One year ago, today — December 2, 2023 — the last KISS tour ever reached the "End Of The Road" with one final epic performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Relive the magic of that night with a 20-minute recap video below.

KISS's final concert at Madison Square Garden lasted two hours and 15 minutes and saw the legendary rockers perform to 20,000 fans at the second show of a two-night stand. After the set-closing "Rock And Roll All Nite", a message was displayed on the video screens, "A new KISS era starts now", and digital avatars of the four members of KISS appeared, playing the band's anthem "God Gave Rock And Roll To You". The announcement signaled that from here on out, KISS will perform as digital avatars.

The KISS avatars were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and were financed and produced by the Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment, which is behind the successful "ABBA Voyage" show in London.

A short video was released a year ago showing the members of KISS hooked up to the motion capture technology that helped generate their avatars.

The avatars will now be available for live shows around the world and in digital online settings, which some people collectively refer to as the metaverse.

KISS will reportedly become the first American band to go fully virtual and stage its own avatar show.

Lase December, KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer reflected on the band's final performance, telling Allison Hagendorf in a short post-show interview for PPV.com: "I thought it was a fantastic night. I felt really good about it. This is a celebration. But most importantly, this is Gene [Simmons, KISS bassist/vocalist] and Paul's [Stanley, KISS guitarist/vocalist] night. This has been their baby for 50 years, and I think everybody was really feeling that. I mean, it's KISS and everything too, of course, but this is about Gene and Paul tonight. This is their encore and their night."

Thayer went on to say that he got "emotional" at the end of the night. "I saw a lot of people out there with tears in their eyes," he said. "Gosh, Sebastian Bach [former SKID ROW singer], I saw him about ten rows out [in the audience]. He was bawling his eyes out. But it's an emotional night. I mean, KISS has been such a big part of everybody's lives for almost 50 years now. It is very emotional, very meaningful."

The official music video for Gene Simmons's cover version of the Ethel Waters song "Stormy Weather" for the "Reagan" movie can be seen below. The video, which was released by Rawhide Pictures, the producer of "Reagan", includes footage of Simmons recording the song behind a simple piano accompaniment intercut with clips from the movie.

Simmons told Newsweek about his cover of "Stormy Weather": "It seemed to me during the scenes where Ronald Reagan was sitting with Jane Wyman at the club, there would probably be music playing in the background. I was actually thrilled that the producers thought my version of the song would work in the scene."

Gene also praised Reagan, calling him a "great American" who will "certainly go down in future generations as one of America's great presidents."

"Interestingly, and I suspect the masses didn't know this about President Reagan, he started off as an actor, joined the Democratic Party, then became disillusioned with the Democratic party, and joined the Republican party," Simmons said.

Composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Ted Koehler had created "Stormy Weather" with the bandleader and entertainer Cab Calloway in mind, but Calloway had not been signed to appear in the 20-second edition of the "Cotton Club Parade"; Duke Ellington had been signed instead. So, Ethel was invited to sing "Stormy Weather" with Ellington and his orchestra.

Ethel recorded "Stormy Weather" on May 3, 1933 for Columbia, and this became her next crossover hit, a success even larger than her 1925 recording "Dinah". In 2003, Ethel's 1933 recording of "Stormy Weather" was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in the category of "Jazz" (Single). In 2004, the Library Of Congress honored the song by adding it to the National Recording Registry.

Two years ago, Simmons spoke about current U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, on whose "The Celebrity Apprentice" show he was once a contestant.

"For the record, when [Trump] first ran in 2016 and got elected, I was happy," Gene said. "I knew the guy from before then, seeing him in clubs and stuff like that. And for the record, he had Bill and Hillary [Clinton] at his wedding and Howard Stern went to his wedding. He's not a politician. But my point, I wanna say for the record, and people will tell you who know me, 'Oh, yeah, Gene was happy that Trump won.' I was. I didn't want Hillary [to be president]. I thought, 'Oh, a businessman is coming in. He understands how to run things.'"

When Maher pointed out that Trump doesn't understand how government works and doesn't care to learn, Gene said: "I agree. The person that I saw first coming into power is not the person I saw within a year or two of that… But I changed, the way lots of people changed."

Elsewhere during the chat, Gene went on to say that he is one of the more than sixty percent of the U.S. electorate which doesn't necessarily identify with a major party.

"Generally speaking, I'm a centrist," he said. "I don't like AOC [New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and I'm not a fan of [Vermont senator] Bernie [Sanders], but I think they're both fine people. I do like [Utah senator] Mitt Romney and [Wyoming congressperson] Miss [Liz] Cheney, I do like that, and both sides hate you for saying those things, because they both want you to align yourself with what the marching orders are. 'If you're a Democrat, it means this. You're a progressive.' I'm not a progressive. I know that business has to involve people who don't agree with you."

This was not the first time Simmons had been critical of Trump. In May 2022, he told SPIN: "I know the previous [U.S.] president," he said. "I knew him before he entered politics. Look what that gentleman did to this country and the polarization — got all the cockroaches to rise to the top. Once upon a time, you were embarrassed to be publicly racist and out there with conspiracy theories. Now it's all out in the open because he allowed it."

Simmons went on to say that he and Trump "knew each other" before "The Celebrity Apprentice", "in clubs and all that. You have a different responsibility when you're just a citizen or an entrepreneur," he added. "You don't make policy. It doesn't affect life and death. When you get into a position of power, it does affect lives.

"I don't think he's a Republican or a Democrat," Gene said of Trump. "He's out for himself, any way you can get there. And in the last election, over 70 million people bought it hook, line and sinker."

Simmons previously touched upon his feelings about the Trump presidency in August 2021 while speaking to Yahoo!'s Lyndsey Parker about the negative response he gets from some of his fans every time he shares his pro-vaccine stance on Twitter.

"It's been politicized," he said. "The gentleman who was in office, the former president [Donald Trump], I knew before the political world. It's the same person I knew before; the stripes of a tiger don't change. And the unfortunate thing is that… Look, we all lie to some extent, but what happened the last four years was beyond anything I ever thought imaginable from people who had lots of power — not just him, but the administration, everybody. And unfortunately, that disease — The Big Lie notwithstanding — has really infected a large portion of the population."

