian continued. "We all love Troy. It just came to a point where we just weren't on the same page anymore as to what we wanted to do. It's not like we had this big massive fight or anything. It's just you start out like this [holds two fingers close together] and then sometimes you go like this [holds two fingers wide apart]. And that gap just got too wide. And he said, 'Look, maybe it's better if I don't do this.' And we said, 'Okay. Maybe it is.' He's out, I think, playing with THE GUESS WHO or something… So he's out playing. So it's not like he retired. He's not playing in TESLA. And who knows? Maybe one day there'll be some reunion tour — [when we do] the last final lap… But that's not now. And who knows? Things always could change and whatever.

"So, to answer your question, Troy is not playing in TESLA," Wheat repeated. "Will he ever come back? Who knows? We'll see. Maybe one day [he will]. But right now we're sorting out all the shit that you've gotta sort out. And there's no bad blood."

In February 2023, Brian told Waste Some Time With Jason Green that Troy was "not coming back" to TESLA. "I don't think he's gonna come back," he said. "He wanted time off. People just do things like that. You start out like this [holds two fingers close together] and it just grows apart. I think that we've probably come to a point in our professional relationship that we've just grown too far apart on things.

"Look, I love Troy. He's my brother, just like [former TESLA guitarist] Tommy Skeoch is my brother. Will we play together again? I don't know. Probably one day, yeah. I mean, look, I'm the kind of guy that… And I know this is gonna funny to anyone, and I'll go ahead and say it… And I haven't even said this to Frankie [Hannon, guitar] and Jeff [Keith, vocals] or Dave [Rude, guitar] or anybody, but when there's one last lap around the track for this band, I think we owe it to our fans that everyone plays together. And I'm not saying Tommy without Dave; I'm saying Dave and Tommy. And Troy too, if he would be up for it. And go out with class and dignity and style, and say, 'Okay, listen. We've been through a few changes. We're gonna do 40 more shows,' or whatever that is. Not turn that into a five-year tour or anything. But I, as I sit here today… And that can change, Jason… And I'm sure Blabbermouth's gonna be all over this tomorrow and say, 'Brian Wheat wants to put the original band back together'. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying when there's one last lap left, and we all know there's one last lap, I'm the one guy that'll stand up in the room and say, 'I'd like us all to go through it all together.' If that means having two drummers and three guitar players and Jeff Keith, I'm in. Now, I can't speak for the rest of the band. This is me speaking. I'm that guy that would like to do that. So, Blabbermouth, if you're out there, don't fucking misquote me, because that's all you ever do."

Wheat didn't specify exactly how BLABBERMOUTH.NET "misquoted" him in the past, but he added that TESLA should eventually stage a final tour with all current and former members in order to make it special for the fans. "I think we owe it to 'em," Brian said. "They've been such a loyal and diehard fanbase, I think they would love the fact that we went out playing; if that's how we're gonna go out, that that's how we would do it."

Pressed about Troy's reasons for no longer playing with TESLA, Brian said: "I don't know. The bottom line is, we wanted to go out and he said he didn't. And after being off for — what was it? — 18 months with COVID, we had to go out. We couldn't just sit home. We're not independently wealthy guys, We make our living from playing concerts. We work. That's our job. We were never fortunate enough to have, like, a 'Hysteria' or a 'Pyromania' or an 'Appetite [For Destruction]' or 'Slippery When Wet' or the Black Album or 'Back In Black'. We quietly would sell a million, a million and a half records, and we've got this diehard fanbase, and every year we have to go out and earn our living. So we couldn't sit home. And that's where it came to the thing."

Wheat added: "[Troy] had his reasons [for leaving TESLA]. And I respect that. And we just decided we were gonna continue to go out and play."

Troy previously discussed his absence from TESLA's gigs during a September 2022 interview with Tulsa Music Stream. Asked if he was still taking a break from the band, he said at the time: "I am. I'm on a bit of a break. Personally, there's a lot of things going on in my life that I'm… This thing that we do doesn't cater to families. So at the time that this had gone down and COVID and everything, it just really gave me some time to step back and kind of look at things.

"I'd been running hard with the band for 36 years," he continued. "And I love the guys and I love the band. I'm a fan and always will be. I've got nothing but praise for them. They gave me a great life and I think we all share in that."

Luccketta was also full of praise for his replacement in TESLA, saying: "He's a great, great drummer, a great person, a great guy. And we're not best of friends or anything, but I've always known Steve over the years and I always knew he was the right choice. I had him pegged out years ago before I even had to make the phone call. So it's perfect. It's really great because, if you think about it, it's a win-win. And I think it's even a breath of fresh air probably for the guys right now. And it's like having a new girlfriend [laughs] for a minute."

As for his future with TESLA, Troy said: "Will we ever play again together? I don't know if that will ever happen or not. I don't know what we will do moving down the road. But right now Steve is the drummer and it's his gig. And I'm happy for everybody. And I'm happy for me."

In an August 2022 interview with Canada's The Metal Voice , Hannon was non-commital about Troy's return to TESLA, saying: "We're just allowing the time for things to work themselves out. He's got things that he's dealing with.

"Touring is not an easy life, man," he explained. "It's a very difficult thing being out there on a bus, with everybody crammed in that tight situation. And when you've got stuff going on at home, those things need to be taken care of. But hey, man, he's a long-standing member of the band.

"We'll work it out," Frank added. "Time will work things out. He's a brother, and, like I said, time will work things out. The founding members of the band are together and Steve Brown is playing drums for us at the moment and really doing a great job. And we're just happy to be able to keep on working."

Hannon went on to praise Steve's contributions to TESLA, saying: "Steve is not only 'Wild' Mick's little brother but he's also a member of our local community here in Sacramento. We've known him since he was a little guy. He used to come watch us play when he was a teenager. And he has done other shows for us in the past, filling in for Troy. So he's a member of our family as well."

When Luccketta first shared the news of his decision to stay off the road, he wrote: "I am happy and well, and couldn't be more grateful to my bandmates for this opportunity. I am also looking forward to some musical ventures closer to home. In my absence please show some love to Steve Brown. Steve is a dear friend, and great drummer! He has played with OLEANDER, Ronnie Montrose just to name a few. He is one of Sacramento's finest, The perfect choice so to speak!"

BODY COUNT, the metal band fronted by hip-hop legend, actor and director Ice-T, has released a new song called "Fuck What You Heard". The track is taken from BODY COUNT's upcoming album, "Merciless", which is tentatively due this summer via Century Media Records.

BODY COUNT recently released the official music video for "Psychopath", its first new single since 2020's "Bum-Rush", which won a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance". The new track, which features FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY vocalist Joe Badolato, shows Ice-T and crew on maximum killing overdrive and primed for the next chapter of the legendary Los Angeles-based band's 35-plus-year career. Longtime collaborator Will Putney (KNOCKED LOOSE, THE GHOST INSIDE) produced the song, which was released via Century Media Records.

Directed by Jay Scorsese, the "Psychopath" video pulls inspiration from fictional and real-life horrors, with references spanning from Jason Voorhees to Ted Bundy.

"Merciless" is the follow-up to "Carnivore", which was released to critical acclaim in March 2020, just a week before COVID shut the entire world down.

BODY COUNT's European "Merciless" tour kicked off on June 5 at Mystic festival in Poland and will bring the band to some of the world's biggest festivals and venues, across more than a dozen countries. After returning to the States, they will perform at Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky and Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California.

For BODY COUNT, it's been a history of being both respected and feared — a barbed-wire thread that stretches back to the band's origins as a project between Ice-T and Crenshaw High friend Ernie C. Their first shot fired, the song "Body Count", was a mission statement on Ice-T's 1991 "O.G. - Original Gangster". That's the blueprint they've been running on for more than 35 years.

They touched a nerve with their first, self-titled 1991 album and its divisive track "Cop Killer", which inspired hatred, fear, and paranoia, but also inspired generations of bands to follow. What they took from growing up with BLACK SABBATH and being inspired by fellow L.A. legends like SLAYER and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES has only upped the ante for generations of homies and hardcore fans.

BODY COUNT's current line-up includes surviving O.G.s Ice-T, Ernie C. and Sean E. Sean joined by bassist Vincent Price, drummer Will "Ill Will" Dorsey, Juan "Juan Of The Dead" Garcia and backing vocalist Little Ice.

"Carnivore" continued the path of its uncompromising and critically acclaimed predecessors, "Bloodlust" and "Manslaugther", in pairing Ice-T's impassioned and socio-critical lyrics with thick guitar riffs and nods to metal and hardcore greats like SLAYER, METALLICA, PANTERA, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. Guest musicians on the LP included Amy Lee (EVANESCENCE),Dave Lombardo (ex-SLAYER),Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED) and Riley Gale (POWER TRIP).

BODY COUNT was honored with a Grammy in the "Best Metal Performance" category in the pre-telecast ceremony at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, which was held in March 2021 in Los Angeles. BODY COUNT was nominated for "Bum-Rush", a track from "Carnivore".

NIRVANA bassist Krist Novoselic joined the FOO FIGHTERS/NIRVANA tribute band FOOVANA on stage last night (Thursday, July 18) at Georgie's Garage in Vancouver, Washington to perform three NIRVANA classics: "Blew", "Lithium" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Novoselic reportedly said that the appearance marked his first time playing "Blew" live in three decades. Fan-filmed video can be seen below.

Novoselic is widely recognized as the bassist and co-founder of the influential rock band NIRVANA. He has pursued his musical endeavors with projects such as 3RD SECRET and GIANTS IN THE TREES. Renowned for his pioneering style and lasting impact on rock music, Novoselic continues to be a significant presence in the industry.

Krist recently launched an electrifying musical project called the BONAFIDE BAND. This ensemble features a stellar lineup, including his longtime friend and former collaborator Mark Pickerel (SCREAMING TREES, TRULY, BRANDI CARLILE),the versatile Kathy Moore (BRAD, STAR ANNA),and the two talented vocalists from 3RD SECRET, Jillian Weiss and Jennifer Johnson.

The exciting project began in April 2024 with an impromptu jam session between Novoselic and Pickerel. The duo quickly realized their chemistry and started thinking about a side project to keep Jillian and Jennifer engaged musically while their drummer, Matt Cameron, was on tour with PEARL JAM. Pickerel suggested Kathy Moore, a highly respected figure in the Seattle music scene known for her collaborations with Mike McCready of PEARL JAM, THUNDERPUSSY, SATCHEL and SMOKEY BRIGHTS, for the guitarist role. The lineup was finalized, and the band started working on creating a unique setlist. Novoselic and Pickerel decided to honor their musical roots with fresh interpretations of iconic tracks from NIRVANA and SCREAMING TREES. Initial rehearsals have sparked immense creativity and excitement, providing a glimpse of the promising musical journey ahead.

"We're exploring new territory while honoring the sounds that defined us," said Novoselic. "This collaboration is about pushing boundaries and celebrating our shared history."

Get down here to Georgie's Garage and Grill! Shows about to start! Oh yeah that’s right… Somebody else is here!!!

Posted by FooVana on Thursday, July 18, 2024

Posted by Georgie's Garage and Grill on Monday, July 15, 2024

FLAT BLACK, the band formed by ex-FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH guitarist Jason Hook, has released the official music video for "A Bit Of Lightning". The track is taken from FLAT BLACK's debut album, "Dark Side Of The Brain", which arrives today (Friday, July 19) via Fearless Records. The LP was produced by Hook and Chris Collier (KORN),and recorded at both Hook's home studio and The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hook is stoked to finally share "Dark Side Of The Brain" with fans, who have been patiently waiting for even more new songs! "Well, we're finally here," he states, with a laugh. "No more people hounding me about when the album will be available. I'm so excited to share these songs with the public. 'Dark Side Of The Brain' is personal; every lyric came from a real place."

The album artwork is also personal, as Hook designed it himself.

"Dark Side Of The Brain" track listing:

01. It's OK To Be Angry
02. Justice Will Be Done
03. Sideways
04. A Bit Of Lightning
05. Unwanted
06. Home
07. Halo
08. It's Your Lack Of Respect
09. Nothing To Some (feat. Corey Taylor)
10. Dark Side Of The Brain
11. Villain
12. Youth N Eyes
13. Tidal Wave
14. Let It Go

Regarding how he ended up collaborating with Corey Taylor on "Nothing To Some", Hook told Ronni Hunter of the 99.7 The Blitz radio station: "I developed a friendship with Corey in 2020. He hit me up, actually. I was working in Los Angeles with his producer, and I think the producer said, 'I've got Jason Hook here. We're working on some material.' He said, 'Oh, give me his number.' And so all of a sudden we're texting back and forth. And we hit it off right away. He's just a fucking fantastic guy. Maybe he doesn't want anyone to know that, but he's actually a sweetheart. [Laughs] He's a really sweet dude. And he was, like, 'Look, if you're trying to build something and you don't have anyone to work with, I'll write with you. So it was just perfect for the time and the emotions I was going through at the time. He really helped bolster my spirit, like, 'Yes, let's do something.' And we ended up doing five songs together. Four will probably never get heard, but we used 'Nothing To Some' on the record."

