During an appearance on the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast, SLAYER guitarist Gary Holt reflected on the band's two reunion performances last year — on September 22, 2024 at the Riot Fest in Chicago, Illinois and on October 10, 2024 at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California. Holt, who is also a longtime member of EXODUS, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it [had] been years, but we rehearsed really hard for those shows. We put in the effort. I never stopped. I was on tour [with EXODUS] a month after the final SLAYER show. Only the pandemic slowed me down. So, my chops were up. So, it was just refamiliarizing yourself with the material a little bit."

Asked if he was surprised when he got the call letting him know that SLAYER was planning on returning to the live stage, Gary said: "Absolutely. People say, 'Oh, this and that. You planned this all along.' I'm like, look, I knew a little while before everybody else, but I didn't know forever. I knew early enough to sit down at home and start studying the songs, 'cause I wanted to be really prepared. But, yeah, I was surprised."

Holt continued: "I'm sure there were offers for the band forever, but they felt like it was time, and I'm more than happy to do it. And at least as of now, the current method, which has been [for SLAYER to play] a brief, minor, small little couple of shows [every year], that's fine because I'm fully committed to EXODUS. And so it allows me to do that and then go out [with SLAYER] and play with fire, which, that shit's expensive. EXODUS does not get pyro."

Last October, Holt told Chuck Armstrong of Loudwire Nights that the SLAYER performances at Riot Fest and Aftershock were "surreal. It was awesome," he said. "We rehearsed really hard for it, like full production rehearsal. In the past, when I did rehearse — SLAYER rehearsed in this tiny little music studio room with little half stacks. This was cool 'cause I got to play with the entire rig — three amps, six cabs all on. I got to redesign the rig based on my EXODUS rig. So it was the exact same identical thing tone-wise, just three times as large, which was awesome.

"We were nervous," Holt admitted. "Tom [Araya, SLAYER bassist/vocalist] was nervous, and he sounded amazing. Sometimes you've just gotta forget about the time and how long it's been and just let muscle memory kick in and just do it. I mean, I only played one song I'd never played, and that was '213'. And 'Reborn' I'd only played, I think, once, so that was almost a new song — once or twice. Everything else was just refreshers."

Gary added: "I started working on the songs a long, long time ago, when the shows were first announced: 'All right, I'd better make sure I know how to play this shit still.' And I literally had to like dive into Internet tab on songs I'd played a hundred times. But then I'd [go], 'Man, I'm playing it wrong.' Then I just forget about it and just play, and then all right, my hands remember where the notes are.

"But it was spectacular," Holt said. "Losing the second show [at the Louder Than Life festival] due to the weather, the tail end of the hurricane, was a real, real bummer, especially for all the fans who flew in. I met people at the airport who flew in from England for it. And they had the best attitude about it. Obviously, it wasn't our fault. We tried everything we could. You can't control 50-mile-an-hour gusts. The crew had to evacuate, like, three times that afternoon. We never left the hotel.

"But it was amazing. It was surreal. It was like this moment. The crowd was just very happy. And we were happy, and everything was good."

At Riot Fest and Aftershock, SLAYER ran through a 20-song set that included opener "South Of Heaven", "Seasons In The Abyss", "Angel Of Death", "Hell Awaits", "Raining Blood" and the title track of SLAYER's final album, "Repentless".

SLAYER was also scheduled to play at the aforementioned Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky on September 27, 2024, but that performance was canceled due to severe weather.

In a separate interview with Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco Bay Area radio station 107.7 The Bone, SLAYER drummer Paul Bostaph also reflected on the band's two reunion performances. Asked how he felt now that the gigs were behind him, Bostaph said: "How do I feel? Um, wow. That's a really good question. I'm kind of a bit drained. Sacramento was a lot of guests there, a lot of friends, not to mention the show. So it was a lot of energy just put out. But each one of the shows kind of felt that way because it was kind of overwhelming because I never thought it would happen again. So, yeah, it was a lot of relearning songs that you really thought you did know, but you hadn't played them for five years. So, I don't know — it was great. I feel like it was probably one of the best live experiences I had because the fans were really into it. They were hungry for it, and that kind of made it special."

Five years after SLAYER played the last concert of what was being billed as the band's farewell tour and just weeks after SLAYER guitarist Kerry King unveiled the details of his solo project, Kerry and his longtime bandmates announced that they would play at Aftershock, Riot Fest and Louder Than Life.

The lineup for SLAYER's comeback was the same as the one which last toured in 2019: King and Araya, along with Holt and Bostaph.

In September 2024, Bostaph told the Los Angeles Times that he was surprised when the reunion dates were lined up. "I'm, like, 'You're kidding, right?' I really put that to bed," the drummer said. "When something like that ends, I'm not going to do that to myself: Gee, someday it'd be great to get back together again. Life is life and this is how it is, and I'm moving on to whatever the next thing is. I put that to bed and then all of a sudden the call comes."

Last July, Kerry told Guitar World magazine that he "was very surprised" when Araya agreed to play three SLAYER shows in 2024. "I made my comments [about SLAYER being finished] based on [Tom] not wanting to play anymore. As far as I was concerned, we were done and never going to play again. To be honest, I don't know what switched.

"We've been turning down offers to play shows for at least three years. So, one came up that, I guess, enticed Tom to the point where he wanted to roll the dice and try a couple. I don't know, but that's all it is."

King previously told Total Guitar magazine about SLAYER's reunion shows: "It caught me off guard too. Do I wish the timing was different? Absolutely, but that's completely out of my hands."

In June 2024, King was asked by Jonathan Clarke, host of "Out Of The Box" on Q104.3, New York's classic rock station, about how SLAYER's reunion shows came about. He responded: "I'll put it in the perspective everybody can understand. We've been turning down offers since beginning of 2020, pandemic and all. And then it started getting near the five-year anniversary of us stopping playing, so I'm, like, 'You know what? This is a three-show package. I think it would be fun to do.' It's kind of a five-year anniversary of our last tour. We're never gonna tour again — it ain't gonna happen. We're never gonna record again; that's not gonna happen either. But to do commemorative shows, I think that's kind of fun. I don't have to be married to it for a long time. Kids don't have to worry about it coming around on tour because we said we wouldn't. There's not a whole lot of weird diabolical shit going on here. I think people have just gotta say, 'Hey, it's anniversary celebration shows.' That's gonna be the end of it."

