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JETHRO TULL Shares Music Video For 'Over Jerusalem' From 'Curious Ruminant' Album

After two consecutive new JETHRO TULL album releases in 2022 and 2023, a new studio record, "Curious Ruminant", was made available in March to much acclaim. Consisting of nine new tracks varying in length from two and half minutes to almost seventeen minutes, this is an album of mostly full band music. Amongst the musicians featured are former keyboardist Andrew Giddings and drummer James Duncan, along with the current band members David Goodier, John O'Hara, Scott Hammond and, making his recording debut with the band, guitarist Jack Clark.

Today, JETHRO TULL is pleased to release a video for "Over Jerusalem", a track they have recently started playing live on tour, animated by Studio Sparks in Portugal. Watch it now below.

JETHRO TULL leader Ian Anderson comments: "Having visited Jerusalem to perform in concert and in Israel generally many times since 1986 I, like much of the world, have felt growing distress at the political, social and cultural dilemmas facing all in the region. After the first visit or two, I decided to continue to perform there but to donate all proceeds to various local NGOs: mostly to those supporting co-education of Arabs, Jews and Christians and often with a musical bias.

"The deep and complex history of Jerusalem — brilliantly chronicled in the book 'Jerusalem: The Biography' by Simon Sebag Montifiore — would be best read by many taking the simplistic view and taking polarized sides. Montefiore refers to 'Jerusalem Syndrome', which pretty much sums up my own somewhat tortured views.

"I continue to hold a deep reverence and concern for the future of one of the most important cities of all time and its pivotal place in the current world. I say in the final line of the song, 'I'm not over Jerusalem.' Like a tragic love affair, it remains a memory which time cannot erase. Don't get me started about Moscow or Kiev..."

"Curious Ruminant" is available on several different formats, including a limited deluxe ultra clear 180g 2LP + 2CD + Blu-ray artbook and limited deluxe 2CD+Blu-ray artbook. Both of these feature the main album, alternative stereo mixes and a Blu-ray containing Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround Sound (once again undertaken by Bruce Soord of THE PINEAPPLE THIEF),as well as exclusive interview material. The limited deluxe vinyl artbook also includes two exclusive art-prints. The album is also available as a special edition CD digipak, gatefold 180g LP + LP booklet and as digital album (in both stereo and Dolby Atmos).

The full track listing is as follows:

01. Puppet And The Puppet Master (04:04)
02. Curious Ruminant (06:00)
03. Dunsinane Hill (04:17)
04. The Tipu House (03:31)
05. Savannah Of Paddington Green (03:13)
06. Stygian Hand (04:16)
07. Over Jerusalem (05:55)
08. Drink From The Same Well (16:42)
09. Interim Sleep (02:33)

Ian Anderson had been saying for months following the release of "RökFlöte" that he would embark on a new project in late 2023. He waited only a few weeks before the first notions began to solidify into some drafted words of intent and in May 2024, some unfinished music recorded earlier with John O'Hara, David Goodier and James Duncan became the starting point for the new songs as they took shape.

Writing the lyrics and melodies for all the newly written material came very quickly once he began in earnest during June and just seemed to slot right in to the musical feel and styles of the earlier recordings.

Anderson's writing here is often on a more personal level of lyric content than we are used to hearing. Interspersed with his usual observational descriptions are the slightly more heart-on-sleeve moments of soul-baring — albeit not on the topics more often paraded by the usual I-me lyric merchants of pop and rock.

Some of the songs are developed from unfinished instrumental demos made some years ago although this does not result in a huge stylistic divide to jump out at the listener. Apart from the signature flute solos and melodies, accordion, mandolin, acoustic and tenor guitars feature on several tracks too, so the subtle backdrop of acoustic and folk rock serves to remind of the TULL heritage of the 70s.

The band consists of:

* Ian Anderson – Flutes, vocals, acoustic guitar, tenor guitar, mandolin, odds and sods, bits and bobs
* David Goodier - Bass guitar
* John O'Hara - Piano, keyboards, accordion
* Scott Hammond – Drums
* Jack Clark – Electric guitar

The album also features:

* James Duncan - Drums, cajón, percussion
* Andrew Giddings - Piano, keyboards, accordion

Former And Current Members Of EXODUS, DEATH ANGEL, HIRAX And HEATHEN Join Forces In NEFARIOUS

From the heart of San Francisco's legendary metal scene emerges NEFARIOUS, a powerhouse band poised to leave an indelible mark on heavy metal. This all-star lineup unites some of the most seasoned and revered musicians in the genre, delivering a sound that's as punishing as it is precise — blending melody, harmony, and crushing riffs in a way that only true thrashers can.

Leading the charge is Katon W. De Pena, the electrifying frontman known for his commanding presence and raw intensity with HIRAX. His signature vocal attack sets the stage for a sonic onslaught. On guitars, the twin-axe assault is nothing short of legendary — Rick Hunolt (EXODUS, DIEHUMANE) and Doug Piercy (HEATHEN, ANVIL CHORUS) unleash a relentless barrage of riffs and searing solos that define the essence of thrash metal's golden era while pushing its boundaries forward. Anchoring the chaos with a thunderous backbone is bassist Tom Gears (BLIND ILLUSION, ANCIENT MARINER),whose low-end power drives the band's relentless groove. Behind the kit, Will "Beastman" Carroll of DEATH ANGEL delivers a percussive assault that is both ferocious and exact, ensuring that every track hits with maximum impact.

Hunolt comments: "I'm so honored to be with this amazing group of dudes. About to release some old-school thrash on you mofos. It's long overdue, and I'm confident you guys will love it as much as we do. You, our metal brothers and sisters, deserve it. See you on the road. Let's fuckin go!!!"

De Pena adds: "We're not a band. We are a gang ready to crush skulls and make eardrums bleed ... Necks will be sore ...!!"

Piercy exclaims: "Let’s get ready to rage! We are really stoked to finally be able to release this stuff and discuss it. It's been under wraps for a while. More insane videos and shows are coming soon! We hope everybody enjoys this release as much as we had fun creating it, for you all!"

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

The official music video for NEFARIOUS's first single, "One Nation Enslaved", can be seen below.

The band will make its live debut at the "Addicted To Power" album-release party on Saturday, July 19 at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco.

Together, NEFARIOUS crafts a sound that is both fierce and refined — a perfect balance of aggression and musicianship that speaks to the true spirit of thrash metal. With their explosive live performances and immersive new material on the horizon, metal fans worldwide should prepare for an unstoppable force. This is unpretentious thrash metal. This is NEFARIOUS!

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GWAR Celebrates 40th Anniversary With New Multimedia Release 'The Return Of Gor Gor'

Shock rock legends GWAR are back to wreak havoc once again with their new multimedia release "The Return Of Gor Gor", due on July 25 via Pit Records/Z2 Comics. This multi-format assault on the senses includes brand-new studio recordings, ferocious live performances, and an exclusive 32-page comic detailing the epic return of Gor Gor, GWAR's long-lost, three-ton Tyrannosaurus Rex. This release is a collaboration between GWAR and Z2 Comics, ensuring fans get the ultimate immersive experience.

But where has Gor Gor been all these years? How do you misplace a three-ton Tyrannosaurus Rex? The answer lies in "The Return Of Gor Gor", a multi-format experience that intertwines music and graphic storytelling. "The Return Of Gor Gor" follows the tale of an orphaned T-Rex cub, lost in a depraved world that is completely alien to him. Will he become an ally of the legendary Scumdogs Of The Universe, or will their reunion unleash an apocalyptic battle? Only time will tell.

Kicking off the carnage, GWAR premieres the NSFW video for "Lot Lizard" today. Fans can also stream the track across all digital service providers (DSPs) and pre-order "The Return Of Gor Gor" now at Pit Records (where you can also get a Gor Gor plush) and Z2Comics.com.

GWAR's Blöthar The Berserker states: "'Lot Lizard' is a blistering return to GWAR as a punk metal powerhouse with a sense of humor. What could be more charming than a song about a crack-addicted cross-dressing dinosaur prostitute that shreds weiners at truck stop pickle parks? Nuttin honey. That's what. The song rocks. Listen ya mooks…"

Watch the NSFW video for "Lot Lizard" below.

"The Return Of Gor Gor" features three brand new GWAR songs mixed by Kurt Ballou (CONVERGE, GodCity Studios) and four live tracks captured at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia during GWAR's 2024 tour, mixed by Chris Ronan Murphy. All songs were produced by GWAR and mastered by Alan Douches. The release also includes a 32-page comic detailing Gor Gor's return, which is included with all versions. Vinyl editions boast an animated etching of Gor Gor on Side A, with a semi-translucent etched deep purple vinyl available exclusively at GWAR.net and semi-translucent etched green vinyl at Z2Comics.com. A deluxe hardback edition is also available via Z2Comics.com.

40 years ago, the intergalactic warlords of GWAR emerged from their Antarctic tomb to conquer the Earth with their barbaric blend of metal and mayhem. Over the decades, their monstrous live shows and relentless discography have solidified them as the ultimate overlords of shock rock. Now, with BälSäc, Beefcake, JiZMak and Blothar joined by the mighty shredder Grodius of the Maximus Clan, GWAR embarks on their latest quest — to reclaim their savage pet, Gor Gor, who mysteriously disappeared following the death of their former frontman, Oderus Urungus.

Blöthar comments on "The Return Of Gor Gor": "The last time I saw Gor Gor, he was just a wee fart dragon. He had crawled on the hood of my Kia Soul and was holding on for dear life while I drove to the store to buy Clamato. I bathed him in wiper fluid and used my wipers to knock him off my sweet ride. Next thing I know, he's a 20-foot tall trans-species prostitute working a pickle park. Apparently, he's all grown up and looking for revenge. This record chronicles his struggles as a young Dino-American trying to make his way in a cruel world."

"The Return Of Gor Gor" track listing:

01. The Great Circus Train Disaster
02. Tyrant King
03. Lot Lizard
04. Crack In The Egg (Live)
05. The Founding Fathers (Live)
06. America Must Be Destroyed (Live)
07. Fishfuck (Live)

GWAR will be on the road all year as part of its 40th-anniversary celebration.

About the excursion, Blöthar says: "This tour is gonna suck. Once again we will be onstage suffering through the attacks of a giant tyrant lizard just so humans can come to the gigs and get shitfaced on White Claws and show us their tits. Please, for the love of all that is holy, show us your tits."