Hook is joined in FLAT BLACK by singer Wes Horton, bassist Nick Diltz and drummer Rob Pierce.

In an interview with Jake Daniels of the Rock 100.5 The KATT radio station, Hook stated about how FLAT BLACK came together: "Well, I was pretty hell-bent on starting a new band. Music's in my blood. It's a part of my DNA, and I just knew that… I didn't really care how long it took. It just had to be potent. And so, one [musician] at a time… I found Rob first, and he's awesome. And then, of course, Nick; he's from Los Angeles. All my guys are just stellar players. And I wanted to have a good pack of songs. And so here we are."

Regarding the importance of getting along with his bandmates on a personal level, Hook said: "Well, it was a bit of a prerequisite to find guys that were mentally stable and free of drama and that we could hang. It's all about the hang. When you're on tour, you're stuck in this submarine, this rolling submarine, for 18 months. It's important that everyone is compatible. The personalities, I wanted to be very specific about that this time around… We're getting along great."

Having left his prior band in February 2020, which was right before COVID-19 put the entire world on pause, Hook wanted to assume creative control and let his musical free spirit soar in a project that was truly his. He opted to gamble on himself. With great risk comes great reward and the decision to form FLAT BLACK clearly worked out in his favor.

"As a musician, I crave freedom and I wasn't ready to stop creating," Hook shared.

"Life is short," he continued. "We all want to feel satisfied and happy with what we are trying to accomplish in life."

The pandemic shutdown allowed him the opportunity to assemble the right musicians and carefully craft their debut album. FLAT BLACK is armed with an arsenal of riffs that'll rattle your teeth loose from your gums, stadium-sized hooks, arena-ready anthems, and choruses that are guaranteed to touch a nerve. All of those factors combined make FLAT BLACK poised for success.

The origin stories of the rest of the players are indicative of a lifelong love of music and plenty of road-worn experience. The desire to play courses through their veins and propels them forward, which is why they all meshed so well with Hook.

Horton was introduced to music at age 13, thanks to his sister and Guitar Hero. He honed his vocal chops by playing in local bands and making online videos. Various music industry friends and acquaintances would become the connective tissue between himself and Hook. Horton knew he wanted to be a frontman, and FLAT BLACK afforded him that opportunity. Wes loves the fact that his bandmates prioritize songcraft — and that allows him to be the singer he has always wanted to be.

Diltz, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, is the son of a legendary rock music photographer who brought him to concerts during his formative years. He recalls being inspired by watching a VHS video of U2 performing at legendary venue Red Rocks. Seeing fans clamoring for a piece of Bono in the footage is a vision that never left his head. This first exposure to the power of a true rock icon solidified Nick's destiny as a live performer.

Pierce hails from Nashville, a.k.a. Music City. His dad was a race car driver and his grandfather was a pastor. He grew up racing go karts and at first, wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps until he joined the fourth-grade band and was bitten by the music bug. He chose the snare drum over the saxophone and from that moment on, music was the only thing that mattered. Rob got his first drum kit at age 11, which he set up in his dad's car shop. He learned to play his instrument next to 1,000 horsepower engines, which influences his highly energetic style to this day.

FLAT BLACK made its live debut on August 24, 2023 at the FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine, California as the support act for GODSMACK.

FLAT BLACK is:

Jason Hook - Guitar
Wes Horton - Vocals
Rob Pierce - Drums
Nicholas Diltz - Bass

In October 2020, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH confirmed that it had officially parted ways with Hook eight months earlier during the band's sold-out European arena tour. He has since been replaced by renowned British virtuoso Andy James, who made his recording debut with FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH on "Broken World", a song that was included on the second installment of the group's greatest-hits collection, "A Decade Of Destruction - Volume 2".

After his recovery from emergency gallbladder surgery at the end of 2019, Hook had to leave midway from FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's tour of Europe to address further complications.

Jason, who joined FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH in 2009, said about his exit from the band: "As for the reason I'm leaving… well, there really isn't just one. I've been in bands my entire life and I feel like I've done all the good that I can here. It's time to pass the baton and move on to new challenges."

In a new interview with Scott Itter of Dr. Music, Steve "Skinny" Felton, drummer and founder of Cleveland theatrical art-metal ensemble MUSHROOMHEAD, was asked if he and his bandmates would ever consider performing without their trademark masks. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, the thought has definitely crossed the mind many times over the years. But if we were to do something like that, that's what side projects are for and that's what releasing something that MUSHROOMHEAD doesn't have for you.

"Sometimes [when MUSHROOMHEAD is performing] it's overwhelmingly hot, and your peripheral vision in a dark club, man — you can't see anything," he admitted. "To kind of find your footing, especially guitar players or singers, to find their footing, they just kind of stay planted for a little while sometimes because, like I said, with the lights, it's very hard to see and breathe. The communication is tough. We have a lot of hand signals because there's no lip reading. 'Wear a mask,' they said. 'It'll be fun,' they said. I say it all the time: 'Whose idea was this?'

"But I'm glad we do it," Felton insisted. "It keeps us entertained. And I'll tell you what — when you put a mask on and you get out there and you start performing, you definitely do take on a little bit of a different character and you just feel slightly different in the mask. It's a little more free and open, and you're not really worried about if you're making direct eye contact or if you're smiling right or you look cool. It's like you're in a whole another world as soon as you put it on. So it definitely helps the energy level when you're up there. But it also drains it, because by the end of the song, when it's Arizona at 104 degrees [Fahrenheit] at one in the afternoon, you're, like, 'What the hell?'"

MUSHROOMHEAD's ninth album, "Call The Devil", will be released on August 9 via Napalm Records.

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 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).

Last year, Skinny told Cleveland.com about MUSHROOMHEAD's longevity: "All I can say is that we have been very blessed to be able to do this. Whether it's 10, 20, 30 years — pretty much any time at all — anyone who gets to do this for any length of time knows how blessed and lucky and fortunate they are and to really soak in that.

"If there's a secret, it's to wake up every day with the goal of figuring out how to make your band, brand or artwork a little more accessible," Felton said. "To have an opportunity to create art with multiple people — to have their attention, time and creativity for a while — while chasing that creative element, staying inspired, believing in yourself and being true to your art is what does it, from my point of view."

Photo credit: SK1

In a new interview with Deadline, director Rob Reiner has shared an update on his progress on the sequel to the iconic mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap". He said: "It's going good. Our first screening for our family and friends will be probably in August, and then sometime in September we'll start showing it to distributors, and we're hoping to have it out sometime late spring or early summer of next year."

Deadline previously reported that METALLICA's Lars Ulrich and RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS' Chad Smith will make cameos the "This Is Spinal Tap" sequel. Reiner has returned to direct and write, and original stars/writers Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer are reprising their roles as Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins and Derek Smalls, respectively. Reiner will also return as the documentarian Martin "Marty" DiBergi.

"We got everybody together and we added a couple of surprise guests," Reiner said. "We have Paul McCartney and Elton John and Garth Brooks. It's fun."

The "Spinal Tap" sequel will also see the return of Fran Drescher, who will reprise her role as the band's publicist, Bobbi Flekman, from the original 1984 movie. The film will also feature newcomers John Michael Higgins, Jason Acuña, Don Lake, Nina Conti, Griffin Matthews, Kerry Godliman, Chris Addison, Brad Williams and musician Paul Shaffer.

"Spinal Tap II" filmed in New Orleans starting March 6 and continuing through April 12, according to the city's film office. It was shooting under the working title "Goodbye, Cleveland" — a reference to a scene in the 1984 original film in which its bungling band members get lost backstage at a concert.

Check out pictures from the New Orleans set at Axios.com.

"I recently spoke to Marty DiBergi who said that he was more than happy to take a sabbatical from his position as a visiting Professor's Assistant at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts to once again document SPINAL TAP to ensure their place in the pantheon of Rock and Roll," Reiner said in a statement.

In 2022, Reiner told Deadline about the decision to release a new "Spinal Tap" movie: "For so many years, we said, 'nah.' It wasn't until we came up with the right idea how to do this. You don't want to just do it, to do it. You want to honor the first one and push it a little further with the story."

As for the new movie's premise, Reiner said: "They've played Albert Hall, played Wembley Stadium, all over the country and in Europe. They haven't spent any time together recently. The idea was that Ian Faith, who was their manager, he passed away. In reality, Tony Hendra passed away. Ian's widow inherited a contract that said SPINAL TAP owed them one more concert. She was basically going to sue them if they didn't. All these years and a lot of bad blood we'll get into and they're thrown back together and forced to deal with each other and play this concert."

Regarding his role in the upcoming film, Reiner said: "I'm back playing Marty DiBergi. The band was upset with the first film. They thought I did a hatchet job and this is a chance to redeem myself. I am such a big fan and I felt bad they didn't like what they saw in the first film. When I heard they might get back together, I was a visiting adjunct teacher's helper at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts. I drop everything to document this final concert."

"This Is Spinal Tap" has become a cult classic since its first theatrical run 39 years ago. The film was produced independently on a shoestring budget of $2.25 million by a company owned by the four creators, Reiner, Guest, McKean and Shearer. Two years in production, the film was released in 1984. It soon became a cult favorite and spawned a genre that has come to be known as "mockumentary," inspiring many subsequent filmmakers. Phrases from the film's script have entered the general lexicon, including "none more black" and "it goes to 11," the latter phrase exemplified by the Tesla car, whose audio system's volume control goes to 11, as does that on the BBC's iPlayer.

Its reputation as one of the 20th Century's most enduring comedies has increased exponentially in the ensuing years. The film has garnered international praise and acclaim, having been included in "best ever" lists such as The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made; Total Film's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time list; Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time where it appeared on the "Just Too Beloved to Ignore" list; and achieving the coveted No. 1 spot on Time Out London's 100 Best Comedy Movies list.

In 2002, the film's lasting appeal led the U.S. Library of Congress (the world's largest cultural collection),to designate it as a culturally, historically or aesthetically significant film.

Although "This Is Spinal Tap" was first released in 1984 in the U.S. and U.K., the band SPINAL TAP was actually created in the late 1970s. The band's rock musician characters "Nigel Tufnel" and "David St. Hubbins" were created by Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, with Harry Shearer creating bassist "Derek Smalls." SPINAL TAP's comedic sole claim to fame was as "one of England's loudest bands." Performing as their beloved stage personae in the company of a rotating cast of percussionists willing to risk the kit (as so many of their predecessors have been accident prone),SPINAL TAP has toured the world multiple times since the film's release. Hundreds of thousands of SPINAL TAP sound recordings have been sold over the ensuing decades and the film has been released on scores of video formats through the years.

In 2019, the band's creators concluded a new agreement with Universal Music Group. The band's recording of a full-length SPINAL TAP album featuring songs from the film is still available for physical sale, download and streaming today from UMG.

"This Is Spinal Tap" was released to little fanfare with some viewers convinced the bumbling dinosaurs — who had a knack of losing drummers in freak accidents — on screen were a genuine band. But word of mouth about the smartly observed film, which took a pop at bands such as STATUS QUO, LED ZEPPELIN and BLACK SABBATH, spread and it became a sleeper hit.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, McKean, Guest and Shearer prepared several scenes with Reiner but then ad-libbed. At the end of filming, they had more than 40 hours of footage, which was edited down to a more manageable form.

When "This Is Spinal Tap" was released, not everybody got that it was a "mockumentary." U2's The Edge immediately embraced it, saying: "I didn't laugh, I wept. It was so close to the truth." Ozzy Osbourne didn't understand it, saying the first time he watched it, he thought it was a real documentary. Early home video versions of the movie reportedly even had a disclaimer at the start and finish of the movie stating the band didn't really exist.

Well, despite not being official background, did my best to get in the Cafe de Monde scene of Spinal Tap 2 in New...

Posted by Stephen Conn on Thursday, April 4, 2024

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NEW PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT!

GOODBYE CLEVELAND will be shooting in the New Orleans area starting March 6th until the end...

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Rock vocalist Miljenko Matijevic, best known as the frontman of renowned band STEELHEART, makes a powerful big-screen debut in Mick Davis's new heartwarming dramedy "Trust In Love". The film, which has already garnered 30 awards at festivals worldwide, will premiere in select theaters in early August before its VOD (video on demand) debut. Matijevic is also working on new music with an unexpected, exciting ally.

