Swedish death metal veterans Entrails are back with a new studio effort, Grip Of Ancient Evil, to be released on July 18 via Hammerheart Records. The album’s second single, “Untreatable Decay”, is now available to stream below.

Entrails comment on the new offering: “We serve you our next single, ‘Untreatable Decay’, which is a more traditional 90’s styled Swedeath track. Filled with “filing” guitars and “ompa ompa” rythmics along with groovy parts. Catchy & heavy and should satisfy the die hard fans of old school Swedeath. Crank it up and enjoy”!



Following the 2022 release of An Eternal Time Of Decay, Entrails dug deeper into the grave to conjure up their darkest and most savage material to date with their eighth full-length album, Grip Of Ancient Evil.

In addition to honouring all its promises of brutality, the LP also features a number of surprises, including guest vocals by Per “Hellbutcher” Gustavsson (Friends Of Hell, Nifelheim) on the song “Inner Demon” and some intriguing acoustic passages.

Fronted by relentless leader Jimmy Lundqvist since the band’s rebirth 15 years ago, Entrails have gone on to bless the European death metal scene with hailed performances at cult festivals such as Netherlands Deathfest, Obscene Extreme Festival, Kill-Town Death Fest, and Hellfest.

In the finest tradition of Swedish old-school death metal, Entrails deliver another uncompromising homage to extreme music with this new ritualistic offering. If an unhealthy mix of HM-2 buzzsaw guitars, bludgeoning rhythms, and horror-drenched lyrics sounds like a delicacy, Grip Of Ancient Evil should be right up your alley.

Pre-order Grip Of Ancient Evil here.



Tracklisting:

“Grip Of Ancient Evil”
“Untreatable Decay”
“Skin ‘Em All”
“Conquering The Unknown”
“Hunt In The Shadows”
“Fed To The Dead”
“Wings Of Death”
“Graveyard Rising”
“Inner Demon”
“Insane Death”
“Consumed By Insects”

“Wings Of Death”:

In a new interview with the Heavy Demons radio show, KING DIAMOND guitarist Andy La Rocque spoke about the band's forthcoming horror trilogy, part one of which is titled "Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We started to record things before the last U.S. tour. And we still have a lot of things to record, so we're working on that too, and we're gonna continue with that as soon as the European tour is over. So, we've been really busy with everything."

Elaborating on the KING DIAMOND songwriting process, Andy said: "[I] pretty much [come up with] a complete demo with a programmed drum track and some keyboards on and some rhythm guitars. And I try to make my demos as complete as possible with everything — except for the vocals, of course — but sometimes even with some solos that we can use on the album even, and the right guitar sounds, and hopefully the right keyboard sounds too. When it comes to King's [Diamond, KING DIAMOND's namesake frontman] stuff, he's a little more basic with a few of the things. For example, the guitars — he lets me re-record the guitars. And then I put solo on, and then Pontus [Egberg], the bass player, puts the bass on and all that stuff. So it's a little bit different, but it's quite complete anyway, from his side. You totally understand what he wants with the feel and the atmosphere of the song. And once that's done and we're okay with the arrangement and stuff, we send that out to the other members in the band so they can start recording. For example, Matt [Thompson, KING DIAMOND drummer] has his own recording studio in Dallas, where he lives. So when he gets the demo from us, he just mutes the drums, put his drums on, and sends it to me so I can fix the drums and set up a good sound on everything. Same with the bass player and also with Mike [Wead], the other guitarist — kind of the same procedure. And once the drums are done and we're okay with everything, King is doing the vocals. So that's about it. And then, of course, we can go in and change a few things too. If something needs to be added or changed — a rhythm part on the guitar or solo; whatever needs to be changed — we can do that whenever. So it's a pretty creative procedure."

KING DIAMOND launched its spring/summer 2025 European tour on June 4 at the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden.

The band's lineup for the current trek consists of King Diamond on lead vocals, Andy La Rocque and Mike Wead on guitars, Pontus Egberg on the bass, and Matt Thompson on drums. Greek female vocalist Hel Pyre, who previously played bass for NERVOSA, is handling backing vocals on the trek.

La Rocque recently told Finland's Chaoszine about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for KING DIAMOND's next LP: "Right after the [fall 2024] U.S. tour, we talked about, 'Okay, let's just take a short break and we start working on the next few songs right away,' because we have most of the songs like a demo thing of most of the songs. But then we had some issues with… I'm not gonna go into that, but there were some diseases, people were sick for a long time, and then the time just ran out kind of thing. And then we had to start planning the European tour [for the summer of 2025]. It's, like, 'Wow.' We now will, after going back from this European summer tour, we will just have a short break and then go back into recording the stuff."

Asked if all the lyrics for the next KING DIAMOND album have been written, Andy said: "[KING DIAMOND frontman and namesake has] got all the ideas in [his head]. A lot of lyrics are already done. He's got everything in [his head]. A lot of small Post-it notes everywhere with lyric lines and stuff like that. The whole story is pretty much there. So we just need to start recording the music in a proper way. And we've got demos of a lot of things. I mean, I think I have seven or eight songs kind of already. Demo needs to change, drums need to change, a few things, we could use that. But King also has a lot of ideas and songs. So we'll see how many of my songs will end up on the album — maybe three, maybe four. I don't know. We'll see. But we have a lot of music, that's for sure."

Elaborating on the KING DIAMOND songwriting process, Andy said: "I would say me and King write the music. That's how we want it to be. And we try to write it as complete as possible when we present it to each other. Sometimes it's not complete — it's like a guitar riff, maybe a click track or a drum machine. And sometimes it is kind of complete, except for we need real drums on it because usually on the demos it's like a programmed drum machine, things like that. Sometimes I play the bass, and we want [KING DIAMOND bassist] Pontus [Egberg] to play the bass, of course, but for the demos [I sometimes play the bass] to get the complete picture of what we want. And also I try to make as much of the keyboards as possible too. And same with King. And then when we think that, 'Okay, this might be a good song,' so we'll send it to each other. And then we start doing arrangement. King can call me and say, 'I think you should just take that part out or double that section because that's really good.' So that's how we work out things. And maybe I can tell him, like, 'That solo section or that section of the song is really good to play a solo on, so maybe we can use that instead of what yet have.' Things like that, arrangement-wise."

Andy also talked about the new KING DIAMOND songs "Electro Therapy" and "Spider Lilly" which were first performed during the band's fall 2024 U.S. tour. He said: "We were kind of done with these songs. That's why we decided to try to play them live and see how it works out. And that's what we did. So, for example, 'Spider Lilly' is gonna be on the album. And we play that live. And it's also released on video. So, yeah, that's how we do it. We don't have to wait for a whole album. We thought, 'We need to put out something now for the fans.'"

During the chat, La Rocque addressed his previous comment that he wanted the next KING DIAMOND album to have a more organic sound, similar to how it was on some of the band's early efforts. Asked if he and his bandmates will have to do a lot of "tweaking" in the studio to achieve this sound, Andy said: "Not really. That's what we don't do this time around. We don't do a lot of tweaks to it. It's organic also in the way of the playing is not like copied and pasted, stuff like that. It's more relaxed play. And there might be some things you hear that are like, 'Oh, yeah…' We're gonna keep that… Because that's what we had back in the '80s too when we recorded an album. Everything wasn't perfect — more organic, and not everything triggered and sound like everyone else. But we want a more acoustic, kind of more of the acoustic drums, and stuff like that, to make it a little bit more organic. It doesn't have to be perfect everywhere. It's good, but some things might not be a hundred percent, only 99.99, you know what I'm saying? But that's also to make everything like a more loose or organic feel to it. Of course it's gonna be good. We don't release anything that we're not happy with."

As for when "Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920" might see the light of day, Andy said: "We have been talking about we have to have it recorded before Christmas. That's the plan we have. Then if someone gets sick or whatever happens, then if that's not the case, we'll see. But that's the plan we have. We have to record everything by Christmas. So that means it's coming out next spring."

On the topic of KING DIAMOND's touring plans in support of "Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920", Andy said: "I don't know. Maybe next fall [we will be back on the road]. I don't know yet. We don't really have any plans with that yet. We'll see. When the album's done, we're gonna start working on a new cycle, so that includes touring. But hopefully, yes."

In a separate interview with Fistful Of Metal magazine, King stated about the status of the long-awaited new KING DIAMOND album: "Well, for starters, the original name that we had picked was 'The Institute'. However, that has now changed to, 'St Lucifer's Hospital 1920', since the start of the U.S. tour. There very well may be a track on the album called 'The Institute'. We were supposed to release the album this year, and in fact the album was supposed to be completely finished prior to the live shows, but I just want to make sure that it's the best material I've ever released. Right now, we are gearing up to film the next video for the single 'Lobotomy', which will definitely be released later this year. Other songs that are completed are an intro track called 'Under The Surface', 'The Institute', 'The Nun', 'Faceless' and, of course, 'Spider Lilly'. There's another track, which I'm not sure is going to be on the album yet, called 'Deep In The Darkness 1920'. Andy has been working on at least five tracks, one of which has as monster chorus that we plan to record with a choir. The plan is that this album will be the first of a trilogy, and I already have all three album titles."

Last December, KING DIAMOND released a studio version of "Spider Lilly". It was a first-time mixing collaboration with Arthur Rizk, who also mastered the track. The music and lyrics were written by King Diamond.

The official music video for "Spider Lilly" was directed by My Good Eye Visuals. Part of the clip was filmed at the very haunted Pennhurst Asylum outside of Philadelphia on a travel day during the band's 2024 North American tour, two days before Halloween. It was only King himself and actress Jodi Cachia who could participate on that specific day, together with producer David Brodsky, Allie Woest and their crew.

KING DIAMOND performed "Spider Lilly" live for the first time at the kick-off concert of the band's 2024 North American headlining tour, which launched on October 15 at Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas. The "Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920" trek ran through December 6 in Dallas, Texas. Support came from OVERKILL and NIGHT DEMON. Additional backing vocals for the KING DIAMOND set were provided by the special guest Myrkur.

In November 2024, the KING DIAMOND shows in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (November 20 at Edmonton Convention Center),Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (November 21 at TCU Place),Calgary, Alberta Canada (November 22 at Grey Eagle Event Centre),Portland, Oregon (November 24 at Keller Auditorium) and Seattle, Washington (November 25 at The Moore Theatre) were canceled due to "unforeseen circumstances".

In October 2023, KING DIAMOND released a music video for the 2019 single "Masquerade Of Madness". The clip was directed by David Brodsky and Allison Woest of My Good Eye Visuals.

A month after KING DIAMOND released "Masquerade Of Madness" in November 2019, La Rocque told The Metal Voice that he came up with the music for the track first before passing it off to King, who "needed to arrange a few things and change just a small few things for making it work with his vocals. And then, of course, he wrote the lyrics for it," the guitarist revealed. "So we [went] a little back and forth until he felt like, 'Okay, this is cool, man. This is the right key to sing in,' and all that."

KING DIAMOND received a Grammy nomination in the "Best Metal Performance" category for the track "Never Ending Hill" off the band's last album, 2007's "Give Me Your Soul … Please".

"Give Me Your Soul ... Please" sold 4,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 174 on The Billboard 200 chart.

KING DIAMOND released a DVD/Blu-ray, "Songs For The Dead Live", in January 2019 via Metal Blade Records. The set captured 1987's seminal "Abigail" album in its entirety, twice, and in very different locales: Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting in June 2016 and Philadelphia's Fillmore in November 2015. The performances featured KING DIAMOND's current band, comprising of guitarists La Rocque and Mike Wead, bassist Pontus Egberg and Matt Thompson.

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

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

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

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

Asked if BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE has studio time booked for the upcoming eighth LP, Paget said: "Not yet, but it's all in the works." As for who will produce the effort, the guitarist, "[We] pretty much [have someone picked out]. But there's conversations happening all the time. We wanna make this one a banger, as we do with all of them. But we really wanna throw some thought behind it and make it as big as we possibly can."

Also at this year's Download, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE frontman Matt Tuck, whose band has spent the first half of 2025 celebrating the 20th anniversary of its debut album, "The Poison", on tours of Europe and North America, spoke to James Wilson-Taylor of Rock Sound about BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's plans for the group's eighth album, tentatively due in 2026. Matt said: "We haven't had a lot of opportunity to get back and focus on it, 'cause since I [last] saw you, we just haven't stopped playing. It's been really intense, but a good intense."

He continued: "There's a lot of love around the world for the band, and we're just trying to kind of make the most of this opportunity, 'cause once [the 20th-anniversary celebration of 'The Poison'] is done, it's done forever. We're not gonna do it again. We're not gonna milk 25, 30, none of that shit.

"But, yeah, I listened to [the new ideas we have come up with so far] a lot when we were [touring] in the States [earlier this year], and, yeah, when I hear it, it still gives me the vibes," Tuck added. "And I think the beginning of August, we're gonna hit the studio for real. And we'll be there until it's done."

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

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

Last month, TRIVIUM revealed that plans were scrapped to have the two bands hit other territories around the world as part of "The Poisoned Ascendancy" tour. Details surrounding the cancelations were unclear, although TRIVIUM bassist Paolo Gregoletto said in a livestream that Tuck had pulled out of the tour early as he "didn't wanna do it." Gregoletto also claimed that Tuck made the move because he is "the sole decision maker of [BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE] and he has no respect for us or our crew."

The members of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE later shared a statement on social media saying that they were "grateful" to the fans who wanted to see them live but explained that they had decided to focus their efforts on making a new album instead.

"We're incredibly grateful to have been given the chance to look back at a pair of life-changing albums for us & TRIVIUM, who we have nothing but respect and admiration for," they said. "With that being said, the four of us collectively feel that the time is right for us to divert our full attention towards the next chapter of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE."

They added: "We can't wait to get back in the studio later this summer and finish what we promise you is our best album to date. To go along with this, we are already starting to make plans for the 2026 & 2027 touring cycles, hitting every corner. We are super excited to drop new music for you all. We value our fans above all else and are forever grateful for your support. We'll be back with all of you very soon."

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

Fan-filmed video of EXODUS's June 19 performance at the Copenhell festival in Copenhagen, Denmark can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Germany's Rock Hard magazine, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt opened up about the departure of singer Steve "Zetro" Souza and the decision to bring Rob Dukes back. Asked why Zetro "had to leave", Gary said:  "Without going into details, I tell people like this: being in a band is like being married. And you might see that husband and wife out in public and they're really nice and charming, but you don't know what's happening in their house. Like, maybe she's throwing fucking dishes and knives at his head. Maybe he's smacking her around. You don't know what's happening. And there was a lot of unhappiness in the band, and I wish him no ill will. We had a good time until just kind of the four of us were trying to enjoy this as much as we can. I'm 61 years old. I want to end my career smiling all the time."