Asked to elaborate on his comment that Trump is "the same person" he knew when he was a contestant on Trump's "The Celebrity Apprentice" series, Gene said: "We were in a restaurant together, and I happened to be with an attractive young lady. And he walked up and said, 'Hey, Gene, you and I, we're exactly the same. We like the hot chicks.' That was a strange thing to say, but yeah, I guess that's true. But I think it's the same person. And maybe that was the appeal and continues to be. People are sick and tired of politically correct language and stuff.

"In a political dialogue, if somebody spews complete fiction and QAnon stuff, you wanna be able to have somebody who says, 'Are you out of your fucking mind? Did you just shit your diapers and forget to wipe it?'" Simmons added. "We're looking for that politician who just says instead of watching your language. Because the other side will spew garbage and lies and everything."

Back in 2019, Simmons said that Trump had "forever changed" politics. He added that "earth has never been in better shape" than it was in the summer of 2019. "I know — climate change and a polarized political thing — but there are no more world wars," he stated at the time. "I mean, imagine what London looked like 60 years ago. This is the best of times. Unemployment in the United States is the lowest it's been in 50 years — 5-0. When I rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange at their behest, the Dow [Jones Industrial Average] was about 8,000. It's almost 27,000 today. More people are working. More people are making more money. Unions are more powerful."

In the past, Gene had defended Trump's occasional off-color remarks and frequently outrageous statements, saying: "I don't know anybody here who hasn't said stupid things publicly or privately. You've said potty words and so have I. So I'm gonna give the guy who was duly elected a chance to show us what he can do, and then I'll judge his legacy."

Simmons said that he "didn't necessarily vote for Trump or [Hillary] Clinton" in the 2016 presidential election, adding that "it's really nobody's damn business" whom he voted for. "I think you'd be surprised by my choice — but he's President Trump, because even if you don't like the man, you must respect the office of the presidency and the will of the Electoral College," he said.

In 2017, Simmons confirmed that KISS was invited to perform at Trump's inauguration but turned it down because it was "not a good idea."

During an appearance on the Thunder Underground podcast, POP EVIL frontman Leigh Kakaty addressed his previous comment that the band's upcoming eighth album will be the group's "most lyrically raw and sonically heavy" release so far. Asked what it was that pushed him in the direction of being more open with his lyrics, Leigh said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, that's a great question. I think just the reality sets in at some point in your career that, okay, this will be our eighth album. I've written about myself early on in my career, I've written about other people, I've written about fans, I've written about past experiences.

"I had a lot more struggles with mental health than I think I like to admit," he explained. "I think a lot of us singers, we do live in an ego world, in a way, where you just forget sometimes about yourself, like, you just, 'It's all good.' And I don't mean necessarily a cocky, arrogant way. You're not used to really thinking about yourself in those ways. You're just worried about everyone else. You're leading a team. You're the face of a brand. So you don't have time always to think about your depression. It could slow the whole thing down if I start getting sad or depressed about something. I mean, it would be over. So I don't really have time to really kind of cleanse some of the stuff that's really sat with me for all these years. So this album, with the song 'What Remains'… When we sat down to write the album, I didn't know, Every album is a little bit, like, 'What's gonna come out?' You try to shut your eyes, see what comes out, see what goes on, see what kind of cleanse happens. And it took a few songs — I think three or four songs were written before 'What Remains', and then 'What Remains' was written, and it just kind of all stemmed around that song. It was, like, 'Oh my gosh. I gotta let this out.' And then there was kind of hesitation. I don't wanna write about myself. I had talks with the band, the managers, and they were, like, 'Look, this could be really therapeutic for you. You should do this. We should explore this.' And as we started to dive in more, it just felt like a very natural progression for me. I was starting to get — I guess I was just getting lighter, in a way; it just felt like a lot of weight was being lifted, all the stuff. Even COVID that we've all dealt with, I mean, there was a lot for every band, but for me personally, there was a lot of baggage that built up, a lot of stuff that was just kind of still lingering that needed to kind of come out. And what a great opportunity to have a band and to have a platform like that to be able to express myself and let that out and hopefully help other people that might be dealing with similar issues that can relate and they can hopefully get themselves in a position where they can feel a little bit lighter as well. And it just felt like it was just the right move."

Leigh added: "I'm super proud of it and I'm obviously nervous as well. Obviously, whenever you make art and you put it out there in the world, it's always stressful in a way, but it's exciting at the same time. So I'm looking forward to this album finally being released and to whatever the next chapter that it takes us."

"What Remains" was produced by WAGE WAR's Cody Quistad and serves as the dawn of a new era for POP EVIL, which the band promises will be its most sonically heavy. The cinematic music video for "What Remains" was directed by Sam Shapiro. In the video, which can be seen below, viewers will plunge into the dark, fragmented landscape of singer Kakaty's psyche, unraveling the thin line between self-identity and survival.

POP EVIL recently embarked on the "Animal Instinct" co-headline tour with BAD WOLVES. SIERRA PILOT and ONI are serving as support. The trek kicked off October 30 in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and will run through November 30 in Lexington, Kentucky.

The newest member of the POP EVIL lineup is drummer Blake Allison. Allison replaced departed member Hayley Cramer, joining Kakaty and fellow bandmates, guitarists Dave Grahs and Nick Fuelling, and bassist Joey "Chicago" Walser.

POP EVIL first rose to international prominence with debut album "Lipstick On The Mirror", featuring RIAA-certified-gold single "100 In A 55". After Kakaty famously tore up the band's major label contract onstage, POP EVIL signed with eOne Music (now MNRK Heavy). 2011's "War Of Angels" debuted in the Top 10 of the Rock Albums chart and produced three Top 10 singles.