Photo credit: Carter Louthian

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GHOST's TOBIAS FORGE Says Metal Is 'A Hugely Non-Ageist Genre': 'It's A Very Friendly Community'

In a new interview with Rolling Stone UK, Tobias Forge, who fronted a pre-GHOST death metal outfit called REPUGNANT, spoke about his appreciation for extreme metal. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " I grew up in a very musical home or music-loving home, so I've always had a wide range of influence, and my taste has always been relatively voluptuous, and I like a lot of music. But as an adolescent, and when I started playing in bands and where my pop cultural sort of belonging is, is in the extreme metal community. That's where a lot of my aesthetics come from.

"I think that some people who are unaware or not interested in what metal is, and especially in the death metal and black metal world, even though they might not be interested in GHOST, I think that GHOST might come off as a little bit more exotic and strange than it actually is for someone who comes from my scene, where a lot of these aesthetic attributes and themes and visuals is very much part of the mainframe of what we're doing<" he explained.

"The community itself has undergone a quite cool — I don't know what to call it — an expansion since… Depending from where you count, but if hard rock really started with BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE and LED ZEPPELIN, and on a daily basis, new bands are being formed and on a daily basis, or at least on a weekly basis, every Friday there are new records coming out in this genre. It is a hugely non-ageist genre where you have everything from senior citizens to little kids who like heavy metal music, so it's a very friendly community. And at points, of course, when it's been sort of youth-driven, as opposed to now, but in the '80s I think it was a little bit more youth-heavy, where youth was calling the shots, or young bands were calling the shots, the adolescent vibe might have — I wouldn't say 'tainted it', because I love that stuff, but I understand from an outside point of view it might come off as a little bit too immature at points. But that's part of it. If you don't like blood, don't go to see boxing games. And if you don't like metal, don't go to a metal show, if you don't like what it means."

A little over two years ago, Tobias was asked in an interview with Loudwire if he could ever see GHOST writing and recording a death metal song. He responded: "No, I don't think so. I believe that it would be… Because I've tried to build this world where there were no obvious rules, still there's a certain… It's kind of like making a timepiece film where if it's about Vikings, you can't wear a Casio digital watch. And I think there are elements in music that just might become that sort of digital watch or a 'Transformer' toy that just comes in and just screws up the picture in a way that… I would rather entertain writing death metal with everything that comes with that… If death metal is this bubble here, GHOST can be this, and maybe there's this little passage where they can sort of meet, where there are elements from that that leak through. But playing a straight death metal beat would just feel strange, I think, in that setting."

Pressed about whether he still gets the urge to pursue death metal in some fashion, Tobias said: "All the time. I love that stuff. I listen to it a lot. I'm still obsessing over it from a collecting point of view. That's very much where my adolescent heart is. I grew up with a lot of music, but my adolescence was completely immersed and completely swamped with that impression.

"I still get the same kick out of things that I liked as a — not even a teenager; as an 11-year-, 12-year-old, when I really started listening to that and when death metal was this really dangerous animal that you can just go to this one store to find," he continued. "And I'm still sort of chasing that.

"I have my safe spot inside where all that is, and, of course, it's materialized in a lot of physical things that I'm collecting. But I still feel that sort of urge to, in some way or form, partake in it. But I don't know in what form it will materialize.

"I think that there's another conflict… Since I never really did it professionally… Or let's be real — I never did it professionally; it was very unprofessional in every way," Forge added. "That is not exactly what I wanna do. I don't wanna have sort of messed up rehearsals where we end up drinking instead and you end up coming to a show with a plastic bag and a broken pedal and you have to borrow cords from other bands and then you end up playing a really drunk show in front of 20 friends. Which is fun as fuck, but as a grown-up… It's kind of like in 'Comfortably Numb' where he sings, 'That child is gone. I can't feel that way.' I can't paraphrase what he's singing in that, but he says it in such a great way where you know it's there, but it will never feel the same. You can never be revirginized [laughs] for real. But I live on hope. So I think that there will be a time for that rockage too. But it will not necessarily be the way it was."

Forge formed REPUGNANT in 1998 and performed under the name "Mary Goore", eventually releasing a few demos and an EP before recording their lone full-length "Epitome Of Darkness" in 2002. REPUGNANT called it quits in 2004, with Dutch independent Soulseller Records releasing "Epitome Of Darkness" two years later. The album — a veritable concoction of vintage Stockholm death metal with obscure, eerie melodies — had only mild impact upon its release but appears to have preceded the current crop of death metal bands who have parlayed largely the same formula to greater underground metal notoriety.

In a 2018 interview with BLABBERMOUTH.NET's David E. Gehlke, Forge was asked whether his success with GHOST ever made him reflect about his time with REPUGNANT. He said: "The one thing I don't think was very evident just because of how things played out with REPUGNANT, was that, if you asked me in 1999 or 2000 or 2001, I really wanted REPUGNANT to be signed up by a Roadrunner or Nuclear Blast or a big label. I wanted to be super-professional with the band. At the time, we were very unfashionable. It was just not asked for in that sort of realm and had things been played out differently or maybe I played my cards differently, because if I look back on how I did things, it was unprofessional and I didn't really have the foresight, I guess. I had the dream, but I didn't have the foresight. We were picked up by a real label at the time and got a manager and had everyone kept their ducks in a row, I would have loved to have that band, the closest example of a band like that could be comparable is like AMON AMARTH. A real band that was out touring. I always wanted that. I really wanted to become a big band. I wanted that, but I couldn't. I don't know if we were good enough or whatever. Now, knowing a lot of the things that is required, how many stars that need to align and all the decisions you have to make, I can definitely look back on myself as a 21-year-old and quickly see why I didn't achieve that with REPUGNANT. I wasn't mature. I wasn't thinking. I wasn't there yet."

The last-known lineup of REPUGNANT included current and former members of IN SOLITUDE, TRIBULATION and WATAIN, providing a mish-mash of some of Swedish metal's most critically acclaimed bands of the last decade. Forge said that he had repaired the relationship with his former bandmates after the split but warned against the idea of a full-blown REPUGNANT reunion. "I think the band that was REPUGNANT on 'Epitome Of Darkness', I think we are now better friends than we've been over the last ten years, at least, ten, fifteen years," he said. "We had various degrees of falling out for different reasons. It just sputtered out. We've had our disagreements and whatnot, the same shit that everybody goes through. But, nowadays, we don't really have much to do with each other anymore, but we're just friends. We're all, except for one of us, we all have kids, we're all married. We're old dudes. [Laughs] I don't feel very old. We're a little bit wiser now and maybe that alone gives us a reason to not sort of resuscitate that corpse again. Just let it lie."

AVATAR's Upcoming Tenth Album Will Be 'Very Multifaceted' With 'More Progressive' And 'Melodic' Parts Than Ever Before

Swedish metallers AVATAR entered the studio this past January to begin work on their tenth album. The follow-up to 2023's "Dance Devil Dance" was once again produced by Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER and URIAH HEEP, among many others.

AVATAR's next LP is tentatively due later in 2025 through the band's own label Black Waltz Records, which is distributed by Thirty Tigers.

In a new interview with Vrotherhood, AVATAR vocalist Johannes Eckerström stated about the songwriting process for the band's upcoming effort (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "For me, I set a starting date around August 2023. I was thinking next album a lot. Also because of touring and life in general, there's not this huge long period of just disappearing and writing. So I kind of personally rely on having a bit more manic periods. So it was something towards the end of that summer, then a bit around December, January, that year. Then we did a lot of touring again, and a little things can happen on tour, some really important things even in the songwriting, but not a huge volume of stuff. The big volume of stuff means that you get to sit at home and work in peace and fail in peace, and succeed in peace. So, I guess the practical part of it is start early to really get the ball going and the juices flowing again in terms of writing. And it's a bit different for the other guys. I think [guitarist] Tim [Öhrström] — well, he started a bit after me, and [guitarist] Jonas [Jarlsby] really got most of his stuff together much later. But, well, at the end of the day, we all climb different paths up the mountain, but we still reach the same mountaintop."

Regarding the lyrical themes covered on the new AVATAR album, Johannes said: "I'm still kind of unpacking exactly what this album is — or not unpacking what this album is, but unpacking how to talk about what this album is. But there are certainly… Where should I even begin? Well, it seemed like dreams influenced this album way more than they have in the past, and some kind of letting something subconscious out. And with that come, to a certain degree, some kind of take on surrealism. And with the subconscious way of doing things, I feel I worry less and less over time that I have to understand a song immediately while writing it, or that I have a clear goal in my head of what it's supposed to be. Where I now have been trusting beauty, just the aesthetic of [it]… If the words, in the context of the music and everything I wanna write there, if it feels beautiful, it is probably right. So that plays in, in a way, and I think an ability to play with that and still have songs that I feel make sense and come together as a solid song that is worth recording and putting out there and have someone, 'Hey, look what I did. Share this with me now,' that is not just mumbo-jumbo nonsense, super self-indulgent. You still want all of these things, whatever process is going on together with creating the music, it still also needs to be something that communicates and articulates something. Even in cases, if it just articulates, 'I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day,' it needs to say something about something. And I think it does. But definitely daring to just let the voices in the head speak for themselves, in a way."

Johannes continued: "Some songs are way more clearly story-driven, like little ghost stories or whatever. And some songs are reflective, introspective in a way that I don't think I would've had the ability to do earlier in my life. 'Cause that's the other thing — always, always, always look for a way to feel like a beginner, find something to be excited about as a songwriter, as a creative person. 'Cause this will be our tenth album. And I don't need any justification to make music for myself. But if I'm gonna bother you with it, I feel like there has to be something about it that we didn't quite do before. If we are one of the few who are gonna get to do what we do to the level where we can feed ourselves and our families with it, where we get to travel the world, we get to do all these things, then I think that comes with a certain respect towards the people that you are trying to pull in. And also a respect for the art form, a simple respect for heavy metal and what that means to us. And letting the things, therefore, change and evolve as we change and evolve as people.