Asked if bringing Rob back was "the only option" or if he talked to other singers as well before deciding to reunite with Dukes, Gary said: "No, we talked to nobody else. Rob's still one of our best friends. And I don't like change. That's the thing — people think, 'Oh, well, they did this.' I had some guy on Instagram say, 'You just did this for money.' And when has it ever been financially beneficial to part ways with your singer? It's usually the opposite. But, once again, we're all in our sixties now. We wanna have fun with friends. We wanna enjoy ourselves doing this. And I could have brought in some young guy who's 30 years old, who still has abs, isn't fat like the rest of us, and can jump off the top of drum risers and stuff. But no — we'll stick with guys our own age."

Holt went on to praise Dukes's vocal performance on EXODUS's upcoming LP, saying: "Wait till you you hear the new album. It's insane. He does things vocally you've never heard him do or anybody in EXODUS. It's insane."

According to Gary, EXODUS recorded two albums' worth of material this time around. "We just decided we were gonna work ourselves as hard as we could and try to accomplish this," he explained. "And the second one's 80 percent recorded, 'cause we did 18 songs. And so when it's time for the next album, we go in and record two more [songs], not 10 more. And then I can go on vacation. I've never had a vacation in my life… We worked hard. We were in the studio for seven weeks, and one day after we stopped recording, we were on tour. So since March 2nd, I've been home for two and a half weeks."

Regarding a possible release date for the first new EXODUS album, Gary said: "Yeah, early next year. I think February. [As for when the second new album will arrive], we'll figure that out. But I have a lot less work to do when it's time. All of us, we can go on vacation. I've never had a vacation."

Holt said that fellow EXODUS guitarist Lee Altus, who has been in the band for two decades, "really stepped up" this time around "and contributed six [songs]. Lee — usually he contributes a couple of songs. He wrote six songs. Lee wrote the longest song. I'm the guy who writes the long songs, and most of mine are five minutes long."

Gary added: "But the album's spectacular. We couldn't be more proud. It's beautiful. It's crushing. It's catchy — hits, punishing hits. It's spectacular. There's some stuff that is so different for us, but it's 100 percent EXODUS. You'll go, 'Holy shit.'"

Holt previously talked about EXODUS's plans to release two new albums earlier this month in an interview with The Dan Chan Show. He said at the time: "[We are tracking] 19 songs. And they're all killer. I mean, in the past, you read about this band, 'Yeah, we went in the studio. We had 39 songs,' and I'm, like, 'How do you have 39 great songs?' To me, you usually have maybe 20 and some ideas. But I realized that it is possible — at least 19. 'Cause Lee was really active as a songwriter on this album, and he contributed, like, six songs — something like that. And we had 19 songs, and they're all awesome. The hard part is figuring out what to put on the record. And so we figured we can tour for the next album and then take a break in between releases and have it already in the can."

Asked if EXODUS is currently "in post-production" for the two new albums, Holt said: "We still have some vocals left to do. We ran out a little bit of time. Not a whole lot. A couple of songs. A couple of things we have left to do are on songs that we know we're gonna put on the next album, so we could sit on that. And I'm sure by the time we get to thinking about releasing the second one, I'll have something new I wanna record. And Lee will have something. We're, like, 'Damn, well, I got something way sicker.' But then we go in the studio for two weeks and not two months."

Regarding how he and his EXODUS bandmates will go about choosing which songs to put on the first album and which to save for the follow-up, Gary said: "We're still working on it. [Laughs] We're letting vocals dictate a lot of it, and there's a couple of songs that still don't have vocals on it. And sometimes, once you put the vocal melody on it, a song comes alive. So some of 'em we know we want on this record. Like I wrote two epics, longer ones, so we'll put one on this and one on the other. I fluctuate back and forth over which one all the time. But, yeah, everybody else wants to put this one. So I said, 'Cool. We'll save the other.' There's a big variety of music on it. Some of the shit's so lightning fast and some of it's almost doom — like, slow, slow, slow, [but] über fucking sinister."

Holt also talked about his creative process, explaining: "I'm always writing a riff when I have a guitar, but as far as songwriting, I keep telling myself I wanna do more of it all the time, not just when I have to. 'Cause you get 61 years old and you start thinking about stupid shit, like, if anything happens to me, I'd like to be like Prince and have a vault of material to release. His final works. So you literally start thinking about shit like that.

"I get in the writing mode," he continued. "When we record, we leave the drums set up the entire time. We don't go in and do drums and then they go away. We're prepared to record a new song at any day. And the fastest fucking one on the album — it's just ridiculous — I wrote it in the last two weeks of recording. I sent it to Tom [Hunting, EXODUS drummer], and he had a panic attack when he heard how fast it was. And then when we [recorded it], he realized it was fine. [Laughs]"

Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza's departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.

Dukes previously joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band's studio albums — "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" (2005),"The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" (2007),"Let There Be Blood" (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS's classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).

EXODUS played its first concert with Dukes in nearly 11 years on April 5 at the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned "Bonded By Blood" LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

SHINEDOWN guitarist Zach Myers has once again said that he has no issue with bands who use a limited amount of backing tracks to fill out their sound during their concerts.

In recent years, more and more artists have been given a pass for relying on pre-recorded tracks, drum triggers and other assorted technology that makes concerts more synthetic but also more consistent. For better or worse, pre-recorded tracks are becoming increasingly common for touring artists of all levels and genres and they're not just used in pop music — many rock artists utilize playback tracks to varying degrees.

Myers addressed some rock acts' reliance on pre-recorded tracks in a new interview with American Musical Supply. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think there's a big misconception about… I see all these bands that, like, it's become this cool trend to brag about not using tracks. Like, shut up, dude. Who cares? QUEEN did it. So, shut up. If QUEEN did it, shut up. Don't say anything else. And if you wanna do it, that's great. But people wanna hear the symphony on [the SHINEDOWN song] 'Second Chance' [when we play it live], and I don't feel like bringing up…

"Now if you're running vocals and you're running guitars and you're not playing things, I'm not for that," Zach clarified. "And I think people think when you run tracks, that's what you're doing. I'm, like, dude, there's nary a guitar track out there, there's not a bass track. Everything you're hearing is coming from us unless you hear a cello."

Myers was previously asked for his opinion on bands using backing tracks during live concerts in a March 2024 interview with The Jeremy White Show. The guitarist said said at the time: "We've never been this band that uses… I think because we talk about tracks, people think that we are this band that uses all these tracks and that's not true.

"Here's the thing: all these people who bitch about it, and even [SiriusXM radio personality] Eddie Trunk [who has been vocal about his dismay for the use of backing tracks during live shows], I agree with certain things they said. If there's a guitar solo going on and the guy's not soloing, dude, that's bullshit. I agree with that. If there's somebody pretending to play the piano, I agree with that. If there's a guy up there just [pretends to be singing without making a sound] and he's not singing, I agree with that. We just use it to fill in… We don't wanna hire another bandmember or two more bandmembers. I don't wanna play a xylophone in the two seconds that I'm not playing guitar. I don't wanna be holding the keyboard and hold the guitar at the same time. I can — I do it on 'State Of My Head'.

"I always get quoted, dude, in every Blabbermouth article [about backing tracks] of being like, 'Well, that's just the way it is now,' and blah, blah, blah, which I probably should have done a better job of voicing my opinion [when I spoke about it in a March 2020 interview with Rock Feed]. I agree with the people who bitch about those things. If you've got a guy up there that's not singing at all and he's just miming, that's bullshit. I one thousand percent agree with that. We don't really run any guitars. We run 40-piece orchestras for 'Second Chance' and 'The Crow & The Butterfly' and 'A Symptom Of Being Human'.

"I think that there's ways to do it that are great that you don't want to bring three other people on stage with you and mess up the dynamic of what your band is," he explained. "And so I definitely think there's a way to do that.

"I don't get mad at these old 'get off my lawn' dudes who are, like, 'Oh, well, I don't think it's that way.' The funny thing about Trunk, to me, is two of his favorite bands are DEF LEPPARD and KISS, and I'm, like, 'You don't say shit about them doing it, man.' Dude, DEF LEPPARD invented tracks. Them and QUEEN. I can't think of two other bands who did it first. QUEEN did it. You think QUEEN did the bridge to 'Bohemian Rhapsody' live? No! They walked off stage! They weren't even on stage when it was happening. Yeah, they walked off stage! You think when you hear [the opening lines of DEF LEPPARD's 'Pour Some Sugar On Me'], 'step inside, walk this way,' you don't think there's a vocal track going? Shut the fuck up. Come on, man.

"Here's the thing, again: if you're paying money to go see a show and it's all on track — dude, I'm with you, man. That's bullshit," he clarified. "Go see a play. But here's the thing, and I would invite Eddie Trunk to do this: come to our show, grab a set of in-ears, put 'em in and we'll mute the tracks that are rolling and you won't be able to tell a fucking difference.

"I agree that if bands can go on stage and not do it without it, that's a problem. I can't tell you the amount of shows that our tracks have gone down and no one knows. We know, but no one knows. We've finished so many shows where the system shut down. 'All right, we'll just finish the show.'"

KISS frontman Paul Stanley, who had been struggling to hit the high notes in many of the band's classic songs for a number of years, was accused of singing to a backing tape on KISS's recently completed "End Of The Road" tour.

Back in 2015, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons slammed bands who used backing tapes for not being honest enough to include that fact on their concert tickets.

"I have a problem when you charge $100 to see a live show and the artist uses backing tracks," Simmons said. "It's like the ingredients in food. If the first ingredient on the label is sugar, that's at least honest. It should be on every ticket — you're paying $100, 30 to 50 percent of the show is [on] backing tracks and they'll sing sometimes, sometimes they'll lip sync. At least be honest. It's not about backing tracks, it's about dishonesty.

"There's nobody with a synthesizer on our stage, there's no samples on the drums, there's nothing," Gene continued. "There's very few bands who do that now — AC/DC, METALLICA, us. I can't even say that about U2 or THE [ROLLING] STONES. There's very few bands who don't use [backing] tracks."

In March 2023, KISS's longtime manager Doc McGhee defended Stanley's vocal performance on "End Of The Road", explaining that the "Star Child" "fully sings to every song" at every concert. He explained: It's enhanced. It's just part of the process to make sure that everybody hears the songs the way they should be sang to begin with. Nobody wants to hear people do stuff that's not real, that's not what they came to hear."

When McGhee was asked to clarify if he was "actually saying there are backing tracks that [Paul is] singing to," Doc said: "He'll sing to tracks. It's all part of a process. Because everybody wants to hear everybody sing. But he fully sings to every song."

Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach has previously said that he is "one of the last people" who are still not using pre-recorded tracks at their live shows. "I don't know how much longer I can say to you that I don't use tapes onstage, because I don't, and I never have," he told Consequence Of Sound. "And I still don't. When I have opening bands, and they're using tapes, and then I come out and I don't use tapes… sometimes, it makes me feel stupid, because I'm like, 'What am I doing, when all these kids half my age can come onstage and do all of my moves, but they don't have to warm up for an hour before the show, or weeks, before the first show?' Sometimes, I'm like, 'Why do I even bother, if the public is so used to this other way?' It's becoming very rare to come see a good band that's actually a real band — that's not miming or doing silly moves while a tape is running. It just becomes more rare as the years go on."

In 2019, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith said that he doesn't "agree" with certain rock artists relying on pre-recorded tracks during their live performances. "I tell you what, I see it with a lot of younger bands, and I don't think it's a good thing at all," he told the New York Post. "I mean, the music is getting too technical now. You have computerized recording systems, which we use, but I think we use them more for convenience than because we need to. We've toured with a couple bands that use tapes — it's not real. You're supposed to play live; it should be live. I don't agree with using tapes … I think it's a real shame."

One musician who has been open about his band's use of taped vocals during live performances is MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx, who said: "We've used technology since '87." He added the group employed "sequencers, sub tones, background vox tracks, plus background singers and us. [MÖTLEY CRÜE also taped] stuff we can't tour with, like cello parts in ballads, etc.... We love it and don't hide it. It's a great tool to fill out the sound."

In a 2014 interview, MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars admitted that he wasn't comfortable with the fact that his band used pre-recorded backing vocals in its live shows, claiming that he preferred to watch groups whose performances are delivered entirely live. "I don't like it," he said. "I think a band like ours… I have to say '60s bands were my favorite — '60s and '70s bands — because they were real, like, three-piece bands or four-piece bands, and they just got up there and kicked it up. Made a mistake? So what? Sounded a little bit empty here or there? So what? It's the bigness and the rawness and the people that developed and wrote the songs and made them and presented them. To me, that's what I really like. I mean, I could put on a MÖTLEY CD and play with it all day long. I don't wanna do that."

Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz

Kscope has announced the signing of Dutch progressive metal titans TEXTURES.

The band's new single, "Closer To The Unknown", and the accompanying visualizer offer a glimpse into TEXTURES' bold, cinematic sound, as they prepare for their debut full-length release on Kscope.

"It's an honor for TEXTURES to join the Kscope roster and be part of a long list of artists who inspired us and our genre," the band stated. "To us the label represents a certain kind of class...a certain brand representing authentic and eclectic music. We hope we can add our own TEXTURES flavor to Kscope."

Speaking about the new single, the band shared: "'Closer To The Unknown' is one of the most direct and hard-hitting tracks we've ever written — and also one of the most straightforward songs on our versatile album that we're currently working on. It is showcasing one of the iconic new elements on this record: the prominent synths and sound design that really added to our new TEXTURES sound."

With landmark albums such as "Drawing Circles" (2006),"Silhouettes" (2008) and "Phenotype" (2016),TEXTURES built a devoted global fanbase and received critical praise for their technical brilliance and emotional intensity.

Known for their complex compositions, polyrhythmic precision, and melodic depth, TEXTURES have long been hailed as pioneers of modern progressive metal. Since their acclaimed 2003 debut "Polars", the band has consistently pushed genre boundaries, blending elements of metalcore, djent, and ambient soundscapes into a style uniquely their own.

TEXTURES' debut Kscope album is currently in the works, with news on the way soon.

Photo credit: Jeroen Aarts Photography

In a new interview with Dark Macek of the Brutally Delicious podcast, FIREWIND guitarist Gus G. spoke about the band's touring activities in support of the "Stand United" album, which came out in March 2024 via AFM. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's been just a little over a year [since we released the LP]. Basically, we toured pretty hard for that album. We went on tour straight after it came out. I think last year we did about 80 shows, or 70-80 shows, something like that. Man, we were on the road for five months. But we did a European tour, we did an American headline tour, which we hadn't done in 13 years. We did a support tour where we supported DRAGONFORCE right after the pandemic, but our own headline thing we hadn't done since 2011. And yeah, we did that. We went to Asia. Then we did another tour in Europe. So we did a lot of stuff. We did a U.K. tour. We just wrapped things up this past February; that's when the world tour officially kind of ended."