The band's 2013 album, "Onyx", put them in the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 for the first time and boasted three consecutive No. 1 rock songs, two RIAA gold singles, and one platinum single "Torn To Pieces". POP EVIL's next release, "Up", was the No. 1 Independent Album in America and made it to No. 25 on the Billboard 200. It featured several Top 5 rock songs and a chart-topper with "Footsteps", which also went gold.

POP EVIL's 2018 self-titled set included the No. 1 hit and newly certified gold single "Waking Lions" and two other Top 10 hits. 2020's "Versatile", meanwhile, scored two No. 1 rock songs: "Breathe Again" and "Survivor". In 2023, the band released its seventh studio album "Skeletons", which spawned their eighth and ninth No. 1 singles: "Eye Of The Storm" and "Skeletons".

In a new interview with TotalRock's "Louder With Ore B" radio show, guitarist Ben Wells of Kentucky rockers BLACK STONE CHERRY weighed in on a debate about people using artificial intelligence (A.I.) to create music. Asked if he thinks A.I. is affecting his band's way of making new songs, Ben said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Not us, because… Well, I mean, I don't know; it's still somewhat early days in it. A.I. is a cool thing. It can be used in the right way. Just like anything, just like social media, used in the right way, it can be fantastic. Used in the wrong way, it does take away some of the art."

He continued: "It is scary to think that you can get on a computer and have a computer write a song for you [in a specific style] just like that… It is pretty bizarre that you can do that now. I guess I'm not surprised just to see where we are with technology. Who knows what it's gonna be like 20 years from now? But I think there could be a time where it could be scary for certain people in the industry. If A.I. is going to mix a record for a band, that's gonna take away the guy who mixes the record; that's his job. So I would hate to see that ever happen. But for us, as long as people are still out there putting pen to paper and writing music, that's always gonna be the number one thing. And at the end of the day, live music, you can't recreate that. I mean, they've tried — you can do different things, holograms and things of that nature — but human beings on stage playing for other human beings is something that I don't think you'll ever be able to replicate. I hope not anyway. I hope not."

Over the past two decades, BLACK STONE CHERRY has shaken stages from arenas to festivals across Europe, North America and other territories across the globe. The band recently completed a tour in the U.S. with CLUTCH and RIVAL SONS.

BLACK STONE CHERRY's latest album, "Screamin' At The Sky", was released in September 2023 via Mascot Records. The opus was made available in white solid vinyl, limited edition vinyl boxset, CD and digitally.

Earlier last year, BLACK STONE CHERRY released the album's lead single, "Out Of Pocket", which went on to be a crowd favorite on the band's U.K. arena shows.

The Kentucky-based band, featuring Chris Robertson (lead vocals/guitar),Ben Wells (guitar/backing vox) and John-Fred Young (drums/backing vox),are joined for the first time on an album recording by Steve Jewell Jr.. The band's fanbase will be more than familiar with Steve, as he has been touring with BLACK STONE CHERRY since 2021.

"Screamin' At The Sky" features all-new material written collaboratively while on tour, but when it came time to record, BLACK STONE CHERRY decided to try something it's always dreamed of doing: tracking an album at The Plaza Theater in Glasgow, Kentucky — a legendary 1020-seat venue built in 1934 that boasts meticulous acoustics.

Photo credit: Jimmy Fontaine

In a recent interview with Metal Mayhem ROC, vocalist Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth of New Jersey thrashers OVERKILL addressed bassist D.D. Verni's absence from some of the band's recent shows. Verni, who is dealing with an ongoing "shoulder issue", has been replaced at the gigs by various stand-in musicians, including ex-FEAR FACTORY bassist Christian Olde Wolbers, former KREATOR bassist Christian "Speesy" Giesler and ex-MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson.

Ellsworth said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "[D.D. is] pushing it. He's cleared to play, but not at… The repetition is what could rip the rotator cuff again. Now, the issue that he has is that the right one has been done twice now. So this is his second operation or second reconnection of the cuff. While this was happening, he ripped the left, so he's kind of this marionette, you might wanna say. That said, he did most of the European tour and we're hoping that he does all of what's coming up for us. I mean, if not, we always have somebody in the wings that can walk in."

Blitz also talked about OVERKILL's latest addition, drummer Jeramie Kling (ex-VENOM INC.),who made his live debut with the band on August 30 at the Posada Rock festival in Câmpulung Muscel, Romania. Kling joined the veteran outfit as the replacement for Jason Bittner, who announced his exit from OVERKILL earlier that month.

"The new drummer is actually an old friend of ours," Bobby said. "He started with us back in the 2010 era — I think it was the 'Ironbound' record — and that's Jeramie Kling. He moved on from us into a band called THE ABSENCE, out of Florida, [and] from there into VENOM INC. And we've always been in touch with the guy. He's always been a great drummer. He's kind of brought, I think — I don't know — a little more of the swing back to what OVERKILL used to be. OVERKILL used to have a little of this going on, that sideways movement, especially with regard to the beat. It wasn't just this bombastic kind of a computerized sound; it was more of a natural sound. And I think that that's what Jeramie brings back to us. He's a really hard hitter, but he has that little bit of that swing."

OVERKILL is currently supporting KING DIAMOND on a North American tour which launched on October 15 in San Antonio, Texas and is scheduled to conclude on December 6 in Dallas, Texas.

After undergoing shoulder surgery this past spring, Verni returned to the live stage on May 17 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest at The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

OVERKILL's latest album, "Scorched", was released in April 2023 via Nuclear Blast Records.

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

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

Photo credit: Frank White

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has once again doubled down on his previous remarks that rock is dead.

While rock 'n' roll has been king of the music world for decades, in the past few years, it's been unseated by the growing popularity of hip-hop. This has caused many pundits to proclaim the genre "dead" from an industry perspective, noting that it has been eclipsed in all measures by pop, hip-hop, and EDM.