"There's something to be said about the early stages of a band's career," he added. "There's a naivety and enthusiasm and energy… A lot of bands peak early — not all of them, but a lot of bands — and I think that is mainly because those who are not able to allow their music to evolve as they evolve as people, then there's the law diminishing returns or whatever with it. But if you're honest with where you are in life and what excites you or what feels important while you write the current thing instead of thinking what used to be important, then you have a chance to do something great over and over again. So, yeah, there's a way of dealing with age, death, change on this album that goes deeper. And I also think this is an album that has way more of caring about people. In a way, there's some more romantic parts or intimate parts and not necessarily only spousal, that kind of love song-ish. There's absolutely stuff like that there, but that stuff has been there for a long time. It's just buried in the heavy metal… So, there's a lot going on with this album, but this dreamy, surreal exploration of dark places."

As for the musical direction of the upcoming AVATAR LP, Johannes said: "Musically, it's an AVATAR album. The big changes — I feel I took some huge leaps as a singer, so things start to really connect in just how to sustain the high range in a certain way of singing, while also even more challenging in another way, just not that high heavy stuff, but also going back to [someone like JUDAS PRIEST singer] Rob Halford.

"The people who are able to have a drive and energy in your mid-range, but not just when you scream your head off, that's one thing. But to say, [for example, the PRIEST song] 'Breaking The Law' — 'There I was completely wasting, out of work and down,' there's that drive to. It's the drums and the weight of the words and all that. And to do that without screaming your head off, there are moments on the album where I finally feel I did a bit of that and feel pleased with it. And I think parts of this album is more progressive than AVATAR has been before, I believe. We didn't do [something like the classic] YES [album] 'Close To The Edge' — it's not that, but it's something. Sometimes you have to stop and count a bit, and lose yourself in that a bit. So that's cool. And there's also probably stuff that [is] the most melodic that we have done, especially vocally speaking, I would say. Because the guitars have always been mainly melodic. And then we have some of the murder riffs as well, because we like that. So it's very multifaceted in a way that is hard to make sense from a band that isn'tAVATAR. But we can do it. And also I play piano, so that was fun."

Last December, AVATAR shared a brand new, re-recorded piano version of its song "Tower".

The original version of "Tower" appeared on AVATAR's beloved and critically acclaimed fifth album, "Hail The Apocalypse", which was released in 2014.

"Dance Devil Dance" was recorded in the Swedish wilderness, far away from all the perceived glamor of the big city and modern studios. Ruston returned as producer. He first worked with AVATAR when he mixed "Hail The Apocalypse", a role he reprised on "Feathers & Flesh" before taking the wheel as producer on "Avatar Country" and "Hunter Gatherer".

"Dance Devil Dance" featured a guest appearance by Lzzy Hale of HALESTORM on the song "Violence No Matter What". The record also included the single "The Dirt I'm Buried In", which hit No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.

Johannes formed AVATAR in 2001. The band's lineup has remained virtually the same ever since, save for guitarist Tim Öhrström, who entered the fray just over a decade later. AVATAR also includes guitarist Jonas Jarlsby, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson.

Photo credit: Jens De Vos

CRYPTOPSY Announces New Album 'An Insatiable Violence'

More than 30 years into their storied career, Montreal death metal innovators CRYPTOPSY return with their ninth studio album, "An Insatiable Violence", set for release on June 20, 2025 via Season Of Mist.

Revered in extreme metal circles for such groundbreaking classics as 1994's "Blasphemy Made Flesh" and the 1996 magnum opus "None So Vile", CRYPTOPSY find yet another gear on "An Insatiable Violence", which further solidifies the band's place in the upper echelon of death metal. Coming out of the pandemic, the band dedicated themselves to staying on top of their game more than ever before, with the intention of consistently putting out a new record every two years. That started with 2023's acclaimed "As Gomorrah Burns" and continues 21 months later with "An Insatiable Violence".

"We had to write the majority of 'An Insatiable Violence' while on the DEATH TO ALL tour, which was something we'd never done before," vocalist Matt McGachy says. "Flo [Mounier, drums] and Chris [Donaldson, guitar] really put their hats on. It was a feat."

"Ever since COVID, our focus is clearer, a lot of work gets done faster, and we push each other to get it done," Mounier says.

In addition to featuring some of the fastest passages CRYPTOPSY has ever recorded — keen listeners will even hear the odd gravity blast from Mounier, a rarity from the virtuoso drummer — the controlled chaos of their signature sound is offset by well-timed passages that ease off the gas pedal enough to allow listeners to come up for some air. That dynamic rage on "An Insatiable Violence" in turn makes the more aggressive moments hit even harder, which is immediately noticeable on the harrowing "Until There's Nothing Left" and the chugging closing track "Malicious Needs". Olivier Pinard anchors "Fools Last Acclaim" with stunning authority (keeping pace with Mounier is an unenviable task) while Donaldson offsets gnarly, atonal riffs with melodic passages throughout the record. "It's a continuation of 'As Gomorrah Burns'," McGachy says, "We really wanted to make a groovy record, and we think we've done it."

It seems as though nothing is scarier than real life right now, and "An Insatiable Violence" is a commentary on today's society as though filtered through the transgressive, countercultural perspectives of J.G. Ballard and David Cronenberg.

"It all came to me in a dream in August 2023," elaborates McGachy. "I woke up, I took my phone, and I wrote down the title of the record. It's about a person that wakes up every day and fixes a machine. Tinkers with it, tries to make it better all day long, sweating in the sun, and then at night, they strap themself into this machine and the machine tortures them, and they love it. Then they wake up the next day and fix it again to make it more efficient, to keep harnessing it, and then just keep doing it over and over again.

While fantastically twisted, "An Insatiable Violence" mirrors our toxic relationship with social media. "We're continuously trying to feed this algorithm of the machine while it's totally tearing us apart socially and psychologically", McGachy continues. "'The Nimis Adoration' is about mukbang, these Korean people that eat too much food on the Internet. Piles and piles of food. A poor girl died on a live cam."

At the center of the album is the mind-boggling percussion skill of Mounier, arguably the most imposing Canadian drummer not named Peart, who dominates such standout tracks as "Dead Eyes Replete", "Fools Last Acclaim" and "Embrace The Nihility".

"I look at Flo as an Olympic athlete," says McGachy. "I want to push this guy to go a lot faster than CRYPTOPSY's previous releases. We have so much more to give, and I wanted just drain it all out of him while he's still at the top of his game, because he is. He's crushing."

"I mix up a lot of a physical activity, like resistance training into the drumming," Mounier says. "I recently developed new techniques that make it easier to go even faster, so I tried to push that on this album. My focus is now more on dynamics and the touch of the snare, a certain snap of the snare, a rim shot on the snare, the toms, a light touch or a hard touch. Live, I can really let go, you know, give the sound guy a hard time," he adds with a laugh.

For McGachy, who has always boasted a powerful, guttural death growl, the rigors of touring have enabled him to evolve as a vocalist, and he turns in a revelatory performance on "An Insatiable Violence". In addition to ear-scraping screams that rival George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, McGachy unleashes the deepest, filthiest death growls of his career.

"'Gomorrah' was the first album that I recorded with my full false chord scream, which is something that I'd only just touched on 'The Book Of Suffering: Tome II' in little sections," he says. "We did at least 140 shows since 'Gomorrah'. I exclusively did my false chords during all the songs that we performed on 'None So Vile' and 'Blasphemy Made Flesh'. And then, when we did go into the studio for 'An Insatiable Violence', Chris would be, like, 'Deeper, you must go deeper!'"

Another fearsome vocalist from CRYPTOPSY's lore pops back into the booth on "An Insatiable Violence". "When we were recording the vocals for 'Embrace The Nihility', Chris had the idea of ending the song with the same vocal pattern as the end of '...And Then It Passes'," McGachy remembers. "We figured if we were going to rip ourselves off, then we may as well get the real thing. We were honored that Mike DiSalvo accepted. We are all huge fans of CRYPTOPSY's DiSalvo era. His vocals on this album are an ultra Easter egg for our fans."

In addition to the effusive praise "As Gomorrah Burns" received from within the metal scene, the 2023 album achieved a first for CRYPTOPSY: earning them their first-ever Juno Award in 2024 for "Metal/Hard Music Album Of The Year".

"We had little to no expectations of winning" says McGachy. "We didn't even go to the ceremonies because we were on tour in Europe with ATHEIST. On the day we found out that we won, we had a crazy 18-hour drive from Derby to Germany, plus a ferry ride. But we still partied for 48 hours. Flo bought an expensive bottle of champagne".

CRYPTOPSY recognize that not every death metal band sticks around long enough to win the equivalent of a Canadian Grammy Award 30 years into their career.

The cover art for "An Insatiable Violence" was created by the late, great vocalist Martin Lacroix.

"The album artwork has got to be one of the most important things to us," the band says. "Martin Lacroix was one of our vocalists, one of our great friends and one of the nicest people that anyone could have the privilege to meet. We really wish he was here with us to share this moment. His perfect smile would say it all! Rest in peace, brother."

CRYPTOPSY 2025 is:

Christian Donaldson: Guitars
Flo Mounier: Drums, Backing Vocals
Matt McGachy: Vocals
Oli Pinard: Bass

Photo by Maciej Pieloch

BUCKCHERRY Shares 'Come On' Single From Upcoming 'Roar Like Thunder' Album

California rock veterans BUCKCHERRY will release their eleventh album, "Roar Like Thunder", on June 13. The official lyric video for the LP's second single, "Come On", can be seen below.

As with 2023's "Vol. 10" and 2021's "Hellbound", "Roar Like Thunder" was recorded in Nashville at Sienna Studios and helmed by producer and songwriter-for-hire Marti Frederiksen, who has previously collaborated with AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, Jonny Lang and Sheryl Crow, among many others. All 10 tracks were written by BUCKCHERRY vocalist Josh Todd, BUCKCHERRY guitarist Stevie Dacanay (a.k.a. Stevie D.) and Frederiksen.

"Roar Like Thunder" will be released in North America by Round Hill Records, in Japan by Sony Japan and in the remainder of the world by Earache Records.