Asked if this is the end of the "Stand United" album cycle, Gus said: "I think so, yeah. This year we're just taking it easy so we can write the next [album]. And we're just doing a few festivals scattered here and there this summer. This is actually the first official summer festival for us [at the Mad With Power in Madison, Wisconsin in early June], and then with FIREWIND we have four more gigs in Europe later this summer."

Regarding where he finds the inspiration to write new music, Gus said: "I can tell you it's getting tougher every time, but I don't know. I felt, to be honest — I don't want it to sound silly or anything, but the vibe that we get from the fans and the reception and the energy that we get after this tour ended, it was, like, 'Okay, I'm ready. Let's go back into it and do another one.' 'Cause we wanna get back out and do it all over again. And I had a lot of ideas, and I've been writing a lot. And since we decided to stay at home anyways, we didn't have a lot of tours coming up, I got creative. So actually I finished up… I shouldn't say too much about it, but I finished up nine tracks. And we've already done the drums for it last week. So I'm a little bit of a crazy workaholic guy. And I'm working on two albums parallel. I'm working on some solo stuff as well. But, yeah, my priority was FIREWIND. I wanted to complete FIREWIND album number 11. And we've done the drums for it. And this summer, I think I'm gonna be tracking the rest, like guitars and all that stuff, and write the vocals with [FIREWIND singer] Herbie [Langhans]."

When the interviewer noted that a band like BLACK SABBATH has also had a lot of singer changes over the years but has somehow managed to retain a signature sound, Gus concurred. "It's a very good example, actually," he said. "And BLACK SABBATH is always my go-to band, because [Tony] Iommi has always very troubled with the singer position in his band, and so have I. But I always looked at history: what did Lord Iommi do back then? What did he do? And what would Tony Iommi do in this situation? And he always came back with another amazing singer.

"I don't care what people say, but I think, in terms of BLACK SABBATH, their worst album, so to speak, is still, by comparison, much better than most metal albums out there," Gus explained. "The stuff the guy writes is just insane. So it depends which era you are into, of course. They have different eras — the '80s and the '90s albums, and the '70s, of course, is the classic stuff with Ozzy [Osbourne].

"Actually, one thing talking about singer changes — yes, it hurts the band, for sure," Gus admitted. "That's the downside. But the good thing is when someone new comes in, it's how you keep things fresh in a way. You bring new energy into the band. And that's what happened with us, with Herbie, five years ago when he came to the band, and he brought this new energy. And the first album we did [2020's 'Firewind'] was kind of put together — we rushed it, 'cause we had to go on this major tour and then everything got canceled 'cause of COVID. But then I think 'Stand United', we kind of found each other. I started writing more for the singer, a specific singer's voice. And I think this is what is happening right now. We're kind of capitalizing on that. And we've been building on that thing."

"Stand United" featured nine brand new songs produced with Dennis Ward (MAGNUM, UNISONIC),as well as a cover of the 1980s pop rock classic "Talking In Your Sleep", originally recorded by THE ROMANTICS but given a metal twist in the style of FIREWIND.

FIREWIND released a concert album/Blu-ray, "Still Raging", in September 2023 via AFM Records.

In early 2020, FIREWIND officially parted ways with guitarist/keyboardist Bob Katsionis and singer Henning Basse.

Gus and Langhans, who previously played with AVANTASIA and SINBREED, got to know each other back in the autumn of 2019, when the FIREWIND leader was looking for a suitable replacement for Henning Basse after the tour with QUEENSRŸCHE. Just a few weeks later, the recordings for "Firewind" were a done deal, ready for Swedish sound engineer Tobias Lindell (EUROPE, AVATAR, H.E.A.T.) to mix them in Lindell Audio Studios.

MÖTLEY CRÜE and Dolly Parton have released the official music video for their new version of the band's 1985 power ballad "Home Sweet Home". The new track appears on MÖTLEY CRÜE's upcoming collection "From The Beginning", which will arrive in time for the launch of the band's Las Vegas residency at the Park MGM on September 12. A portion of the proceeds from the single will benefit Covenant House, an organization close to the hearts of the members of MÖTLEY CRÜE. Covenant House provides safe shelter, meals, hope and more to help youth experiencing homelessness.

The new "Home Sweet Home" video, which mixes new footage of Parton in the studio with vintage clips of the CRÜE, and information about homeless youth and Covenant House, can be seen below.

The members of MÖTLEY CRÜE shared in a joint statement: "'Home Sweet Home' was first released in 1985 as a single from our 'Theatre Of Pain' album. For an icon like Dolly Parton to sing on a song that has not only meant so much to us but to all the fans through the years, is a career high that means a lot to us. We couldn't be happier to celebrate the 40th anniversary of 'Home Sweet Home' in this special way, and we're excited to share this version of the song with all the Dolly and MÖTLEY fans around the world."

The members add, "That we were able to unite with Dolly to raise awareness for homeless youth and the amazing work of Covenant House, which provides them safe housing and care, makes it even more special. We hope you'll enjoy 'Home Sweet Home' featuring Dolly Parton as much as Dolly and we enjoyed creating it."

Dolly Parton offered, "It was an honor and a joy working in the studio on MÖTLEY CRÜE's 40th Anniversary re-release of 'Home Sweet Home'. I was so pleased that they would ask me to sing on such a classic."

"From The Beginning" will be made available on CD and vinyl via BMG. The collection spans four decades of CRÜE anthems, kicking off with their first global single and MTV video "Live Wire" and winding through the years to 2024's Top 5 Rock smash "Dogs Of War". In between are the hits and fan favorites that shaped the rock genre and a generation, including "Kickstart My Heart", "Dr. Feelgood", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Shout At The Devil", "Smokin' In The Boys Room", "Wild Side" and many more.

The original studio albums that featured these tracks, including the decade-plus gold, platinum and multi-platinum run of classics "Too Fast For Love", "Shout At The Devil", "Theatre Of Pain", "Girls Girls Girls" and "Dr. Feelgood" combined have sold over 100 million albums globally, generated 10 billion streams, and dominated the charts around the world. MÖTLEY CRÜE's loyal fans have been there from the beginning, and their support remains as strong as ever. But with their music featured in video games, movie trailers, films, TV shows and sporting events daily, new fans continue to discover the band's amazing catalog.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's Las Vegas residency will kick off September 12 and run through October 3. These 10 shows at Park MGM will be the first and only chance for MÖTLEY CRÜE fans to see the band live in 2025.

The CD version of "From The Beginning" features 19 tracks, while the vinyl has been expanded to 21 songs, including "Afraid" and the title track of last year's "Cancelled" EP.

CD track listing:

01. Live Wire
02. Take Me To The Top
03. Shout At The Devil [remastered - 2021]
04. Looks That Kill [remastered - 2021]
05. Too Young To Fall In Love [remastered - 2021]
06. Smokin' In The Boys Room [remastered - 2021]
07. Home Sweet Home [remastered - 2021]
08. Girls, Girls, Girls
09. Wild Side
10. Dr. Feelgood
11. Without You
12. Kickstart My Heart
13. Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
14. Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)
15. Primal Scream
16. The Dirt (Est. 1981)
17. Saints of Los Angeles
18. Dogs Of War
19. Home Sweet Home (feat. Dolly Parton)

2LP track listing:

Side A

01. Live Wire
02. Take Me To The Top
03. Shout at the Devil [remastered -2021]
04. Looks That Kill [remastered - 2021]
05. Too Young To Fall In Love [remastered -2021]
06. Smokin' In The Boys Room [remastered -2021]

Side B

01. Home Sweet Home [remastered -2021]
02. Girls, Girls, Girls
03. Wild Side
04. Dr. Feelgood
05. Without You

Side C

01. Kickstart My Heart
02. Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
03. Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)
04. Primal Scream
05. Afraid *

Side D

01. Saints of Los Angeles
02. The Dirt (Est. 1981)
03. Dogs Of War
04. Cancelled *
05. Home Sweet Home (feat. Dolly Parton)

* LP-only tracks

MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx and guitarist John 5 made guest appearances on "Bygones", a song from Parton's "Rockstar" album.

"Bygones", which also features JUDAS PRIEST's Rob Halford, debuted atop the Mediabase Classic Rock Songs chart in June 2023.

John 5 joined MÖTLEY CRÜE in the fall of 2022 as the replacement for the band's co-founding guitarist Mick Mars. Mick announced his retirement from touring with MÖTLEY CRÜE in October 2022 as a result of worsening health issues.

Last October, MÖTLEY CRÜE released the "Cancelled" EP, featuring the title track, MÖTLEY CRÜE's cover version of the BEASTIE BOYS classic "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)" and "Dogs Of War". All three songs were recorded in April 2023 with longtime producer Bob Rock.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's deal with Big Machine sees the band and the label working together again after making the 2014 project "Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute To Mötley Crüe", which featured CRÜE tracks covered by country stars RASCAL FLATTS, FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE, Darius Rucker and more. Big Machine also partnered with John 5 for the release of his 2021 album "Sinner".

MÖTLEY CRÜE's last studio album was 2008's "Saints Of Los Angeles", which was followed by a 2009 "Greatest Hits" compilation.

In 2018, MÖTLEY CRÜE recorded four new songs for "The Dirt" movie, including the single "The Dirt (Est. 1981) (Feat. Machine Gun Kelly)", "Ride With The Devil", "Crash And Burn" and the band's own spin on Madonna's "Like A Virgin".

ENUFF Z'NUFF is back with a sweet serving of "Xtra Cherries", the highly anticipated 21st studio album chock full of the band's signature power-pop music stylings mixed with melodic rock, which is due out July 25 via Cleopatra Records (their first of all new material for the label). It's all topped off with even more treats: a lineup of stellar guest artists.

The Blue Island, Illinois maestros — led by founding member Chip Z'nuff (singer, bass, rhythm/lead guitars),Jason Camino (rhythm/lead guitars),Luis Kalil (lead/rhythm guitars),Daxx Nielsen (drums/percussion) — have once again produced a lush and hook-filled collection of songs, which include performances from fellow legendary musician friends Robin Zander of CHEAP TRICK, original JOURNEY vocalist Robert Fleischman and current JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon, GUNS N' ROSES drummer Steven Adler (on the CD only),Steve Stevens and Gunnar Nelson.

The closing track, "Shine", features Fleischman, Schon and original lead vocalist/guitarist/co-founder Donnie Vie, who hasn't sung with the band since 2013. Also, late original guitarist Derek Frigo — who passed in 2004 — makes an appearance thanks to an old demo of "You Make Me Wanna Lie", which also features a new vocal recording by Robin Zander of CHEAP TRICK.

The album's first single, "Heavy Metal", was released on all digital outlets, while a video for the song can be seen below.

"The new ENUFF Z'NUFF 'Xtra Cherries' record is a potpourri of songs celebrated through our kaleidoscope of what ENUFF Z'NUFF is about," proclaims Chip Z'nuff.

"Xtra Cherries" is the follow-up to 2022's "Finer Than Sin", which was described by The Rockpit as "another satisfying slice of Chip's ENUFF Z'NUFF. Maybe even their best so far since Donnie left", while Maximum Volume Music said, "'Finer Than Sin' is impressive for many reasons but the word you keep coming to is 'energy.' Simply bands of the same vintage don't have the drive that ENUFF Z'NUFF have."

High praise has been cast on ENUFF Z'NUFF since their early breakout days, including Howard Stern who said, "ENUFF Z'NUFF deserves the rock-star status." KISS's Paul Stanley hailed, "Their debut is a classic." David Letterman declared, "When it comes to rock n' roll, these guys are all you need." Little Steven Van Zandt proclaimed: "ENUFF Z'NUFF is one of the most underrated bands in the world" and AllMusicMagazine.com perfectly sums up the band's legendary and everlasting career, "ENUFF Z'NUFF is one of — if not the — most underrated band to appear out of all the hairspray and bright colors."

"Xtra Cherries" track listing:

01. Heartbeat
02. No Cold Feeling (feat. Steve Brown)
03. Sanibel Island (It's Outta Control)
04. Heavy Metal
05. Magnificent (feat. Steve Stevens)
06. Back To The Wall
07. Take It Or Leave It
08. You Make Me Wanna Lie (feat. Robin Zander and Derek Frigo)
09. Star Star (feat. Gunnar Nelson)
10. Zillion Miles Away (feat. Steven Adler) (CD only)
11. Shine (feat. Robert Fleischman, Neal Schon and Donnie Vie)

Check out ENUFF Z'NUFF on the "Xtra Cherries" tour with PERMACRUSH and BAND, INC. at any of the following stops:

June 25 - Gananoque, Ontario - Moronie's
June 26 - Thorold, Ontario - Moose & Goose
June 27 - London, Ontario - Cowboys Ranch
June 28 - Kitchener, Ontario - Elements
June 29 - Kingston, Ontario - The Spire
June 30 - Brampton, Ontario - Spot 1
July 3 - Milwaukee, WI - Summerfest
August 23 - Fort Wayne, IN - Piere's

Originally formed in 1984 in Chicago, Illinois, ENUFF Z'NUFF received its big break in 1989 when it signed to Atco/Atlantic Records. Founding members Chip Z'Nuff and Donnie Vie were joined by guitarist Derek Frigo and drummer Vikki Foxx and they commenced work on their major label debut. The self-titled album was a monster hit and spawned two evergreen singles, "New Thing" and "Fly High Michelle". Both received constant airplay on radio and heavy rotation on MTV, spending over 60 weeks in the Top 10. 1991 saw the band release their sophomore album, "Strength". The LP had more of a hard rock overtone and sustained the success achieved on the first album. ENUFF Z'NUFF made high-profile television and radio appearances on the likes of "Late Show With David Letterman" and "The Howard Stern Show" and were featured in Rolling Stone's Hot Issue as "The Next Big Thing". The band soldiered on during the new musical climates of the '90s and '00s and went on to release over a dozen more studio records.

Photo credit: Chris Schmitt

In a new interview with Get On The Bus, former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach was asked if he has any regrets as it relates to his music career. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " Well, yeah, the fact that SKID ROW is not together doesn't make any sense. We're five guys that are playing the same set, but we're not together. Well, they don't have a singer right now, but…

"I play with everybody," he continued. "I'm in a band, KINGS OF CHAOS, with Matt Sorum, and I'm in a band called ROYAL MACHINES with Billy Morrison, and I play with all kinds of musicians all the time. So it doesn't make sense that I can't play with those guys. But as I said, it's a business matter and maybe someday the business can get sorted out. That is a regret, that that band broke up. Yeah, that's a regret."