Simmons spoke about rock's supposed diminishing status during a recent appearance on The Zak Kuhn Show. Asked if rock and roll is "still dead", Simmons replied (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It is. And people don't understand how I can say that when we all have our favorite songs and we love our favorite bands — you and I and everybody else. But what I mean is that… Well, let's play a game, and I've done this before. From 1958 until 1988, that's 30 years. 30 years. So what came during that period? Well, we had Elvis [Presley], we had THE BEATLES, THE [ROLLING] STONES, Jimi Hendrix, all that, PINK FLOYD, the solo artists, David Bowie and just music that lasts forever, we'd like to think. In the disco world, you had Madonna, more heavy guitars, you had — Oh God — AC/DC and everybody else, AEROSMITH and on and on. And you had Motown at the same time. You had Prince. It was a very, very rich musical menu. It could go up and down. You had prog bands, you had YES, GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT, and you had the heavy bands, LED ZEPPELIN and so on. And from 1988 until today, it's something like almost 40 years, certainly 35 years. Who are the new BEATLES?"

When host Zak Kuhn mentioned NIRVANA, Gene said: "Stop. We are blinded. I'm a major fan. If you walked down the street and asked a 20-year-old, 'Who's the bass player in NIRVANA?', they wouldn't know what you're talking about. Or, 'Can you sing a NIRVANA song?' No, no. THE BEATLES and, to slightly lesser extent, THE STONES and Elvis, everybody knew THE BEATLES. If you hated rock music, you knew about them. By the way, I'm delusional enough to believe some market reports about how the KISS faces are the most recognized faces on the planet. And I've tried this before. You walk down the street, randomly ask people, 'Who's on Mount Rushmore?' They'll say, 'Uh, Elvis.' They won't get it, but they know those four faces anywhere you go. They may hate the band, but you can't deny that. So NIRVANA, one of my favorite bands. If you ask somebody who's 20 or something, there's a generation gap, 'Name a song,' they wouldn't be able to tell you. 'Who's the bass player?' No idea. And by the way, I know that because one of the other samples is my son, who's no longer that age when he was a little bit over 20. He saw a cute girl — he's telling me the story — he saw a cute girl, so he's trying to open up the conversation, and she's wearing a ROLLING STONES t-shirt that's got the tongue on it, and on top of the t-shirt it actually says, 'THE ROLLING STONES.' And he walks up, and his first line is, 'Oh, so you're a fan, huh?' And she says something like, 'Yeah. Of what?' And Nick, my son, says, 'You know, THE STONES.' She goes, 'THE STONES?' He goes, 'Yeah, THE ROLLING STONES.' She goes, 'THE ROLLING STONES? What's that? A band?' Nick says, 'Are you kidding? You're wearing their t-shirt.' And he was telling me she looked down — upside down, I guess, because it's facing [him] — and she goes, 'Oh, oh, I just like the shirt. I just like the t-shirt. And Nick said, 'You must know THE ROLLING STONES. You know 'Satisfaction'.' [hums riff] 'Nope. Never heard it.' He went through a few other songs. Never heard those songs. And he said, 'You've never heard of Mick Jagger?' And she said, 'Mick Jagger? Oh yeah, yeah. I heard…' What I'm about to tell you, my hand to God, is true. No exaggeration. She goes, 'Mick Jagger. Oh, yeah, the serial killer.' Anything you think is commonplace that the masses know, they don't. Very few things everybody knows.

After Simmons asked Kuhn to name two other bands that could be the new BEATLES, Zak brought up PEARL JAM and FOO FIGHTERS, prompting Gene to say: "Not on your life. Of course, I love FOO FIGHTERS. I love those bands. Mike McCready told me he was growing up with those KISS records. In fact, one of his solos … he took note for note from Ace Frehley. But that's not my point. My point is if you randomly walk down the street and you ask the first young person you meet, a 20-year-old, and you say, 'Name me anybody in PEARL JAM,' good luck with that. 'Name me or tell me a song. Hum a song.' They [can't].

"You and I are blinded because we're very close to it," Simmons continued. "So here's something the rest of the world knows, but we don't. Who's the prime minister of England? Tell me who the prime minister of France is. Tell me who the prime minister of Canada is. And by the way, next to PEARL JAM and NIRVANA, strangely, Dave Grohl has become far more popular. They may know Dave because he's done TV commercials and sort of rubbed shoulders with people outside of guitars and concerts. That's how you get to be iconic. So if I say Snoop Dogg, everybody knows who that is, but if you mention other rappers who might actually be bigger rap stars — M.C. Criminal or whatever; I just made that up — the masses wouldn't have any idea. It's because Snoop plays in media — he had a TV show with Martha Stewart, and that kind of thing. So the masses have no idea who's in PHISH, one of my favorite bands, or PEARL JAM. They wouldn't have a clue, unless you're a fan."

Circling back to his belief that everybody knows the KISS characters even if they don't necessarily love the band's music, Gene said: "Not everybody loves Jesus either. That's not the point. Fame itself is the ultimate reward. Everybody's not gonna like you, but they know you. We have a photographer who's been with us for — I don't know — 40 or 50 years, and he's done everybody — THE STONES and ZEPPELIN, everybody. And he's a real music aficionado. He collects posters and stuff. He hates THE BEATLES, always has — can't stand listening to them — but he knows who they are: John, Paul, George, Ringo. You know who Jesus is. Not everybody likes him. Even the people that hate the idea of it, they've heard of the name and they know who he is. Fame is the ultimate reward."

The "rock is dead" argument has popped up again and again throughout the years, including in 2018 after MAROON 5 lead singer Adam Levine told Variety magazine that "rock music is nowhere, really. I don't know where it is," he said. "If it's around, no one's invited me to the party. All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in hip-hop. It's better than everything else. Hip-hop is weird and avant-garde and flawed and real, and that's why people love it."

A decade ago, Simmons told Esquire magazine that "rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won't because it's that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it."

A number of hard rock and heavy metal musicians have weighed in on the topic in a variety of interviews over the last several years, with some digging a little deeper into Simmons's full remarks and others just glossing over the headline.

Trivium frontman Matt Heafy, who regularly posts archive videos via his official YouTube channel, has shared live footage from the band's 2005 show at the London Astoria. Check out "A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation" below.





Bullet for My Valentine and Trivium recently announced their 2025 co-headlining "The Poisoned Ascendancy Tour," featuring special guests August Burns Red across all dates, Sylosis, and Bleed From Within on select dates - see routing below.