"Roar Like Thunder" track listing:

01. Roar Like Thunder
02. When The Sun Goes Down
03. Come On
04. Talking Bout Sex
05. Blackout
06. I Go Boom
07. Set It Free
08. Hello Goodbye
09. Machine Gun
10. Let It Burn

In a recent interview with Stefs Rock Show, Dacanay stated about the making of "Roar Like Thunder": "Josh and I usually start a year before the recording process. We start demoing here [at my home studio in Los Angeles]. And we'll do it on the road. I have a road rig that I bring with [me], and we just start documenting ideas. And then what we do, we set aside a few weeks somewhere along the way and we get with our producer, Marti Frederiksen. He's become like the sixth member of the band… And when we write with Marti, he's in Nashville, so we fly out there in between tours. And what we do is we take all these ideas and we kind of flesh them out more. So from, let's say, 20 ideas, we'll kind of whittle those down to eight, nine, and we'll have songwriting sessions and come up with 10 songs for an album."

In January, Josh told TalkShopLive about "Roar Like Thunder": "It's really great. It's a rocking record from beginning to end. You guys are gonna really love it. We labored over the songwriting for a long time, and it's a lot of fun from beginning to end."

In December, Todd told Indie Power TV about BUCKCHERRY's working relationship with Frederiksen: "Yeah, our relationship with Marti goes way back. We co-wrote 'Sorry' with Marti way back on [the] '15' [album], and then 'Black Butterfly' and 'Confessions'. Marti was all part of all that. It's just unfortunate that we didn't get to continue with him because of the politics in B.C. at the time. So, long story short, it's been great to be back with him. I don't ever wanna do a record without him, and he knows that. He understands this band for what's special about BUCKCHERRY, bringing out those elements in us. I think we bring out elements in him that he likes, and we work as a team. We do what's best for the song. We leave the egos at the door and we get to it and we always make great stuff. So it's been a lot of fun making records."

He added: "And [Marti's] got a mini-me. His son is Evan Frederiksen, and he's on this record too. And he was on the last record, and he's really so Marti-ish. And he's gonna be a big player down the line too. He's great. He's very talented. And just like Marti — Marti started on drums; that was his instrument. And then [Marti] eventually got into songwriting, and he can play guitar and he sings and he does it all. He's always writing with somebody at all times, so he's just a wealth of information. And I always learn so much doing records with him."

In November, Dacanay told Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic about BUCKCHERRY's working relationship with Marti: "We've known him for a very long time. About 20 years ago, he co-wrote [the song] 'Sorry' and then produced the 'Black Butterfly' album after that. So we've known him since then, but we got together with him for [2021's] 'Hellbound' album. We reconnected and, in my opinion, we've done some stuff, sonically and musically, that's been really great. And I love the process. I love coming here [to his studio in Nashville] and working with him. It's such an inspiring kind of environment. And there's a lot of history here at the studio and the vibe here just is real conducive to creating. But yeah, working with Marti, and his son now is an integral part of this camp, a lot gets done pretty quickly. And, yeah, I can't say enough good stuff about this place."

Dacanay went on to speak in more detail about the BUCKCHERRY songwriting process, saying: "There's a considerable amount of preparation before we actually get in here to track the album. So we'll spend the year writing and demoing songs, and then we'll pick out the songs we wanna focus on. And then I'll make a demo of the 10 songs and give 'em to the rest of the guys — Kelly [LeMieux, bass], Francis [Ruiz, drums] and Billy [Rowe, guitar]. They'll learn the songs in kind of what they wanna do their parts. And then we'll all fly in… What happened this time is we all flew in pretty early in the morning and just started cranking it out. And these guys are — they're crackerjacks. So they can get in and do their respective parts in a day, 10 songs, and then their second day would be about just touch-ups or revisions or something like that. But each guy knocks his parts out in a couple days. So they were in and out of here in four or five days, I believe. We had two studios going. There's four studios here. So at one point we'll have two rooms going — one with, let's say Billy's in one room and Kelly's in another tracking or Francis. Francis, at one point, was the only one… When he starts it off, there's nothing else to start recording, so Francis goes first and knocks out the majority of it, and then everyone else just starts jumping in."

"Vol. 10" came out in June 2023. The 11-song LP featured 10 new BUCKCHERRY originals and, as a bonus track, a cover of the Bryan Adams classic "Summer Of 69".

In November 2023, BUCKCHERRY released a new holiday song called "Tell 'Em It's Christmas".

BUCKCHERRY previously released another holiday song, "Christmas Is Here", back in 2010.

In the summer of 2020, BUCKCHERRY recruited JETBOY's Rowe as its new guitarist. He joined the group as the replacement for Kevin Roentgen, who left BUCKCHERRY in July of that year.

In 2019, BUCKCHERRY enlisted Ruiz as its new drummer. He joined the group as the replacement for Sean Winchester, who exited BUCKCHERRY after laying down the drum tracks on "Warpaint".

The 20th-anniversary deluxe edition of the double-platinum BUCKCHERRY album "15" on physical and digital formats arrived on January 17 via Endurance Music Group. Originally released in 2005, the album featured the four-times-platinum single "Crazy Bitch" and the two-times-platinum single "Sorry". The deluxe edition was issued in North America on a two-vinyl-LP format featuring the album's 11 original songs as well as four bonus tracks recorded in 2005 and three newly recorded acoustic tracks by Todd and Dacanay.

BUCKCHERRY will perform the "15" album in its entirety on all 2025 tour dates which begin in March.

Photo credit: Tommy Sommers

3

OPETH Guitarist FREDRIK ÅKESSON On His Debut Solo Album: 'I'll Do My Best To Finish It As Quickly As Possible'

In a new interview with Brazilian music journalist Igor Miranda, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH was asked about the status of the songwriting and recording sessions for his upcoming solo album. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't know who leaked that [I was making a solo album], because I haven't really [announced anything]… Mikael [Åkerfeldt, OPETH guitarist/vocalist] said it in some interview and then journalists were asking, and it kind of spread it out now.

"But I was talking to [SAXON singer] Biff Byford, because he's gonna sing on a track, and that one is done and that's the third track.

"It's difficult now because we tour a lot and I'm very busy with OPETH, so I get these chunks of time," Fredrik explained. "I need to write at least six more songs. I do have tons of ideas, but three songs are ready, at least. Two songs are mixed and mastered, which are instrumental tracks, [and they contain] lots and lots of guitar solos.

"I'll do my best. It's gonna be fun, but, yeah, [I'll try to complete it] as quick as possible," he added. "But as I mentioned, there's a lot of touring, there's a lot of stuff going on with OPETH. So as soon as I get some free time, I'll try to finish as many songs as possible. So I can't promise any date or anything, but I'll do my best to finish this as quickly as possible."

Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, Åkesson is the virtuosic shredder behind OPETH's signature brand of Swedish heavy metal. While Åkesson is primarily known for playing guitar in OPETH, he has also played with the bands KRUX, MONSTERS OF METAL and TALISMAN.

Born in 1972, Åkesson picked up the guitar at the tender age of 10 and before long, he was playing eight hours a day, heavily influenced by shred gods like Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Gary Moore, Frank Marino, Shawn Lane, George Lynch and Yngwie Malmsteen.

In 1992, he joined Swedish hard rock outfit TALISMAN and recorded five albums with them over the next four years before parting with them in 1995, searching for a heavier band. Åkesson went on to form the band SOUTHPAW and released an album in 1998, before rejoining TALISMAN in 2002. In 2004, he played with Swedish metal band TIAMAT, and in 2005-2006 he served a stint in melodic death metal band ARCH ENEMY as a substitute for guitarist Christopher Amott.

In 2007, he rose to heavy metal stardom with OPETH, joining the band for the recording of the album "Watershed". To date he has recorded six LP with the band, including OPETH's latest effort, 2024's "The Last Will And Testament".

HALESTORM Announces 'Darkness Always Wins', First Single From Upcoming Sixth Album

HALESTORM will release a new single, "Darkness Always Wins", on Tuesday, April 22. The track which was helmed by acclaimed Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb, will appear on the band's upcoming sixth studio album, due later in the year via Atlantic.

In a social media post, HALESTORM guitarist Joe Hottinger wrote about "Darkness Always Wins": "We wrote this down in Savannah, GA. It was the first song we wrote for what became the album. It was like a test session… we went down there to see how it was working with Dave Cobb. Wrote and recorded this in two days at his then new studio. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship that turned into a beautiful album.

"Can't wait for everyone to hear what we've been up to."

Joe also shared a photo of HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale "at that first session on Dave's old piano that we used on the track."

In a recent interview with Cutter's Rockcast, Lzzy spoke about HALESTORM's songwriting and recording sessions with Cobb, known for his previous collaborations with the likes of Sammy Hagar, Slash, GRETA VAN FLEET and RIVAL SONS. Asked if the band's follow-up to 2022's "Back From The Dead" album was "done", Lzzy said: "Yes. Literally we're getting mixes back as we speak."

Regarding the musical direction of the new HALESTORM material, Lzzy said: "It's really hard to describe this one. We did the record with Dave Cobb, which is a new producer for us. His ADHD mixed very well with our ADHD. But we didn't do it traditionally the way we always do these albums. First day, we walked in and I always have, like, whatever, a ton of half-written songs or full-written songs, or, 'Here's a riff or whatever' — you come in with your bag of tricks. And Dave Cobb says, 'Oh, we're not gonna do any of that.' And I'm, like, 'What do you mean?' He's, like, 'We're not doing demos. I hate demos. What we're gonna do is we're gonna start and we're gonna write, and as we're writing, we're recording at the same time.' So that's what we did. The first day we actually ended up writing our first single that'll be coming out soon. But, yeah, we started, like, 'Okay, who's got a line?' 'Oh, I have this that I thought of yesterday.' 'Cool. That'll work. Let's go.' Set up the drums, set up the guitar, here's the vocals. And so we would be recording while we were writing it, and then we would get done and we would move on to the next day. And so there are songs that don't even have a click track to them or a guide because we forgot."

Lzzy continued: "There's so many different elements of songs that we used to write when we were kids, but, obviously, as adults — a lot of that feeling. It was kind of an emotional rollercoaster. There's also, I think, some of the heaviest songs we've ever written on there, some really beautiful mid-tempos. A lot of personalities that I've always wanted to kind of put on a record, but I never really had the freedom or time to, because usually when we do a HALESTORM record, it's, like, 'Okay, we have to have all the songs picked. We have to have them rehearsed.' We go in and kind of do it like an assembly line. Like, 'Okay, you do the bass, do the drums, do the guitar, do the vocals, and we're good.' So there's no time to really like sit with things before they're, like, 'Okay, we've already decided we're gonna do that.' And so the freedom and kind of the nerve-racking kind of element of the fact that there wasn't really a plan ended up being the special sauce on this album, because we were just chasing everything that got us excited. And if it wasn't a 'hell yeah', it was a 'hell no'. So there's nothing on there on this album that we don't feel complete ownership over. There's nothing on this album that anybody forced us to do. There's nothing on this album that isn't part of our personalities."