Days after SLAYER's reunion was announced, Tom Araya's wife wrote on social media that she "harassed him for over a year" before he "agreed finally" to play more shows with the band. "We shared that news with SLAYER's awesome managers and they did the rest!" she explained. "So yes without Tom it wouldn't have happened.. without me BUGGING HIM it wouldn't have happened."

Kerry's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", arrived in May 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music. All material for the LP was written by King, who was accompanied during the recording sessions by Bostaph and the rest of Kerry's solo band, consisting of guitarist Phil Demmel, bassist Kyle Sanders and singer Mark Osegueda.

Earlier this year, SLAYER announced headline performances for the U.S., Canada and the U.K., marking the band's first U.K. and Canadian concerts in six years. The U.K. and Canadian dates will see SLAYER headlining at some of the countries' biggest venues, including the 35,000-capacity Blackweir Fields in Cardiff, London's 45,000-capacity Finsbury Park, and the 100,000-capacity Festival D'été De Québec in Canada.

In addition to the band's international headline dates, SLAYER will help celebrate BLACK SABBATH's incredible career at SABBATH's sold-out "Back To The Beginning" final concert, set for July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. The "Back To The Beginning" concert will mark only the third time SLAYER has shared a stage with BLACK SABBATH, following Ozzfest in 1998 and in 2004.

Marking the band's only U.S. East Coast performance in 2025, SLAYER will headline Hershey, Pennsylvania's 30,000-seat Hersheypark Stadium on Saturday, September 20.

Photo credit: Ryan Segedi

Ex-SKID ROW singer Erik Grönwall rejoined his former band H.E.A.T on stage this past Friday (May 23) at La Riviera in Madrid, Spain to perform three songs: "Breaking The Silence", "Inferno" and "Living On The Run". Fan-filmed video of the show — which was professionally recorded for future DVD and Blu-ray release — can be seen below.

Grönwall sang on four H.E.A.T studio albums — "Address The Nation" (2012),"Tearing Down The Walls" (2014),"Into The Great Unknown" (2017) and "H.E.A.T II" (2020).

H.E.A.T announced in October 2020 that Grönwall was exiting the band after a decade-long tenure and he was being replaced by H.E.A.T's original vocalist Kenny Leckremo.

Grönwall said at the time: "H.E.A.T has really been a place for me to grow as an individual, singer and frontman. The guys recruited this young Swedish 'Idol' guy and believed more in me and my potential than I did myself. I am forever grateful for that.

"Gentlemen it's been a pleasure touring the world with you. I've learned a lot from you, and you've made me stronger. I look forward to build more memories with you, just not collectively as H.E.A.T".

Leckremo appeared on the band's first two studio albums, "H.E.A.T" (2008) and "Freedom Rock" (2010),as well as the band's latest effort, "Welcome To The Future", which arrived on April 25 via earMUSIC.

Earlier this month, Grönwall left Michael Schenker's European tour in order to return home to Sweden and be with his ailing father.

Schenker was touring in support of his recently released "My Years With UFO" album celebrating the 50th anniversary of Michael's years with UFO.

Grönwall is the featured singer on the "Mother Mary" song on "My Years With UFO", which also includes a guest appearance by GUNS N' ROSES' Slash on guitar.

In March 2024, Grönwall — who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021 — announced his departure from SKID ROW. He said at the time that he decided that the travel and rigors of the road were not conducive to his overall health and recovery, and he wanted to focus on a lifestyle that is more amenable for his well-being, healing and family.

This past January, Grönwall was full of praise for H.E.A.T keyboardist Jona Tee, writing in an online post: "I had the privilege of getting to know Jona when I joined his band, H.E.A.T, back in 2010. We shared an amazing 10-year journey together, and along the way, he became my best friend. One of the greatest gifts and what I value the most from my time with H.E.A.T was the bond we built, it's a friendship I'll always treasure.⠀
⠀
"Now, I know many of you often give me credit for the music I release, but let me be very clear: I wouldn't be anywhere near the artist or singer I am today without Jona Tee.⠀He produces everything for my YouTube channel and nearly all my releases. He plays almost every instrument on those tracks. And, quite simply, he's a musical genius. He's also an incredible songwriter!
⠀
"Jona constantly pushes me to deliver my absolute best. He challenges me, calls me out when I'm bitching (I do the same - tough love is the best love),and never lets me settle for less than my potential. Honestly, working with him is one of the biggest honors in my career. He's also the godfather of my son."
⠀

Together we have done it, Madrid. La Riviera - SOLD OUT!
May 23 can NOT come fast enough.

Posted by H.E.A.T on Monday, May 12, 2025

Fan-filmed video of GHOST performing the song "Square Hammer" on May 24 at Spektrum in Oslo, Norway can be seen below.

The European leg of GHOST's 2025 world tour kicked off on April 15 in Manchester, United Kingdom and concluded in Oslo. The North American leg of GHOST's 2025 tour will launch on July 9 in Baltimore, Maryland and wrap up on August 16 in Houston, Texas.

In a recent interview with Audacy, GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge addressed the band's announcement last fall that GHOST's 2025 world tour would be "a phone-free experience", with guests maintaining possession of their phones at all times, secured in Yondr pouches. He said: "It's an experiment. And to be perfectly honest, my 16-year-old daughter was very, very, very, very skeptical of this idea. And then she was, like, 'No one's gonna buy a ticket.' And I was, like, 'I don't know. I have no idea what people [will do].' I just know one thing, and that is that over the years it's gone absolutely insane. If you have 10,000 people at a concert and 8,000 of them are holding a phone, there's something deeply disconnected. And, obviously, this implies that I had this conversation with my daughter, but we talk about a lot of things and we speak openly about things. But I was saying, like, 'That's like having an intimate moment with someone and that person would just take out the phone like that.' 'Oh, hold on. I'm just gonna take a photo.' I know some people do that.

"If I'm just speaking for myself — I know a lot of artists don't care and I know that there are plenty of upsides, especially commercially because you want people that… The whole thing in the business is, basically, 'Yeah, we want people to film because we want people to see the show, and that will sell more tickets.' Fine. I understand that there's a promotional tool with social media. I'm not gonna neglect that. Part of our success is obviously from social media… We started on MySpace. That was the root cause for our success at the time. I don't know if we would ever become anything if it weren't for MySpace. And, obviously, our TikTok has played a huge part.