The tour is in celebration of both bands prolific albums - Bullet for My Valentine's The Poison and Trivium's Ascendancy, which turn 20 years old in 2025. Each will be performed in their entirety on this tour.


"We are super excited to announce we are coming back to the USA in 2025 with our friends Trivium, to bring you the 'Poisoned Ascendancy Tour,'" says Bullet For My Valentine. "We're going to be celebrating 20 years of our debut album The Poison and Trivium's Ascendancy. It's the metal tour of 2025, so don't miss out."


"This is a celebration for the old fans that were there at 9am at Ozzfest to catch a couple songs from a band in Iron Maiden shirts," says Trivium. "It's for the new fans that have been listening to the deep cuts but never caught them on a recent tour. And lastly, it's for both BFMV and us to take a moment to reflect on how amazing these 20 years have been, how fast they've gone, and how important these albums are for the both of our bands. Having August Burns Red, Bleed From Within, and Sylosis joining us only makes this more special. We can'’t wait to play Ascendancy for you!"


Produced by Live Nation, the 26-city tour kicks off on March 30 at PNE Forum in Vancouver, BC making stops across North America in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and more before wrapping up in Raleigh, NC at Red Hat Amphitheater on May 18.


Tickets will be available starting with artist pre-sales beginning today, Tuesday, September 17. Additional pre-sales will run throughout the week ahead of the general on sale beginning Friday, September 20 at local time here.


Limited VIP packages are available from both artists including a meet + greet. For more info on VIP packages, head here.





Tour dates:


March
30 - Vancouver, BC - PNE Forum#&


April
1 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre#&
3 - San Francisco, CA - The Masonic#&
4 - Wheatland, CA - Hard Roc

Germany's Atrocity performed at Mexico Metalfest 2024 in Mexico City on November 16th. They have shared a recap video, which can be viewed below.





Atrocity are celebrating the 30th Anniversary of their Blut (translated: Blood) album. The band has shared the video below along with the following emssage:




"Thirty years of Blut - breaking the boundaries of death metal!

Live Rock Music Concerts has uploaded video of KING DIAMOND's entire November 29 concert at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, California. Check it out below.

The setlist was as follows:

01. Arrival
02. A Mansion In Darkness
03. Halloween
04. Voodoo
05. Spider Lilly
06. Sleepless Nights
07. Welcome Home
08. The Invisible Guests
09. The Candle
10. Masquerade Of Madness
11. Electro Therapy
12. Eye Of The Witch
13. Burn

Encore:

14. Abigail

KING DIAMOND kicked off its long-awaited North American headlining tour on October 15 at Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas. The "Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920" trek is scheduled to run through December 6 in Dallas, Texas. Support is coming from OVERKILL and NIGHT DEMON. Additional backing vocals for the KING DIAMOND set are provided by the special guest Myrkur.

Last month, 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".

KING DIAMOND's setlist for the current tour includes two new songs, "Spider Lilly" and "Electro Therapy".

When the tour was first announced, KING DIAMOND's namesake frontman said about what fans can expect: "This is Saint Lucifer's Hospital. Enter if you dare!

"We have been busy putting this ever-growing horror story together, and it's still growing. I know the end of it, but how we will get there will be a long trip. There are so many characters, and so many unexpected things along this journey. It's a crazy family on another timeline in 1920, where I experienced some hard times, and they have to come to our time to steal from us to survive. This is the most elaborate thing we have ever done, that goes for the stage production as well.

"There will be additional backing vocals by Myrkur and she'll be playing organ for songs that need it. There will be some horrific surprises taking place on stage, but we are not to be held responsible since we are on a whole different timeline in 1920. It was back at the time when medicine was going through a dark period with lots of testing on human beings in order to progress medicine.

"This is Saint Lucifer's Hospital, also known as The Institute. Enter if you dare!"

KING DIAMOND 2024 touring lineup:

Andy La Rocque - guitar
Mike Wead - guitar
Pontus Egberg - bass
Matt Thompson - drums
Myrkur - additional backing vocals, keyboards

Titled "The Institute", KING DIAMOND's first studio LP in 18 years is tentatively due in 2025 via Metal Blade. It will be made available as a two-LP horror concept story, with the second part arriving at a later date.

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 MyGoodEye Visuals.

At the time of the video's release, King commented: "'Masquerade Of Madness' was released digitally in 2019 before our North American tour. During rehearsals, we took one full day to film 'Masquerade Of Madness' with David Brodsky and Allison Woest. We spent all day and all night recording while performing the song with our full tour stage show choreography. After the tour, Covid happened.

"The video was all but forgotten as the world came to a standstill — we never saw a single frame from all the footage. Years later, as things began to pick up and writing began for both new MERCYFUL FATE and KING DIAMOND records, we wondered, what happened to that video from four years ago? So we decided to check in with David Brodsky and a couple of weeks later, we had the first cut of the video.

"I was speechless! I had nothing to criticize and after just a few notes from Andy La Rocque, the video for 'Masquerade Of Madness' was finished! There's so much mood and black and white is used in a perfect way with Jodi's performances. The visuals fit the music flawlessly and this is now among my favorite KING DIAMOND videos along with 'Sleepless Nights' and 'Welcome Home' — and not to forget of course, our double live DVD."

A month after KING DIAMOND released "Masquerade Of Madness" in November 2019, KING DIAMOND guitarist Andy 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 captures 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 feature KING DIAMOND's current band, comprising of guitarists La Rocque and Mike Wead, bassist Pontus Egberg and Matt Thompson.

In a new interview with the "Iron City Rocks" podcast, Blackie Lawless spoke about the 40th anniversary of the release of W.A.S.P.'s first album. To celebrate this classic metal album, W.A.S.P. is, for the first time in 40 years, playing the entire album from top to bottom, start to finish, on a fall 2024 North American tour, dubbed "Album ONE Alive", this fall. Support on the trek is coming from ARMORED SAINT.