Elaborating on why the new HALESTORM album feels like it is a return to the band's roots in a way, Lzzy said: "My bass player said it yesterday. He's, like, 'It's kind of like this long road to the beginning,' 'cause all of the guys at one point in time said this really feels like we're back in our parents' basement again and we're hustling and we're trying to figure out how to write songs on the radio. But we have all this knowledge now. So everything ended up coming together so incredibly well. But it was almost like the reverse, that the music was telling us what to do and not us trying to like shoehorn anything in.

"I'm telling you, man, — it is the most HALESTORM record we've ever done," Lzzy added. "It is the first time in the 20 years we've been on Atlantic Records that we have not felt lorded over in regarding to making records, because usually it's time crunch. Somebody's always there being, like, 'Oh, we can't do that.' 'Oh, you probably shouldn't say that.' 'What about this thing?' And that kind of thing. So it usually becomes like a project, like a group project.

"We didn't do it in Nashville — we did it in Savannah, Georgia, locked in a house in the middle of nowhere, next to a river," Hale revealed. "The guys and I would wake up like around 11:30 a.m., we would start recording and we wouldn't stop until 4:00 a.m. And then we would annoy the hell out of the engineer who was trying to sleep with playing on the proper keyboard and coming up with weird stuff. But we were unsupervised in the best way, and it was all about, who are we now? Who were we then? This is our story. For me, when I listen to this album, it's my personal opus — all the things that I've gone through in my life, both dark and not. There's more questions than answers. It's not just me giving myself a pep talk, like 'I'm the fire', 'I'm back from the dead.' It's like I'm dealing with a lot of my reality and a lot of the reality of the world in my own way. And then it's also our story as a band, and you can really hear it in the music and in the lyrics. So I'm so excited for people to hear it. And it's to the point where it's, like, I don't even really care if anybody likes it because all four of us are, like, 'This is our favorite album we've ever done.'"

Earlier this year, Lzzy and Joe completed "Halestorm's Lzzy And Joe: The Living Room Sessions" tour featuring the duo performing acoustic, stripped down versions of HALESTORM favorites and the music that inspired the band.

Cobb has shared in nine Grammy wins, including four for "Best Americana Album" and three for "Best Country Album". He's also been named "Producer Of The Year" by the Country Music Awards, the Americana Music Association (twice) and the Music Row Awards, and has been a Grammy nominee in the category.

Last summer HALESTORM and I PREVAIL completed a co-headlining tour. Produced by Live Nation, the trek was also the catalyst and the creative spark for HALESTORM and I PREVAIL's collaborative track "Can U See Me In The Dark?", which was released last June.

"Back From The Dead" has tallied over 100 million streams worldwide. Rolling Stone called the title track "a biting but cathartic howler about overcoming all obstacles," and that song as well as "The Steeple" marked their fifth and sixth number ones at rock radio, respectively. Associated Press said the album "will definitely be in the running for best hard rock/metal album of the year." Their previous album, "Vicious", earned the band their second Grammy nomination, for "Best Hard Rock Performance" for the song "Uncomfortable", the band's fourth #1 at rock radio, and led Loudwire to name HALESTORM "Rock Artist Of The Decade" in 2019.

Fronted by Lzzy with drummer Arejay Hale, Hottinger and bass player Josh Smith, HALESTORM's music has earned multiple platinum and gold certifications from the RIAA, and the band has earned a reputation as a powerful live music force, headlining sold-out shows and topping festival bills around the world, and sharing the stage with icons including HEAVEN & HELL, Alice Cooper, Joan Jett and JUDAS PRIEST. Additionally, Lzzy was named the first female brand ambassador for Gibson and served as host of AXS TV's "A Year In Music".

"Darkness Always Wins" Coming April 22nd...

This is only the beginning Freaks 😈 Pre-Save: https://halestorm.lnk.to/DAW?eml=2025April14/6752956/6010041&etsubid=22417467

Posted by Halestorm on Monday, April 14, 2025

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THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA Announces New Single 'For You'

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA will release a new single and accompanying music video, "For You", this coming Thursday, April 17.

In a new video message, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA vocalist Mike Hranica stated about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2022's "Color Decay" album (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " We're here in Toronto working, as we always do. We just wanted to provide a little bit of an update to all of our fans and listeners."

Added THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA guitarist/vocalist Jeremy DePoyster: "We basically have been, for the last two or three years, spending all of our time not on the road just renting out studios and rental houses and stuff, writing so much music, just kind of working on what comes next after 'Color Decay'. That was such a big moment for us and we really found our voice on the type of songs that we wanted to write and stories we wanted to tell.

"I think we still do have a lot of bad things in our head to say into the world," he continued. "Even a song like 'For You', it's a love song, but it's a really sad love song."

Mike added: "Jon [keyboardist Jonathan Gering] always makes a point of saying — well, all of us, I guess, make a point of saying — that we can't write happy songs. But I think also just the fact that we've created so many. I think back in the day when making our early albums, we basically would write like 12 tunes and be, like, 'All right, there's our record.' And now we're, like, there's dozens and dozens. And it's certainly different now.

"It's been quite a process since releasing 'Color Decay' and having that moment and doing so much touring around the world and whatnot," Mike said. "And now we're sitting on so many songs and refining and trying to perfect these things. Yeah, always working. And we're excited to keep churning it out and put it out there."

Two months ago, Hranica told U.K.'s Amped magazine about what fans can expect from the band's upcoming LP: " I think Jeremy's already kind of said this before, but we couldn't make happy songs if our lives depended on it. So when the next record inevitably comes along, and we have a lot of songs we're sitting on, people can expect to feel as sad as ever, because even when we kind of put it to the test to brighten things up, it's, like, that's just not THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA at all. So I don't wanna say more of the same, because that's the last thing that any artist wants to do, but it certainly hasn't gotten brighter, I'll say that."

As for a possible release date for the next THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA LP, Mike said: "I think we'll have a new record this year. We'll see. And then hopefully this time next year back [on the road] in E.U., U.K. and, yeah, doing it all over again. [It will be] year 21 [for THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA] by then, if we're not dead. So, we'll see."

Last November, DePoyster confirmed to Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", that he and his bandmates were working on a new THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA album. "We are, definitely," he said. "I mean, it's been about two years since we put ['Color Decay'] out. But we've been working on that record for a couple years since before then. We're really busy, like too busy. We've kind of spent every single moment that we're not on tour going out to California and renting some studios and writing a bunch of stuff. So we're sitting on a big pile of stuff."

Asked if THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA still believes in "the album philosophy" as opposed to focusing on singles, Jeremy said: "Oh my gosh, yeah. Dude, I'm old school, man. I still like records. [Laughs]"

He added: "You know what? A couple of years ago, I had a bunch of people telling me the record is dead. It's all about singles now. It's all about short form. And then a bunch of my friends in other bands just kept putting out records and we kept putting out records. And I'm, like, I don't think the suits really know what's going on. I think the fans and the bands definitely know what's going on. And I think people just, especially with physical media and putting an LP on and listening to it, there's just something about just from start to finish, a really well-curated track listing, and that sets the vibe that I don't think we'll ever go away from."

Asked if there is any sort of theme or direction for the new material that he and his bandmates have been working on so far, Jeremy said: "I think we all, particularly Mike and myself, and Jon, our keyboard player, that we write all the lyrics, and I think we all were, like, 'Man, I'm in a really good headspace. My life's really good. I'm feeling great. We've had a lot of great tours. My relationship's awesome.' And then we started writing, and it was, like, 'Oh, man. This is so depressing and so soul crushing.' And so I think there's just these little demons lurking in there that come out when you put the pen down and you're, like, 'Oh, I didn't even know that was in there.' … I think sonically, maybe I want it a little more upbeat, but it's kind of like a pop song that just destroys your life type of thing — with some breakdowns. You can't get away from the breakdowns."

"Color Decay" followed 2019's "The Act". As Revolver stated when selecting the record as one of the "50 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2022," "THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA have proven time and time again that it's possible to never stop sonically experimenting — with screamo, with spoken word, with atmospheric electronica, with sludge — and never lose their own crushing identity. Anticipating their next successful risk is one of the things that makes being a TDWP fan so rewarding."

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA have been consistently delivering since forming in 2005. Fans voted 2009's seminal "With Roots Above And Branches Below" one of the "5 Greatest Metalcore Albums" in a Revolver poll, with the magazine christening it "a true metalcore landmark." The group has notched six consecutive Top 5 debuts on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart, including "Dead Throne" (2011),"8:18" (2013),"Space" EP (2015),"Transit Blues" (2016),"The Act" (2019) and "ZII" EP (2021). The latter served as a sequel to one of their most beloved projects — 2010's "Zombie" EP. In the wake of the EP, the group exceeded a quarter of a billion cumulative streams and views. During 2021, the musicians decamped to remote hideaways together in Wisconsin and Desert Hot Springs, California. This time around, keyboardist/programmer Jonathan Gering took the reins as producer, collaborating closely to assemble a rich sonic architecture for what would become "Color Decay".

Photo credit: Imani Givertz

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The Devil Wears Prada

Watch: AC/DC Launches First North American Tour In Nine Years

Legendary hard rockers AC/DC kicked off their North American tour Thursday night (April 10) at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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

Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen in the YouTube playlist below. (After each song, the YouTube player automatically jumps to the next song in the playlist.)

AC/DC — guitarist Angus Young, vocalist Brian Johnson, rhythm guitarist Stevie Young, drummer Matt Laug and bass player Chris Chaney — 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 will play some of the most iconic and historic stadiums in the world, including the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on April 18 and Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois on May 24. Support on the trek is coming from THE PRETTY RECKLESS.

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 "Power Up" European tour marked AC/DC's first with the band's new touring lineup consisting of Johnson, Angus and Stevie Young, Laug and the latest addition to the group's touring lineup, Chaney.