"I'm not saying that all social media is bad," he clarified. "I'm just saying that when it comes to the actual live show, my calling, my reason for being there is the connection between myself and everybody that I brought with me that are working in tandem to give you an experience, that experience is completely decocked if everybody's just filming. Am I wrong? Am I right? I don't know. That's how I, and we, felt."

Forge went on to reference the fact that GHOST's feature film debut "Rite Here Rite Now" was filmed over two nights in September 2023 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. The two concerts were device-free experiences; use of phones and smart watches was not permitted in the performance space. Upon arrival at the venue, devices were secured in individual Yondr pouches that were opened at the end of the event.

Tobias said: "This is where we put some practice into the theory. Some of the best shows we've ever done in modern time was — I mean, as far as how it felt for us, what the vibe was — was when we played in L.A., when we recorded 'Rite Here Rite Now'. We were all taken by the fact that people were there. The crowd was there. We have never seen people like that. That was, like, 10 years ago when you saw people engaging. And I get goosebumps when I think about that. And I was, like, 'Fuck, I wanna do that every night. I want everyone to feel like this,' because I know — and this is the conversation I had with my daughter. It's, like, 'I understand that you in theory think that this is like a downside, like a bad thing.' I want people to experience this. It's just two hours of your life. Come on. If you hate it, okay. We all felt so good when we were in L.A., and I know a lot of people said the same thing. It was a great feeling. Fans were saying afterwards, like, 'I was allowed to just sing along and just act… I could do whatever I want. I don't have to worry about someone filming me or…' I mean, I'm not gonna place all the words in everybody's mouths here, but it's a great feeling, and I wanna recreate that."

Forge previously discussed GHOST's phone "ban" earlier in March in an interview with Planet Rock. He said at the time: "I really wanna underline that the ban has nothing to do with, let's say, copyright control. It's not that we wanna sit on all the material and we don't want anybody to monetize [GHOST videos]; it has nothing to do with that."

Tobias continued: "The 'Rite Here Rite Now', the film, the essence of messaging in that film was exactly that, but also I, but us collectively, working, making that film… We filmed two shows in L.A. in front of audiences where they had to put their phones into pockets. You don't give it away. You have your phone; you don't have to worry about that. If you need to call, you can go out. If you need to take a photo, you can take a photo of yourself out in the lobby; that's fine. But what ended up happening was that we had such an engaged crowd that seemed joyous in a way that… I had to go back years and in time since I last saw a fully engaged crowd where everybody's actually watching [the show]. They don't have to watch me, but they're watching the band."

The 44-year-old Forge added: "I don't wanna turn this into an ageist thing where I'm gonna tell 14-year-olds everything was better back then. But I swear that the experience of shows and the making of memories, the making of magic, was much more powerful. Some of the best shows I've ever been to, I have maybe not even seen a picture from that because they all live here [in my head]. They live in my core. That's the memory I have of that. And that is an experience I wish for… Obviously, the part of our crowd that are older and more aware, maybe this becomes a little bit nostalgic then. But I really believe that the younger portion of our crowd will, as they did in L.A., come out saying, like, 'That was not only a great concert; that was also an overwhelming experience.' Because I do believe that you will feel that."

Through the use of technology like Yondr, fans are able to place their phones in a pouch that unlocks only after they leave the no-cell-phone zone. The pouch can also be unlocked at specific cell phone stations inside the venue.

Phone-free concerts are touted as a way to cut down on illegal filming and non-stop selfies that can take away from the performance.

Yondr founder Graham Dugoni said his company's pouches were created for "phone-free spaces" where "creativity and productivity could flourish in the absence of technology."

Phones, Apple watches and other communication devices are placed in the pouch and sealed using a magnetized lock, which can be opened with an unlocking base.

Musicians like Jack White, Alicia Keys, and comedians Dave Chappelle and Jerrod Carmichael have used Yondr pouches at their shows to encourage people to live in the moment.

A number of other musicians have come out in recent years to say that mobile technology is ruining the concert experience, including SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR singer Corey Taylor. He told "Loudwire Nights" that "it's fine" if people want to take pictures of his bands' shows, but not so much if they are videotaping entire performances. "It's one thing to film it, it's another thing to just be staring at your screen while you're filming it," he said. "It's right there. Are you so terrified of real life that you can't do anything unless it's on that little four-by-four screen? Ugggh. It's very weird."

Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach in 2015 urged fans to keep their cell phones at the bottom of their pockets and just watch his performances. "Be in the moment," he said. "You're distracted and it's distracting to the performer as well. Like, put your fuckin' cell phone away, dammit! You're never even going to watch that footage."

The overuse of cellphones to capture grainy, blurry photos and videos at concerts has for years vexed and enraged artists like Bach, who lamented the fact that every one of his performances could be recorded and shared on YouTube almost immediately.

"If I go to a wedding and sing a song, it's on Blabbermouth the next day and everybody analyzes it," said Bach. "It's a really backwards way to watch a band. It's a drag sometimes when I go up there and the first thing I see is everybody getting their phones out and holding them toward my face. It makes you feel intimidated."

Back in 2012, Bruce Dickinson chastised a fan for texting during an IRON MAIDEN concert, calling him a "wanker."

When Axl Rose reunited with his former GUNS N' ROSES bandmates Duff McKagan and Slash for the first time in 23 years at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in April 2016, the concert was phone-free.

"God, it was wonderful," McKagan told The New York Times. "It was the old-school feeling, where people were dancing and getting down. It was really cool."

GHOST released its new album, "Skeletá", on April 25 via Loma Vista Recordings.

The physical home video of "Rite Here Rite Now" was made available on December 6, 2024.

EMPEROR frontman Ihsahn (real name: Vegard Sverre Tveitan) has once again said that he would be open to the idea of him and his bandmates writing and recording a comeback album under the right set of circumstances.

EMPEROR's last studio album, "Prometheus – The Discipline Of Fire & Demise", was released in 2001 and was written entirely by Ihsahn. The band broke up shortly thereafter, with Ihsahn going on to pursue a solo career, while guitarist Samoth (real name: Tomas Thormodsæter Haugen) partook in a variety of bands, including SCUM and ZYKLON. EMPEROR has reunited frequently in ensuing years to perform live, but has continually resisted calls to release new material, something Ihsahn says he is no longer completely opposed to.