Regarding how W.A.S.P. planned to approach the setlist for the "Album ONE Alive" tour, Blackie said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it's the first album in its entirety, but the show will be done in two halves. It'll be the first album, from beginning to end, in chronological order, the way it is on the record, and then we'll come back and we'll do a second part of the show, which is like a best of. This is something that we've not done since the very first tour that we did. So there's songs, like I said, that we haven't played for 40 years. So it's fun, because for the last couple of years, the themes have been around where we started, and it's nice to go back and look at this. And you realize that most bands, they made their bones the first five years they were together, and we were no different. You go back and you look at where you started, and you realize there's a reason you had success. Because we move on, we grow, we mature, all those things happen, but when you put distance between it, it's like you go back and you look at it, it's like looking at somebody that you used to know. It's very different, but, like I said, it's a fun place to be able to go back and visit."

Asked if he ever gets nostalgic, as the musician who wrote the bulk of the W.A.S.P. music, when he performs some of the band's early material, Blackie said: "When we did the last tour, one of the songs we did in the very beginning of the show was 'The Flame'. And we had not done that song for 40 years. I forgot how good that song really was. I had a ball playing that song every night — probably for me it was the highlight of the show. So to answer your question, yes, because, like I said just a moment ago, you forget. A lot of water is under the bridge, a lot of records, a lot of songs, a lot of tours. And it's easy to get really lost in the shuffle, and you're the one doing it. Because you live in a bubble, you don't see it like the fanbase does. So to have something like that, to be able to go back and revisit it, it's a shock to the senses, but in a good way. Because you've gotta remember — any artist, I don't care who it is, when you make a record, you never get to hear it for the first time like somebody else does. I mean, think back to wherever you might've been when some landmark record in your life you heard for the first time. You remember where you were, the scenario, all that stuff, when you heard that first album. The artist that makes it never gets that. We get other things — we get privy to little inside things that happen inside the studio, just everything that surrounds the making of, you're privileged to be able to witness all of that, and that is very cool, but I, as a fan, remember where I was when I heard record XYZ or whatever, and those are life-changing moments. And like I said, as an artist, you get robbed of that."

W.A.S.P. kicked off the "Album ONE Alive" tour on October 26 at Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California.

Along with bassist Mike Duda and lead guitarist Doug Blair, whose tenures in the band are 29 and 26 years respectively, W.A.S.P. is joined by longtime drummer extraordinaire Aquiles Priester.

The 39-city run will make stops across North America in Vancouver, British Columbia; Toronto, Ontario; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dallas, Texas; New York City; Orlando, Florida; and more before wrapping up on Saturday, December 14 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California.

W.A.S.P. is again offering fans VIP tickets that give fans a chance to meet W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless, get a personal photo with Blackie, autographs and take part in a very personal question-and-answer session with Blackie. VIP tickets can be purchased at waspnation.myshopify.com.

This past June, Lawless was asked by Chris Akin Presents… if he would be open to any of the former W.A.S.P. members who played on the "W.A.S.P." album — guitarist Chris Holmes, guitarist Randy Piper and drummer Tony Richards — making guest appearances at any of the shows on the current tour. Blackie said: "I remember specifically having this conversation with someone who had been through the same thing. And he had basically lost his original band and had to rebuild it with studio musicians. And I remember him telling me at that point, he goes, 'These guys are ringers. They're killers, these musicians.' And it wasn't until years went by that I began to understand what he was saying and would compare his original band to what he had built later on with really ringers, musicians. And he was right.

"Here's what happened to us," Blackie continued. "When we started, and this goes back to what we were saying earlier on in the conversation about crafting your skill as a songwriter, getting better as a musician, learning how to use the studio as a tool, all those things you learn, the records get better, but the records get more complex. You reach a point where the musicianship starts to grow. Not everybody in the original incarnation of a band grows together, or do they grow in the same direction.

"Everybody's heard the age-old adage about, 'Well, we broke up because of musical differences,' and as corny as that may sound, a lot of times there is truth to that. And you really find people either growing in different directions or some guys can't keep up with the rest of the class. And so, for one reason or another, if nothing else, just attrition will start to weed guys out, especially when you start getting into more complicated material.

"You can't really compare the band… As much as whatever the first record that we did, the magic that is on that, and I recognize that not as a fan, but as the person who created it," Lawless added. "Again, you're never gonna see it like the average audience member does, because you can't — you're in a bubble. You cannot see it the way they see it. And you have to really open your ears and listen to them when they talk. Whether you agree or not, you have to listen and you have to try to take what they're saying into consideration. But when you reach a point where that band grows — in our particular case, you go from the first record to [1989's fourth album] '[The] Headless [Children]', the band that created that first record could not create 'Headless'. It was impossible. The musicianship that was required to make 'Headless' was vastly different than what created that first album. That first album was done with attitude and snot and spit. That was an angry record made by an angry band. But it kind of reminds me of… In the movie 'Rocky 3', where Rocky wants to fight Mr. T and Burgess Meredith, who plays his manager Mickey, he tells him, he goes, 'You can't,' he goes, 'You can't fight Mr. T. You can't win.' And Rocky goes, 'Yeah, I can. Yeah, I can.' He goes, 'Listen, kid.' He goes, 'Every fighter thinks they got one more good one in 'em.' He goes, 'The worst thing that could ever happen to a fighter happened to you. You got civilized.' That happens to rock bands.

"You mentioned early on in this conversation about the first five years of bands together. If you go back and you look at most bands that you like, their bones were made the first five years they were together," Blackie explained. "Almost every band fits that description. There are a few exceptions. And that doesn't mean that they cannot go on to make great records after that five-year period, but their bones are made those first five years they're together, and then they start moving and growing in different directions and it changes and it morphs.

"I appreciate the energy level that came out of that first [W.A.S.P.] record — I really do. But how do I go back to guys I've been playing with for 25 years and say, 'Your tenure in this band has been five times as long as the guys that I worked with originally, but you can't play on this tour.' I cannot do that. And secondly, we're gonna do the show in two halves. The first half is the first record in its entirety. The second half is like a best-of set. The band that's gonna play that first set has to be able to play that second set as well.