Bach fronted SKID ROW until 1996, when he was fired. Instead of throwing in the towel, the remaining members took a hiatus and went on to play briefly in a band called OZONE MONDAY. In 1999, SKID ROW reformed and, after a bit of shuffling over the years, featured a lineup consisting of bassist Rachel Bolan, guitarists Dave "Snake" Sabo and Scotti Hill, alongside drummer Rob Hammersmith and singer Johnny Solinger. SKID ROW fired Solinger over the phone in April 2015, a few hours before announcing ex-TNT vocalist Tony Harnell as his replacement. Eight months later, Harnell exited the band and was replaced by South African-born, British-based singer ZP Theart, who previously fronted DRAGONFORCE, TANK and I AM I. Theart was fired from SKID ROW in February 2022 and was replaced by Erik Grönwall, who was previously a member of the Swedish hard rock band H.E.A.T.

This past March, Sabo addressed constant calls for a SKID ROW reunion with Bach, who sang on the band's most commercially successful releases, telling Scott Michael Nathan of "The Bad Decisions Podcast": "I'm not gonna go out there and do it and fake it for the blank check. I've never been about that. Rachel's never been about that, and Scotti's never been about that. So we're not gonna do it. And there's been a lot of people saying, 'Oh, just do it for the money.' It's, like, man. No. I'm just not built like that, man. And I'm smart enough — we all are smart enough to make sure that we've done okay with what we've made. And look, I don't live lavishly by any stretch of the imagination, but I could take care of my family. I don't worry about the future from a monetary standpoint. And so I'm really fortunate like that. And it's because that's been my viewpoint all along. It's never been about, 'We've gotta make a buck.' It's always been about, if we do things and we're genuine and we stay true to our character, to our spirit — and this is gonna sound weird — and we are selfish songwriters. And what I mean by that is that we are writing for ourselves. We're not writing for anybody else. And then you hope that the way that you translate how you feel through music and lyrics and melodies and performance will have a positive effect on people and thus they'll wanna come see and hear this music. And that's what we've always done."

Sabo previously ruled out a reunion with Bach in May 2024, telling The Hook Rocks podcast: "It's not gonna happen. And I say the same thing every time. I'm thankful that people have such an interest in wanting to see that happen, but I also have to reiterate that this is about being happy in the situation that you're in. So I'll speak for myself personally.

"First of all, I do need to say something too, is that the reason that this isn't happening is because there's three of us — myself, Scotti and Rachel — who've had conversations about this, and we've all been on the same page that we don't wanna go down that road again. We just — we don't.

"Rachel has taken a beating over this through the years," Sabo continued. "He's the one who's been blamed for this. 'Oh, it's Rachel's ego.' 'It's this and that.' No, that's a load of bullshit. That is not true. And I feel bad because he's really, really had to shoulder that blame and has never said anything derogatory or anything like that. But you know what? The truth of the matter is that Rachel, Scotti and myself have continually felt the same way, that we enjoy being happy in this band and we're really happy.

"It's been such a great experience for the last however, 35 years, everything, all the ups, all the downs, everything, but we just don't wanna revisit that particular aspect of our history," he explained. "I love the songs, [I] love a lot of the memories, [I am] not fond of some of the memories, but just as individuals and as a collective, that's just how we feel. So this is not on Rachel. And this has nothing to do with anyone's ego or anything like that. So that's just gotta be clear. Again, for anyone to sit there and make assumptions that this is Rachel Bolan saying 'nope,' it's not. It's the three of us, and we've all collectively sat there and just said that we don't wanna do it. We just don't wanna do it. And we wish everybody all the best."

Snake added: "We've been just ripped apart by ex-members of the band and stuff — ripped apart. Some really shitty stuff [has been] said about all of us. And we just choose not to [respond]. It's not who I am. It's not who we are. We won't go down that road. We just wanna play music and be happy. This has really never been about a monetary aspect of things because it's known that we've been offered a good amount of money to do shows together and to reunite [with Sebastian] and whatever, but it's just never been about the money, man. I choose my happiness, my willingness to continue to be a really good friend to my best friends and a really good husband and a really good dad and bandmate and person. And I don't wanna endanger that in any way. So the people that we choose to play with, those choices are made in order to keep those particular things in line for all of us."

Five years ago, Bolan also confirmed that he and his bandmates "were entertaining the idea" of reuniting with Bach following Harnell's departure. But Rachel shot down the possibility of a rekindling of his friendship with Sebastian, explaining: "Well… Here's the soundbite for Blabbermouth. I wouldn't say we were friends [when we were in a band together]. We were bandmates. You know what I mean? We're two very different people." Bolan added that he hadn't seen Bach "in years."

Six years ago, Bach was asked by Rolling Stone what it would take for SKID ROW to be reunited. He responded: "It would take those guys to realize that I have a lifetime manager. His name is Rick Sales. I've been with him since 2006. They don't want to deal with a guy like that. They want to give some singer who doesn't have a manager $700 to $800 bucks a week. I've got a team that's worked with me and don't allow me to get fucked around. I didn't have that team when I was 19 years old."

In response to Bach's statements about the earnings of SKID ROW's singer, Sabo told Rolling Stone in an e-mail: "I guess fact-checking isn't in his skill set… The five of us go on that stage as a band and we all get paid equally. We're in this together. There's no egos."

Sebastian went on to say that SKID ROW was "close to reuniting, but then it didn't happen. The fact that it didn't happen obviously makes me somewhat bitter, because life is only getting shorter, as the song says," he added.

"I wouldn't say 'came close,'" Bolan told Rolling Stone in an e-mail response to Bach's account of the reunion talks. "We entertained the idea. Snake and I went as far as talking with agents and promoters about money. But we quickly learned after a few text conversations, why we fired him in the first place. Nothing is worth your happiness and peace of mind."

The Memnoch's Curse channel on YouTube has uploaded video of DOKKEN's entire June 13 concert at Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois. Joining the band on stage for the final three songs of the set — "Unchain The Night", "When Heaven Comes Down" and "Tooth And Nail" — was former DOKKEN guitarist George Lynch.

Featured songs:

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:24 Kiss Of Death
00:06:53 The Hunter
00:11:38 Just Got Lucky
00:17:48 Fugitive
00:22:44 Into The Fire
00:29:07 Breaking The Chains
00:35:37 Dream Warriors
00:41:19 Saving Grace
00:45:58 Alone Again
00:53:30 Too High To Fly / Guitar Solo / The End
01:11:00 It's Not Love / Bass Solo / All Right Now
01:21:46 In My Dreams
01:28:51 Unchain The Night (ft. George Lynch)
01:34:19 When Heaven Comes Down (ft. George Lynch)
01:40:34 Tooth And Nail (ft. George Lynch)

In a March 2025 interview with original MTV VJ Mark Goodman aboard this year's The 80s Cruise, DOKKEN leader Don Dokken commented on the recent trend of rock artists releasing new singles every few months as opposed to putting out an album every few years. Don said:  "You and I come from the school of kicking back at home after a long day at work, getting a new album, put it on, flip it over and listen to side A and B. I wanna hear the whole record. And that was my disappointment when a lot of my peers were putting out records [in the 1980s], and I'm, like, 'Okay, there's the hit,' usually track two or three on side A. I'm not going to name names, but then I listen to the rest of the record and I'm, like, 'It's not very good.' They had the hits you could see that they bought from somebody. A lot of these musicians were buying from … a very famous song guy. And you go into a studio, and they'll say, 'Well, I got the choruses over here, I got a guitar riff over here.' … We never did that. Why would I want to record a song that somebody else wrote pieces and I have to stick it together. Every song on DOKKEN's albums was always written by us."

Dokken continued: "I can throw a lot of people under the bus… So-and-so wrote… Look at the credits. This person wrote this song, this person wrote this song, this person wrote this song. So then we had a little bit of a tiff, because [on DOKKEN's third album, 1985's] 'Under Lock And Key', it just said [in the songwriting credits] 'Don Dokken', 'Don Dokken', 'Don Dokken', 'Don Dokken'. And George [Lynch, then-DOKKEN guitarist] went ballistic. So at the last minute, you can look at the back and it says, 'All songs written by DOKKEN, and DOKKEN is George Lynch, Jeff Pilson...' And I went, 'Oh, that's so petty.' I mean, it didn't matter who wrote the song 'cause I made a deal with the devil."

Don added: "I remember my son's mother, when he was in high school, she was in the record business, [and she told me], 'Whatever you do, keep your publishing.' I ended up splitting the publishing four ways. I really didn't know how much publishing generated. So basically what I did was I gave up 75 percent of every song. 'In My Dreams', 'It's Not Love', 'Alone Again', 'The Hunter', 'Kiss Of Death', all those songs that I wrote, we split it four ways… Well, 'cause we were fighting all the time, me and George. And George was going this way, left, and he was listening to MONSTER MAGNET. And I'm, like, 'I like MONSTER MAGNET. But I'm going 'In My Dreams'.' So we just said, 'Okay, everything's split four ways. Stop bitching.' And that was it. That's how it went down. But I never realized who would write the hits. Fortunately, I wrote a lot of the hits."

In a February 2024 interview with Full In Bloom, former DOKKEN bassist Jeff Pilson was asked to respond to Don's claim that the singer wrote "80 percent" of the "Under Lock And Key" album. Jeff said: "Bullshit. That's total bullshit. He did not write all the records. No fricking way. He is a valuable contributor. And he wrote much of — like 'In My Dreams', he came in with the chorus, and that chorus is great. But he had nothing to do with 'It's Not Love', nothing to do with 'Unchain The Night', pretty much nothing to do with 'Lightnin' Strikes Again'. He did not write the whole record. He had a lot to do with a lot of it, as he should, but to say he wrote the whole thing, that's absolute bullshit. And he knows it deep down inside.

"It sounds like he's been trying to stir up attention to himself because he's got a new [DOKKEN] record [to promote]," Jeff continued. "Because it seems kind of desperate and weak. I just have to laugh. I mean, I don't understand it. I think it's kind of weird. I know he's resentful of the fact that we split everything equally, but if you would have broken it down to what we did, I'm not sure — maybe he would get a little, yeah, he'd get more than a quarter if it was really broken up, but not enough more to make all the noise he's making now 30 years later, 40 years later."

When the interviewer pointed out that guitarist Lynch has said that he and Pilson even came up with a lot of the melodies and lyrics for DOKKEN's early hits, Jeff said: "Yeah, we wrote all the melodies and lyrics for 'Unchain The Night' and 'It's Not Love'. I will say the song 'Will The Sun Rise' is a great example of when we do collaborate as a band, because George came up with the music and then Don came up with that amazing chorus; I think the chorus on 'Will The Sun Rise' is amazing. I think the music that George came up with was amazing, but I thought Don's chorus was just amazing. And that's when DOKKEN was working, when things like that happened. 'Into The Fire', George came up with the music to the chorus, and Don came up with the chorus. It's great."

Asked specifically about whether he contributed to the songwriting of DOKKEN's classic ballad "Alone Again", Jeff said: "I did. Once again, Don had that great chorus. When a song starts with a chorus as strong as that, you kind of can't go wrong. And I contributed. I came up with the beginning thing, helped come up with the music for the — well, for all the music. But like I say, Don really did have that chorus. I give him a lot of credit for that. But let's be honest, you didn't write the whole thing. I suppose he could have — he could have finished a song with that chorus, but he didn't.

"At this point, it's just so ridiculous, for me, that he's resentful," Jeff added. "But that's dark energy that he's carrying around that he doesn't need to."

After the interviewer said that Don also allegedly said he wrote "80 percent" of DOKKEN's second album, 1984's "Tooth And Nail", Pilson fired back: "'Tooth And Nail'? You've gotta be kidding me! He had nothing to do with the song 'Tooth And Nail' except that we knew that that was gonna be the title of the record, so we wrote the song around that. But he had nothing to do with that. He had nothing to do with 'Just Got Lucky'. He did make valuable contributions to 'Into The Fire' and he made the most valuable contribution to 'Alone Again'. But then there's other songs on 'Tooth And Nail' that he — I mean, 'Don't Close Your Eyes' he had nothing to do with, 'Heartless Heart' he had nothing to do with. I mean, there's a lot of songs he had nothing to do with. So for him to say he wrote 80 percent of any of the DOKKEN records is crazy."

When the interviewer also raised Don's gripes about drummer Mick Brown's contributions to the songwriting, with the singer claiming that Mick got an equal part of the publishing when he had very little input in the creative process, Jeff defended his former bandmate. "For instance, on 'Tooth And Nail', George and I would be working all day, Mick would go out to the clubs, he'd come back at two in the morning and listen to what we did, and he'd very often have a great suggestion. So, to say that Mick was not involved is not accurate. Was he as involved as the three of us? No. And did he get a quarter of the publishing? Yes. Does Don have a bone of contention there? Sure. I mean, if you wanna get down to it, Mick got 25 percent and did not probably contribute 25 percent, but he certainly contributed somewhere between 10 and 15 solidly. And when you have a band, sometimes it's better to just eliminate the arguments. It was management's idea to split everything equally 'cause they saw all this coming, and I thought it was a brilliant idea. And I would say Don, George and I probably all sacrificed a little bit, although I kind of — I feel very happy with my 25 percent. That's kind of about where I land in my contributions. Maybe a little bit more in the totality of things, but I'm very comfortable with it. And I understand where Don would be resentful about that. But I mean, after all this time? Really?"

In December 2023, Lynch also dismissed Don's assertion that DOKKEN's namesake frontman wrote "a lot" of the group's biggest songs, telling the 80's Glam Metalcast: "[Jeff, Mick and I] wrote almost everything. There was a point where the manager… This is always a thing with Don. He goes off about how he wrote everything. That's bullshit. Jeff and I, and Don and Jeff wrote some things, and Don wrote a thing, something on his own here and there, and important songs, but the bulk of the material was written by Jeff and I, and that's just the truth. And even the lyrics and the melodies and the titles were… Jeff and I joke all the time. There was a thing called the TV Guide, and I would get all my titles and the lyrics, obviously, flowed from the titles, from TV Guide. So you look and see a lot of those early records, they were either reworked XCITER [George's pre-DOKKEN band] songs or new stuff that Jeff and I wrote — sometimes with Mick's help — and then we'd end up with Don too; we'd collaborate with Don at the end of the process. But for 90 percent of material, that was the case. And these titles were out of the TV Guide — they were movies."