Asked in a new interview with Jorge Botas of Portugal's Metal Global if there will ever be a follow-up to "Prometheus – The Discipline Of Fire & Demise", Ihsahn said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "It's very hard for me to answer because I've always said no, and then I said, okay, I also said that there would never be any more EMPEROR live shows. So I don't wanna make myself a liar. So if stars align, and we have been going with the live stuff for a long, long time. But if we were to make something, I think that the reason behind it would have to be right.

"I like to think that the reason that EMPEROR still gets to tour around the world, play these amazing places and have thousands of people singing back those old songs is because they know it's for real," he continued. "It's not made for some kind of commercial aspect or some kind of entrepreneurial idea. It's just music made for the sake of music. Of course there are lots of financial motivations to do such a thing, but then again, I don't think any of us would want that to be a motivation for us doing what we do. I think that would be kind of making everything that we did in the past into a lie. So, I'm not saying I'm going to make myself a liar if we end up doing something one day, and say no, and then we do it. But if we do it, it would have to be for the right reasons — [it would have to be] because we really wanted to and we felt that's the right thing to do."

Ihsahn previously discussed the possibility of new EMPEROR music in a January 2024 interview with Sam Acevedo of El Planeta Del Rock. Asked if he thought the prospect of him and his bandmates writing and recording a new album was " a lose-lose situation", he responded at he time: "Yes. I do. And if I had a dime, as they say, for every time people ask me, 'Will there be another EMPEROR album?' In the beginning, it felt maybe a bit annoying, but I've chosen to see it more as — of course, in there, in that kind of question, there's a compliment that people, like myself, who have a relationship to music from their youth or something that you're attached to, obviously it was important for someone, which is a great thing. And the question for another album is that they want to feel that again, they want to feel more of that, which is also great. But then, in practical terms, what kind of EMPEROR album could we make that would satisfy that desire?"

He continued: "I think it would be easy-ish to make something that sounds like early EMPEROR, but who would want a black metal album made to make money off some kind of conceptual idea for some kind of demand in the market? That goes against everything that the music is about, in some sense. And if the other way would — I mean, we ended up in a place where I wrote more and more of the music, and with the last EMPEROR album, I did everything. And then, if we followed that trajectory, it's very close to how I make my music today [as a solo artist]. And I don't think that's what people mean. So, do you want this kind of metal? This is kind of what I do already. If you want me to try to go backwards and try to be a teenager again and unlearn any experience I've had as a musician and us going to back and trying to be…"

Ihsahn added: "You see how this is quite impossible. So unless planets align in the ways that me and [EMPEROR guitarist] Samoth just really connect over a common idea that we really want to make, I really don't see that happening. And also, then again, name me one band who broke up and then did a reunion record where people were, like, 'Fuck. This is amazing. This is even better than the old stuff.' It doesn't really happen because it's impossible because you can't compete with nostalgia. And also it's a risk because I would say that the culture and the atmosphere in the band and the traveling crew that we have with EMPEROR is probably better than it's been ever. And we have such a great time doing what we do. We love playing the old songs. It's not like we go there, 'Ah, these old songs.' It's not maybe always that fun to rehearse 'I Am The Black Wizards', but performing 'I Am The Black Wizards' live is never boring. And we really make sure we enjoy it and really put ourselves out there a hundred percent.

"I don't really see any reason to kind of tilt and risk destroying that for what could possibly be reasons that are not compatible with the uncompromising nature of what EMPEROR was," Ihsahn concluded. "And hopefully the tradition that uncompromising attitude probably was what got us here in the first place."

In September 2023, Ihsahn was asked by GRIMM Gent if he thinks there will be any new EMPEROR music in the future. He responded: "It kind of came to a very natural conclusion — in the sense that by the last… I eventually started writing more and more of the material, and by the last record, I did everything. And 'Prometheus' was kind of — I did that very much as a solo thing, and it goes still under the EMPEROR umbrella. So creatively, when there's no melt anymore and Samoth and Trym were doing ZYKLON — we wanted different things creatively."

He continued: "At this point, it doesn't look like [there will be new EMPEROR music]. But I've said a lot of 'no's in the past, also, like, there would never be another EMPEROR show. And I feel stupid when I say stuff like that and end up doing it anyway, so just to not to open that box, but it's, like, I won't make myself into a liar if the situation should change and that the planets will align. With creativity and stuff like that, it's very, very hard to tell, because it's a very open, channeling process. But so far I'm very, very… I get to… Yeah, I've been releasing full-length albums consistently more or less every second year since I was 16 and continue to do so. So I'm in a very happy place."

Ihsahn also discussed the possibility of a new EMPEROR album in April 2023 in an interview with Australia's "Everblack" podcast. At the time, he said: "Me and Samoth have discussed it at different points, especially since we've been doing these live things occasionally and now, I guess, more permanently in the end. But the discussion is really quite open. And I've talked about that in interviews as well.

"If it were to be, what kind of EMPEROR album should it be?" he continued. "Should it be something that the fans would want, as in something that maybe sounded like the early records? Which would be, in practice, kind of easy for us to do, but still it wouldn't really have the authenticity because it would be trying to recreate something that you did when you were teenagers, and it would almost be like the opposite of the motivation of all we did. If we were turning everything on its head and started creating music for the sake of pleasing some market or making money or any of that, it would kind of make everything that we did into a lie. And if we were to continue where we dropped out — I ended up recording and writing the entire last EMPEROR album on my own, in a far more experimental direction, and that's kind of where I just [laughs] disappeared into what I do. And should we pick up from that point? And then there wouldn't really be a point, if it wasn't a band effort and it was just me pushing in my direction.

"Basically, like I said with live shows, after every kind of anniversary thing that we did, 'It will never happen again,' so at this point I can't say that that will never happen, because I've seen it happen with the live shows that I never thought that we would do either," Ihsahn admitted. "But it would have to be at a point where we would get together and where the vision for what it could be, where that is in some way aligned, that we could create from the same uncompromising space and, I would say, without for a second dealing with what people might expect. Purely creating from that same state of mind, as we were back then. I think that would be the only way to properly do something that would be worthwhile for us to do, and down the line, for fans to experience too. I think if we started making records for those kind of 'un-black metal' reasons, it wouldn't be enjoyable for either us or anyone else… It would have to come from a creative place and not a practical, 'This could be smart. This could be…' None of that. And it would be futile.