Directed by Davis, known for "Modigliani" and "Walden", the film also stars a remarkable ensemble cast, including Matijevic, Natasha Wilson ("Once Upon A Time", "Commander In Chief", "Huff"),Sydney Bullock ("Stranger Things", "Dynasty", "Goosebumps"),Robby Krieger (THE DOORS),Eric Roberts ("The Dark Knight", "The Expendables", "Entourage") and Jimi Petulla ("The Fall Of America And The Western World", "Reversal", "All The Kings Men"). Cities with screenings of the film being set up include Los Angeles, California; Orlando and Ft Lauderdale, Florida; Tempe and Sedona, Arizona and Minneapolis, Minnesota, among others. The film will be digitally released on all major VOD platforms on August 13.

Diving deep into the heart of resilience and love, "Trust In Love" — based on a true story — promises to move and inspire viewers. Mickey Ferrara (Jimi Petulla) teeters at life's crossroads: his record-producing career for a once huge band, fronted by Emerson (played by Matijevic),is going down the tubes. His estranged wife wants a divorce, and his son is struggling with his sexuality. Although plunged into adversity, Mickey is above all else a warrior, poised to make a valiant stand, get in the trenches, and "trust in love" to try to keep his family together and maybe — just maybe — make one more good record.

The film was named after STEELHEART's epic track that has been translated into five languages and has become a symbol of peace around the world.

"The original title for the movie was going to be 'Split'," says Jimi Petulla. "When we were going over songs with Mili for the movie and myself and the director heard 'Trust In Love', we couldn't believe it. It was BEYOND perfect. Then seeing Mili's music video for the song I felt like it was an anthem for peace and love. Not only did we feel it was the perfect song it ended up being the perfect title for the movie 'Trust In Love'. It really brings the family together at the end of the movie. Thank you, Mili!"

Written and produced by Petulla, the film won the best international feature film award at the Vancouver International Film Awards and best narrative feature at the Studio City Film Festival. It also won best feature film, best cinematography of feature film, best actor and best supporting actor at the Los Angeles Cinematography Awards and best feature film at the Amsterdam World International Film Festival, among other accolades.

In addition to his new film credits, Matijevic is also poised to make waves yet again in the music industry with brand-new material slated for release in late 2024. Collaborating with former IN FLAMES and current THE HALO EFFECT guitarist Niclas Engelin, the new material is a break from his past fare. It is a darker, heavier rock sound that promises to be a sonic treat for rock fans worldwide.

Matijevic will be hitting the road with STEELHEART on their 2024 tour.

Following their August dates in Jakarta, Indonesia, STEELHEART will perform at:

Sep. 06 - Hinkley, MN @ Rocktember Music Festival, Grand Casino Amphitheater
Sep. 13 - Murphys, CA @ Ironstone Amphitheatre
Sep. 21 - Sault Ste. Marie, MI @ Kewadin Casino - DreamMakers Theater
Oct. 05 - Umatilla, OR @ Rock the Lock Music Festival
Nov. 23 - Jim Thorpe, PA @ Penn's Peak
Nov. 24 - Warrendale, PA @ Jergel's Rhythm Grille

SMASHING PUMPKINS have announced their new album "Aghori Mhori Mei", out August 2. The announcement comes amidst the band's highly successful international tour, which just wrapped its 20-plus-date European leg and will begin its North American run of shows later this month. Fans can also purchase a deluxe version which includes limited-edition autograph versions of "Aghori Mhori Mei" from Madame Zuzu's.

SMASHING PUMPKINS' thirteenth collection to date, "Aghori Mhori Mei" continues the prolific hot streak frontman Billy Corgan kicked off a decade ago. Just last year, the band released the third and final act of their sprawling and adventurous rock opera "Atum", a sequel to 1995's "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" and 2000's "Machina/The Machines Of God". While some artists might take a breather after an acclaimed and ambitious triple album, Corgan went straight back into the studio to write, produce, and record this new 10-track body of work. As vital and vibrant a songwriter as ever, Corgan had quickly promised a 2024 follow-up on the horizon, which serves as the latest twist in Corgan's careful commitment to how his art is presented. The band completed the recording of "Aghori Mhori Mei" amidst an expansive touring schedule across the last few years.

"In the writing of this new album I became intrigued with the well-worn axiom, 'you can't go home again'," Corgan remarks. "Which I have found personally to be true in form but thought well, what if we tried anyway? Not so much in looking backwards with sentimentality but rather as a means to move forward; to see if in the balance of success and failure that our ways of making music circa 1990-1996 would still inspire something revelatory."

"Aghori Mhori Mei" track listing:

01. Edin
02. Pentagrams
03. Sighommi
04. Pentecost
05. War Dreams Of Itself
06. Who Goes There
07. 999
08. Goeth The Fall
09. Sicarus
10. Murnau

Earlier this week, the band announced a multi-city Latin American fall tour, which will see the band play to their fans across South and Latin America for the first time in nearly a decade. In addition to a combination of recent arena and headline festival dates this summer in Europe and upcoming North American stadium performances with GREEN DAY, as part of "The Saviors Tour", the band recently added solo arena bookings across the country spanning July through September. Plus, they will close out Osheaga Festival as one of the headlining acts in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on August 3.

The band's 23-date European run of shows concluded with a stellar headlining performance in Greece, with previous stops across Europe, with stops in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and more. With their busiest touring schedule and some of their biggest performances in over a decade, the band's run of shows across the pond have packed in venues night after night, set the tone for the remainder of their year on the road, and garnered significant praise from Consequence, Rolling Stone Germany and Louder, who claimed "Corgan's invitation to go for a ride is still as thrilling as it was 30 years ago," and sees the band playing a mix of their greatest hits, deep cuts, new tracks, and dynamic covers with hints of new musical style brought in by the band's new touring guitarist Kiki Wong.

SMASHING PUMPKINS' jam-packed 2024 follows years where they have balanced their time furiously at work in the studio and crisscrossing the globe. Before hitting Europe this summer, the PUMPKINS had spent 2022 on the "Spirits On Fire" tour with JANE'S ADDICTION and 2023 on their very own "The World Is A Vampire" run. Of those earlier tours, NME raved "it's indisputable that the band are responsible for many of the '90s' best rock songs, and this is as good as you're going to hear them. "SMASHING PUMPKINS proved they are still one of America's most interesting — sometimes befuddling, but never boring — musical groups." Miami New Times attested, "The band took the audience back in time to when alternative music was the mainstream, and the idea of browsing on your phone during a fantastic concert was bad sci-fi satire."

Photo credit: Jason Renaud

American metalcore stalwarts ATREYU make a passionate return to the hearts of fans everywhere with "The Pronoia Sessions" — a new collection of eight reimagined greatest hits and two nostalgic tribute covers — due out this fall on Spinefarm. The digital release will begin streaming on October 25 while vinyl and CDs will hit streets on November 8.

The band shared this about the upcoming release: "This album, to us, was something that initially came from the fans. During COVID, we started toying around with doing acoustic performances for the first time in our career. Since the release of 'Gone (Reimagined)', the outpouring of love and interest from our fans was overwhelming. It got us thinking...what if we didn't just make some of our classics acoustic, what if we took them to a whole new place? We feel with this album we have carved out a new home for these songs to stand on their own. They are new entities in our musical landscape.

"Making this album brought us such a sense of joy and creativity. It was as if the universe handed us this moment and it was meant to happen…hence, 'The Pronoia Sessions'."

Today, in perfect timing with what would have been Chris Cornell's 60th birthday on July 20, the band shares the album news alongside its first single, an emotional rendering of AUDIOSLAVE's "Like A Stone".

Commenting on the track, ATREYU had this to say: "The covers on this album presented us with the opportunity to take some of our favorites and make them our own. The album has an overarching, somber feel. We wanted songs that would stay in that realm. 'Like A Stone' is one of the most iconic rock songs of our time. Chris Cornell's vocal is a treasure. We hope to have done right by his legacy."

ATREYU is a band with a legacy seamlessly intertwined with formative experiences for a diverse legion of listeners worldwide. 'The Pronoia Sessions' deconstructs, recreates, and reshapes the Orange County, California, band's beloved anthems (and cover songs) as a haunting and hypnotic new collection. What began as an acoustic album evolved into a grand re-imagining of ATREYU classics.

The genesis stretches back to a series of acoustic performances at special events on the road. "We had the idea to do a show similar to NIRVANA's MTV 'Unplugged' as a one-off thing," explains frontman Brandon Saller. "Then we thought, 'Why not spend some time on it in the studio?' And it built from there. 'How far can we push this?' It spawned from there and unexpectedly turned into this monster."

"The Pronoia Sessions" track listing:

01. Becoming The Bull (reimagined)
02. Save Us (reimagined)
03. Ex's & Oh's (reimagined)
04. Right Side Of The Bed (reimagined)
05. Like A Stone (AUDIOSLAVE Cover)
06. Drowning (reimagined)
07. The Theft (reimagined)
08. Gone (reimagined)
09. Warrior (reimagined)
10. Mary Jane's Last Dance (Tom Petty cover)

ATREYU's riffs, hooks, melodies, lyrics, and passion are essential parts of a vibrant subculture's emergence across theaters, clubs, festivals, radio, and playlists. The artistic fearlessness powering landmark albums like "The Curse" and "Lead Sails Paper Anchor" is even stronger in 2024. "Becoming The Bull", one of the two gold singles released in 2007, takes on new life on "The Pronoia Sessions".

The songs reimagined on "The Pronoia Sessions" stretch back to 2004's "The Curse" ("Right Side Of The Bed") and 2006's "A Death-Grip On Yesterday" ("Ex's & Ohs", "The Theft"). Two of their biggest hits, "Warrior" and "Save Us", are reworked from 2021's "Baptize". And there are new versions of "Gone" and "Drowning" from their most recent release, 2023's "The Beautiful Dark Of Life".

In addition to their own songs, ATREYU offers dark takes on TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS' classic "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and the enduring, Chris Cornell-led AUDIOSLAVE ballad "Like A Stone".

The band says: "Let's see how we can take what exits already and turn it on its head. With some of the older stuff, the vocals have a more melodic approach, but with much of the same phrasing," Saller explains. "We've also incorporated more members of the band. Porter sings, like on 'Ex's & Ohs'. On 'Right Side Of The Bed', there's a saxophone solo instead of a guitar solo, and it's Dan playing the saxophone."

Unbound by false restrictions about anything sounding "too heavy" or "too pop," ATREYU remains a creative beacon of hope for the people shaken by the suggestion that "rock is dead." They've broken into the Top 10 in the Billboard 200 more than once; two of their albums are certified gold.

ATREYU's unquenchable appetite for creative achievement and pursuit of a shared catharsis on stage drove them to form the band as teenagers around the turn of the millennium. It pushed them beyond their do-it-yourself beginnings to massive festival stages (including two runs on Ozzfest),sold-out headlining tours, movie and game soundtracks, and appearances alongside fellow genre standard-bearers, including LINKIN PARK, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, DEFTONES, SLIPKNOT and BRING ME THE HORIZON.

A bold chapter in the band's never-ending story of determination, "Baptize" was a definitive work for a new era. Like 2018's "In Our Wake" (which produced the band's biggest song of the streaming era, "The Time Is Now"),ATREYU recorded "Baptize" with producer John Feldmann. Guests included Jacoby Shaddix (PAPA ROACH),Travis Barker (BLINK-182) and Matt Heafy (TRIVIUM). Songs like "Warrior", "Catastrophe", "Save Us" and "Underrated" are massive, standing confidently in the band's catalog.

Breaking with music industry convention, the band's ninth studio album, "The Beautiful Dark Of Life", arrived first as a series of three four-song EPs, eventually collected all together with three more tracks. The band co-headlined with MEMPHIS MAY FIRE and toured with GODSMACK around the EPs.

Distorted Sound hailed the album as "a therapeutic exploration of the insecurities that plague many of us, taking the knowledge of that shared experience and wielding it to their own strength."

Adeptly combining the sounds of thrash, hardcore punk, and the new wave of Swedish death metal, ATREYU quickly evolved to a place where fans of everything from LINKIN PARK to LAMB OF GOD could come to the party. Adventurous, ambitious; ATREYU is best described plainly as a loud rock band.

As one prominent hard rock critic observed early in the band's career: "If you haven't figured out these guys are aiming for a bigger sound by now, you might want to try cleaning out your ears."