He continued: "On 'Tooth And Nail' and the record after that, a lot of these were — I think especially 'Tooth And Nail'; I think it was allTV Guide titles, pretty much. 'Without Warning', 'Tooth And Nail', 'When Heaven Comes Down', 'Don't Close Your Eyes' — those were all movies. I remember looking at the TV Guide and seeing the names of those movies — they were old movies, usually. [And I'd go] 'Oh, that's a cool name. We'll name a song that.' So 'Tooth And Nail' was me and Mick and Jeff sitting around just going ''Tooth And Nail', okay. Run around the streets and start a fight.' Silly fucking lyrics, but whatever. It worked. 'Don't close your eyes or I'll be there.' I remember having that whole hook and that melody and everything in my head. And we based it on that. 'When Heaven Comes Down', I wrote that. I spent a whole night; I stayed up all night. And Jeff had gone home. We were working in Anaheim in my home studio. And I was really frustrated with the song and I wanted to finish it. And I had an idea for 'When Heaven Comes Down'. 'When Heaven Comes Down' was a movie. I stole the title from it. And then I came up with the lyrics. And then I sang it all into a harmonizer, an octave low, so it sounded like the devil, with all this echo on it… I was really proud of it. Of course, that got redone and everything, but… I can't sing."

In a separate interview with the "On The Road To Rock With Clint Switzer" podcast, Don explained why he and his DOKKEN bandmates decided in the beginning to split their songwriting royalties equally between the four members of the group. He said: "DOKKEN was a very unusual band. When I formed the band, even though I'd been DOKKEN for years and years before I met George and Jeff and Mick — I'd already toured Germany twice — but when we finally came together, I said, 'Let's make it simple. You write a hit, you write a hit, you write a hit, we'll just split it four ways. It doesn't matter who writes what. May the best songs win.' And that's how it was. Now, looking back, I could say it was a stupid thing to do, because I wrote a lot of the hits and I gave up 75 percent to the three of them. So instead of me getting four bucks, I got a dollar and Mick got a dollar and George got a dollar and Jeff got a dollar and the management took theirs and the accountants took theirs, and I thought, 'Jesus.' I go, 'I lost millions' writing 'In My Dreams' and 'Just Got Lucky' or 'Alone Again'. I mean, I can name a bazillion songs that I wrote by myself on the guitar and wrote all the music. But that's the deal we made. We were nobody. We weren't famous. Hey, if George wrote a hit, I get money. Jeff writes a hit, I get money. Mick's the one that scored. He didn't write. We rehearsed the songs for a week, go into a rehearsal studio, flesh it all out, pick the 12 best songs, Mick comes in the studio for four or five days, knocks out his drums and he goes to the drug dealer and then he heads off for the Rainbow [Bar & Grill in West Hollywood]. I said, 'Mick, you scored. You made millions of dollars and all you had to do was spend a couple of weeks playing drums.'"

A decade ago, Lynch spoke about the breakup of the classic DOKKEN lineup in 1989, telling Guitar Interactive magazine: "Here's the things that happens in a band… especially in our era, in the '80s, and I don't know, even now probably… But if you have a record deal, or a master deal, for a certain amount of time, and you have increasing record sales, and then you get to the point where the deal ends, your managers come in and renegotiate and you get paid. Then you're set for life — possibly. That's when everything changes. That's what you worked for for those however many years. This is where all your… Everything you've invested in time and energy, you get paid back for. And the singer [Don Dokken], at that point, decided that he wanted it all, he didn't wanna share it with [the rest of] us, and he let us know that. So after this [Monsters Of Rock] tour [in 1988 with VAN HALEN, METALLICA and SCORPIONS], where we were gonna go out and play in front of hundreds of thousands of people and get paid lots of money, [he basically said] 'I'm gonna try to take the whole thing and run with it, and you guys are gonna get left in the dust, and if you're lucky, I might hire you [to play in my band].' And you have to go on stage like that."

He continued: "The reason that we were on fire before that — we were so dedicated, we kept persevering — was because we were all working for something. It wasn't even for the money, it was just to get to that point. And success on all levels — musically and financially, so we could be secure, and all these things, for all the right reasons. And we took care of each other, and we were an equal-split band, and I fought for that. And by Monsters Of Rock, when Don announced that he was gonna, basically, try to grab the negotiation brass ring and keep it to himself, that backfired on all of us. Financially, it backfired on all of us, 'cause we didn't get that massive… At that point, I think, that year MÖTLEY CRÜE got a 25-million-dollar deal, ANTHRAX got a 12.5-million-dollar deal, we would have been fine. Basically, we had a lot of leverage. We were gonna be a free agent, so it was really a shame. It just didn't go right for anybody. So I went on to form LYNCH MOB, which did pretty well."

DOKKEN's current lineup consists of Don alongside bassist Chris McCarvill, guitarist Jon Levin and drummer BJ Zampa (HOUSE OF LORDS).

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Posted by Arcada Theatre on Thursday, June 12, 2025

ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello recently joined host Mark Strigl live on SiriusXM's Ozzy's Boneyard (Channel 38) for an in-depth conversation that covered everything from the band's upcoming music to his involvement in Ozzy Osbourne's final bow, "Back To The Beginning".

The live broadcast aired on Tuesday, July 17, and featured not only Strigl's questions but also calls from listeners. During the interview, Bello discussed ANTHRAX's current work in the studio, their upcoming performances, and revealed exciting new details about Ozzy's farewell show. He confirmed that in addition to playing with ANTHRAX, he's been invited to join several all-star supergroups set to perform during the historic event on July 5.

Bello also surprised fans with news about a new collaboration, saying: "I have more songs that I want to get out but I'm also writing with other people too. I am currently writing with LIVING COLOUR. I have been in the studio with them. We did two great sessions so far. We will probably do another one in August. It is sounding great. Their new music is killer. I'm so psyched about it and to be a part of that."

The full interview is now available on demand via the SiriusXM app.

Frank played his first show with ANTHRAX in nearly a year and a half on October 12, 2024 at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California.

Bello and ANTHRAX were supposed to perform at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky on September 27, 2024, but their show ended up being canceled due to severe weather.

Prior to Aftershock, Bello last played with ANTHRAX in May 2023 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In April 2024 and early May 2024, Bello sat out ANTHRAX's South American tour as well as two U.S. festival dates due to "personal reasons." Filling in on those shows was ANTHRAX founding member and original bassist Dan Lilker, marking his first appearance with the band in 40 years. Lilker, who co-wrote and played on ANTHRAX's debut album "Fistful Of Metal", was also a member of STORMTROOPERS OF DEATH with ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante and guitarist Scott Ian.

Bello played bass for Norwegian black metal veterans SATYRICON for the band's summer 2024 European festival appearances, including Hellfest in France and Tons Of Rock in Norway.

Frank released a memoir, "Fathers, Brothers, And Sons: Surviving Anguish, Abandonment, And Anthrax", in October 2021 via Rare Bird. The foreword to the book was written by KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons.

In a new interview with Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting, vocalist Nick Holmes of U.K. gothic metal pioneers PARADISE LOST was asked how he and his bandmates have managed to keep almost the same lineup for almost four decades. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We grew up as kids and then we started as a band very innocent, kids just into metal music. We were also in the right place at the right time. We've been very, very lucky as well. There's so much luck involved, I think, when you're in a band, and we've had a lot of that as well. So a lot of the right chemistry, et cetera. So, yeah, lots of things, but being friends first and foremost was very important, I think."

Regarding what he has seen "changing for the best in the world of music" since PARADISE LOST was formed in 1988, Nick said: "I guess the planet is a lot smaller place now. The Internet's brought [all of us closer]. You can travel more places than perhaps you would've done. So that's a really good thing. You can go play in countries where fans might not even have known about you. So it's definitely [made] the world a smaller place now, I think."

Asked where he and his PARADISE LOST bandmates get the inspiration and the drive to make new music, Nick said: "We love doing it, and we get the same buzz out of it since we were kids. It is exactly the same thing. And as long as we enjoy doing it and people wanna hear it, we'll keep doing it as long as we can. And it's the same for every band who's been around as long as us. You still get that buzz about it the same as you did when you started, I think."

PARADISE LOST will release its 17th album, "Ascension", on September 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. The band's first album in five years, following 2020's critically acclaimed "Obsidian", was produced by guitarist Gregor Mackintosh and mixed/mastered by Lawrence Mackrory.

"Ascension" is a testament to PARADISE LOST's longevity and relevance over the band's 35-plus-year career, encompassing their signature styles of gothic, death and doom fans have cherished along the way.

"Ascension"'s album cover fittingly features the painting "The Court Of Death" (1870-1902) by renowned British artist George Frederic Watts, which hangs in the Tate Gallery in London. The painting depicts Death as an enthroned angel flanked by allegorical figures of Silence and Mystery guarding sunrise and the star of hope, while a warrior surrenders his sword and a duke his coronet, showing that worldly status offers no protection. The painting's bleak, prophetic vision embodies "Ascension"'s dark, tormented soundscapes as mournful verses collide with dire, foreboding riffs.

Commenting on the record, Holmes said: "'Ascension' is a cavalcade of molten misery, a vigorous sorrow filled stroll through a wicked world of glorious triumph and pitiful tragedy."

The official music video for the LP's first single, "Silence Like The Grave", can be seen below.

"Ascension" track listing:

01. Serpent On The Cross
02. Tyrants Serenade
03. Salvation
04. Silence Like The Grave
05. Lay A Wreath Upon The World
06. Diluvium
07. Savage Days
08. Sirens
09. Deceivers
10. The Precipice

"Ascension" was produced by Gregor Mackintosh at Black Planet Studios in East Yorkshire, U.K. and NBS and Wasteland Studios in Sweden. It was mixed and mastered by Lawrence Mackrory.

PARADISE LOST is performing alongside KING DIAMOND and at festivals in Europe this summer before embarking on the first part its "Ascension Of Europe" tour this fall.

More than three decades into their career, and with over two million albums sold, PARADISE LOST remain the undisputed kings of metal's dark side. Formed in Halifax in 1988, the band quickly became noted as the pioneers of gothic metal through their early groundbreaking albums like 1991's aptly titled "Gothic", a mixture of heaviness intertwined with shadowy melody and atmosphere.

Never a group to remain creatively static, across their career they've explored a myriad of avenues of dark music, from sludgy doom-death roots, to conquering the metal mainstream with the enormous, lush sounds of 1995's "Draconian Times", to more experimental, electronic leanings, leaving an influence on a trail of artists as varied as CRADLE OF FILTH, HIM, GATECREEPER and CHELSEA WOLFE.

Now, in 2025, the Yorkshire quintet return with their staggering 17th album, "Ascension", a record that sees their crown continue to gleam as it underlines just how they attained their position. Produced by guitarist Gregor Mackintosh at Black Planet studios in East Yorkshire, with drums and vocals captured at NBS and Wasteland studios in Sweden, its 10 tracks traverse the multitude of sounds in the band's arsenal, from full-bore heavy metal to sky-high melody, all the while keeping a minor-key melancholy that remains irresistible.

Photo credit: Ville Jurrikkala

Dean DeLeo of STONE TEMPLE PILOTS and TRIP THE WITCH, along with vocalist Pete Shoulder, will release the self-titled debut album from their latest collaboration, ONE MORE SATELLITE, on July 18, 2025 via Symphonic. The official music video for the LP's second single, "Can Of Worms", can be seen below.

"One More Satellite" presents a diverse collection of songs. "I was simply sitting on some songs I wanted to record," says DeLeo. "What started out as an instrumental album, quickly changed soon after Pete and I chatted. He was going to sing on a song or two, then wound up singing on eight of the ten on the record."

The collaboration with U.K.-based vocalist and lyricist Pete Shoulder and DeLeo went quite well and voila, through a transatlantic workflow… ONE MORE SATELLITE was born.

"I was excited to hear the new music Dean wanted to collaborate on," says Shoulder. "We've worked together in the past and it's always been an absolute pleasure making music with him. The stuff he comes up with is so interesting, with so many beautiful, unexpected, twists and turns. It's very inspiring to write to and pushes me into realms that I would never usually think of exploring. I'm very proud of the album we've made."

DeLeo's son Rocco drums on "Drowning Out The Sun", "Willow Mae" and "Spit It Out". STONE TEMPLE PILOTS drummer Eric Kretz plays on "Serenade" and Brian Tichy drums the rest. Daughter June DeLeo lends a lovely "aaah"…vocal on "Your Call", and longtime collaborator Ryan Williams co-produced and mixed the album.

"One More Satellite" will be available digitally and on CD and vinyl. More merch items, including posters and t-shirts, can be found here.

"One More Satellite" track listing:

01. Paper Over The Cracks
02. Vultures
03. Long Way Down
04. Drowning Out The Sun
05. Serenade
06. Can Of Worms
07. Willow Mae
08. Spit It Out
09. Pull Back The Veil
10. Your Call

DeLeo and Shoulder had previously collaborated on songwriting, including for the album "Lessons Learned" by Dean's younger brother — and STONE TEMPLE PILOTS bassist — Robert DeLeo. They've also worked together in the studio on projects, including a collaboration with STONE TEMPLE PILOTS and TRIP THE WITCH. Shoulder has also collaborated with Robert DeLeo on the aforementioned "Lessons Learned" LP and co-wrote songs for it, including "Love Is Not Made Of Gold".

In addition to his work with STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, Dean DeLeo is known for his role in the short-lived bands TALK SHOW and ARMY OF ANYONE, the latter of which featured Robert DeLeo, FILTER frontman Richard Patrick and session drummer Ray Luzier.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS features three original members — the DeLeo brothers and drummer Eric Kretz.

In 2017, singer Jeff Gutt, a now-48-year-old Michigan native who spent time in the early-2000s nu-metal act DRY CELL, among other bands, and was a contestant on "The X Factor", joined STONE TEMPLE PILOTS after beating out roughly 15,000 hopefuls during an extended search that began more than a year earlier.

Original STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Scott Weiland, who reunited with the group in 2010 after an eight-year hiatus but was dismissed in 2013, died in December 2015 of a drug overdose.

Chester Bennington, who joined STP in early 2013, departed nearly three years later to spend more time with his main band LINKIN PARK. Bennington committed suicide in July 2017.

Dean DeLeo photo credit: Wendybird Fotos / Pete Shoulder photo credit: Scott Wynne

For the first time in 20 years, ANTHRAX will share a stage with BLACK SABBATH when the pioneering New York thrash metal band performs at SABBATH's "Back To The Beginning" concert, set to take place on Saturday, July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. ANTHRAX toured with BLACK SABBATH on the legendary heavy metal band's 1986 "Seventh Star" tour, which was also ANTHRAX's first arena tour. The last time ANTHRAX was on the same bill as SABBATH was in 2005 at the Download festival in the U.K.