The European tour was the first run of gigs since AC/DC's return to the stage at last year's Power Trip festival in Indio, California.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To enable him to perform live with AC/DC again, the now-77-year-old Johnson worked with audio expert Stephen Ambrose, who said he could help resolve the singer's hearing problems.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Former JUDAS PRIEST Drummer LES BINKS Dies; Band Issues Statement

Former JUDAS PRIEST drummer Les Binks has died at the age of 73.

Earlier tonight (Monday, April 14),the band released the following statement via social media: " We are deeply saddened about the passing of Les and send our love to his family, friends and fans.

"The acclaimed drumming he provided was first class — demonstrating his unique techniques, flair, style and precision.

"Thank you Les - your acclaim will live on..."

Binks played drums on PRIEST's "Stained Class", "Hell Bent For Leather" (released as "Killing Machine" in the United Kingdom) and "Unleashed In The East" albums.

After the release of "Unleashed In The East", Binks exited PRIEST and was replaced by ex-TRAPEZE member Dave Holland.

Les later told former PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing's official web site that the making of the live album "caused a rift between me and [PRIEST's] manager and ultimately led to my decision to leave the band. I just didn't see the point in continuing to work with a band whose manager didn't want me to receive any payment for that live album. A completely ludicrous scenario. It's a classic heavy metal live album which I believe eventually went platinum and he didn't want me to receive a penny for it. Crazy fucker. But that's what happens if a band allows someone like that to manage them — they lose members. So exit drummer number four."

Binks was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in November 2022 along with some of the other former and current members of JUDAS PRIEST.

The PRIEST members that got inducted include current members Rob Halford (vocals),Ian Hill (bass),Glenn Tipton (guitar) and Scott Travis (drums),along with former members Binks, Downing and Holland.

In a December 2022 interview with The Metal Crypt, Binks stated about the experience of being inducted into the Rock Hall: "It was a bit surreal because this all came out of the blue. PRIEST had been put forward for this award — nominated, I think is the word — three times in total. The first two times, they didn't get through. Third time lucky. It's up to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to decide who they're going to induct. They looked back on the band's career. It has to go back as far as 25 years. They say who's been influential on the creative side of things and the band's legacy has to form — what's the word? — the band's identity and led to the success that they achieved. They included me on that. They recognized me on that level, which is good. Of course, K.K., who was one of the finer members of the band, left in 2011. We were both included."

He continued: "I think there was some nervousness on the management side of things as to how the reunion with K.K. would go because there's been a lot of anguish between the two sides. I spoke to K.K. before. We flew together to Los Angeles and flew back together. We just decided, we are here at the invitation of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Let's just be professional about this, just bite your tongue and just get on with giving the audience the performance they came to see. That's what we did.

"I hadn't seen them for such a long time," Les added. "I gave them all a big hug because I never fell out with anyone in the band. I fell out with the band's management, but not with them. I never had any cross words or any problems with anyone in the band personality-wise or creatively. I know there were issues that K.K. had, especially with Glenn and the management as well, but I didn't have those issues. I was able to reunite with the guys in the band without any problems at all.

"Of course, I know [current PRIEST guitarist] Richie Faulkner from long before he joined JUDAS PRIEST. It was good to see him again because he lives in America now as well, so I don't get to see him very often. It was nice to get to meet up with everyone again and actually perform together."

Downing reconnected with Binks in 2017 for the first time in nearly four decades. Downing later described the experience of meeting his former bandmate as "great" and called Les "one of the greatest drummers in the world and a good friend and a great guy."

Image credit: Chaoszine

MESSAGE FROM THE BAND RE LES BINKS:

We are deeply saddened about the passing of Les and send our love to his family,...

Posted by Judas Priest on Monday, April 14, 2025

EUROPE Is Going Back To A More 'Melodic' Sound On Upcoming Album, Says IAN HAUGLAND

In a new interview with Brazil's Marcelo Vieira, EUROPE drummer Ian Haugland was asked how the band's longtime fans have reacted to EUROPE's recent studio output, which has followed a more blues/classic rock direction instead of the poppy hard rock from the group's most commercially successful years. Ian responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Some of the more sort of '80s lovers, they have some — I shouldn't say 'negative' thoughts, but they miss the old EUROPE, as they say. [They tell us], 'You should write more melodic songs' or whatever. But I think our thoughts [have] always been [that] the most important thing for the band to move on is to not only move on and play the old songs, but to give ourselves the space to develop as musicians, as a band, with trying different sounds out. And I think we've been on a musical journey.'

He continued: "The last couple of albums have been more towards the bluesier hard rock. And now the latest one, which actually came eight years ago, 'Walk The Earth', is a lot inspired by our roots, like RAINBOW and [LED] ZEPELIN and DEEP PURPLE. So it's more of that. And right now we're writing songs for a new album that is gonna be recorded later this year. And I think that now we're maybe more back to the melodic EUROPE, sort of. So we're on the journey swaying from different styles and angles. And I think it's important for us to be able to develop all the time. But I would say most of our fans are positive to our development."

Asked why it is taking such a long time for EUROPE to release the follow-up to 2017's "Walk The Earth", Ian said: "We've been very busy touring. Every year we get a lot of requests from festivals, especially around Europe, so we haven't had time to really sit down and gather forces and try to become creative in that sense, to write new music. But I know Joey [Tempest, EUROPE singer] and the guys have been writing stuff along the way without writing for a specific album. But I agree with you. It's been a very long time, but now we're finishing the demos for the new album and the songs are coming together really great. And I think, in my opinion, it's the strongest bunch of new songs that we have at this stage. So I'm excited to see what the next album is gonna sound like. It's gonna be out — well, probably we're gonna go into the studio in October, so it's gonna be out in a year, I guess."

Earlier this month, Tempest confirmed to Brazilian music journalist Igor Miranda that he and his EUROPE bandmates were working on new material. "It's been a long while," he said. "We've never had this long of a break before — ever. We always move from tour into the studio, tour into the studio. I mean, [2012's] 'Bag Of Bones', [2015's] 'War Of Kings' and [2017's] 'Walk The Earth', it was a period in our lives, a very energetic period. But we've been touring ever since, though, ever since 'Walk The Earth'. But we haven't been in the studio. I mean, it started a bit with the, the period of COVID, that made us sort of start over again. In a way, it was good for writing because I could start from scratch. There was more time all of a sudden. There was not, like, 'Let's record an album because we've gotta get back on the road.' We had time all of a sudden. So this is what makes the new album interesting. In a way, it feels like a debut album because it has had life. We had to live with ideas for years. And that's how debut albums are with bands, 'cause bands are out touring and they have written the songs and they live with them, they play them. And it feels a bit like that. It feels fresh, this new EUROPE album."

He continued: "We're halfway through. We're sending demos to each other. We're getting there. We've got some great ideas already.

"We're planning on going in the studio in the autumn, which means there'll be music out next year. And the whole band is very excited about that. The songs are coming, and it feels fresh, with some influences from our past as well. But, as you know, we always experiment as well. So it's kind of the usual adventure, EUROPE adventure. But there's some good stuff there."

Tempest also spoke about EUROPE's upcoming documentary that the band has been busy filming with producer/director Craig Hooper (DEEP PURPLE, SAXON) for Coolhead Productions. The film will tell the story of the band, from formation until present day, telling of their rise to success in the mid-1980s, through hard times and heartache, to coming back in the millennium, and the current successes the band has achieved.

Joey said: "We've had this team with us for four or five years traveling with us to document the new EUROPE. But during COVID, we'd started thinking, 'Hang on a second. Maybe it's time to do the documentary.' People have asked us to do this many years now. But we decided, 'Okay, let's do it.' And then we found a box with old VHS tapes. Our first manager, he walked around with this huge VHS camera when we were just kids. We were still teenagers, and we were wondering, 'What are you doing with that thing? Stop filming,' kind of thing. But he kept filming, and there's [footage] from hotel rooms, there's [footage] from backstage from the middle of '80s and up to '92. And there's stuff from all over the world. And there's stuff that has never [been] seen before, and it was exciting for us as well. So, basically, it's new footage from the band today touring, and there's old VHS footage that has never been seen, and the whole story of us coming from the suburbs of Stockholm, going out in the world and then, in the early '90s, grunge hitting the scene, and it's a bit of a dip and then it's us building everything up again to where we are today. So it's quite a good story as well. And the director's done a great job. So we can't wait. It's gonna be exciting to put this out."

Last month, Joey told El Expreso Del Rock that the musical direction of the upcoming EUROPE LP won't be similar to that of "Walk The Earth" and "War Of Kings". He said: "No, it'll move on. It'll be a new adventure. But I realize, hearing some of the demos we make now, that it's really strong, [with] great melodies. Some of it's really heavy as well. But there's also some connection to the past.

"I'm writing with everyone," he revealed. "I'm writing with John [Norum, guitar], I'm writing with John [Levén, bass] and Mic [Michaeli, keyboards]. And there's beautiful melodies there as well. I'm really excited. There's some great songs coming on. And it's been a while, so we've had time to live with the music, almost like a debut album, almost like the first album, because we have years to live with the songs. We know some of them are really strong because they have staying power; they've stayed for years now. So yeah, this could be an interesting album.

"Yeah, we just like to go on our own adventure, but always carry your past with you," he explained. "That's the thing."

Regarding the upcoming EUROPE documentary, Joey said: "We're so happy to be together after 40 years. Last year was so emotional, that tour. It was incredible to look around the stage at my teenage friends, and we were still there playing and there was great connection with the audience. And so we carry that spirit on to this year. So we're gonna start touring now. South America is the first touring for this year. And we're gonna carry that spirit through the emotional thing that we're still together with. And in this case, we're meeting new fans as well. But it's a great feeling to be here. It's a great job, and to be with the same same guys, yeah. We're gonna do South America. Then we do festivals all over Europe, and then we'll go into the studio. And hopefully this year as well, yeah, it will come out, the official documentary of EUROPE, and it's a great journey. And we have found footage, old footage from hotel rooms, Japan and around the world, San Francisco, when we mixed 'The Final Countdown', there's some footage [that had] never [been] seen [before]. And there's a lot of new footage from us traveling around the world, in South America and other places, mixed in with the story of these young punks from Stockholm making it in the world and then grunge coming along and then building it up again, and it's a great story. So we're really excited to release this documentary as well. So there's a lot of things going on in the EUROPE camp."