ATREYU is:

Brandon Saller - lead vocals
Dan Jacobs - guitar
Travis Miguel - guitar
Porter McKnight – bass

Photo credit: Porter McKnight

In a new interview with WGN Radio's Dave Plier, Neal Schon reflected on JOURNEY's five decades in rock, saying: "I'm very proud of the work that we've all done and what we've accomplished. Receiving the diamond award just recently for [10 million copies sold of] 'Escape', that doesn't happen to too many just single albums. It does for bigger bands on 'Greatest Hits', as it did for us years ago, but it's a great sign of where things are heading for us. And the future is very bright."

When Plier noted that bands like BON JOVI, DEF LEPPARD and WHITESNAKE were "all producing tracks that really" followed JOURNEY's playbook of "extremely catchy, great choruses, explosive power-rock chords, lyrics and singalongs," Schon said: "It's funny you say that, but when we used to play on the East Coast, instead of playing in New York, because the union was so expensive, we played multiple dates in New Jersey in a bigger place, and Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora would come down and they'd check out the show and I'd always say hello. And then the next thing you would know, if we were playing like a cover song, like '[Reach Out] I'll Be There' by THE FOUR TOPS, they would end up putting it in their set. It was funny. But it was inspiring. They were inspired by it, like we all are by whoever."

JOURNEY and DEF LEPPARD kicked off their co-headlining North American tour on July 6 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. Support at the gig came from fellow rock legends CHEAP TRICK.

JOURNEY's 23-city trek with DEF LEPPARD will continue through September 8 in Denver, Colorado. Along the way, the two Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees will bring their show to stadiums in major cities like Chicago, Nashville, Boston, Toronto, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and more.

JOURNEY features founder Neal Schon (lead guitarist),Jonathan Cain (keyboards, backing vocals),Arnel Pineda (lead vocals),Jason Derlatka (keyboards, vocals),Deen Castronovo (drums, vocals) and Todd Jensen (bass).

Since the group's formation in 1973, JOURNEY has earned 19 top 40 singles, 25 gold and platinum albums, and has sold over 100 million albums globally. Their "Greatest Hits" album is certified 15 times-platinum, making JOURNEY one of the few bands to ever have been diamond-certified, and their song "Don't Stop Believin'" has been streamed over one billion times alone.

JOURNEY was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017, and 2018's co-headlining tour with DEF LEPPARD was the band's most successful tour to date, landing them in the Top 10 year-end touring chart with more than one million tickets sold, and earning them the prestigious Billboard "Legends Of Live" touring award. March 2019 saw the release of "Escape & Frontiers Live In Japan", a live DVD/CD set from their concert at the Budokan in Tokyo featuring the band's first-ever performances of the albums "Escape" and "Frontiers" in their entirety. JOURNEY has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and were inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall Of Fame. Additionally, the band is the subject of the award-winning documentary "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey" about the band's resurgence upon adding Pineda as lead singer after Schon discovered the Philippines native on YouTube.

In a new interview with Jorge Fretes of Spain's GoetiaMedia, MEGADETH guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari discussed his musical influences. Asked if Marty Friedman is the former MEGADETH guitarist he is "most fond of," as seems to be the case with most people, Teemu said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah. I would say Marty Friedman as well. I mean, I've studied a lot of guitarists over the years, not only the MEGADETH guitarists. But Marty has been always one of the guitarists up there for me. And, of course, the kind of usual suspects like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and John Petrucci and those guys I kind of grew up with us as well. A lot of the Finnish power metal scene, and then a lot of the kind of more fusiony stuff as well, like Greg Howe and Guthrie Govan has been one of my favorites for a long time. So kind of a diverse range of different players. And then, the more you learn, you kind of tend to start to find these similarities and start to see, like, 'Okay, this guy actually got this thing from this guy,' and kind of seeing the kind of history of the styles developing. So that's really interesting for me."

Mäntysaari stepped in last September for MEGADETH's longtime axeman Kiko Loureiro, who announced earlier that month that he would sit out the next leg of MEGADETH's "Crush The World" tour in order to stay home with his children back in Finland. It was later revealed that the 37-year-old Finnish musician would continue to play guitar for MEGADETH for the foreseeable future, with Loureiro seemingly having no plans to return.

Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.

Earlier this month, Mäntysaari was asked by THE HOURGLASS guitarist Rudi Messiah what it has been like to perform material originally recorded by previous MEGADETH guitarists Chris Poland, Jeff Young, Marty Friedman, Chris Broderick and Kiko Loureiro. He said: "I'm very relaxed about it. I mean, of course it feels great to be in a band that you've been a fan of and get to play the solos of these guys that you've looked up to for years. So, that just feels really great. And I don't feel like there's any limit to my creativity here. And we've been talking about coming up with riff ideas [for new MEGADETH music], and Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] has been very open about us, the band guys, offering ideas as well. And that's what we're gonna start doing very soon. And so far I've had my hands full learning the back catalog, which we're still doing. We're adding more songs as go along. So that has been a lot of fun."

He continued: "We're always working in the jam room backstage and putting more songs to the setlist that maybe the guys even haven't played in 10, 15 years. So it's kind of a learning experience for them as well, relearning some of the songs that they haven't played maybe ever or in a long time. So far we've been concentrating on that, and we've added quite a lot of songs from when I stepped in. So that has been a lot of fun and it has to be really inspiring as well and educational as well. So I get to kind of have a better picture of the back catalog, the different kinds of songs that they've done previously. Of course I've listened to the albums previously, but I haven't really like learned the songs in detail."

Teemu previously talked about playing material originally recorded by some of the former MEGADETH guitarists in a June 2024 interview with Finland's Chaoszine. At the time, he said:  "There's, of course, challenges in every guitarist's parts, different kinds of challenges. But the kind of good thing is that I've been a fan of the band and I've known the previous guitarists and their styles in some capacity already in the past. I've studied quite a bit of Marty Friedman's style and even Kiko's style before I stepped into the band. I have to say I didn't study that much Chris Poland, but I knew kind of what kind of style he plays, and then I was really curious to find out that he has some of these more bluesy and fusion-y things, which I also learned before. So it has been really interesting and enjoyable to have not only one style that you need to handle and play well, but kind of from all these different guitarists — Dave's [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] rhythm playing, of course, and then all the solo guitarists, the lead guitarists who have been in the band. I try to pay respect to everybody, not necessarily try to imitate 100 percent each one of them… I do wanna respect the songs, and if I think of myself as a fan, if I go see a band that I like, I like to hear the solos as they are on the record, because that's how I know them. Of course, it depends on the style of music, but in this style of music, I think that's what fits and that's what I try to do. I try to play them as much original as I can with my own little nuances maybe."

Asked if there are some former MEGADETH guitarists whose parts are more difficult to learn and play, perhaps because they are more outside of his own style, Teemu said: "Yeah, I'd say probably Jeff Young and Chris Poland. Chris Poland has a quite special style with his special intonation, very special vibrato and the whammy-bar use. So that's probably more out of my comfort zone, but it has been also very nice to be able to then learn some of those things."

Teemu also talked about meeting Marty at last year's Wacken Open Air festival in Germany and being influenced by Friedman's playing. He said: "Like [Marty] mentioned also in the interview [he gave to Chaoszine earlier this year], we met briefly [at Wacken]. This was the first time that I actually met all the guys in MEGADETH, Wacken last year. And then he was there as well. And we got to chat just a little bit. And, of course, I got to see the guys jamming backstage and that was really cool. And seeing the show also, I was on the side of the stage and filming everything there and trying to take as much like study material as I can. But yeah, Marty's style is such a special style, exotic style. I think he has a lot of this jazzy approach, but not necessarily jazzy vocabulary… But, yeah, I've loved his style all the way from the CACOPHONY and then his solo albums and then, obviously, all the MEGADETH stuff. So I've been following him for a long time and, yeah, try to play some of his things every once in a while."

In a recent interview with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, Mustaine was asked if he thinks Mäntysaari, will contribute to the songwriting process on MEGADETH's next studio album. Mustaine responded: "Yes, I do. I think he's gonna be a great addition to MEGADETH. He already has. We're playing more songs now than we were playing before. And that has nothing negative to say about any of the previous lineups. It just says that he knew more about the band and understands the metal backbone of so many of these songs more than some of the other people would understand it."

He continued: "When you're a metal guy, I think you understand metal compositions more than somebody who, say for example, knows progressive rock like Chris Broderick does, or somebody who knows bossa nova, which Kiko does, or somebody that plays jazzy, like Glen Drover would play, maybe Al Pitrelli. These guys all have their strengths."

Mustaine added: "I've often thought, although I've never said it, I do believe that when somebody gets singled out by me, that's pretty much it for them. They've been indoctrinated into the world of great guitar players, and from that moment on, their life will change."

Asked if he saw any signs that Kiko would leave MEGADETH permanently or if it came as a surprise to him, Dave said: "Well, it wasn't really a surprise, because it started to become clear that his family was gonna need him. And I'm a dad too, so I saw it and I knew that his wife and babies all needed their daddy. And Kiko is a good husband, he's a good dad, and he needed to do what was right for him and for his family. And I applaud him for doing what he did. A lot of people would not have the guts to walk away from being a rock and roll star to take care of their kids. They would somehow sacrifice something, and it probably would not be their family."

Mustaine also once again seemingly ruled out the possibility of Friedman, who made a couple of guest appearances with the band last year, rejoining MEGADETH at some point in the future.

"We played together for a couple of tracks, which was fun, and it was a very natural feeling," Mustaine said. "But I know that Marty, when we got together in Japan and we talked, Marty's changed a lot; he's a different man. And it'd be really fun to play with him every once in a while, see what's going on. But the problem is a lot of fans will misunderstand us doing something with Marty and think that there's some hope of Marty joining MEGADETH again, and there's not, that there wouldn't be, because Marty is doing his own thing in Japan and I am 100 percent satisfied with Teemu right now, and I've already told the world that he's our new guitar player."

In May, Teemu told Italy's Poisoned Rock webzine about his addition to MEGADETH: "I definitely was aware of MEGADETH for a very long time. They were one of the first bands that I got into when I discovered metal. I think, for most people, at least my generation or our generation, when they get into metal, it's usually the biggest bands, and MEGADETH, of course, being one of them."

Regarding his first show with MEGADETH, which took place on September 6, 2023 at Revel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mäntysaari said: "That was a very nice venue. We had a day there before, before the show, for production rehearsals, to rehearse on stage, and then on the next day we had the show. So that was nice and relaxed. I think we played through the whole setlist once before the show, the day before, and then played the show. And yeah, it felt very good from the beginning. And I felt like I was prepared. I was confident with my skills and confident with everything. The guys were so helpful and welcoming and, yeah, everything felt to kind of click and fall in the right place. So, it was really nice."

Earlier this year, Teemu told Guitar World magazine about his addition to MEGADETH: "I never thought something like this would happen to me. But at the same time, I've always felt like being prepared was important in case a big band like this did call me.

"I have a specific skillset where I can learn fast, jump into new situations, and be comfortable," he added. "I've always liked doing that. I love teaching, and I've been on many cover projects, so being detail-oriented is part of my skillset."

Regarding his preparation for the way he approached playing the MEGADETH material, Teemu said: "[We'd] look at the small details of how they groove, the moods, and the technical side. We talked a lot about what Dave wants to project, picking directions, being very aware of down-picking, alternate picking, and, in many of the songs, being aware of both. We also talked about things like dampening, the flow of songs, creating contrast, hand positions, and trying to get things right fingering-wise, all of which I enjoy doing. There's a bit of detective work involved, and to get that information from the source in Dave was amazing."

This past February, Mustaine told Brazil's A Rádio Rock about how Teemu ended up landing the MEGADETH gig: "Kiko had recommended Teemu, and Teemu is an exceptional guitar player. Kiko was at the top of his game when this happened, so we were obviously disappointed, but it is what it is. If Kiko would have said, 'I don't know anybody, and you're on your own,' that would have been a lot harder. But Teemu is the right guy for MEGADETH. And Kiko knows that Teemu is the right guy for me. So, he actually did us a really big favor, and I love him and I wish him the best with everything that he does."

In early October, Mustaine told Shaggy of the 94.9 and 104.5 The Pick radio station in Idaho Falls, Idaho about Teemu's addition to MEGADETH: "People are losing their minds over how things are going right now 'cause we have a really good chemistry together."

In September, Mustaine was equally full of praise for Mäntysaari, telling Wes Styles in a separate interview: "He's really great. And I'm super excited with what Teemu has brought. And it's uncanny because he plays a lot like Marty. And it's really exciting. At certain times I just close my eyes during the set and I just hear these songs played, whether like Kiko in the past or Teemu now, it just sounds really magic because these guys have learned these songs and they're not just going out there and just banging their guitar around; they actually learned the solos from some of the virtuosos that I've played with over my career."

Loureiro officially joined MEGADETH in April 2015, about five months after Broderick's exit from the group.