During a June 18 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante — who will perform at "Back To The Beginning" with both ANTHRAX and PANTERA — stated about his participation in the event: "We're doing a few songs each [from ANTHRAX and PANTERA] and [then some SABBATH] songs in that."

According to Benante, it hasn't yet been decided which SABBATH songs each band will cover. "Uh, dude. How can I say this?! Well, today we were told that the song that we were going to do, we're not doing it anymore, so we have to come up with another song," he revealed.

When host Eddie Trunk noted that "it sounds like a lot of people are flying by the seat of their pants on this", Benante concurred, but added: "My whole thing with this is I don't care what we do. I'm just happy to be a part of it and pay my respects to these guys who have given us so much. I'm talking about BLACK SABBATH as a whole — Ozzy [Osbourne], Geezer [Butler], Tony [Iommi] and Bill [Ward]. I grew up with this, and to me it's such a privilege to be asked to be a part of it. So, at the end of the day, just tell me what to play and I'm gonna play it. I know the whole SABBATH catalog, so I'm good."

For Benante, the highlight of the event will be seeing the original SABBATH members together on stage one last time. "I'm looking forward to seeing those four on stage again, because that's a part of my youth and seeing the four of them play — I don't care what they play. They could play 'Iron Man' five times and I'll still be happy," he said. "But just that — that's gonna be the spectacle. It's just gonna be a beautiful thing to witness, just the four of them up there again in Birmingham."

He added: I think the excitement and the momentum is so strong that it's just gonna be, like I said before, just a beautiful thing, and I just wanna witness it."

This past April, a couple of months after ANTHRAX's participation in "Back To The Beginning" was announced, Charlie said in a statement: "I'm a huge BLACK SABBATH fan, and BLACK SABBATH was so, so instrumental in the sound of ANTHRAX back in the day.

"Back in '86, when we were working on our third album, we wanted to do a B-side of a BLACK SABBATH song. 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' was the song that we chose. We did it as a B-side, we played it live, and it became a big thing for us.

"Growing up Catholic, in a Catholic household, my mom did not appreciate BLACK SABBATH. One day when I came home, my sister took me to the record store and I got one of those iron-on BLACK SABBATH t-shirts, it was the cover of 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. I got it home, my mother saw it, she made my sister take me back to the store and return it. She would not have it in the house because it had the '666' on it. I was still a BLACK SABBATH fan so I had to kind of keep it hidden from my mom."

"I discovered BLACK SABBATH when I was about eight years old, sitting in my uncle's room at my grandparents' house," added ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian. "My uncle was 17 or 18, had a big vinyl collection and blacklight posters all over his walls, and I thought he was the coolest dude in the world. I would go through his albums, pull records out and he'd play them for me. I remember pulling out this record that said 'BLACK SABBATH' on it, the album cover was kind of scary, so I asked him 'what's BLACK SABBATH?' And he said, 'oh, they're acid rock…" and I didn't know what that meant…I thought maybe that was the terminology back then for a genre. And then he put the album on. Everyone knows how that record starts, with the sound effects and the rain and the bell, and then the band kicks in…there's nothing like it. At that point in time, the scariest, heaviest thing I'd ever heard in my life. Maybe still to this day, when that song 'Black Sabbath' kicks in, there's just nothing like it. I started playing guitar when I was about 10, and Tony [Iommi] was definitely an influence, so I'd try and figure out how to play 'Iron Man' or 'Paranoid'. Just listening to the records, Tony Iommi was essentially my guitar teacher."

"I'm definitely a huge SABBATH fan," said ANTHRAX vocalist Joey Belladonna, "and over the years I have covered many SABBATH and Ozzy [Osbourne] songs.

"We toured with SABBATH on the '86 tour, and it was so electric. That was a huge tour for us, and we were just overwhelmed to be part of it.

"That ANTHRAX was asked to be part of SABBATH's 'Back To The Beginning' concert is quite a big honor."

"I heard about SABBATH through my friends at school," remembered ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello, "who said the band was great. Plus, I thought the album cover was scary as hell.

"Although I love most BLACK SABBATH albums, that first one, 'Black Sabbath', is still my favorite because it was my introduction to them, and the songs are still amazing. I'm also a HUGE Geezer [Butler] fan. I grew up on his playing, and I'm honored now to say he's a friend. Geezer was and still is one of my main influences on bass. He always puts beautiful musicality and melody into everything he plays. His bass lines make you want to play bass. He is also an amazing person.

"It's an honor to be part of this show and I'm very grateful to BLACK SABBATH and Sharon Osbourne for asking us to be part of it."

"I'm absolutely, 100% a BLACK SABBATH fan," said ANTHRAX guitarist Jon Donais. "I was an Ozzy fan first because I grew up in the '80s, and of course, Ozzy was on MTV all the time, so he's who I got into first. And then, my teen years were in the '90s, and I started getting into BLACK SABBATH.

"When I start to lean into a band, I usually get the band's greatest hits or some kind of compilation. But my first BLACK SABBATH album was 'Sabotage', which is actually my favorite SABBATH record. 'Sabotage' was a little darker than the others, and I would listen to it all the way through as soon as I put it on. A good friend of mine and I went to the same college, and we'd be up until three or four in the morning just listening to 'Sabotage' and then having to get up for school the next day, and that sucked."

In March, Ian spoke to Guitar World magazine about ANTHRAX's participation at the "Back To The Beginning" charity event. The concert will mark the original lineup of BLACK SABBATH's last-ever performance and Ozzy's final appearance as a solo artist. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist Tom Morello will serve as the "musical director" at the show.

Ian told Guitar World that he first heard about this historic event from Morello. "I texted him back and said, 'Dude, yes! Whatever it is, I'm in. What's going on… what the hell?'" Scott said. "He said, 'As soon as I have more information on what song and who you're playing with, I'll let you know.' Then he said, 'We're just starting to get this together now. Sharon [Osbourne] asked me if I would be creative director and help put it all together.' A couple of days later, he sent me a list of people involved, and I saw there were other bands involved. I said, 'Okay,' because I had no idea; I thought it was just gonna be like SABBATH and Ozzy, and then maybe a bunch of all-star lineups. I saw other bands but no ANTHRAX, so I'm like, 'Well, shit, I'm already involved…' I said, 'How about getting ANTHRAX on this? I'm not the only SABBATH fan in the band.' Tom said, 'Let me get right back to you…' Literally, like five minutes later, he said, 'You're in."

Regarding what fans can expect from "Back To The Beginning", Ian said: "I'm on a couple of other SABBATH songs as well, in one of the all-star lineups that I get to be in. I don't know how any of the production stuff is working.

"They're going to have seemingly 200 different things going on before SABBATH gets on stage — but I don't have to worry about that stuff. I just have to know the songs."

Following an outpouring of fan demand from across the globe — and even a petition begging for a way to watch this once-in-a-lifetime event — "Back To The Beginning: Ozzy's Final Bow" will be available as a livestream at www.backtothebeginning.com.

Broadcast live from Birmingham, United Kingdom's Villa Park, those who missed out on being there can still experience this unforgettable moment, with access to the raw livestream from 3:00 p.m. on July 5, and the chance to rewatch the concert in its entirety for another 48 hours.

"Back To The Beginning: Ozzy's Final Bow" will be captured, produced and distributed by Mercury Studios ("One To One: John & Yoko", "American Symphony", "Metallica Saved My Life"),who are pioneering the way for premium, music-driven storytelling across film, television, podcasts and immersive formats. Mercury has partnered with Kiswe — the global D2C streaming partner behind the record-breaking BTS concert livestream — to deliver this unforgettable moment of music history to fans across the globe.

The all-day event at Villa Park, produced by Live Nation, will be hosted and compered by American actor Jason Momoa, and feature a supergroup of musicians.

Proceeds from the "Back To The Beginning" show will support Cure Parkinson's, the Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice, a Children's Hospice supported by Aston Villa.

Ozzy — who hasn't played a full show since late 2018 — announced his last-ever performance on February 5.

The original lineup of BLACK SABBATH last performed in 2005. Since then, SABBATH has played in partial reunions but never in its original lineup.

Former EXODUS guitarist Rick Hunolt was interviewed by "Reckless" Rexx Ruger for a new episode of the Pod Scum podcast. After Ruger noted that the guitar duo of Hunolt and EXODUS's Gary Holt is every bit as iconic as METALLICA's guitar team of James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett and SLAYER's Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, Hunolt said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Thank you, man. Well, we were there in the beginning, and honestly, I'm not afraid to say that we probably — we inspired those guys very much, all the guys you just named. But we were all from the same exact amoeba. The DNA was pretty much the same over here on the West Coast with this little, small group of guitar players.

"Playing in a band for 30, 35 years with Gary was incredible," Rick continued. "We respected each other — we still do to this day — very, very much. And we love each other very, very much. And we'll be brothers forever. Absolutely. He is a busy guy. And I agree — Gary Holt's a phenomenal riff writer, dude. Phenomenal."

Asked which part of his time in EXODUS was "the pinnacle" of his career in terms of his guitar playing, Hunolt said: "If I had to stack all the albums right there in front of me and look at the performances on every album… If you're talking lead guitar… I'll tell you something. I'm gonna have to pick [2004's] 'Tempo Of The Damned', as far as lead guitar and rhythm guitar playing. Because I was a really sick human being during that recording session. I could feel that my time with EXODUS was coming to an end. And it was devastating, dude. And when I go back and I listen to those solos, dude, it's just, like, 'Holy shit, man.' I could feel the pain. In my soul, dude, I could feel it. And some of the solos are just, in my opinion, some of the best stuff I've ever recorded. And so I'll say 'Tempo Of The Damned'. I mean, commercially, I'd have to say [1989's] 'Fabulous Disaster', as far as commercial success with 'Toxic Waltz' and the 'Headbangers Ball' tour. And then as far as groundbreaking, I'd have to say [1985's] 'Bonded By Blood'. There's different categories in with the way I look at the catalog and go, 'Wow.'"

Hunolt is currently a member of NEFARIOUS, a new California-based thrash metal band also featuring Katon W. De Pena (HIRAX) on vocals, Doug Piercy (HEATHEN, ANVIL CHORUS) on guitar, Tom Gears (BLIND ILLUSION, ANCIENT MARINER) on bass and Will Carroll (DEATH ANGEL) on drums.

NEFARIOUS's debut album, "Addicted To Power", will be released on July 18, 2025 via Relentless "Metal" Records, with the collector vinyl available through Hectic/Bleeding Priest Records.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned "Bonded By Blood" LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

In 2013, MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine spoke to Radio.com about which band should have been included if the "Big Four" were expanded and considered the "Big Five". He said: "You know, people will say there's a whole another generation, like the 'Medium Four' [laughs], and I think there's a lot of great bands that fit that bill, too. But I think probably EXODUS, because there was nobody else at the time that had that kind of pull or that kind of importance in the metal community. Granted, it was with [late EXODUS singer Paul] Baloff, and Baloff had a voice that you had to have an acquired taste for, but you know, I liked him."

In 2014, Hammett was asked by U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine if it's strange to him how much METALLICA has eclipsed the other "Big Four" bands in terms of commercial popularity. "I try not to spend too much time thinking about stuff like that because whatever I think of is still not going to be a satisfying enough explanation," he replied. "It's just the way things are and how the chips fell.

"EXODUS in the '80s had some bona fide problems, but I think their first album ['Bonded By Blood'] is just as good as [METALLICA's debut] 'Kill 'Em All'," he explained. "We were just playing the music we wanted to hear because no one else was playing it and it wasn't being played on the radio. It was only a small group of people who knew about it and it was almost elitist in that 'No posers allowed!' thing."

Hunolt — the other half of the famed EXODUS "H-Team" who is on every studio recording from 1985 through 2004 and co-wrote some of the band's best-known songs such as "A Lesson In Violence" and "Deliver Us To Evil" — left EXODUS after the band's highly acclaimed 2004 reunion album, "Tempo Of The Damned". Following his departure, Hunolt was replaced by HEATHEN guitarist Lee Altus.

Rick discussed his exit from EXODUS during a November 2021 appearance on "Put Up Your Dukes", the podcast hosted by EXODUS singer Rob Dukes. He said at the time: "During the recording of 'Tempo', Gary had just gotten clean a little while prior to that, and I was still using. But I've gotta say, Gary Holt — my hat's off to the man for… He never sweated me. Not once did Gary say, 'Dude, you're a piece of shit. I'm gonna fire you from the band if you don't get your shit together.' He never said nothing. He let it take its course, you know what I mean?

"I was a mess," Rick continued. "We all were, but everybody got better, and I didn't. I fell down the rabbit hole even worse, I think, because I was just so depressed. I couldn't stop. I don't know what was up… To the point where I was gonna lose my position in the band I'd been in for over 20 years — my best friends, my life. Yeah, it was dark as fuck.

"One day, after spending my life, giving everything that I had and the whole world to EXODUS, one day I woke up and I wasn't in EXODUS anymore," Hunolt added. "And that morning was, like… Dude, I can't even describe the emotions that I [was feeling]. I woke up and I wasn't in EXODUS anymore, dude. It damn near took me out, bro."

Rick revealed that he went through a particularly difficult period after splitting with EXODUS. "I had to reinvent myself at 40-plus years old, [with] two little kids," he said. "I ended up moving out of Oakland. I had to get the fuck out of there, 'cause we were living at the studio; it was bad. And then we moved in with my wife's mom and I got a job at the [discount chain] Dollar Tree and I ended up working there for, like, two or three years. I mean, I can go on and on and on. But long story short, I met a guy who knew who I was and offered me a job on his ranch. And the rest is history. He taught me how to live my life and make money."

Hunolt makes a guest appearance on EXODUS's latest studio album, "Persona Non Grata", which was released in November 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The original lineup of EXODUS consisted of guitarists Hammett and Tim Agnello, drummer Tom Hunting and vocalist Keith Stewart. Holt joined the band in 1981, while Kirk left two years before "Bonded By Blood" saw the light of day and joined METALLICA in time for the recording of "Kill 'Em All".

The Fragile Undertow channel on YouTube has uploaded video of STYX's entire June 13, 2025 concert at Toyota Pavilion At Concord in Concord, California during the "Brotherhood Of Rock" tour. You can now watch the footage below.