Asked if the documentary will be released this year, Joey said: "Yeah, I'd say it will be. We're almost done. We're doing the final editing now. Everything's been approved by the band. Every bandmember has seen it now. And the final editing, we're gonna put some narration on. We're very close. I just hope we get it out maybe before the summer, if not after the summer. Yeah, we're looking forward to that."

In September 2023, EUROPE released a new song titled "Hold Your Head Up". The track, which was described by the band as "a punchy uptempo rocker with reminiscent elements of early EUROPE," was recorded in August 2023 at Atlantis Studios in Stockholm with producer Klas Åhlund (GHOST, ROBYN) and was mixed by Stefan Glaumann (RAMMSTEIN, DEF LEPPARD),who also mixed EUROPE's "Secret Society" album.

In an interview with Metal Global, Tempest was asked why he and his EUROPE bandmates decided to record and release just one song at this time. Tempest said: "We wanted to get this ready before the [fall 2023 European] tour and the [upcoming EUROPE] documentary. So we focused on this song so we could have something out together with the tour and the documentary. That's why we released one song now. But we have a handful of songs — great ideas."

Regarding the experience of working with Åhlund this time around, Joey said: "It was a great experience. We all liked it. The whole band would like to do more stuff with him. We don't know whether he's gonna be the producer of the [upcoming EUROPE] album yet, but... No, we don't know yet. I mean, it would be an interesting idea, actually. But we haven't decided yet. But we were very happy finding him and working with him. He's very professional, and he's also listened to EUROPE when he was younger and so he knows how we think. And the procedure with him was amazing. It went really smooth, and he's a very talented, very talented man. He's a guitar player as well."

Joey also talked about the musical direction of "Hold Your Head Up", which Botas noted is a combination of the classic EUROPE sound and the band's more recent, bluesier approach. The singer said: "I think it's a good mixture in the song. We never really set out to do that. It was an idea I had, and I sent it to the guys and everybody was, like, 'Yeah, that's great. Let's do that.' So, it's a natural progression, but I think you're right. I think it's a little bit of some melodies, especially in the verses, in the end of the verses there, there's melodies that remind you of some of the earlier stuff. But maybe the chorus and the riff a little bit, it's also quite fresh and more modern, I suppose. So yeah, it's got a bit of everything, but it still sounds like EUROPE, which is really cool."

"Hold Your Head Up" was made available to stream and download on September 29, 2023 across all reputable digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple, iTunes, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal, Pandora and YouTube Music.

In the fall of 2023, EUROPE completed the "Time Capsule" European tour which included 21 concerts across Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, France, The Netherlands, and the U.K., including two nights at the famous London Palladium. These anniversary shows consisted of a career retrospective "evening with" performance featuring all the hits together with deep cuts and fan favorites from all of their 11 studio albums.

"Walk The Earth" was released in October 2017 via Hell & Back Recordings (Silver Lining Music). It was recorded at famed Abbey Road Studios in London with Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (RIVAL SONS, Shooter Jennings, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton).

Photo credit: Fredrik Etoall

Watch: LITA FORD And GLENN HUGHES Perform 'Close My Eyes Forever' At Kempten Stop Of This Year's 'Rock Meets Classic' Tour

Fan-filmed video of Lita Ford and legendary DEEP PURPLE bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes performing her classic ballad "Close My Eyes Forever" on April 11 during this year's "Rock Meets Classic" tour at Big Box in Kempten, Germany can be seen below.

"Rock Meets Classic" features some of the best-known songs in rock history performed by an all-star cast of classic rock artists from the 1970s and 1980s and a large classical orchestra.

Lita recorded "Close My Eyes Forever" as a duet with Ozzy Osbourne for her 1988 album "Lita". It was Ford's highest charting single, peaking at No. 8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1989.

More than a decade ago, Lita revealed that "Close My Eyes Forever" came about by accident during a night of drinking and getting stoned when she was being managed by Ozzy's wife, Sharon. She recalled to Metal Underground: "'Close My Eyes Forever' was a mistake. It was just me and Ozzy and Sharon hanging about in the recording studio. They showed up one day and had a housewarming present for me: a life-size duplicate of Koko, the gorilla from the San Diego Zoo. It was freaking huge — I had to strap it in the front seat of my jeep to get it home. Ozzy stayed, Sharon got bored and left, and me and Ozzy had a couple of drinks and we were jamming. We started singing, messing about and we wrote 'Close My Eyes Forever'. Next thing I knew the sun was coming up. I looked at him and went, 'Uh-oh, we're in trouble.' Sharon had been waiting all night. We were a long way from where Ozzy had to go. He said, 'Can you drive me home?' I said, 'No, I can't.' We were stoned out of our minds. He got into a cab and I strapped Koko into my jeep and drove home — just barely made it. And then we had this hit song."

Lita's long-awaited new studio album is tentatively due later this year. Ford's upcoming follow-up to 2012's "Living Like A Runaway" was once again helmed by guitarist/producer Gary Hoey, who contributes some guitar playing to the disc.

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

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

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

Hear FILTER Frontman RICHARD PATRICK's 'The Gunslingers Of Redemption' Song From 'Gunslingers' Movie

FILTER leader Richard Patrick wrote a song called "The Gunslingers Of Redemption" and composed all the music for writer-director Brian Skiba's just-released western "Gunslingers". You can now check out the track below.

Starring Nicolas Cage ("The Rock", "Pig", "Longlegs"),Heather Graham ("Boogie Nights", "Suitable Flesh", "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me") and Stephen Dorff ("Blade", "The Gate", "Old Henry"),"Gunslingers" hit theaters and VOD on April 11. Besides Cage, Dorff and Graham, the cast also includes Scarlet Rose Stallone as Bella, Tzi Ma as Lin, Costas Mandylor as Jericho, Cooper Barnes as Levi, Bre Blair as Mary, Mitchell Hoog as Jesse, Jeremy Kent Jackson as Robert Keller, Elisabetta Fantone as Annie, Laurie Love as Thalia, Dan O'Brien as Josh, Brooklen Wilkes as Hope, and more.

The official synopsis for the movie reads as follows: "Reformed gunslinger Thomas Keller (Dorff) and mad genius Ben (Cage) are guided by spiritual leader Jericho as they strive for vindication. While confronting their violent history, a brutal bar fight and deadly feud reignites between Thomas, Ben and the notorious Five Points Gang. Now baptized and reborn, Thomas grapples with fresh challenges, testing his newfound peace amidst a town steeped in secrets, violence, and a relentless quest for revenge."

Richard Patrick had previously composed soundtracks for several films, including "Dark Crimes" (2016) and "Last Rampage" (2017). He also contributed to the soundtrack for "The Last Rampage" with his brother, Robert Patrick. In addition, he has composed music for TV series like "Comedy Kitchen".

FILTER's latest album, "The Algorithm", came out in August 2023 via Golden Robot Records.

Photo credit: Chapman Baehler

This is a song we recorded for the motion picture “gunslingers.” Please check it out!!

Posted by Filter on Saturday, April 12, 2025

ARMORED SAINT's JOHN BUSH On His Singing Approach: 'What I Always Strive To Do Is Just Sound Unique'

In a new interview with Brazil's Headbangers News, ARMORED SAINT frontman John Bush was asked if he had ever taken any singing lessons to help him develop such a unique vocal approach. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " Well, I've done some training through the years, mostly just for voice preservation. As you get older, this is more demanding. It's like an athlete, and you've gotta be fit. And, obviously, the older you get, the more challenging it is to sing heavy metal music. It's very demanding. And I'm 61 years old now, so I'm not a young spring chicken. And my voice is different than it used to be, although a lot of people, they say, 'Oh, you sound the same.' Not really — I actually sound lower and I have this kind of more mid-range sweet spot that I kind of sing most of my stuff in that range. But it's all very complimentary and I'm grateful for those comments that people make."

Addressing the fact that some people consider him to be one of the top singers in heavy metal, Bush said: "People like [IRON MAIDEN's Bruce] Dickinson and Ronnie Dio, of course, and [JUDAS PRIEST's Rob] Halford, as far as I'm concerned, these guys are the kings of metal, and to even come close to being in the same kind of ballpark with them is a big honor. But I just try to do my own thing. I think for me, through the years, what I always strive to do is just sound unique, have my own kind of style. I kind of model a lot of my singing after those people, but also guys like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Some of my favorite singers are from the old-school soul world. And so I've always kind of wanted to sound like a combination of a heavy metal singer and an R&B singer. Anybody who has a unique style to singing and sounds original. I think that's the most important thing. I tend to really like those type of singers mostly. I don't really know about the range; I don't really have the music knowledge about all that stuff. I just know it's about trying to sound unique and original."

Bush also talked about his singing approach with ANTHRAX, which he fronted from 1992 to 2005, and then again for several shows in late 2009 and early 2010. He said: "Someone like [classic ANTHRAX singer] Joey Belladonna has a really unique voice. His voice is very distinctive; when you hear it, you know it's him, which is cool. And that's kind of what I try to do for myself. And our voices are very different, so when I joined, it was, like, 'Oh, now this kind of raspier, kind of gruff singer is now in the band.' And Joey's voice is a little cleaner and higher. But distinctive both of them are and different. So it did change the sound.

"I mean, let's face it, somebody like Sammy Hagar changed the way VAN HALEN sounded, and certainly Ronnie Dio did [with BLACK SABBATH], and Brian Johnson [did with AC/DC], even though Brian's voice is similar to Bon's [Scott], but it was, again, very distinctive, both those guys," John explained. "You change a singer in a band, and the sound's gonna change a little bit. It is just the way it is."

Following two festival performances — Bangers Open Air in São Paulo, Brazil and Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, Ohio respectively — ARMORED SAINT will enter the studio next month to begin recording its long-awaited ninth studio album, tentatively slated for a spring 2026 release through Metal Blade Records.

In September, the band will join W.A.S.P. for a trio of U.K. shows before returning to the States to support legendary guitarist Michael Schenker on his "My Years With UFO" U.S. tour. ARMORED SAINT will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its second album, "Delirious Nomad", with a five-song micro set of songs from the record throughout the tour.

To further commemorate the cornerstone record, the band is making available a special "Delirious Nomad" wrapped guitar from Dean Guitars. Each guitar is signed by the band. Presales will be announced in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, check out additional "Delirious Nomad" merch items at this location.