"I think everybody, like you and me, who are drawn to this style of music, we're drawn to it because it feels uncompromising, it feels like something real," he added. "We are drawn to this music because we just want a pure experience."

Formed in 1991, EMPEROR's game-changing debut "In The Nightside Eclipse" (1995) created the template for symphonic, bombastic, melodic black metal, while the follow-up record, "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk" (1997) became an instant hit. They disbanded in 2001 following the release of "Prometheus – The Discipline of Fire & Demise". They reunited periodically between 2005 and 2014. In late 2016 it was announced that EMPEROR would reunite again for a special set of performances to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk". This legendary album cemented EMPEROR's reputation as the flagbearers of black metal and is still recognized as one of the most influential in this genre.

EMPEROR completed its first U.S. tour in over 15 years in the summer of 2023.

Photo credit: Bjørn Tore Moen / Freeman Promotions

MusicJunkie422 has uploaded 4K video of AC/DC's May 24 concert at the Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Check out the clips below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

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

Encore:

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

AC/DC kicked off its 2025 North American "Power Up" tour on April 10 at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

AC/DC is performing in 13 stadiums coast to coast this spring. This run will conclude on May 28 in Cleveland, Ohio at Huntington Bank Field. Along the way, they are playing some of the most iconic and historic stadiums in the world. Support on the trek is coming from THE PRETTY RECKLESS.

After the North American leg of the "Power Up" tour, the Grammy-winning rock band will return to the road in Europe for 12 dates across 10 countries beginning on June 26 in Prague, Czech Republic. The tour includes AC/DC's first-ever show in Estonia and a return to Scotland for the first time in a decade.

AC/DC played the 24th and final concert of its "Power Up" European tour on August 17, 2024 at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. The trek was the first run of gigs since AC/DC's return to the stage at 2023's Power Trip festival in Indio, California.

The "Power Up" European tour marked AC/DC's first with the band's new touring lineup, consisting of longtime singer Brian Johnson, founding member and lead guitarist Angus Young, as well as rhythm guitarist Stevie Young (who officially joined the band in 2014, replacing his uncle Malcolm Young, who retired due to dementia),drummer Matt Laug (who joined in 2023, replacing longtime drummer Phil Rudd) and former JANE'S ADDICTION bassist Chris Chaney, who came on board in 2024 replacing longtime bassist Cliff Williams. Williams retired from AC/DC after the conclusion of the 2016 "Rock Or Bust" tour, although he did return to the fold briefly for the 2020 "Power Up" album and an appearance at Power Trip.

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

AC/DC's latest album, "Power Up", came out in November 2020. The follow-up to 2014's "Rock Or Bust" was recorded over a six-week period in August and September 2018 at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver with producer Brendan O'Brien, who also worked 2008's "Black Ice" and "Rock Or Bust".

AC/DC's current tour comes eight years after Johnson bowed out a 2016 run of shows due to a hearing condition.

The band has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, including "Back In Back", which ranks as one of the top-selling LPs of all time.

In a new interview with The Rock N' Roll & Coffee Show, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson spoke about "Lockdown", the new single from his KINGS OF THRASH project, also featuring ex-MEGADETH guitarist Jeff Young, plus Chaz Leon (vocals, guitar) and DEAD GROOVE/BULLETBOYS drummer Fred Aching, along with an occasional guest appearance by fellow ex-MEGADETH-er Chris Poland. he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We wanted to get some material out, some original material here in 2025, 'cause we've got some tour dates coming up here in September and October. So actually Chaz brought the song over. And I gave him some instructions. I said, 'Dude, 1984, full-blown thrash metal.' I said, 'Just head for NUCLEAR ASSAULT 'Game Over', METALLICA 'Ride The Lightning'. Just go right to the heart of the matter.' 'Cause he's got a real thrash heart. And plus he's our singer. 'Cause we've written quite a bit of material together, and we wanted something that really just kind of came out of the gate swinging. And I find it's always better to write around the singer and let him kind of lead the charge. So I thought he brought a cool tune, man. And we collaborated on it and got it into shape. I think the time when he was writing it — this started back even in January, February when we were initially working on it — I don't think we saw probably how poignant the lyric is, in light of all of the unrest going on now. So, yeah, as a good thrash song should be, maybe a bit political, a bit anarchist, and always good fun."

Elaborating on the need for KINGS OF THRASH to release fresh music, Ellefson said:  "It started out as sort of a, 'Let's go honor thrash metal.' We pulled in a little bit of THIN LIZZY and some RIOT and some stuff that we grew up on as well. And then I think the next logical step to kind of legitimize yourself is to write your own tunes. And even though, look, some of the MEGADETH stuff is stuff that I wrote, and so they already are my songs, and Jeff and Chris were part of 'em, of course. So that setlist is our music. But to move forward, it's always good to sort of freshen it up a little bit and show everybody what you got. We had another song called 'Bridges Burned' that we rolled out in 2023 when we did our first tour, and we literally wrote it on the road. Jeff and I had pretty much demoed it up in the studio the year before, so kind of musically it was pretty much together. But we collaborated on it as a group at soundcheck, tightened it up. Me and Chaz and Jeff sat down and wrote the lyrics in a hotel room while we were on the tour. And then we said, 'We'll take it to the stage.' And our crew were, like, 'Dude, you guys can't play that on stage.' I said, 'Oh, really? Watch this.' Like, why not? And who knows if we'll ever even officially record that, but it sits out on the Internet now. It's on YouTube… It's, like, why not, man? It's thrash metal, dude. This is the kick-ass, have-fun, get-in-the-pit-and-fricking punch-your-neighbor music."