Featured songs:

The Grand Illusion

01. The Grand Llusion
02. Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
03. Superstars
04. Come Sail Away
05. Miss America
06. Man In The Wilderness
07. Castle Walls
08. The Grand Finale (with band introducions)

The Hits:

09. Rockin' The Paradise
10. Too Much Time On My Hands
11. Lady
12. Build And Destroy
13. The Best Of Times
14. Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)

Encore:

15. Mr. Roboto
16. Renegade

Earlier this year, STYX and Kevin Cronin, the iconic voice and writer behind REO SPEEDWAGON's greatest hits, wrapped up hugely successful sold-out residencies at The Venetian Theatre. For the first time in their 50-plus-year career in Las Vegas, Nevada, STYX performed 1977's "The Grand Illusion" in its entirety, while REO SPEEDWAGON performed 1980's "Hi Infidelity" in its entirety. Due to the overwhelming response from both residencies, STYX and THE KEVIN CRONIN BAND are bringing these special album shows for the first time, plus their hits, to the amphitheaters and arenas as part of the "Brotherhood Of Rock" tour.

STYX's 18th studio album, "Circling From Above", will be released on July 18 via the band's label Alpha Dog 2T/UMe. Spanning 13 tracks, the album navigates the complexities of the human experience through the intersecting lenses of technology and nature.

"Circling From Above" features contributions from all seven members of the band, including founding guitarist/vocalist James "JY" Young (affectionately known as "The Godfather of STYX"),guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, original bassist Chuck Panozzo, longtime drummer Todd Sucherman, keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan, guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich and bassist Terry Gowan.

The kinetic energy of lead single "Build And Destroy" is the first introduction of new music to their fans who've been circling around the band for over 50 years. It's available to stream and download on all digital outlets including the band's YouTube page, where fans can watch a A.I. conceptual video for the track directed by Jay Ziebarth.

"That little melody, I kept singing 'Build And Destroy'," explains singer/keyboardist Lawrence Gowan, who takes the lead vocal. "Even though we don't sing over that part, I kept thinking that would be a good title. It's thematic. The melody feels like a little 'Star Trek' or 'Twilight Zone' thing — just a small tag that reinforces the title."

Shaw and Evankovich jumped in to flesh out the verses and finalize the lyrics, and the song came together in just a day and a half. "We knew it was strong," Gowan says. "Even though it was the second-to-last song we finished, it felt like a quick way into the album's overall theme."

"Circling From Above" is a dynamic collection that reflects the full emotional and stylistic range of the STYX canon. It's muscular yet introspective, theatrical in moments and layered in sincerity at others — balancing progressive leanings with deeper, thought-provoking messages.

"When you start writing an album, there's generally something that piques your imagination, and all of a sudden, you're a storyteller starting with the seed of a story," says Shaw. "A good song is like a straight road — it'll get you to the next place."

The album, the band's third in eight years, delivers a 41-minute, end-to-end listening experience that is both thought-provoking and exhilarating. A masterclass in storytelling, it blends signature STYX hallmarks with bold steps forward — building on the creative momentum of recent releases "The Mission" (2017) and "Crash Of The Crown" (2021).

The album was produced by Evankovich, who also helmed the band's previous two records before becoming an official member in 2022. All 13 songs were penned in various combinations by the band's songwriting triumvirate of Shaw, Evankovich and Lawrence Gowan. Referencing the trio's creative spark, Lawrence Gowan says it's not a simple case of majority rules but rather a true collaborative endeavor.

"I've noticed over the last three records, there's a real effort to make sure everyone's got a smile on their face at the end of it," he says. "There's creative friction, but everybody gets a go around the table and we all get a swing at the tree. And that's really, really good."

"It's a strange three-way democracy for sure," Evankovich says. "We all know that the institution of STYX is the most important thing."

Midway through writing the album, a loose theme began to orbit the band's creative process — a gravitational pull, if you will, guiding them down the straight road Shaw describes. In a moment of studio serendipity, talk turned to an app that tracks abandoned satellites, those silent relics of once-lofty ambition. From that spark, the opening tracks — including the title cut and "Build And Destroy" — took shape, tracing the tension between human ingenuity and the dreams we sometimes discard in its pursuit.

"When they were shot up into space, these satellites were somebody's dream and ambition," says Shaw of the once-cutting-edge technology now floating aimlessly through the atmosphere. "They served their purpose and they were cast aside. It's a wasteland up there, but they were once created with love. We're all humans, and who's to say our love project is better than someone else's?"

Look closely at the album cover art and you will see this thematic overture take flight. Thousands of starlings — chosen specifically for their supreme ability to work in concert together with their flight patterns — in the shape of one bird, soaring over a dilapidated satellite dish.

"They're prevailing and we're failing," notes Evankovich of the cover. "We're not like the rest of the creatures that work in stewardship together, like the birds and the bees and all the other things. We do things and then create waste for ourselves that ends up harming us."

STYX has remained a touring juggernaut for the past 25 years, but according to guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, the band's current streak of artistic resurgence in the studio is due to multiple factors tethered to a deep sense of harmony.

"There's just a lot of positive flow right now," says Shaw. "There's a lot of people playing great, and there's a lot of love, respect and excitement about each other's talents. Bands can go lifetimes and never have this kind of rapport and chemistry."

In a new interview with Dawn Osborne of TotalRock, '80s hard rock queen Lita Ford spoke about her long-awaited new studio album. Ford's upcoming follow-up to 2012's "Living Like A Runaway" was once again helmed by guitarist/producer Gary Hoey, who contributes some guitar playing to the disc. Asked if she already has a title for the new LP, Ford said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yes. [Laughs] But I'm trying to wait until we get a record label signed. And so once I do, then I can tell you everything."

Regarding when fans can expect to see the album released, Lita said: "I don't know. Soon, I hope. Fingers crossed. We're working on it."

Ford went on to say that the album is autobiographical. "I had to live it before I could write it," she explained. "It sounds a little creepy and everything, but it's pretty cool. It's a dark fairytale, ala — I don't know — ala 'Shrek'. And I love 'Shrek'. I don't know if you're familiar with the 'Shrek' movies. I mean, there's no green people in it or anything like that, and there's no ogres. Well, I guess there are ogres."

According to Lita, her new album will include a collaboration with German metal queen Doro Pesch. "It's waiting to come out," Ford said. "And I'm dying. It's so good. It's not a ballad, and it's not a fast song. It's just a really powerful, mid-range song. And it will reduce you to tears."

As for how the song with Doro came about, Lita said: "When I ran into Doro, she was receiving an award in Los Angeles, and she says to me, 'Lita, we have to do a song together.' And I said, 'I've got it. I've got the title. I know what the title is.' Because sometimes you just grab titles, and you don't even know why. It's just something that sounds amazing. And so I wrote it down in my little book of titles. And soon after that, Doro had came along and she said, 'Let's write something.' And I got the title. So, I went ahead and wrote the song. And Doro did not write the song, but she sure sang the hell out of it. She came out and nailed it. So it was a great honor to work with Doro again."

Ford also revealed that her new album will contain a collaboration with singer/songwriter/producer Jean Beauvoir (CROWN OF THORNS, PLASMATICS). She said: "Jean, he's like family because we kind of grew up in the punk rock era together, [him] from the PLASMATICS and [me] from THE RUNAWAYS. And sometimes you're just at the right place at the right time with the right people. And Jean and I wrote this song together. And, yeah, it's magic. It's a duet, but it's produced by Jean, and he just knocked it out of the park. It's a magic, magic song."

Last July, Ford told Joe Rock of Long Island's rock station 102.3 WBAB about her upcoming LP: "The studio, for me, has always been trying to teach everybody what I wanna hear. And a lot of that is because they basically don't know themselves as a producer or an engineer. I've had some of the greatest engineers and I've had some of the greatest producers, and this album — we're finished with it now — [was produced by] Gary Hoey. Gary Hoey is a great musician, great guitar player. And Gary and I — I can throw any idea at Gary, and he would try and make it happen. And the thing about being in the studio is you try and make things happen, and if they don't happen, then they don't happen. You can only try. And so we got real creative with guitars and we played — there's a lot of great guitars on this new record. I'm really excited about it."

Lita went on to say that the creation of her new album was completely in her control. "There were no songwriters that I had to work with because somebody else wanted me to work with them," she explained. "This is strictly Lita and what Lita wanted to do. And it's a concept record. There's a big story behind it. And so it's gonna open a lot of doors for a lot of things. And a lot of people are gonna be able to relate to this record. And it has some great musicians. Bobby Rock played drums on it. Jean Beauvoir wrote one of the songs with me. And it's just a great record. And Gary Hoey, of course, produced it. Max Norman, who mixed it — Max Norman did a lot of stuff for Ozzy [Osbourne] and MEGADETH, and he's just a metal guy. So it's all in the right hands. I've got all the badass people behind me. Got a new manager, and it's all good."

In May 2022, bassist Marten Andersson (STEELHEART, LIZZY BORDEN, LYNCH MOB) officially joined Lita's touring band. Andersson replaced Marty O'Brien who became the touring bassist for DAUGHTRY.

In a 2023 interview with "THAT Rocks!", the YouTube series hosted by Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson, Lita stated about her next LP: "The problem is we've had so many things happen over the last few years. Our manager died; George Marshall died [in] '22. And then my songwriting partner died. And it's just been devastation. But we take all that pain and everything and we just put it right back into the album. And then we recorded the drum tracks in Minneapolis during Black Lives Matter and COVID. Everything was locked down and the place was boarded up and the guys had shotguns and Rottweilers. And then we went in and did drum tracks. And it was awesome. Just memories of just pure badassery."

Regarding what her plans are for live shows in support of her upcoming LP, Lita said: "Well, what I would like to do is put together a theatrical show, sort of like a rock guitar opera kind of thing. It's been done before and different bands have done it before, but I think in this case, it might be a little different and just to bring the whole show not to life just for audio, but for visual reasons also."

In January 2021, Lita told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that her new album contains "some of the best guitar playing" she has heard "in decades." She added: "And I'm not blowing smoke up my own ass, but Gary and I just nailed it with the guitar playing on this record.

"I'm a huge fan of people like Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter from Alice Cooper's 'Welcome To My Nightmare'. I mean, there's some really great duo guitar players — [JUDAS PRIEST's] Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing… Those guitar players don't exist anymore — they just don't exist. If you wanna hear them, you have to go back in time a little bit and dig them up into your favorite library, favorite music catalog. But I think Gary and I really nailed it on this next record. It's, like, oh my God. I'm crying — I'm just, like, crying listening to this stuff. It's so badass."

Ford's last release was 2016's "Time Capsule", a collection of songs that were recorded by Lita in the past, but never before made available.

Nine years ago, Lita released an autobiography, "Living Like A Runaway: A Memoir", via Dey Street Books (formerly It Books),an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

So excited to tell you guys I have an awesome collaboration in the making with my dear friend, Lita Ford. We were just...

Posted by DORO on Thursday, December 5, 2019

In a new interview with Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting, singer Mark Osegueda of San Francisco Bay Area metal veterans DEATH ANGEL was asked what keeps him and his bandmates going more than four decades after their formation. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's the love of the music. It's plain and simple. And you're born into it, if you ask me. Music grabbed me at such a young age, and it's what's driven me my whole life. And as soon as I got a taste of it and realized that's a way you can make a go at life, that's what's always driven me. And that's it. And it's the community. It's a genre that no one will understand that's not a part of it. It's like no other. It's very supportive. Sure, there's friendly competition, but I think it breeds the best in all performers and all songwriters, this type of music. It's great."

Last month, DEATH ANGEL released its first new music in six years. In anticipation for the summer 2025 "Summer Of Wrath" European tour, the band dropped a brand new song called "Wrath (Bring Fire)" .

As previously reported, DEATH ANGEL will celebrate the 35th anniversary of its "Act III" album by performing it in its entirety at the band's tenth annual Christmas show on December 18 at The Fillmore in San Francisco.

In March 2024, DEATH ANGEL guitarist Ted Aguilar told El Planeta Del Rock that there were "a bunch of songs, a lot of skeletons" for the band's next album. "We spent the first three months of this year writing. We didn't do any activity — just writing… There's a bunch of skeletons, as we call it. There's a lot of ideas that we're waiting for [singer] Mark to put some vocals on."

Osegueda is the featured singer on SLAYER guitarist Kerry King's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", which arrived in May 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music.

Earlier in March 2024, Osegueda told El Planeta Del Rock about the songwriting process for DEATH ANGEL's next LP: "It's going great. And we're excited about it."

In a separate interview with Elevar, Cavestany confirmed that new DEATH ANGEL music was in the works. "I don't like divulging the 'play by play'; I'd rather news came out when there is substantial information to speak of," he explained. "That being said, I can tell you there are around seven songs we are currently working on and I'm currently getting deep into the writing zone, which is my happy place. If we can manage to stop saying yes to every tour offer (we love to tour),then maybe we can finally get this new album done."

Also in March 2024, DEATH ANGEL drummer Will Carroll said that he was "stoked" about how the band's new music was shaping up. "The creative juices are flowing and things are moving along at a very productive rate," he wrote on social media.

He added: "I can't wait for the DA fans around the world to hear this new material and hopefully we'll make some new ones along the way. Exciting times indeed."

In January 2024, Will said that he and his DEATH ANGEL bandmates were "hard at work getting" the band's next album "written and completely demo'd."

"It felt good to get back to work with Rob Cavestany," Will wrote. "It's a real challenge to not rehash the same ideas and beats from previous albums but I think so far things are sounding fresh and inspired."

DEATH ANGEL released a live album titled "The Bastard Tracks" in November 2021 via Nuclear Blast. Recorded live at The Great American Music Hall in their hometown of San Francisco on May 22, 2021, and streamed live soon after, "The Bastard Tracks" was described in a press release as "a deep-cuts collection of rarely and never performed songs from the band's catalog" that was released digitally and on CD, vinyl and Blu-ray.

In October 2020, DEATH ANGEL released a four-song EP, "Under Pressure". The effort included a cover of QUEEN + David Bowie's "Under Pressure", followed by a new track titled "Faded Remains", plus acoustic versions of "Act III"'s classic "A Room With A View" and "Humanicide"'s "Revelation Song". The EP was mixed by Max Norman (OZZY OSBOURNE, MEGADETH, BAD COMPANY) and mastered by Ted Jensen (LAMB OF GOD, MACHINE HEAD, HALESTORM).

Released in May 2019 via Nuclear Blast, "Humanicide" saw DEATH ANGEL returning to producer and friend Jason Suecof (DEICIDE, TRIVIUM) of Audiohammer studios for the recording and mixing, along with the mastering of the legendary Ted Jensen (SLIPKNOT, PANTERA) of Sterling Sound, who added the final touches and brought it all to life, with artist Brent Elliott White (LAMB OF GOD, MEGADETH) providing the ominous cover artwork.