Fan-filmed video of MR. BIG's July 13 performance at the Midalidare Rock In The Wine Valley festival in Bulgaria can be seen below.

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

On June 14, MR. BIG released the following statement via social media: "As we prepare to hit the road for another EU/UK leg of our The BIG Finish! Tour, drummer Nick D'Virgilio, due to commitments with his band BIG BIG TRAIN, is unable to be with us the first part of the run. He will rejoin us for the final week — August 13th onward. In Nick's absence, we are excited to announce that Brazilian drummer, Edu Cominato, will fill in and rock with us July 13 - August 13!

"Edu started his professional career at the age of 15 and has never looked back. He has played and toured with some of the best musicians in the world, including Billy and Eric, Jeff Scott Soto, Geoff Tate and many others!

"Welcome to The BIG Finish! Tour, Edu!"

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

MR. BIG recently completed the European leg of "The BIG Finish", which saw the veteran band performing MR. BIG's 1991 album, "Lean Into It", in full, along with other cuts from the group's history.

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

As a session musician and touring artist, Nick has worked with many different kinds of artists and bands, from TEARS FOR FEARS, Sheryl Crow and Kevin Gilbert to Peter Gabriel and Eric Burdon and the ANIMALS. In 1996, Nick took Phil Collins's place in GENESIS and played on their "Calling All Stations" album. He has also carved out a major presence in the progressive rock world with his bands, SPOCK'S BEARD and BIG BIG TRAIN.

Before joining the Sweetwater team, Nick spent almost five years touring with Cirque Du Soleil's "Totem" as drummer, vocalist, and assistant bandleader.

MR. BIG's last-ever live album release will be "The BIG Finish Live", which is due out September 6 via the Evolution Music Group.

"The BIG Finish Live" is a brand-new live album and concert film of MR. BIG's "The BIG Finish" farewell tour, where the band played their million-selling "Lean Into It" album in its entirety, plus additional MR. BIG classics. Filmed in 4K at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan on July 26, 2023, this historic performance will be available in many different multiple high-quality formats: 180g black vinyl (3-LP),Hybrid Stereo Multi-Channel SACDs (2),MQA-CDs (2),MQA-CDs + Blu-ray (2),4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (featuring behind-the-scenes and interview footage),and cassette (2). All of these formats will come with a booklet/insert that includes previously unreleased photos from their Budokan performance, as well as a sticker or postcard gift for fans.

In a new interview with the Scandalous Podcast, EXODUS and SLAYER guitarist Gary Holt was asked if he is spiritual at all. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, fuck no. [Laughs] No, I'm an atheist. I do not believe at all. I'm not agnostic. I follow the science. If you really believe in God, you believe in some horrible fucking shit, and you've self-edited out the worst of the Bible because in modern society, you obviously have to. I think it's ridiculous. But at the same time, I have absolute respect and tolerance for those who do believe because you kind of have to. Ninety percent of my whole circle of life believes, like my parents, my mom and dad. I'm not gonna tell my mom she's fucking stupid or 'you're wrong.' All I ever ask is that I'm allowed not to believe. And some people have a problem with that."

He continued: "I keep religion and politics off my own Instagram page 'cause it just starts a fight anyway. I posted a meme years ago of Jesus carrying the cross and it said, 'This kite sucks.' People got fucking mad at me. I was, like, 'All right, let's just keep it to cats and guitars.' [But I thought the Jesus meme] was funny. People can send me, my friends will send me memes based on politicians I like at the time, totally making fun of them, and I can still laugh at it. It's, like, 'That's fucking good. That was hilarious. A good one. I'm gonna share it privately.''

Holt added: "We're all humans. I think segregating people based on their beliefs and everything is quite often part of the plan to keep 'em separated… And 'cause it's better for the people calling the shots, to not have us unite. But if someone's getting married in church, I go to fucking church and I sit there and I bow my head if they lead a prayer. I'm not gonna sit there and be a dickhead about it. I have family that have a Easter dinner and they lead a prayer, I respectfully semi participate. I'm not thinking that, but I'll be quiet and put my head down and, 'All right, time to eat.'"

Holt previously discussed his views on religion in a 2021 interview with The Metal Voice. He said at the time: "Everybody pretty much knows I'm an atheist and I'm not a believer, but if I fucking wrote off all those that were, I wouldn't have a family. Most of my family believes in Jesus fucking Christ. And I'm not gonna part ways with them because we share a different religious ideology. And I won't over a political [ideology] either. Some of my best friends are completely different than me, and that's okay. It's not a bad thing. I don't look at them as fucking lesser people because we don't agree on something. And a lot of time, if you take the time to discuss shit like fucking humans, you'll find that you actually can find middle ground on a lot of things."

The EXODUS leader, who spent almost nine years touring with SLAYER, initially as a fill-in for founding SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman, will take part in the SLAYER reunion shows in September and October.

Holt began filling in for Hanneman at SLAYER's live shows in 2011, and became the band's full-time co-guitarist as of 2013, while remaining a member of EXODUS. Holt played on SLAYER's final album, "Repentless", which came out in 2015.

The lineup for SLAYER's comeback will be the same as the one which last toured in 2019: bassist/vocalist Tom Araya and guitarist Kerry King, along with Holt and longtime drummer Paul Bostaph.

Holt joined EXODUS in 1981, shortly after the band's formation, and has been the group's main songwriter ever since. Holt has performed on every EXODUS album, and is considered highly influential in the world of thrash metal.

EXODUS's latest album, "Persona Non Grata", came out in November 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP was recorded at a studio in Lake Almanor, California and was engineered by Steve Lagudi and EXODUS. It was produced by EXODUS and was mixed by Andy Sneap. For the third time in the band's history, they returned to Swedish artist Pär Olofsson to create the album artwork.

"Persona Non Grata" was the follow-up to 2014's "Blood In Blood Out", which was the San Francisco Bay Area thrashers' first release since the departure of the group's lead singer of nine years, Rob Dukes, and the return of Steve "Zetro" Souza, who previously fronted EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004.

In March 2023, Hachette Books announced that it had acquired Gary's upcoming memoir. "A Fabulous Disaster: From The Garage To Madison Square Garden, The Hard Way" is described in a press release as "a no-holds-barred memoir from the preeminent thrasher's life in metal, from its humble (but not quiet) beginnings in the San Francisco Bay Area through today's current resurgence in worldwide popularity, as he lived big, played fast and crashed hard, written in collaboration with Adem Tepedelen."

SLAYER guitarist Kerry King has launched the fourth in a series of interview videos to promote his recently released debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise". Check it out below.

Asked about the writing process for "From Hell I Rise", drummer Paul Bostaph, who previously played with Kerry in SLAYER, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was pretty interesting — a lot different than any other record I think I've done, because, obviously, we had… everybody had the pandemic hit. And that put Kerry and I… We planned on getting together a lot sooner in 2020, but for obvious reasons, we couldn't get together. So that kind of put us back a couple years. And during that amount of time, Kerry kept writing and we kept communicating. He would send me drum charts and stuff, which is the way we usually work anyway, but there was just a lot more material. And when we finally got together, I think the first seven days we were together, we demoed ten songs. Not all of them are on this record — hopefully some of them will be on future recordings — but I think the way it was different in that sense, in terms of rehearsing, was I think because of the time away and the fact that there was so much material written, it kind of streamlined how I work with Kerry. I know what he wants. And we work together really well. And I think that was the thing that we leaned on. And that's the thing I leaned on. We were kind of on fire. It's like we wanted to get music done. We didn't wanna sacrifice quality at all but it was that we were working in such an efficient manner that… In prior years, we still worked hard but I wish we'd have found this early on in our career together because now it's like when he writes something, I know what's coming. And it's not predictable, but it's kind of just a streamlined process that I'm really confident with."

Regarding his approach to his drumming on "From Hell I Rise", Paul said: "There was no shadow hanging over my head. And I mean that because of SLAYER. I mean, there's always the legacy of Dave [Lombardo, original SLAYER drummer], and that's a standard that needs to be met, in my opinion, as a drummer, and I respect that. But on this project, I just went, 'I'm just gonna do me all the way — all the way.' And I never didn't do that with SLAYER, but with this, it was just there wasn't that legacy hanging over my head in terms of that; there was just this new path."

Bostaph continued: "Kerry writes how he writes, and I play how I play, and it's still always gonna be the same, and that element, it's continued on, because we've gotta be us; that's what we are. But there wasn't anything to prove. It was just we were on fire because it had been so long, I think. And we were dying to get back to it. And I think that's the same thing with all these guys. It's new, it's exciting, and the group, the core group of guys are so cool. I mean, we've got three [San Francisco] Bay Area guys in the band, and we all know each other, and Kyle [Sanders, bass] — everybody's super cool. They're professional, super motivated, and the material's there, and we're all psyched."

In a recent interview with Forbes, King stated about Bostaph's contributions to "From Hell I Rise": "I think it's the most prepared Paul as a drummer has ever been. Because I know for a fact that working in the SLAYER environment, a lot of times, we didn't have all of the vocals done. Probably none of the leads were done when we went in to record. And they just kind of got done on the fly. So, as a drummer, on this one, he knew where all the vocals went because I did scratch vocals on everything. He knew where all of the leads went, and what they sounded like, because Phil [Demmel, guitar] would send in demos that he played leads to. I did demos with leads. He heard all of the songs with all of the vocals. So, there was no real gray area there for him. He didn't have to say, 'Okay. This is verse one to chorus one — I've got to make some glue to make it work...' This time, he knew exactly what was going on and could actually play off what he knew was going to be there."

The KERRY KING band lineup is rounded out by Mark Osegueda, who has fronted DEATH ANGEL for the past four decades.

In early May, the KERRY KING band performed its first live show at Reggies in Chicago. In the days following, the band went from playing an intimate venue to performing at the huge U.S. festivals Welcome To Rockville (Florida) and Sonic Temple (Ohio).

The KERRY KING band launched a European tour on June 3 — King's 60th birthday – in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The trek combined headline shows in the U.K., The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain but also festival appearances such as Rock Am Ring, Hellfest, Tuska, Download, Sweden Rock Festival and many more.

All material for "From Hell I Rise" was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. Helming the sessions at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles last year was producer Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others.

KERRY KING will be special guest on the upcoming LAMB OF GOD/MASTODON North American "Ashes Of Leviathan" co-headline tour. The six-week run will launch on July 19 in Grand Prairie, Texas and will wrap on August 31 in Omaha, Nebraska.

In an exciting announcement for RUSH fans and rock enthusiasts alike, Anthem Records in Canada and Rhino Records will reissue the first-ever solo albums of Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee. Lifeson's 1996 album "Victor" and Lee's 2000 offering "My Favourite Headache" will be re-released on August 9, 2024, in various formats, including a range of vinyl configurations.

"Victor", originally released on January 9, 1996, marks Alex Lifeson's solo debut. Lifeson took on the roles of songwriter, producer, and mixer for this album. For the first time, "Victor" will be available on vinyl, featuring a complete remix by Lifeson himself to enhance the audio quality. The fourth side of the album includes four instrumental tracks previously exclusive to Lifeson's web site. Guest artists include lead vocalist Edwin from I MOTHER EARTH, PRIMUS bassist Les Claypool, and Canadian powerhouse vocalist Lisa Dalbello. The 15-song collection is paired with striking 2024 reimagined artwork by Fantoons Animation Studios.

As a Rush Backstage exclusive, Alex Lifeson will personally autograph 1,000 lithographs to be included with the Ruby Translucent 2LPs, which are available only through the Rush Backstage web store.

"Victor" will be available in the following editions:

* Ruby Translucent 2LP (Rush Backstage exclusive, limited to 1,000 units)
* Blue Translucent 2LP (exclusive to Canada, limited to 1,000 units)
* Crystal Clear Translucent 2LP (exclusive to U.S. and ROW)
* Standard Black 2LP
* CD
* Standard & HD/HRA Digital

For more details on the Alex Lifeson reissue and to preorder, go to this location.

"My Favourite Headache", Geddy Lee's only solo album to date, was initially released on November 14, 2000. This reissue marks its first vinyl pressing since a limited-edition Record Store Day exclusive in 2019. The fourth side of the album features two instrumental mixes. Produced by Lee, Ben Mink and David Leonard, the album includes contributions from Mink and drummers Matt Cameron (SOUNDGARDEN, PEARL JAM) and Jeremy Taggart (OUR LADY PEACE).

"My Favourite Headache" will be offered in the following:

* Blue/Green Galaxy 2LP (exclusive to Canada/Anthem)
* Green & Blue 2LP (exclusive to U.S. and ROW/Rhino)
* CD

For more details on the Geddy Lee reissue and to preorder, go to this location.