Regarding the possibility of a full-length album of original KINGS OF THRASH material, David said: "It's possible. I'm certainly not gonna say no to it. I tell you what, it was great to just do one song. Making a record is a lot of work, especially when you live in different cities and you're trying to collaborate. One of the things about KINGS is we are not four of the same guy. We are four very different individuals, and so to sort of be agreeable on something, I'm not gonna lie, it's a bit of a challenge. And quite honestly, it's the diversity that makes KINGS so cool. And I guess I come from that even with MEGADETH. And Chris Poland, Jeff Young, they were sort of the diverse guitar players to Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader]. So I grew up in an environment that kind of expected that. So to have KINGS mirror that, I think is cool. I'm already used to that dynamic. And having everybody not just agree on everything, but everybody bring a bit of a different perspective, it's cool. I mean, that's ultimately what a group is about. I mean, look, every group needs a leader. To some degree I lead a lot of it. I put Jeff over there to sort of put setlists together and do that. With this song 'Lockdown', I tasked Chaz with that and said, 'Hey, go do that.' Fred, he's our liaison with the record label. He does all of our artwork and everything. He shot the video, he produced it and directed it and everything. So, we've got four really creative guys that do very different things. So it's, like, we've got four guys that really contribute something. And that's great — to have four different dudes."

KINGS OF THRASH recently completed a couple of tours during which it performed MEGADETH's classic albums "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good" an "So Far...So Good... So What!" A live CD/DVD package called "Best Of The West…Live At The Whisky A Go Go" was recorded and filmed live at the legendary Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California on October 15, 2022 and was released in March 2023 via Cleopatra Records. The DVD, which was directed by Michael Sarna for Inmotion Entertainment, includes an appearance by Poland.

"Let me put it this way: What's happening now is a win for all of us — Dave [Mustaine] included," Young told Metal Edge in August 2023. "He gets to make money off the publishing from the MEGADETH songs we play. Dave knows that, so he's very aware of us."

Young continued: "He hates what KINGS OF THRASH is doing. But it doesn't matter because, eventually, we'll delete a lot of the MEGADETH from our set, and we'll keep writing new stuff. But Dave is feeling the heat because we're getting attention, and the KINGS OF THRASH album will be better than anything MEGADETH has done recently. And we're playing all the MEGADETH songs better than he has in years. It's not just me saying that — read the reviews."

In January 2023, Young told Ultimate Guitar that he and Ellefson had not received any feedback from Mustaine about their new band or their recent live shows. "We couldn't care less… and it's a win-win for him," Jeff said. "Because all the publishing, for example, on the 'Best Of The West', he's getting all that money. We're making him money and he doesn't have to do anything. So, we're performing the songs because they're part of our history and the fans want to hear them and we will benefit from that, and so will he, so it's a win-win. How much cooler can anything be than that? So, if he has something to say about it… I wouldn't imagine it would be very objective… not that anything he's ever said has been objective."

Jeff's recent comments were similar to those he made in 2022 when he told Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of the Rock Interview Series that he and Ellefson were "really not concerned" about Mustaine's reaction to KINGS OF THRASH. "I don't pay attention," he said. "I haven't really paid attention or followed MEGADETH since, I think, I heard the 'Rust In Peace' album a couple of times, and then what you might hear on the radio or in the press.

"For us, this isn't about any spite or retaliation; it's a celebration of the music that we were all a part of, that we helped create," he explained. "And it's fun for us to do this.

"People said, 'You should do this.' And we said, 'Hey, yeah, you're right. We should do this.' It's a win-win — it's a win for us, and it's a win for [Mustaine], because any performance royalties, anything… If we did include live tracks, he would make money off that. It's promoting albums that hopefully fans will go back and buy, which is putting money right in his pocket. Especially 'Killing Is My Business', I think a lot of people are gonna go back and wanna rediscover that album after this tour.

"For us, it's all about positivity," Young added. "We're all in this moment — we're living in the moment, and we're not looking beyond. We're not reading any of the comments on Blabbermouth or any of the stuff. Because we know what our intent is, and intent is everything. And our intent's positive. We like playing together. We know we're crafting original music. We're not relying on this; we don't need to ride the coattails of this. This is just something that the fans wanted, and you wanna give fans what they want."

Ellefson told Yes! You CAN Play Guitar! that the intention behind KINGS OF THRASH is not to stick it to his former bandmates. "This is a celebration, not a retaliation," he explained. "This is a good moment. This is a happy moment, to celebrate these songs and these tracks and these records. So we go at it with just fun… It's, like, 'Wow. Wouldn't it be fun if we went out and played these records?' And we're doing it. So it's meant to be this celebration and bringing people together. And honestly, that was kind of always my role in MEGADETH. Dave [Mustaine] always called me 'The Ambassador', and I was always that guy, and I am that guy. So it's, like, let me just continue that role in our community and have one of good will."

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH three years ago after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.

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

In 2004, Ellefson filed an $18.5-million lawsuit against Mustaine, alleging the MEGADETH leader shortchanged him on profits and backed out of a deal to turn Megadeth Inc. over to him when the band broke up in 2002. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed and Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH in 2010.

Young's entire career with MEGADETH was spent recording and touring in support of the band's 1988 platinum-selling album "So Far, So Good...So What!"

Jeff made headlines in December 2009 for accusing Mustaine of, among other things, "dissing, exaggerating and just plain lying on some level about nearly every talented musician that has passed through his dysfunctional little ensemble." He also disputed Mustaine's claim in an interview that Young's drug problem led to MEGADETH's 1988 Australian tour being called off and the group being "banned" from performing in the country.

There's more KINGS OF THRASH on the way, too, as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of MEGADETH's "Youthanasia" and other thrash classics. Their "Thrashin' SoCal" mini tour ignites at the Whisky on September 4, before "Thrashin' The East" begins in Frenchtown, New Jersey on October 17. Young said: "We can't wait to hear everybody singing the 'Lockdown' chorus with us live!"

TRIXTER's Pete Loran says that he is tired of hearing about Sebastian Bach pining for a reunion with his former band SKID ROW.

Loran, who hasn't played a full concert with TRIXTER since 2017, addressed a possible renewed collaboration between Bach and SKID ROW in a new seven-minute video posted to his YouTube channel.

Pete said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "What is up, everybody? Pete Loran here. Figured I'd jump on here with some current events. Your old pal Sebastian Bach back ranting — or not ranting this time, not airing out his dirty laundry and his family leaving him and all that stuff. This time he says that he has never listened to his replacement singers in his band, SKID ROW. He's never listened to any of those records. Never, never listened to 'em. Not once. Do you believe him? [Laughs] I don't believe him. Come on, man. If it was me, I'd listen to 'em. I'd find everything I could to make fun of it, or whatever. Just like he can make fun of what's going on here. I have no idea. Anyway, that's another story.