In March 2020, Carroll spent almost two weeks on a ventilator in an intensive care unit at a Northern California hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. He first got sick when he and the rest of DEATH ANGEL spent more than a month on the road in Europe with TESTAMENT and EXODUS as part of "The Bay Strikes Back 2020" tour.

DEATH ANGEL was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance" for the "Humanicide" title track. It was the group's first Grammy nomination.

Carroll joined DEATH ANGEL in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original drummer, Andy Galeon.

In a new interview with Andrew McKaysmith of the Scars And Guitars podcast, veteran metal bassist Steve DiGiorgio once again reflected on the experience of laying down his bass tracks on MEGADETH's latest album, "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!"

The longtime TESTAMENT bassist temporarily stepped in to record the bass tracks on MEGADETH's follow-up to 2016's "Dystopia" in the summer of 2021, shortly after the exit of David Ellefson. With the kick-off of MEGADETH's tour a couple of months later, MEGADETH alumnus James LoMenzo rejoined the MEGADETH family as permanent bass player.

Regarding his approach to laying down his bass tracks on the MEGADETH album, Steve said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I wasn't so naive that I thought I could go in there and reinvent MEGADETH. I knew strict guidelines. I'm redoing stuff that they've already lived with. There was a lot of things that I was already preparing myself to just go in, be professional and get it done. So it was a little bit of a surprise when Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] would come to me and say, 'You know, this section right here needs a little animation. What do you got? Stretch out. Show me something. Play something.' And there was a few times he did that. And I had kind of committed myself to just paint by numbers and get it done nicely. And he was cool. There was some flexibility. Yeah, it was cool. Like I said, the margins were very tight. It was already done. It's MEGADETH. They have a formula."

DiGiorgio continued: "I got my chops up with a pick to make sure that I got the sound they're used to. I used both [my fingers and a pick], but the majority of the time was a pick. And Dave was cool, because there was some sections that were… When it's just really flying fast, I had a good feel and I could go. But when the string skipping, that's where I told him flat out, 'I'm not proficient here.' … And as long as it sounded good, he'd be okay. There wasn't a rule. So if it took me to do some technical stuff with my fingers, and it sounded fine, it was a keeper, but once in a while he would be, like, 'Hey, can you try that with a pick?' And I would just say, 'Man, I'm not flat-out proficient with this thing, and you're gonna have to give me a few tries to work up to it.' And he just looks at me and he goes, 'That's what's very admirable about you. You come in here being an almost-zero pick player and here you are grabbing it and fucking crushing through it.' And he goes, 'Take all the time you need. This is awesome. I'm watching you grow as a player.'

"I know bass players, sometimes there's wars — finger versus pick, whatever," Steve added. "To me, use what gets the job done. And I always enjoy using a pick. When SADUS would play, I'd pick a song in the set just to break one out for fun. I do it for TESTAMENT every night, so I've never been against it. So when the MEGADETH gig called, it was, like, 'Okay, here we go. I'd better get used to [playing with a pick].' … And so it was just a matter of being the most economic as possible and getting it done. But considering all that, he still created some space here and there to get some ideas from me and bounce ideas off each other. And sometimes we'd even just put the controller away and just kind of one-on-one, like, 'Oh, try this and try this.' And it was a little more creative and flexible than I thought it was [going to be], which turned out to be a really cool experience."

Asked if he ever had any conversations with Ellefson about his work on "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!", Steve said: "Yeah, I did. I finally got him one-on-one. His band DIETH… We were touring Europe — TESTAMENT and VOIVOD were touring Europe, and we picked up Ellefson's DIETH, we picked them up for a couple shows as an opener. And some of the soundchecks were done and people were going out for lunch or whatever, and the venue was real quiet. And I go, 'Dave, come in here, man.' I closed the door. And I said, 'All right. Tell me, what do you think? I'm here. What's up?' And I could see how he made it through that whole — what would you call it? — scandal and how he made it through that as a champ and how he took his exit from the band the way he did, because the way he just told me how he viewed it all happening, he just had a smile on his face and he gave me no heavy trip at all. And he's a very supportive, super fucking positive guy. I was ready for anything, and we just had a fucking awesome conversation. We had talked about me replacing his basslines very quickly, got that outta the way, and then the rest turned into just, like, 'Hey, what about Dave's tech Brian? He's a cool guy.' 'Yeah. Oh yeah.' 'Hey, did you go to that restaurant down the street?' 'Yeah.' And it just turned into this kind of camaraderie thing. And so, yeah, I was glad I did it… Even in this awkward situation, he embraces the future, man. And I was kind of inspired after. I'm, like, man, this guy had a lot hit him, and I'm the guy who came in [and replaced his tracks]. But there was a big gap of time from when he was out of the band until I came in. It wasn't this quick thing either. So in his mind, he was completely done and over and gone. And then the news about replacing the bass came out, and he's heard of me through all the TESTAMENT guys and stuff. So, yeah, we had no hatchet to bury or anything. He's a fucking pleasant guy. And it was cool to finally meet him, 'cause I know that my [TESTAMENT] guys — Chuck [Billy] and Alex [Skolnick] — played with him in METAL ALLEGIANCE, and they're really tight, and it's, like, we should get to know each other, 'cause our bands are always crossing paths and stuff. So it was really cool."

Back in April 2023, Steve told the "Into The Combine" podcast about how he approached his playing on "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!": "Riff-wise, you know the riff style, so it wasn't an over-the-top, brutal, technical death metal band that doesn't ever repeat any line. The riff information was in my wheelhouse, obviously, but what I realized is… From my background and my road that took me there, I wasn't equipped all the way to be in an arena that big. The pressure was huge. And maybe a lot of that was self-imposed, but that kept me on my best behavior. And I put my nose to the grindstone, and I wanted to leave a good mark. I wanted Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] to be proud of his decision. He picked me, and he told me on the phone he didn't really have a list [of other bass players that he could reach out to]. He's, like, 'If you can't, I don't have the two and three written down.' He goes, 'I've gotta kind of start over.' And so I when I got off the phone, [I went], 'Holy shit. That's huge. I'm it.' So I tried to stop saying 'Why me?' and say, 'Okay. It's me. Let's go. Let's do this the right way.'"

Steve continued: "It was brutal. But the cool thing was [Dave] treated me awesomely. He gave me absolutely all the room to learn the stuff. I can't say I didn't hear the songs before I got [to the studio], because he did send me a folder and I could listen to the songs. Even just asking me to do it, they were already at that point, so it wasn't, like, 'Yeah, four months later we'll…' No. It was, like, 'As soon as you say 'Yeah', get here.' So I didn't have any time to sit down and work out anything. And I didn't really want to anyway. I mean, it's MEGADETH, so you weren't gonna get [DEATH's] 'Individual Thought Patterns' [-style playing] on that album. I'm not that naïve. I'm, like, 'I'm going in to do MEGADETH. I know more or less what he wants. He wants MEGADETH bass.' But he did choose me. So I'm, like, 'Let's see what he wants. So let me just go into this completely unprepared and see what he wants.' And he was fucking great.

"A lot of people — and I've heard it, and you probably have heard it; Dave [Mustaine] stories are out there and everything," DiGiorgio added. "My experience, I can't validate any of that, because I was in the studio for, like, 13 days and gone. And for every single day I was there, he was an awesome human being. We got along great. We played great. He pushed me and he pulled me, but when it was done, he let me know it was done. It was a big high five and a hug, and we had a celebratory meal. I wanted to cook for him, but when you're there doing bass, it's, like, you've gotta do bass. So one night I managed to… they were working on something else and I cooked something, so we had a nice DiGiorgio feast.

"But it went very well," Steve reiterated. "[Dave] was very generous, very gracious. He gave me space to do stuff. And I told him flat out: 'Look, I want to use a pick. I know I need to use a pick.' I said, 'But I'm not super proficient with it. It's not my strong point.' I'm not a predominantly pick player. I break one out on a TESTAMENT song here and there. It's more like a novelty. Well… there's a sonic benefit to it. There's a [TESTAMENT] song called 'Electric Crown'; it's just got this steady rock kind of thing. I [use a] pick on that one, and there's a couple of others here and there. So one percent of the time I use a pick. I use a pick for one song for just the effect of it, but very little. And I told [Dave] that. I said, 'Hopefully we don't have this big hole in the road or whatever.' And he said, 'However it comes out of you, that's what we need.' And so I did a little mixture. A lot of the speed stuff, I could get that thing going and then nail it down, and that was the majority of it… And he didn't stare at me or nothing, so sometimes I'd put the pick down and I'd play it, and I'd see that nod, like, 'Okay, that sounds good.' So there's a few parts on there where I got to do my thing like that. But that's how he was, like, 'Whatever works for you.' And so that whole, 'Was he a tyrant in the studio? Did he force you…? Did he make you…?' No, he was fucking great to work with. So it turned out to be cool. It was a fucking amazing experience. I had to pinch myself when I drove away from that studio, like, 'Holy crap. I did it. I made it out alive.' But that was self-imposed. I don't mean 'I made it out alive…' They made sure I stayed alive. They took great care of me. The management team, Dave, his engineer Chris and his assistant Brian there, everyone was awesome. And I've got nothing but good [things] to say about that session. It was, like I said, two weeks — in and out. But it went great."

When Mustaine first confirmed that DiGiorgio laid down the bass tracks on "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!" in March 2022, he told SiriusXM Liquid Metal: "We obviously had that weird little… Well, it wasn't little, but we had something happen that we needed to make a decision on, and it kind of set us back a little bit timing-wise, because we needed to recalibrate and find someone to perform the bass parts. And we found someone that I thought was the perfect fit for us while I was trying to decide what to do."

He continued: "It was a good choice. I didn't think about anybody else at the time. I was thinking about 'who's the hottest guy out there that can play these new songs?' Because [Mustaine's son] Justis told me one of the fastest songs we've ever written is on this record. And I don't care what anybody says — bass may be less strings than a guitar, but it's difficult to play. If you're like me, I have a real hard time playing the bass. I can play it, and I wrote the riff for 'Peace Sells… But Who's Buying?', for Pete's sake, but, you know, having to jam some of those parts that fast, it just kills your fingers.

"It took a little bit of some getting to know each other," Mustaine added. "We hung out and had some meals. And he and Dirk [Verbeuren, MEGADETH drummer] and Kiko [Loureiro, then-MEGADETH guitarist] and [engineer] Chris Rakestraw got along really well. We had talked about what he was doing with TESTAMENT and stuff like that, and we just all kind of realized that it was perfect the way that it was, and now's time for me to find someone who's gonna join MEGADETH, and I'm not gonna hurt another band in the process."

There had been speculation about DiGiorgio's involvement in the new MEGADETH LP since July 2021, based on a Cameo video Mustaine recorded in which he offered the first glimpse of the bassist that re-recorded David Ellefson's bass tracks on the much-anticipated MEGADETH effort. In the clip, the MEGADETH guitarist/vocalist could be seen walking around a studio where he showed Rakestraw sitting behind the studio console as well as the mystery bassist "hiding behind the chair on the floor." Although it was impossible to tell who the bassist was based on the video, the musician appeared to be using the same brand of Ibanez bass played by DiGiorgio.

DiGiorgio is widely renowned as a pioneer on the fretless bass in heavy metal music, having played with TESTAMENT, DEATH and SADUS, among others. Within his genre, Steve is respected for his playing skills, versatility and incredible technique. He has more than 40 studio album recordings and over 20 years of touring the world.

Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on MEGADETH's sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee. A short time later, he raved about his performance on the record, telling the 96.7 KCAL-FM radio program "Wired In The Empire" that his musical chemistry with Verbeuren was comparable to the interplay between Geddy Lee and Neil Peart on classic RUSH albums. "I feel like on the new MEGADETH record, me and Dirk have those same moments," he said. "It's MEGADETH — it's not RUSH, obviously — but in the field of what we do, there were these moments that I was just going, 'Oh, my God.' This is me as a kid going, 'This is my Geddy/Neil moment right here.'"

In June 2021, Mustaine announced during an episode of his Gimme Radio program "The Dave Mustaine Show" that Ellefson's bass tracks would not be used on the new MEGADETH LP.

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest departure.

In September 2022, TESTAMENT's Chuck Billy said that he didn't think DiGiorgio "would have lasted" very long as a member of MEGADETH had he been asked to join the band. Billy discussed DiGiorgio's involvement with the latest MEGADETH album during an appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". Asked if he was concerned that TESTAMENT might lose its bass player to MEGADETH, Chuck said: "Well, of course. We're definitely always concerned that… We've had so many lineup changes, it wouldn't faze us. But Steve's an important part of the band; he was a great addition when he came back. And we went through a lot together personally. So, of course, when you get the opportunity to play on it, and I'm sure they were courting him to join the band. I'm glad he made the decision to stay with us."

Billy continued: "I think his intentions always were just, 'I'll go record the record,' 'cause that's what Steve does — he plays on a lot of people's albums. So we kind of took it as that at first. And I thought, 'That's what he does.' 'Go for it, Steve. Just don't leave.' [Laughs] And I'm sure they asked him to join the band. And he decided, 'You know, I've been with my bros here for a long time. I'm gonna stick with my bros.'"

According to Chuck, Verbeuren "had a lot of influence getting Steve" the MEGADETH recording gig because Dirk is "really good friends with Steve and they've done a lot of projects together." However, Billy added that he doesn't "personally think Steve would have lasted in the band. I know Steve very well, and I know Dave [Mustaine] very well, and I'm sure the two worlds would have collided," Chuck said with a laugh.

In August 2022, Mustaine discussed his decision to hire DiGiorgio to lay down the bass tracks on "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" during an appearance on Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show. Asked what he appreciates most about DiGiorgio and LoMenzo musically and as people, Mustaine said: "I think that both of them are really fun people to be around. Although I didn't know Steve DiGiorgio as much as I know James LoMenzo, I found him to be just as enjoyable to be around as James was."

Referencing the fact that Ellefson was fired from the band in May 2021, just days after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter, Mustaine said: "I think the band and everybody that's associated with us, that period that we went through was a little touchy. So we wanted to do the right thing. And trying to find the replacement for anybody, I think, wasn't the right thing to do at the time because nobody really knew all the facts and I certainly didn't want to poach anybody. Not from TESTAMENT — they're my friends — and I don't think from anybody."

Mustaine, who was a member of METALLICA for 11 months before being fired in 1983, continued: "As great as Steve is, I remember what it felt like when we [METALLICA] went up and poached Cliff [Burton] from TRAUMA. I mean, granted, the band TRAUMA wasn't that good, but there are still guys in the band and their lives were changed when that happened.

"I tend to believe that… You've gotta ask yourself, 'Did he jump or was he pushed?' And I like to make sure, if I was gonna hire somebody, that I wasn't stealing him from anybody."