RUSH — bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist/vocalist Alex Lifeson and the late, great drummer/lyricist Neil Peart — maintains a massive and uniquely passionate worldwide fanbase that acknowledges and respects the band's singular, bold, and perpetually exploratory songcraft that combines sterling musicianship, complex compositions, and distinctive lyrical flair. RUSH has sold more than 30 million albums in Canada and the U.S. alone, with worldwide sales estimated at 45 million (and counting). Between Music Canada and the RIAA, RUSH has been awarded 50 gold, 30 platinum, and nine multi-platinum album distinctions (and counting). RUSH has also had 5 Top 10 Billboard Canada Albums, received seven Grammy nominations, 10 Juno Award wins with 41 nominations, and earned an induction into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 1994 and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013. Additionally, Lee, Lifeson and Peart were made Officers Of The Order Of Canada on May 9, 1996.

"Victor" track listing:

Side A

01. Don't Care (4:01)
02. Promise (5:44)
03. Start Today (3:46)
04. Mr. X (2:24)

Side B

05. At The End (6:07)
06. Sending Out A Warning (4:10)
07. Shut Up Shuttin' Up (4:05)
08. Strip And Go Naked (3:49)

Side C

09. The Big Dance (4:04)
10. Victor (6:23)
11. Am The Spirit (5:32)

Side D

12. Cherry Lopez Lullabye (Instrumental) (3:22)
13. Serbs (Instrumental) (3:46)
14. Kroove (Instrumental) (4:52)
15. Banjo Bob (Instrumental) (4:10)

"My Favourite Headache" track listing:

Side A

01. My Favourite Headache (4:44)
02. The Present Tense (3:25)
03. Window To The World (3:02)
04. Working At Perfekt (5:00)

Side B

05. Runaway Train (4:30)
06. The Angels' Share (4:35)
07. Moving To Bohemia (4:25)
08. Home On The Strange (3:47)

Side C

09. Slipping (5:06)
10. Still (4:29)
11. Grace To Grace (4:59)

Side D

12. My Favourite Headache (Instrumental) (4:46)
13. Home On The Strange (Instrumental) (3:47)

During an appearance on today's (Thursday, July 18) episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Naition With Eddie Trunk", Sammy Hagar spoke about his summer 2024 tour, which kicked off Saturday night (July 13) at the 20,000-capacity iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida.

For "The Best Of All Worlds" tour, Hagar and his bandmates in THE CIRCLE — ex-VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Jason Bonham — are being joined by guitarist virtuoso Joe Satriani, who has recorded and performed with Hagar and Anthony in the band CHICKENFOOT, and multi-instrumentalist Rai Thistlethwayte.

The 21-song setlist for the tour consists largely of VAN HALEN material, including the opening track "Good Enough", from 1986's "5150" album, as well as two songs from 1991's "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", "Poundcake" and "Runaround", and a pair of David Lee Roth-era VAN HALEN classics, "Panama" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", as well as a section of "Jump".

The rest of the set includes Satriani's "Satch Boogie", the rousing rock-swing guitar instrumental that put him on the map in 1987 and helped propel his second album, "Surfing With The Alien", to platinum status. and several of Hagar's solo classics, such as "There's Only One Way To Rock", "Eagles Fly", "Heavy Metal" and "I Can't Drive 55".

Asked about Satriani's approach to performing the material originally written and recorded by Eddie Van Halen, Sammy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, I gotta tell you, Joe is a scholar. I can't tell you how good of a musician Joe Satriani is. He's as good as any musician on the planet. He's got his own style. It's a little different than Eddie's. Eddie was a genius musician too, but he had a different style and he had his thing. Joe's got his thing. Joe went in the closet. Well, not in the closet — he went into the woodshed, and since the announcement [of the tour on 'The Howard Stern Show' last November]… I threw a couple songs at him and said, 'Hey, why don't you just learn this song or that song?' And then Stern laid songs on us, that we're going, 'Well, shoot, we didn't think about those. Joe, do you know that one?' He goes, 'Oh, I'll try it.' He's that good. So now he's dialed them in."

Hagar continued: "What [Joe has] done, for any of you guitar players out there that wanna come and see what Joe's doing, or wanna criticize Joe or wanna praise Joe, whatever you want to do, he has taken the essence of Eddie's guitar solos and parts and he plays the necessary parts to make sure it sounds just like the record, the way it's supposed to. The solo on a song like 'Jump' — I hate to use that one 'cause it's not my song, but we do 'Jump'; we do a piece of 'Jump' on the encore. We do a five-song encore that's got a little bit of 'Jump' in it. And when he plays that solo, he plays it like the record. And then he'll go off in the middle somewhere. He'll do a little tiny thing. He'll do little things that says, 'No, this is Joe Satriani playing Eddie,' but he's doing Eddie right. No one could complain. He's hitting all the right notes that make the essence of what Eddie invented. And he puts his own heart and soul into it, which makes it so much different and so much better, in my opinion, than a guy just mimicking him exactly. And his tone is different. It's kind of like Eddie's, but I don't know — Joe's just so good. I don't know how he's doing this. I really don't know how he's doing this."

Regarding the setlist for the tour, Sammy said: "This setlist is deep, brother. We're playing two hours and 20 minutes. We're only playing like five of my songs, one CHICKENFOOT and one MONTROSE. The rest is VAN HALEN. Get out of here, man. That's a hour and a half, about a buck 40 of VAN HALEN. In VAN HALEN, we didn't play as many songs as we're playing, 'cause Eddie did a big 20-minute solo, Al [Alex Van Halen] did a 20-minute solo, Mike did a 15-, 20-minute solo, and I did 'Eagles Fly' by myself. So, you add that together, we did about 12 songs."

As for how the tour has been going so far, Hagar said: "Honest to God, I haven't felt like this about a show since walking off the stage at some of the greatest VAN HALEN shows in my life. And I'm telling you — I'm not just saying that, I'm not trying to hype nobody, and 90 percent of these shows are sold out, so it's not like that. It's from the bottom of my heart. Mike and I walk off stage so exhausted — 2:20 in Atlanta the other night; we played two hours and 20 minutes — and I just haven't done that. I just haven't had this deep of a setlist. I haven't had this big of a production. I don't know. I've been having fun, but now I've stepped it up and Mike and I, like I said, we look at each other every night walking off stage, and we hug backstage for about 20 minutes. It's just fantastic. The whole band is — they came to the party. Joe came to the party. Jason came to the party. Rai came to the party. The people are happy, we're happy, and I just never felt like this walking off stage since VAN HALEN. I can say that. I can honestly say that."

Produced by Live Nation, the 28-date "The Best Of All Worlds" tour will conclude on August 31 in St. Louis, Missouri.

This past January, Satriani spoke to Australian Musician about how he planned to play Eddie Van Halen's parts on the tour that focused largely on the music of VAN HALEN. Asked about how he plans to approach the concerts from a "tonal" standpoint, Joe said: "Yeah, there's a couple of things that you can zero in on. This is one of the guitars I used during 'The Howard Stern Show' [when Joe, Sammy, Michael and Jason first announced the tour and performed on the early-morning program]. It's tuned to a D standard, which is really low, and the strings were 11. That was my first two big mistakes. [Laughs] 'Cause I can't play 11s. And tuned down to D, I just wasn't used to it. Sammy and the guys, they've been doing it for years, but it was foreign to me. So a lot of things don't happen.

"Eddie played at 440 and then E flat, and he played light strings. He played nines and even sometimes the lower strings were lighter," Joe explained. "Every time I talk about Eddie, I finish it by saying 'besides the fact that he was a genius.' You always have to add that in, 'cause he was just amazing — period. 'Cause every time he picked up a guitar, no matter what it was, it was amazing. He had the hands and the heart, everything. I'm just catching up.

"What I learned from 'The Howard Stern Show', besides it's still important to rehearse and you can't do gigs without rehearsals… But what, what it confirmed was a couple of things I was thinking about, which was that Eddie had specific gear — he really did," Satriani continued. "He didn't play with the gear I used or Steve Vai or Slash or Tom Morello or any of his contemporaries. He actually had a very specific setup. And you ask yourself, 'Well, why?' Well, it's because, besides he was a genius, as we know, he knew that in order for him to play those parts, he had to have his gear tweaked a certain way; otherwise it wouldn't work. So, like when you go to play the beginning of 'Mean Street', if your setup is not allowing those harmonics to jump out, it's gonna sound like you're not hitting them. You've gotta get the setup right.

"If you refer to the first… Let's say, if you go to [VAN HALEN's 1986 concert video] 'Live Without A Net' or any of those things, even the early period, '5150' period, from [David Lee] Roth to the early Hagar period where he's still using Marshalls, when he goes to do things like that, it's a success. Every time he goes to hit a harmonic, boom, there it is. And it's low noise, big round fidelity, still sounds organic. You fast forward to live at the Tokyo Dome [2015's 'Tokyo Dome Live in Concert'], it's a totally different thing. He's playing an entirely different amp. When he goes to do those things, he's getting an overt amount of harmonic information, but he's also getting a ton of noise and none of the body that was part of the earlier sound.

"Now I learned that because of those two [EVH] amps right there. I got those back when Alex [Van Halen] and Dave called and asked me to do the [seemingly abandoned] Eddie tribute tour, and I thought, 'Well, I've gotta figure this out.' So the first thing I did was I got a couple of those and I thought, 'Well, this is great. You get all the harmonics, but, man, this is really small sounding. This is like for modern…' If I was 20 years old and I was playing modern rock, those would be the best amps ever. But I'm not, and I still wanna hear sort of the body of the guitar and I wanna hear a more dynamic mix. So I started to think, 'Well, what's my favorite VAN HALEN section?' And I did find that period in '86. I talked to Sam quite a bit about it and he said, yeah, that first 5150, he was still using Marshalls. In Sammy's view, his favorite sound that Eddie ever made. It wasn't small and then stereoized. So I reached out to Dylana Scott at 3rd Power amplifiers, and she is building me what we believe is going to be the amp that does it…"

Joe added: "This goes back to what I said earlier about how the gear is so important for the performer. I know that when we step out on stage and whether I'm playing 'Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love' or '5150', I'm gonna need to feel and hear that sound to convince myself to keep going. And if it's not working, then I'm just gonna say, 'Well, let me just have my solo rig.' But my solo rig is designed — it probably has a little too much gain, and is designed to make the high strings really fat sounding, because I play all the melodies. I play very little rhythm guitar all night long. It's just solo melody, solo melody. And I can't play the Hagar set like that. It's just the wrong sound. CHICKENFOOT, it kind of worked. But for the for the VAN HALEN stuff to really pop, and then we're doing MONTROSE, we're doing Sammy Hagar solo stuff, we're doing my stuff, we're doing CHICKENFOOT. It's a really fun setlist. Great setlist. But I know, in my heart, that I wanna hear that sound in my head, that mythical Eddie Van Halen sound that we all sort of hear in our mind, and I wanna be able to feel it. And so I've been getting these clips from Dylana every week, and the stuff that she's building is really amazing."

Last December, Satriani spoke to Ultimate Guitar's Justin Beckner about how he planned to play Eddie Van Halen's parts on the upcoming tour. Asked if there were some VAN HALEN songs that he found most challenging to perform, Joe replied: "The main thing is that for the last five decades I've tried so hard to be myself and to be me and not copy anybody. I've been lucky, since the late '80s, to have a solo career, so I really had a job that forced me to be myself as much as possible. So I made a point not to play like anybody. But it happens eventually when you're having fun, you're at a party and someone says, 'Oh, can you play this song?' and you realize, 'I have no idea how to play that song. I love that song. I've listened to it a million times. I don't know what the guy's doing.' And then you go to learn it and you go, 'Wow, that's really weird. It feels so awkward for me to be like this.' And it's not the parts, 'cause I can hear the chords and I know what everything is when I hear it. It's just the sensibility of timing, vibrato, picking. If you're so deep into your own thing, it's really hard to get out of it and try to properly emulate somebody else's playing. It would almost be like if you gave a guitar to Eddie and you said, 'Okay, Eddie, we want you to play 'Summer Song' note for note.' He'd be, like, 'What? I don't play like that. I don't do that. I just kind of do this, this and this.' Of course we'd love it no matter how he did it — it would be fun — but it wouldn't be exactly the same."

Joe continued: "When I was young and I was in cover bands, I knew what it was like to try to get as close as possible when you were playing — for me, it was [LED] ZEPPELIN and [BLACK] SABBATH and THE [ROLLING] STONES and stuff like that; that's what we played. But eventually, you'd have to go, 'I don't play like that. That's not my vibrato.' If I go to play AC/DC, there's no way I can do Angus's [Young] vibrato. He just has his own vibrato. If you're gonna try to play like Jeff Beck — he's so personal. You can play the notes and remind people of this part he did and that part, but it's not gonna sound quite the same.