"Listen, I totally get the idea of the romance that people have in people's heads about what an original lineup could be, but me as the person who's on stage has to understand that no matter how much the audience may want that to be the way it was, my responsibility to them as ticket buyers, I have to give you the best show possible. I have that responsibility to you. No matter what you think it is you may want, I know I have to deliver for you. And again, especially when people have been out of the game for a long time, for us to do what is being suggested, that the original band do it, I would think that that would be pretty much an impossibility. Forget the marriage/divorce scenario that you first suggested [about reuniting the original lineup being akin to going on a family vacation with an ex-wife to make the kids happy], which is not altogether untrue, because there is a lot to be said for that, but as time goes on, unless you stay in this game and you stay active, you start to lose it. And we've all seen situations of something we thought would be great and then when you see it, you realize, no, it can never be what it once was. Unless you're working with people who have stayed constant, who stayed in shape, that have done whatever it is they need to do to keep that edge, they're gonna go out there and it's not gonna be very good. And I cannot do that to our fanbase."

Because of the extensive back injuries Lawless suffered during the European leg of W.A.S.P.'s 40th-anniversary tour, the band's previously announced 2023 U.S. tour was canceled.

W.A.S.P.'s massive European leg of the 40th-anniversary world tour wrapped on May 18, 2023 in Sofia, Bulgaria at Universidada Sports Hall.

W.A.S.P. wrapped up its first U.S. tour in 10 years with a sold-out show on December 11, 2022 at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. This marked the 18th sold-out shows for the U.S. tour, which kicked off in late October 2022. W.A.S.P.'s performances included the return of the band's classic song "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)", which hadn't been played live in over 15 years.

W.A.S.P.'s latest release was "ReIdolized (The Soundtrack To The Crimson Idol)", which came out in February 2018. It was a new version of the band's classic 1992 album "The Crimson Idol", which was re-recorded to accompany the movie of the same name to mark the 25th anniversary of the original LP's release. The re-recorded version also features four songs missing from the original album.

W.A.S.P.'s most recent studio album of all-new original material was 2015's "Golgotha".

In a new interview with Trust In Rock, the YouTube channel launched by former MTV's "Headbangers Ball" presenter Vanessa Warwick, SAXON frontman Biff Byford was asked to name his most enduring memory from the world of metal. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think that one of my early memories was touring with MOTÖRHEAD in 1979. It was the first tour we ever did, the first time we ever went on a tour bus. And they invited us on the bus to travel with them. And we were very naïve Yorkshire lads then, and, well, still are, probably, but back in the day we had not seen the sort of glam side of it. We traveled to London. They were doing [British music chart television program] 'Top Of The Pops', and obviously we weren't, so we had to hang around there watching the show and everything. And they came out of the 'Top Of The Pops' studio with about seven girls… It was the first time we'd ever seen that many sort of groupies, I suppose you'd call them. And it was a bit of an eye opener, actually. And [MOTÖRHEAD leader] Lemmy was on everything, like he was, trying to get us to take everything, and we weren't really into that type of thing. But I remember it was a big eye opener. [It was] a little bit surreal."

He continued: "We were up in the front of the bus and they were at the back of the bus. And, yeah, it was a great time, and they helped us a lot in our early career, MOTÖRHEAD. They were big friends of ours and remained friends forever, but I always remember that first tour we did with MOTÖRHEAD. It was like a big eye opener, because that was, like, 30 dates or something, no days off and every day on the bus and the hotel. They were doing multiple nights everywhere. The beginning the tour there'd be one [show in] Birmingham, one in London, and by the end of the tour, we'd have done like three [dates in] Birmingham and three [shows at] Hammersmith. It was like an ongoing thing. So, I think that's one of the big memories."

SAXON recently announced the "Hell, Fire And Steel" tour of continental Europe which will not only see the band performing songs from its latest album, "Hell, Fire And Damnation", but will also the whole of "Wheels Of Steel" (released 45 years ago next year) as well as other fan favorites and hits from across the group's career.

The "Hell, Fire And Steel" tour kicks off in Bremen, Germany on February 4 and concludes on March 5 in Leipzig, Germany.

"Hell, Fire And Damnation" came out in January 2024 via Silver Lining Music. The LP sees SAXON investigate all areas of history and mystery amidst ten of their most confident and thunderously powerful songs yet.

On "Hell, Fire And Damnation", Byford delivers his richest vocals in years, Nigel Glockler and Nibbs Carter on drums and bass, respectively, lay down the rhythmic law with bombastic power, and the guitars of Doug Scarratt and Brian Tatler are fresh and fiery, a perfect complement to each other, carrying an overall energy and fury which will have fans salivating. Musically, SAXON bring it all to the table. There's a furious tribute to actual heavy metal in the denim-and-leather-coated super-sprint "Fire And Steel", a wonderful nod to the NWOBHM's birth in the electric mid-pace "Pirates Of The Airwaves", but maybe the true treasure amidst the jewels is "There's Something In Roswell", with the sort of expansive groove and embrace which deserves arenas.

Produced by Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, EXODUS, ACCEPT) and Byford, with Sneap mixing and mastering, "Hell, Fire And Damnation" strides the perfect line between confident, current power, and gloriously irreverent flexing of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal muscle which SAXON co-created.

"I think this album's one of the best he's done sound-wise, and he's done a lot of albums," Biff declared. "It has a really raw, vibrant sound... if you compress the total time making this album, it was four weeks tops… you can hear everything brilliantly, nothing's overcomplicated, nothing's over compressed. The guitar sounds are fucking immense, they're just great, raw guitar sounds. And we haven't done a lot of overdubbing on there, it's just playing. I really, really like it."

Early last year, SAXON guitarist Paul Quinn announced that he was stepping back from touring with the band. As a result of his decision, SAXON canceled its April 2023 South American tour as well as the appearance at the Monsters Of Rock cruise. Quinn has since been replaced on the road by DIAMOND HEAD's Brian Tatler.