"So he can't seem to let the SKID ROW thing go, and for the life of me, I don't understand why," Pete continued. "I don't know why he's so obsessed with getting back in that band. He does real well on his own, and he gets the lion's share of the money. If he had gotten back in SKID ROW, he'd, at best, be cut equally, probably get less. But the reality is those guys don't want him back. They don't want him back just as much as they didn't want him back 30 years ago. Today, they're just as adamant about it, and they're tired of talking about it. [Laughs] I'm tired of hearing about it, man. I mean, dude, let it go. You're doing just fine.

"Here's a funny story, and I've never told this story," Loran added. "Back in 1989, my old band [TRIXTER] … was recording our first record in L.A. Beginning in 1989, SKID ROW's first record came out. They immediately went out on tour with BON JOVI. Later that year, late summer, MTV had a video award show and he was there. He actually talks about that show because he was there with Christina Applegate. You remember Christina Applegate from 'Married With Children'. She's been in several movies. [She's a] great actress. But he did a podcast where he was talking about a TV show that she did where they were asking her, 'You were dating Brad Pitt in 1989 and you broke up with him for some mystery rock star. Who is that guy?' And she was totally mortified. She did not wanna talk about it. She was so pissed. And he brings it up on this podcast going, 'It was me. It was me.' [Laughs] He's right — it was him. I saw them together. He's totally right about that. But the point I'm getting to is we were at that award show too. Just by chance we got invited. So I heard he was there. I wanted to go talk to him. I hadn't seen him in a while, because back in the day, a couple of years, a few years prior, our bands were doing shows together. We were doing clubs, and neither one of the bands were signed and we were doing clubs together. As a matter of fact, we did shows with [SKID ROW's] old singer before he got replaced by Sebastian. And so backstage, we'd all hang out and talk, and Sebastian was a cool guy. He was totally chill. He was down to earth, seemed normal to me. They put their record out, got immediate success, big success. And so I said, 'Hey, let me go go talk to my old buddy Sebastian.' And I walked up to him and [he] was a completely different guy — huge rock-star attitude, loud, over the top. And I was just, like. 'All right. All right.' And the following night we actually saw him at a club with Christina Applegate, so they were definitely a thing. And we said hello, whatever, for a couple minutes, and that was it. And that was really the last time I've ever been face to face with him.

"But to get back to what I'm talking about, a couple days later on the street, we saw one of the guys from SKID ROW and they were telling us how [Sebastian] was a complete nightmare and he was just totally just disrupting everything that these guys were doing on the road. I mean, he was just out of control. And this is within the first year of that album getting released. They were done with him then.

"It's funny to me how he acts like he has no idea why they don't want him in the band," Pete went on to say. "And I don't know why he keeps poking that bear. I don't get it. I mean, they're tired of talking about it. They're exhausted from talking about it. I'm tired of hearing about it. I'm sure a lot of people are tired of hearing about it.

"There are people who say, 'Oh, get him back in the band.' Why? They don't want him. He's doing great on his own. He's making a bunch of money, he's doing shows. He's not slowing down. He still sounds pretty good. I mean, he sang some pretty difficult stuff on those first couple of records. It's not easy. And honestly, he's a big part of their success. He is. There's no two ways about it, that he is a very huge part of their success. Number one part of their success is great fucking songs, though — [written by SKID ROW guitarist] Snake [Dave Sabo] and [SKID ROW bassist] Rachel [Bolan].

The 58-year-old Loran, who frequently "likes" and reposts messages on X that amplify Republican talking points and that are derogatory to Democrats, concluded: "So, Sebastian, like I said, you sound good still, man. You're doing fine. It's not easy to sing those notes anymore these days. I get it. I'm with you, man. We're probably pretty close to the same age. Probably got a lot in common. You hate America. I don't. But other than that, we probably share a lot of similar things. But just let it go. Nobody wants to talk about it anymore. Let it go, man. You're doing great."

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.

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."

During an appearance on a recent episode of the Iblis Manifestations podcast, former HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST and current TRIPTYKON singer, guitarist and main songwriter Tom Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. Tom Gabriel Warrior) spoke about TRIPTYKON's appearance at the Incineration festival in London, United Kingdom earlier this month where he and his bandmates once again played a special set consisting of nothing but CELTIC FROST material. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I have to really state this because some lovable haters of mine always say, 'Stick to TRIPTYKON. Are you so desperate to play CELTIC FROST?' And there's a lot of things to say about that, which I won't do now. I'm just gonna state the most obvious. I wrote these fucking songs, and these songs are my life. Almost every single CELTIC FROST song had had a profound influence on my life, whether I liked it or not. And [late HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST bassist] Martin [Ain], too, of course. And there's no way I'm gonna spend the rest of my life without that music. I formed TRIPTYKON specifically to continue CELTIC FROST's path. And, of course, TRIPTYKON have continued as CELTIC FROST would have. TRIPTYKON is basically CELTIC FROST by a different name. I wasn't gonna be cheap and call it CELTIC FROST without Martin, but it is essentially… I'm operating exactly like CELTIC FROST. We've always played CELTIC FROST music because it's part of my life. And we also, of course, play TRIPTYKON music, because it is also part of my life."

Circling back to TRIPTYKON's appearance at Incineration, Tom said: "The show yesterday being entirely CELTIC FROST — all the shows where TRIPTYKON play CELTIC FROST only are by request of the festival, not by 'Tom being desperate' or 'Tom wanting to cash in.' Which is another issue. When people say, 'Yeah, he wants to cash in on his [history with] CELTIC FROST.' Well, if you go to work, you expect a salary — everybody. If you're a baker, yeah, you wanna cash in on the bread you sell. Oh my fucking God. It's my profession."

He continued: "I'm not justifying it. I'm simply stating the obvious because there's some people who think — I feel contempt for them. They think they have to tell me how to live my life. And I'm the last person to listen to that, but it doesn't hurt to occasionally address this. If you're loser and you're jealous about somebody else's work, maybe put that energy into your own. If I had been sitting at home in '82, '83, '84, and instead of writing demos together with Martin and recording demos and putting everything, every last cent we had, everything into musical fanaticism, if I had spent that time instead writing evil mails to people, I would be nowhere. And that's the difference. If I'd put that energy into destructive things instead of creative things."