"If we heard Eric Clapton trying to play 'Since I've Been Loving You' by LED ZEPPELIN, there's no way it would sound the same. It would be great, but it wouldn't sound the same. So, what I noticed right away, when I realized, 'I really have to figure out these songs,' [I asked myself] what is Eddie — what's he operating on?

"So here are a couple of things I've noticed," Satriani added. "Number one, he plays so on the beat and makes it feel like he's pushing the beat, but he's actually not. It's really amazing how he does it. And I realized, when I went back and I listened to my stuff back to back, I thought, 'Oh, that's me, sitting on the backbeat as much as I can,' because I'm playing the melody. When you play the melody, you don't wanna be on top. Actually, you want the band to be pushing, and you're sitting back here, like a singer, playing. I like the way Robert Plant sings in 'Since I've Been Loving You'. He's so behind. Or listen to any hip-hop song — the vocals are way in the pocket; they're just late on purpose. So that's something I've worked on my whole life is 'sit back, sit back, sot back,' and all of a sudden you go to play a song like 'I'm The One', and it's like, 'No, you have to be the guy way in front.' And Alex [Van Halen] is gonna be going, 'No, no. Sit back here.' And that's a difficult sensibility when every nerve ending in your body is saying, 'Sit back.' But to make the song work, you've gotta sit forward. That's the first thing I noticed, like the difference between Eddie's sensibility in timing and mine in terms of timing.

"Our vibratos aren't that different," Joe said. "He holds hick pick [with his thumb and middle finger], so he's always got [his index] finger for tapping, and I don't. So I always have to do something. And what I started to do early on was to use my pick for a lot of hammer-ons because I just wanted to be different, and I thought I'd get a better sound, I'd be able to do some different things that other players weren't doing. And I saw guys using their fingers back in the early '70s, when Eddie was my age, just a young teenager. There were other guys doing tapping for decades before, but as my generation started to figure out how to do tapping, I saw the thing was a split. There's tapping for effect, tapping for riff, and then there's tapping to create an entire musical piece. And Eddie did all of it. The way that he would do the tapping, when he would use it, [was] totally opposite of the way that I had forced myself to go with it.

"The third thing is… Again, we're talking about someone who was just an incredible virtuoso in several areas. One of the things that Eddie had was this super-tight swing that was ultrafast with his right hand. And that is something, again, that once… I remember hearing for the first time and thinking, 'Well, I'm gonna have to work on that.' That's gonna take me, I thought, I bet, three months of 45 minutes a day just working with a metronome to work that into my bag of tricks.' 'Cause that's kind of like what it is."

Satriani went on to say: "I think when you're getting ready for a tour and you're gonna play a song that you haven't played in 20 years, you remember it but you go, 'Ah, I don't do that anymore,' and it physically feels odd. So you say, 'Okay, I've got six weeks before the tour. I'm gonna play this thing ten times a day and I'm just gonna keep working, and start slow and figure out all the different ways of doing it so that when I hit the stage, I can relax and play it the way it should be played.'"

Hagar and Anthony previously worked with Satriani in the supergroup CHICKENFOOT. They recorded two albums between 2009 and 2011 and toured across America but never performed any VAN HALEN material. More recently, Hagar and Anthony have played some of the VAN HALEN catalog with guitarist Vic Johnson and Bonham in SAMMY HAGAR AND THE CIRCLE.

Hagar mended his relationship with Eddie Van Halen months prior to the legendary VAN HALEN guitarist's October 2020 passing.

Sammy, Eddie, Alex Van Halen and Michael last teamed up in 2004 for a U.S. summer tour. In exchange for taking part in the tour, Anthony reportedly had to agree to take a pay cut and sign away his rights to the band name and logo.

Eddie Van Halen died in October 2020 at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. The iconic VAN HALEN axeman passed away from complications due to cancer, his son confirmed.

Video courtesy of Stephen Deleon

In a new interview with Chris Akin Presents, DREAM THEATER keyboardist Jordan Rudess talked about the band's upcoming sixteenth album, which will mark the progressive metal legends' first LP since drummer Mike Portnoy's return to the group last October. Asked how the new album compares to the rest of the band's discography, Jordan said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, let's put it this way. There's this undeniable, almost unexplainable or inexplainable, whatever the word is, type of thing that happens with drummers. We survived beautifully in the 13 years that Mike Portnoy was not there. Mike Mangini was a supreme drummer, just incredible. And that said, all the albums with Portnoy, all the albums with Mangini, they have different flavors, because there's something about the back beat, if you will, of a band and the drummer that just gives an energy to the whole thing. And a lot of people speak of that. It's kind of hard to pin down. But you really notice it. Like on this new album, I listen to it and I go, 'Okay, I feel the Portnoy energy back there.'

"I would say what I'm hearing personally is classic kind of DREAM THEATER, whatever that means to anybody that's listening," he continued. "You'll have to wait and see. Think of it this way: the core band is back together again. It's classic DREAM THEATER. I also like to point out that we are a bunch of guys that we take what we do very, very seriously. We put every ounce, every bit of effort, energy into everything we do. We care so much about it, each and every one of us.

"The other day, I was talking to [DREAM THEATER guitarist] John Petrucci in the studio when I was doing my keyboard parts. And we were really deep and working really hard and spending long hours and just getting things to where we feel they're really, really right. And I said to John, I said, 'John, look at what we're doing. We're here late. We're working like crazy. Why? We could have been making pop music. Why are we doing this?' Just to really understand, because a lot of people don't put the kind of effort, I guess, especially these days when there tends to be a different kind of work ethic around, and maybe we're kind of like old school in that way. But to produce a product, to make something that's gonna last, that is gonna be shared with a large number of people, that's just gonna live on, in a way, forever, that, to us, is a really serious thing. And as artists, we're trying to make a statement."

Circling back to Portnoy's influence on the new DREAM THEATER music, Jordan said: "One of the beautiful things is Mike has brought with him all his incredible skills. He's not a guy who just plays the drums really well. He also understands this business. I always like to say that he's got kind of like a film director's mentality, he's looking at everything from a conceptual point of view, and he has skills that the rest of us don't. I mean, yes, we survived fine [without Portnoy], we did really well, we won a Grammy [while he was out of the band] and all that, but there's a magic there that we now have back. It's cool — it's really cool. We're super excited."

On the topic of where the recording process stands right now, Rudess said: "The album's coming along really well. I finished all my keyboard parts. I'm really pleased with them. I got some really beefy, cool tones. And there was a great piano in the studio, which just rocked when I needed it to. It was really melodic when I needed it to. The drums sound amazing. Petrucci's solos are — I don't know; every album, he just seems to outdo himself with all that. The bass sounds great. Jimmy T [James Meslin], our engineer, it's incredible just watching him work. So the team is in a good place. James [LaBrie] is doing his vocals pretty much as we speak. And I got a little taste of that, and they sound great. So, yeah, it's in a good spot."

Rudess previously discussed DREAM THEATER's reunion with Portnoy earlier this month in an interview with Brazil's 89FM A Rádio Rock. Jordan said at the time: "I feel, in a way, like we haven't even missed a beat with this lineup. Having Mike Portnoy come back to us just feels like he's coming home. He was so welcome and we were so happy, we just jumped right into it. From day one, when he walked in the studio and we started to work, literally it was like there was no break. I mean, he just belongs here and he is so engaged, so passionate about what he does, and having that energy come into our group has been a beautiful thing."

Rudess also spoke to 89FM A Rádio Rock about DREAM THEATER's upcoming sixteenth album. Asked if the recording process has changed with Portnoy coming back to the band, Rudess said: "Well, it's definitely changed because he's a very strong musical personality and a strong personality in general. And so he has a lot of thoughts about things. He's a very conceptual thinker, and I think that as fine as we were just doing our own thing when he was gone, having him back, it's just like, wow, this is so great to have your mind and your spirit involved in it. It really does change things. So I think when people hear the new album that we're working on, they'll kind of see that and they'll feel that. I definitely think it's reconnecting with some of the spirit of the magic that we produced in the years that he was in the band."

Regarding whether Portnoy's time away from DREAM THEATER will help Mike bring new things to the group now that he has rejoined his longtime bandmates, Rudess said: "Well, I think everybody grows, everybody changes and we bring what we learn into the mix. So, I think while we're revisiting and kind of enjoying this feeling of connecting with who we were, we're also different people, we've been through all these different experiences, so there's a lot of other things we all bring to the situation — on every level, just musically, personally, everything."

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".

Rudess also spoke about Portnoy's return to DREAM THEATER earlier this month in an interview with Serbia's Highwaystar Magazine. Jordan said at the time: "Well, it was so great to have him back. In many ways it feels like we never lost a beat. Because he was one of the ones who started this band, and he loves it so much, the welcoming process was really immediate and we're all so happy to kind of re-establish what we had. I mean, it feels like getting the core band together again."

Jordan went on to talk about DREAM THEATER's upcoming "40th Anniversary Tour 2024 - 2025". The trek — presented as "An Evening With Dream Theater" — is the first outing since Portnoy's return to the band. The European leg of DREAM THEATER's "40th Anniversary Tour 2024 - 2025" consists of stops in 23 cities, including in Zagreb, Croatia, and kicks off on October 20 and runs through November 24. Asked what fans can expect from the Zagreb show, Jordan said: "Well, it's gonna be a very, very exciting concert, as you know, because everybody's so excited about this reunion of all of us. And Mike will also have a lot to do with helping to pick the songs that we play in the setlist. That's one of his great talents, to decide things like that. And it'll be just a celebration. We're gonna play a bunch of songs from our catalog. We'll pick some ones that everybody really wants to hear. And, yeah, I think they can expect probably one of the most exciting DREAM THEATER shows that they've ever been to. I can almost guarantee it."

Asked by Brazil's Marcelo Vieira and Matheus Ribeiro if DREAM THEATER's upcoming LP picks up from where the last DT album he played on, 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", left off or if it's a different thing entirely, Portnoy said: "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."

Last month, Portnoy told The Prog Report about the writing and recording sessions for DREAM THEATER's sixteenth studio album: "It's going great. The writing is done. My drum tracks are done. Guitars are done. So, this week we're in bass land. I'm home at the moment. So I'm kind of jumping back and forth between the studio as needed. I'm not there 100 percent of the time. But I'm gonna go back for keyboards in a few weeks and then we're gonna start the vocals, I think, next month."

He continued: "So, yeah, it's a long process. I haven't spent this much time making an album in a long time, because usually [Mike's other projects] NMB [NEAL MORSE BAND] or FLYING COLORS or whatever, you kind of get together, do the writing and the tracking, and everybody does it at home. But DREAM THEATER is still old school where the band is in the studio the whole time. And it's not like anybody's doing anything at home separately. We do it all together, coming in one at a time to work and record. So, yeah, it's a longer process than I've had in quite some time. But it's great… It's the old way. It's the way I always made records with DREAM THEATER. I just hadn't done it that way in so long, but it is good. And the process is really detailed this way. All these other bands and projects, everyone kind of just does their own thing on their own time at their own place. But this really gives a real unified kind of band vibe. Even a couple of weeks ago, James [LaBrie, DREAM THEATER singer] flew back out, came down from Japan and we spent time collaborating on vocal melodies, so lyrics can be written to those melodies, which is kind of the way the process is in DREAM THEATER. So, yeah, it's nice to just be a part of each one of these steps, like the old days. It's been a while since I made a record this way."

Portnoy went on to say that he "can't give away much details" about DREAM THEATER's next LP, "but we are all just really, really excited about it, really proud of it. And just can't wait to unleash some info, but I can't do that just yet," he added.

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.'"

Former Sodom guitarist Andy Brings, who now fronts Double Crush Syndrome, has released a new Andy Brings & Band single, "Wär' Schön Wenn's Liebe Wär'". Check out the official video below.





There are things in the universe for which the head of the rock'n'roll gods must be personally responsible.




When the Gene Simmons takes to the stage of the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany on August 6, Double Crush Syndrome frontman / ex- Sodom guitarist Andy Brings and his six-piece band will have opened the evening and, true to the title of his 2018 film Full Circle - Last Exit Rock'n'Roll, will have completed a circle that began 45 years ago. That's how long Brings has been a KISS fan. You can watch the movie here.


Andy Brings: "Gene and I have already crossed paths several times, but playing with him is absolutely amazing. A real rock'n'roll fairytale. This is what I live for!"


As recently as 2023, the former Sodom guitarist created an almost ten-hour memorial to his favorite band as part of his podcast series Rock School with Andy Brings. You can listen to the KISS episode here.