Brian has already joined fellow guitarist Doug Scarratt, drummer Nigel Glockler, bassist Tim "Nibbs" Carter and Byford for a number of shows in 2023 and 2024, but will continue to be a member of DIAMOND HEAD.

Byford and Quinn are the sole remaining original members in SAXON's current lineup.

Originally from South Yorkshire, England, SAXON has gone on to sell about 23 million albums and has produced such classic songs as "Denim And Leather", "Princess Of The Night", "Wheels Of Steel" and "Power And Glory".

In a new interview with IMPACT Metal Channel, vocalist Fernando Ribeiro of Portuguese goth overlords MOONSPELL spoke about a possible follow-up to the band's 2021 album "Hermitage". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, ['Hermitage'] was a complicated album because it got swallowed by the pandemic. It had beautiful reviews. It sold quite a lot because people were at home, so they found that was the way of supporting the band. We were met with mixed feelings, which is not new for MOONSPELL. I have mixed feelings about our albums, too. But this album, it was [conceived] before the pandemic, but then it was really affected by the zeitgeist of the pandemic. Everybody thought it was a pandemic album, and that wasn't good for the album. And it wasn't good that we haven't almost toured anything about that album. So it's kind of in the back of our minds. I'm always discussing this with Pedro [Paixão, MOONSPELL keyboardist], my colleague, and he says, 'Well, it's an album that will grow on people.'

"Yeah, so the next album, it's not going to be out before 2026 because we feel that we need more time, we need more inspiration," Fernando explained. "We can obviously live for a couple of years on our legacy. 'Wolfheart' is going to be 30 years next year, 'Irreligious' is going to be 30 years in 2026, so we can make celebrations around it. But let's say the big issue here, it's the pertinence of the album, of making new music, that is not made to fulfill a cycle of an album, two years of touring, another album. I think that kind of kills the creativity, at least for MOONSPELL. And also we have to answer, with music, to the why of making a new album. 'Cause we have so many albums, so many musical avenues we've pursued that it's, for us, hard to pick which MOONSPELL is coming next. But I want an album that doesn't need to grow on people. I want an album that speaks volumes to the fans and that they probably will say, 'Well, that's it.' So, I think it's a very important album. That's why we are stalling it so much."

Asked to name the MOONSPELL album that he considers to be the band's "most underrated" effort, Fernando said: "It's hard to say because it sounds like I'm being ungrateful to people. I understand that sometimes metal is a straight line and not our musical career, because we always tried to tap into the zeitgeist. Like when we did 'The Butterfly Effect', which was very misunderstood — or whatever, or people simply didn't like it. 'Misunderstood', it can be just my statement. Some people, you like music or you don't like music, or music fulfills what you're searching for in that period or it doesn't. So it's simpler than all the justifications we made. But we did have a great start with 'Wolfheart' and 'Irreligious'. 'Irreligious' is an album loved by everybody. It was the right time for the right album. So, after seeing not only us, but bands like MY DYING BRIDE, TIAMAT, PARADISE LOST, we kind of tried to experiment more, and some people really loved it, but also the metal community retracted a bit from these experiments. And then it kind of stamped you as a band that sold out or that went somewhere else with the music and people didn't like it. And that's something that sticks to you, like a big fucking tag. So we had our albums that were — I wouldn't say misunderstood, but received a little bit coldly. But then again, after we reprinted, for instance, 'Butterfly Effect', it was sold out and people love it. They were dying to listen to some songs live. So I stopped trying to understand the people's mind because I don't understand my own mind. But I think, all in all, an album that's kick-ass and it was met a bit coldly was 'The Antidote'. I think that's a beautiful album… And then 'The Antidote' was 20 years, I think, in 2023, and we did a reprint and started to play some songs of 'The Antidote' live, and people fucking went crazy about it. So it's not a question, even though with all the information I have, it's very hard to answer because people are always changing their minds about everything, let alone music."

In the spring of 2023, MOONSPELL completed the "American Full Moon" 30th-anniversary trek.

More than two years ago, MOONSPELL canceled its summer 2022 North American tour due to "unsolvable logistic and transportation problems".

In September 2022, MOONSPELL released a very special Blu-ray/DVD and album, a live performance of their latest studio album, "Hermitage", with "From Down Below - Live 80 Meters Deep" via Napalm Records.

MOONSPELL's 13th studio album, "Hermitage", was released in February 2021 via Napalm Records. The LP was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (PARADISE LOST, PRIMORDIAL, GHOST, SÓLSTAFIR) at the Orgone Studios in the U.K.

In 2020, MOONSPELL parted ways with original drummer Miguel "Mike" Gaspar and replaced him with Hugo Ribeiro (no relation to Fernando Ribeiro).

Three and a half years ago, Fernando told Consequence about recording "Hermitage" during the pandemic: "Social distancing wasn't decreed by law, and it's strange because all of Portugal is 10 million people so it was bizarre just seeing structures without people in the cities. We started demoing in 2017, and it wasn't at all about a pandemic. It was more an album about the polarization and atomization of the world — we're all fragments and cannot agree on anything. Especially with social networks, it felt like the authenticity was going away. It was about connectivity, but there were not enough connections.

"For MOONSPELL, we do have a process and it relies on us sitting down, when we could sit down, and talk together. It's about sitting down with the songwriters Ricardo [Amorim] and Pedro [Paixão]. For MOONSPELL, it's not about jamming in a room and then writing about it. When I sit down with the people who are going to write the music and tell them what it's going to be about, that's the start of MOONSPELL painting the canvas. Giving them this information, the music became more melancholic, less layers and more texture.

"When the COVID pandemic came, we were scheduled to record the album in the U.K. We were in anguish sometimes, because we would have our suitcases ready and went to the airport and Portugal was blacklisted, so we had to just be smart and take a window of opportunity to go to the U.K. We couldn't have the whole band together because of COVID restrictions. Everyone lived through the struggle of cancelations and postponements, but I have to say recording was enjoyable. I felt very privileged to be able to even go to the U.K. and record an album. The studio was in the countryside and it was so isolated and it was perfect to record 'Hermitage'."

Photo credit: Rui Vasco