"It was so much fun yesterday to connect with this fantastic audience over these songs, because these songs have a history not just for me, but also for the people who were there. They were singing all the lyrics. They were headbanging to it. What's wrong with this? I mean, if I'm totally honest, these are songs written, like, 40 years ago, some of them, and I've changed, of course, in these decades. I'm not the same guy that I was as a 20-year-old, totally inexperienced Tom Warrior. I'm gonna be 62 in in a couple of months, and I'm a very different person, of course. I've lived the life, I have life experience, hopefully some maturity, hopefully. And, of course, it changed me. So if I have a choice, of course TRIPTYKON is much closer to me because TRIPTYKON reflects the current Tom. But that doesn't preclude me loving these songs for a different reason, because these songs were the stones in my path, the floor plates on that road that I'm walking, and as such they're hugely important. And especially with the death of Martin, there's some songs that we performed yesterday where I have a film in my mind how Martin and I created these songs and how we produced them in the studio. And, for example, playing for the very first time ever 'A Dying God [Coming Into Human Flesh]' [from CELTIC FROST's 2006 album 'Monotheist'] yesterday on stage, it was first and foremost a tribute to Martin Ain, because I know how important this song was for Martin, and that's also why the video projection at that point focused on Martin. It's not about me. Martin can no longer come on stage, and believe me, if he was still alive, we would've asked him to be a guest in these shows. But I basically also carry his memory now. I'm involuntarily put into this position. Because I was the old one, I always thought I'm gonna die before him and he's gonna be the administrator of CELTIC FROST's legacy. But now I'm in this position. And this is part of what happened yesterday on stage. And I know people totally understand this. That's a lot of fans of Martin Ain in the audience, and you can see it."

Iblis Manifestations is hosted by Shayan, a musician and fitness coach, born in Tehran, Iran after the Islamic Revolution. He grew up in a world of totalitarian religious extremism, under the rule of cultural and societal restrictions — defying which could lead to punishments of imprisonment or even death. He is known as the frontman and guitarist of the black/death metal band TRIVAX, which is now based in the United Kingdom.

In 2023, Tom and the rest of TRIPTYKON also played several other concerts during which they performed a set of early CELTIC FROST songs celebrating the influential Swiss metal band that he co-founded more than 40 years ago.

Ain, who played with Fischer in both HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST, died in October 2017 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 50.

CELTIC FROST reformed in 2001 and released its comeback album "Monotheist" via Century Media/Prowling Death in 2006. The band broke up in 2008, with Fischer going on to form TRIPTYKON.

TRIPTYKON has released two full-length albums, a live LP, an EP, a single and two box sets in its 17 years as a band.

TRIPTYKON 2025 is Tom Gabriel Warrior (voice/guitar),Vanja Slajh (bass),V. Santura (guitar/vocals) and Hannes Grossmann (drums/percussion).

TRIPTYKON's previous album releases are "Eparistera Daimones" (2010),"Melana Chasmata" (2014) and "Requiem - Live At Roadburn 2019" (2020).

During an appearance on the latest episode of the Office Hours Live With Tim Heidecker, DREAM THEATER's Mike Portnoy discussed the recent spate of high-profile drummer firings, including those of Josh Freese (FOO FIGHTERS),Zak Starkey (THE WHO),Jason Bonham (Sammy Hagar's band) and Frank Ferrer (GUNS N' ROSES). Mike, who rejoined DREAM THEATER in October 2023 after a 13-year absence, said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think it's the SPINAL TAP conspiracy. I think nobody is safe. Ringo's [Starr] son was fired from THE WHO. John Bonham's son was fired from Sammy Hagar's band. I mean, if the spawn of Ringo and Bonzo are not safe, nobody is safe… Jason Bonham got let go by Sammy months ago, last year, I think, when he was out on the summer tour. It's just crazy. It's craziness."

Speaking specifically about Freese being dismissed by the FOO FIGHTERS after a two-year run with the band, Portnoy said: "Frankly, it's shocking. I thought Josh was perfect… So, yeah, it's scary. It's scary times for drummers."

When one of the podcast hosts noted that some fans have speculated that late FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins's son Shane will step in to play drums for the band, Mike countered with: "But even famous drummers' sons are not safe, like I just pointed out. It doesn't matter."

As for the circumstances that led to Starkey's departure from THE WHO, Portnoy said: "Well, I don't know if you saw the clips. The whole thing with Zak Starkey started — [THE WHO] did a show last month at the Royal Albert Hall. They were doing 'The Song Is Over', and Roger [Daltrey, THE WHO singer] came into the second verse early and stopped the band, turned around and blamed it on his mix, that the drums were powering out his mix. Now, mind you, Zak Starkey is on an electronic kit; they already downgraded it off of an acoustic kit. They have him playing an electronic kit, which is fully controllable in terms of volume through the sound guy. So, if anything, he should have fired the monitor guy, not Zak."

Mike joked that he is concerned about his status with the various projects he has played with in recent years. "I'm scared for my life and career at this point," he said. "And I'm in, like, 15 bands, so I have 15 times the chance of getting fired right now. The odds are very much stacked against me right now."

DREAM THEATER's sixteenth studio album, "Parasomnia", came out on February 7, 2025 via InsideOut Music. The LP marked DREAM THEATER's first release with Portnoy since 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings".

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

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

DREAM THEATER kicked off the North American leg of its 40th-anniversary tour on February 7 at The Met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The trek was "An Evening With Dream Theater" and was the first tour of North America since Portnoy's return to the lineup. The tour concluded on March 22 in New York City.

"Parasomnia" was produced by Petrucci, engineered by James "Jimmy T" Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returned once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art.

DREAM THEATER's upcoming summer/fall U.S. tour will be "An Evening With Dream Theater" that will celebrate "Parasomnia". The trek is scheduled for 30 cities, kicking off September 5 in Reading, Pennsylvania and running through October 25, when it wraps in Long Island, New York. The tour will make stops in Orlando, Floria; Detroit, Michigan; Kansas City, Missouri and Providence, Rhode Island, among others. DREAM THEATER will perform its latest album in its entirety as well as classics and fan favorites from the band's catalog.