On this evening, Andy Brings & Band will also present their new single, "Wär' Schön Wenn's Liebe Wär'", which was released on July 19.


Brings: "The song is a driving punk rock number, with melody, sing-along potential and a lot of pressure on the beam. The lyrics are about the fact that the person you love is unfortunately blinded by a stupid competitor when it comes to choosing a partner, and you naturally find that unbearable yourself. A feeling probably as old as love itself."


Andy Brings & Band released the single, "Nicht Mein Zirkus" at the beginning of the year. Check out the official video below.


"Nicht Mein Zirkus" and the previous single, "Das Herz Und Die Seele", are the follow-up to the Andy Brings & Band album, Süden, released in June 2022.

Street justice mistrusted! Frontiers Music Srl and streetmetal pioneers Spread Eagle unleash their new music video for “Subway To The Stars” to celebrate the kickoff of the band's summer tour in the United States as well as in Europe, and the UK later this fall. “Subway To The Stars” is taken from the band's latest release produced by Rob De Luca and Tom Camuso.





The video for “Subway To The Stars”, directed by Frankie Fulleda with cinematography by Jim Shearman, sees the band completing their onscreen evolution from hunted to hunter and pays homage to their roots against the New York City and area scenery.




“Our most popular video is 'Switchblade Serenade',” explains vocalist Ray West. “In that clip, two cops harassed and chased us through the streets of NYC. For the ‘Subway to the Stars’ video, Frankie Fulleda had the hilarious idea of turning the tables 180 degrees. He put the band in control, portraying them as an undercover vice squad. We loved the irony of the concept and had a blast filming on the NYC subway and in Coney Island, NY.”





(Photo - Shannon Wilk)

A.M.E.N. sign to My Kingdom Music for what we could define as the new course of the band. The creature that is about to be born is called Argento, will be released on November 22 and promises to be an intimate, avant-gardish work disconnected from the classic patterns of modern feeling.


Vittorio Sabelli (Dawn Of A Dark Age, Notturno, Incantvm) and Erba Del Diavolo from Il Ponte Del Diavolo, hearts, minds and souls of the band, have given an incredible stylistic twist to the project, creating a work with the heart turned towards the past, which moves between classical music and jazz, but explores blues, dark, doom and musical contaminations that develop in 'noir' and psychological fields.


These are Vittorio's words which allow us to enter the bowels of Argento and his project: "A.M.E.N. second chapter was born and evolves from a prelude by J.S. Bach, a D minor prelude, which this time does not cross the boundaries of Grindcore, Brutal Death Metal and Free Jazz that had characterized "The Book of Lies - Liber I", but goes on to discover much more intimate, introspective and primordial meanders of the human soul. The various episodes of the album pay homage to the 'King' of Italian horror, Dario Argento, as the five songs that compose it are inspired by films by the Italian director."




What we are about to present to you promises to be unique in the current musical panorama, an album that succeeds to move from typically Jazz and Blues compositions to moments of pure dark doom in the style of early Ulver, all with the voice of Erba Del Diavolo which is here a true protagonist, decanting and giving melodies with an interpretation that moves from the great jazz singers of the past to embrace the present with her unique timbre and nuances.


So expect an album that sounds like something you can hear in a smoky jazz club in New Orleans and that shows you that when extreme music meets so-called "high" music, the result is unexpectedly sublime.

The raven-haired rock star from Los Angeles, Dorothy, has returned. 


Riding in on a black horse, equipped with leather and signature red lip, the rock world will once again be schooled in the undeniable chemistry that is alive and well amongst metal and rock loyalists and country badasses. A musical outlaw through and through, Dorothy's new single is a display of raw, full-bodied vocal power complimented by heavy-hitting instrumentation and riffs galore.


The first taste of the new music from this Billboard-charting powerhouse is the explosive and unforgettable new single "MUD." The track was produced by Scott Stevens (Halestorm, Shinedown, Nothing More). Stream here and check out a visualizer below.







With "MUD," Dorothy isn't afraid to, well, get dirty. The song boasts a hearty mix of the blues-infused rock her previous albums have been known for, but adds a countrified twist, as can be offered up by only an artist of Dorothy's caliber.


"Our first single off this record is an amalgamation of hard rock, metal, and country tied together with a trap beat and spicy, heavily layered vocals. It was also my first time attempting a scream — proud of that," says Dorothy.


On Thursday, Dorothy launched a new webstore with exclusive merch available for pre-order and shared the single audio, giving fans who signed up an exclusive first listen to the song the day before release. The new webstore is at dorothyonfire.store.


The details of Dororthy's forthcoming fourth studio album will be announced in due course. Dorothy's discography thus far includes Gifts From the Holy Ghost (2022), which was inspired by a spiritual awakening, as well as ROCKISDEAD (2016), which inspired Roc Nation to sign the artist to the label, and 28 Days in the Valley (2018). 


The Budapest, Hungary-born stunner has enjoyed over 1 billion global streams combined across her career and has participated in high-profile collaborations with everyone from Staind to Slash of Guns N' Roses to Scott Stapp of Creed to Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss, earning and ultimately cementing her place among the hard rock elite.

Breakout four-piece Sleep Theory - vocalist Cullen Moore, guitarist Daniel Pruitt, bassist Paolo Vergara, and drummer Ben Pruitt - were one of the biggest success stories of 2023. And 2024 has proven to be just as massive for the foursome, who show absolutely no signs of slowing down.


Having only released the Paper Hearts EP via Epitaph last year, Sleep Theory managed to amass over 120 million global streams, while steadily garnering 3 million streams per week. They've played the main stage at major festivals, where they quickly became one of the most buzzed about bands on the lineup. They embarked on tours alongside Shinedown and Beartooth, achieved two Top 10 radio singles, a Top 5 hit with their song "Fallout," enjoyed numerous viral moments on social media, and began working on a full-length album.


Today, they drop the video for the brand new single "Stuck in My Head". The track is truly a self-fulfilling prophecy - the unforgettable, heartfelt chorus and propulsive riffing will get stuck in your head - and they will remain there.




"We're beyond excited to share our new single 'Stuck In My Head' with all of you," the band states. "This song is incredibly special to us — it captures the essence of our journey and the emotions we've experienced along the way. The video feels like the next step for us, showcasing our evolution both musically and visually. We can't wait for you to experience this next chapter of Sleep Theory with us."





(Photo - Jonathan Weiner)

Today, doom metallers Patriarchs In Black reveal the new track, "Before I Go", the new single from their third album, Visioning, set for international release on July 19 via Metalville Records.


Patriarchs In Black features former Type O Negative/Danzig drummer Johnny Kelly and former Hades/Non-Fiction songwriter and guitarist Dan Lorenzo. The duo utilize different singers and bassists on each song. Their first album Reach For The Scars was released in 2022 and the follow-up My Veneration came out last July.


The track, "Before I Go", features Karl Agell (COC Blind/Lie Heavy) on vocals and Dog Eat Dog bassist Dave Neabore. The video was created by Jay Bones.




Says Lorenzo: "Karl has sang for us on all three of our albums and Johnny and I love working with Karl as well as Dave. I've only met with Karl in person a handful of times, but we go back to 1992 when he jumped up on stage to perform 'Snowblind' with Non-Fiction in Raleigh. Karl's voice has only gotten better since then."





Visioning will be released on July 19 as CD, Vinyl and digitally and can be pre-ordered here.





Tracklisting:


"Entry"
"What Do They Know? (For The Champions)"
"Before I Go"
"Heart Of Spite"
"Low Price"
"Welcome To Hell Again"
"Whiskey On My Mind"
"Empty Cup"
"Curse My Name"
"A Few Good Men"
"Birth"
"Visioning"


"A Few Good Men" lyric video:





"Welcome To Hell Again" lyric video:





"What Do They Know? (For The Champions)":

Less than two weeks after DISTURBED shared a new photo from the recording studio, prompting speculation that the band was working on the follow-up to 2022's "Divisive" album, guitarist Dan Donegan once again took to Instagram Live to clarify that a new DISTURBED LP likely won't arrive until 2025 at the earliest. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Don't take this out of context. I know I mentioned something before on here and it got picked up, probably with good intentions, to talk about the band because we were out in California recently in the studio. And just so there's no confusion — okay? — there's not gonna be an album this year, and I don't know if there's gonna be an album next year. We don't know yet. We haven't made that decision. We just got together to have a writing session. That was it. I know some of these things get taken out of context or blown out of proportion."

Dan continued: "We are getting together, and that was only three days. So let's not get ahead of ourselves here. The session went well. It was just good to get back in the room together and just get creative, and that's all that was So it's always exciting, 'cause getting back up on the horse and doing our thing and getting creative is always fun with my brothers. So it was a very — [we made] a lot of progress. So I'm happy about it, but it was way too early to discuss about making the album or releasing an album that doesn't exist right now. So it was just a simple first-time get-together writing session. And we'll be preparing for some of these festivals in the fall. And we have some meetings — I've got meetings this week just to kind of discuss our game plan. So nothing that we could say just yet. It's just loose talk. Don't take it out of context, and hang in there. As soon as there's something confirmed and we can give you [more information], we will let you know. So, that's it."

On July 3, DISTURBED singer David Draiman shared a couple of photos of him, Donegan and drummer Mike Wengren in the studio with producer Drew Fulk (MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, LIL PEEP, HIGHLY SUSPECT) and he included the following caption: "Epic shit alert @disturbed @dandonegan @mikewengren #ithasbegun".

Back in February 2023, Donegan talked to Terrie Carr of the Morristown, New Jersey radio station 105.5 WDHA about DISTURBED's decision to work with Fulk on its eighth studio album "Divisive", which came out in November 2022. He said: "It's always challenging because… The early part of our career, we worked with Johnny K, who did the first three albums with us. He's a hometown friend, out of Chicago. I knew him growing up, being a local guy, doing the demos for bands locally. And then we kind of self-produced throughout the years. Then we went to Kevin Churko in Las Vegas, who's done FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH [and] IN THIS MOMENT — a lot of great bands — out of Vegas. So, at this point, we just felt like we needed new life, we needed another person in there. So to let somebody in from the outside, to kind of become that fifth member of the band, is always challenging. I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to our music, and to let somebody in and to try to allow them to have an opinion and trust them and respect what they do and bring to the table… I think we've opened up a lot more over the years. The older we get, we've kind of opened up to say, 'Hey, we can trust this person to throw ideas at us. It's gonna challenge us and push us too.'"

The guitarist continued: "It's a bit of a learning curve in the beginning. And I kind of was seeking out producers, trying to think who was catching my attention currently. And I thought Drew was kind of a younger guy in his 30s. I liked what he was doing [with] WAGE WAR and then MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, and he did a couple of one-off songs with PAPA ROACH and POP EVIL and stuff like that. So I really liked what he was doing with those bands, what he brought to the table with the production of them. And I thought that this could be a really good marriage between him and DISTURBED.

"We wanted to get back to some of the core elements of what DISTURBED is — those signature elements of… that animalistic side to David's vocals," Donegan explained. "Even though he's still very melodic, bringing out that animalistic side to him, bringing the heavy riffs with the syncopation in the rhythm section and then with the modern-day production. And we thought Drew would be a good marriage and a good addition to this band. And it was. I flew out to California to meet with him — it was just me and him — just to hang out, not even work together. I just wanted to see if we just vibed as people. And we just hit it off right away. I picked him as the producer. I told the [other] guys [in the band] my opinion: 'I think that Drew is the guy that we should at least enter the studio with and see how it goes.' And it was just a short period of time of being in the studio once we started the writing process that we felt his opinions, his contribution was something that we were gonna benefit from. And it just became a great friendship and working relationship with him. It was amazing. I've never had a better experience in the studio than being with Drew. Him and I had a great chemistry, and it really got the ball rolling for us to kind of create those ideas to give David a bed of music that was gonna inspire him melodically and lyrically."

"Divisive" was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to Billboard, "Divisive" sold 26,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release, with 22,000 units via album sales.

On the all-format Billboard 200 chart, "Divisive" debuted at No. 13.

DISTURBED has had five No. 1s on the all-genre chart, beginning with "Believe" in 2002.

Dan's recent divorce inspired the "Divisive" song "Don't Tell Me", which is a duet with HEART's Ann Wilson. In two decades, it breaks ground as the first-ever guest collaboration on a DISTURBED record.

"It was very personal to me," Dan previously said. "I was going through my divorce, and I wanted to touch on the fact I was in a very long marriage to a wonderful woman. She's a great mother to my kids. We were together for 18 years. Even though the marriage was in a tough spot, it was hard to leg go, because we'd invested so much into each other. I felt like listeners could relate to it."

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