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

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

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

In July 2023, ARMORED SAINT was inducted into the Metal Hall Of Fame at the legendary Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California.

In May 2023, ARMORED SAINT's long-awaited documentary, Armored Saint: Band Of Brothers", had its world premiere in the band's hometown at the Harmony Gold Theatre in Hollywood, California.

LOVEBITES Announces Vinyl Reissue Campaign

Japan’s Lovebites have announced vinyl reissues of their four full-length albums and four EPs.

The albums were previously available on vinyl, but in limited quantities. Releases included in the campaign are The Lovebites EP, Awakening From Abyss, Battle Against Damnation, Clockwork Immortality, Electric Pentagram, Golden Destination, Glory, Glory, To The World, and Judgement Day.

The reissues will be available on August 12 via Victor Records and Tower Records. Each vinyl is limited edition on colored vinyl. A special synthetic leather record bag is also available.

The power metallers will perform at the hallowed Budokan in Tokyo on March 29, 2026. Applications to attend the show for non-Japan residents are available here.

ANTHRAX Members Comment On Participation In BLACK SABBATH's Final Concert: 'It's An Honor'

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

"I'm a huge BLACK SABBATH fan," said ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante, "and BLACK SABBATH was so, so instrumental in the sound of ANTHRAX back in the day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Back To The Beginning" sold out in less than 10 minutes in FEbruary. The concert will mark the first time that the original lineup of BLACK SABBATH — Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward — have played together in 20 years.

Also set to appear at the event are METALLICA, GUNS N' ROSES, TOOL, SLAYER, PANTERA, GOJIRA, ALICE IN CHAINS, HALESTORM, LAMB OF GOD, ANTHRAX and MASTODON.

In addition, there will be a performance by a "supergroup of musicians" including Duff McKagan and Slash (GUNS 'N' ROSES),Billy Corgan (THE SMASHING PUMPKINS),Fred Durst (LIMP BIZKIT),K.K. Downing (JUDAS PRIEST),Jake E. Lee (OZZY OSBOURNE),Wolfgang Van Halen (VAN HALEN, MAMMOTH WVH),Andrew Watt, Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),David Ellefson (MEGADETH),Vernon Reid (LIVING COLOUR),Whitfield Crane (UGLY KID JOE),David Draiman (DISTURBED),Frank Bello (ANTHRAX),Jonathan Davis (KORN),Lzzy Hale (HALESTORM),Mike Bordin (FAITH NO MORE),Rudy Sarzo (OZZY OSBOURNE, QUIET RIOT),Sammy Hagar, Scott Ian (ANTHRAX),Sleep Token II (SLEEP TOKEN) and Papa V Perpetua (GHOST).

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

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

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

The legendary BLACK SABBATH frontman was diagnosed in 2003 with Parkin 2 — a very rare genetic form of Parkinson's. During a TV appearance in January 2020, the singer disclosed that he was 'stricken" with the disease which occurs when the nerve cells of the body degenerate and levels of dopamine are reduced. Dopamine is an essential chemical that is produced by these nerve cells which send signals to different parts of the brain to control movements of the body.

Ozzy's health issues, including suffering a nasty fall and dislodging metal rods placed in his spine following a quad-bike accident in 2003, as well as catching COVID-19 three years ago, forced him to cancel some of his previously announced tours.

While Osbourne's health issues forced him to scrap most of his live appearances, the musician said he would return if his condition improved.

Despite his health problems, Osbourne has performed a couple of times in the last three years, including at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August 2022 and at the NFL halftime show at the season opener Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills game in September 2022.

Photo credit: Ignacio Galvez

HAVUKRUUNU – Debut Album Havulinnan To Be Reissued In June

Svart Records will bring Havukruunu‘s 2015 debut album Havulinnaan back to the market on June 6, 2025.

Havulinnaan is filled to the brim with raw, bleak, unforgiven heavy metal mixed with spells from the very depths of the misty Finnish forests.

Havukruunu’s Stefa had this to say about the upcoming reissue:

“INTO THE CONIFEROUS CASTLE….. Ten years ago, we didst unleash an abomination of immortal-worship, improvised guitar solos and a first glance of a certain type of spiritual freedom, the very first full-length Havukruunu album Havulinnaan and thus began our search. Experience our then meandering worry anew, through this humble, slightly remastered reissue through Svart Records.”

Havulinnaan is available on Svart exclusive Black & White Marble vinyl, limited Clear & Blue Marble vinyl, classic Black vinyl, CD, and Cassette Tape editions.

Preorder at the Svart Records webshop.

Tracklisting:

“Talven mustat tuulet”
“Kuvastaja”
“Rautalintu”
“Aavevalo”
“Terhen”
“Uni kuin unho”
“Tuuletar”
“Havulinnaan”

PINK FLOYD Release “One Of These Days” Music Video From Upcoming “PINK FLOYD At Pompeii – MCMLXXII”

Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII, the groundbreaking 1972 film directed by Adrian Maben, returns to cinemas in spring 2025. Trafalgar Releasing and Sony Music Vision will release the concert film in select cinemas and IMAX worldwide from April 24 and tickets are on sale here.

Digitally remastered in 4K from the original 35mm footage, with enhanced audio newly mixed by Steven Wilson, the upcoming theatrical release presents the definitive version of this pioneering film.

Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII is accompanied by the live album, set for release by Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music, on CD, Digital Audio, and for the very first time in Dolby Atmos and on vinyl, from May 2.

Watch the official video for “One Of These Days” below:

Pink Floyd At Pompeii pre-dates the release of The Dark Side Of The Moon. The film documents what Pink Floyd did before they became giants of the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic – where their music remains celebrated to this day. Set in the hauntingly beautiful ruins of the ancient Roman Amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy, this unique and immersive film captures Pink Floyd performing an intimate concert without an audience. Filmed in October 1971, the performance marked the very first live concert to take place at Pompeii, and features the vital “Echoes”, “A Saucerful Of Secrets”, and “One of These Days”. The breathtaking visuals of the amphitheatre, captured both day and night, amplify the magic of the performance. Additionally, the film includes rare behind-the-scenes footage of the band beginning work on The Dark Side Of The Moon at Abbey Road Studios.

Nick Mason said, “Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii is a rare and unique document of the band performing live in the period prior to The Dark Side Of The Moon.”

The film has been meticulously hand restored, frame-by-frame, from the original 35mm cut negative – discovered in five dubiously labelled cans within Pink Floyd’s own archives. This momentous breakthrough unearthed the very film that rolled through the cameras during those sweltering days amidst the ruins of Pompeii over 50 years ago.

Led by Lana Topham, Director of Restoration for Pink Floyd, the team’s mission was to preserve the integrity and beauty of the original picture. The film was scanned in 4K using advanced techniques to ensure the finest, sharpest detail. Colors were enhanced, and every frame was meticulously reviewed and repaired, maintaining a natural and vivid appearance with minimal grain adjustments.

“Since 1994, I have searched for the elusive film rushes of Pink Floyd At Pompeii, so the recent discovery of the 1972 original 35mm cut negative was a very special moment. The newly restored version presents the first full 90-minute cut, combining the 60-minute source edit of the performance with the additional Abbey Road Studios documentary segments filmed shortly after,” said Lana Topham, Director of Restoration for Pink Floyd.

The film also features stunning sound quality with a new theatrical and home entertainment mix by Steven Wilson in 5.1 and Dolby Atmos that enhances the film’s depth and clarity, preserving the authenticity and spirit of the original 1972 release. Wilson’s aim was to remain faithful to how the band would have sounded on those scorching hot days in 1971.

Wilson added, “Ever since my dad brainwashed me as a kid by playing The Dark Side Of The Moon on repeat, Pink Floyd has been my favourite band. They are my “Beatles”, deeply ingrained in my musical DNA. I first saw Pompeii from a grainy print at a local cinema. It made an incredible impression on me with its untethered and exploratory rock music made by four musicians that seemed to epitomise the notion of intellectual cool. It was an honour to remix the soundtrack to accompany Lana Topham’s incredible restoration of the film, which looks like it could’ve been filmed yesterday.”

The accompanying album release Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII will see the performance presented as a full-length live record for the very first time. The 2025 remix by Steven Wilson is newly available on CD/LP/Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Audio/Dolby Atmos from May 2.

Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII is presented by RM Productions and directed by Adrian Maben. It is executive produced by Reiner Moritz and Michelle Arnaud. Sony Music Vision is the distributor.

Tickets are on sale at pinkfloyd.film. Visit the event website for more information and ticketing details for IMAX® and standard format cinemas.

Album tracklisting:

Side A
Pompeii Intro
“Echoes – Part 1”
“Careful With That Axe, Eugene”

Side B
“A Saucerful of Secrets”
“Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”

Side C
“One Of These Days”
“Mademoiselle Nobs”
“Echoes – Part 2”

Side D
“Careful With That Axe, Eugene” – Alternate take
“A Saucerful Of Secrets” – Unedited

BYZANTINE Announces 'Harbingers' Album, Shares 'Floating Chrysanthema' Single

Charleston, West Virginia metal veterans BYZANTINE will release their long-awaited new full-length, "Harbingers", on June 13 via Metal Blade Records.

Produced by Peter Wichers (SOILWORK, ALL THAT REMAINS, NEVERMORE),"Harbingers" offers nine tracks totaling forty-five minutes of deep lyrical wisdom alongside equally hefty riffs delivered seamlessly by one of the most commanding and unsung lineups to emerge from the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal movement of the early 2000s. Now a five-piece for the first time ever featuring founding frontman Chris "OJ" Ojeda, alongside former guitarist Tony Rohrbough, bassist Ryan Postlethwait, veteran guitarist Brian Henderson, and drummer Matt Bowles, with "Harbingers", BYZANTINE is a crown jewel in their impressive seven-album discography. Notes Ojeda, "After twenty-five years of riding the struggle bus, we're ready to show the rock and metal world what we're truly about."

The album cover, designed by mixed-media artist Ashley Hoey, beautifully depicts Irene of Athens — the mother of Emperor Constantine and the first female empress of the Byzantine Empire. This focus on a maternal ruler eloquently ties into the album's title, "Harbingers", which means "ones who usher in great change."

The record's first single, "Floating Chrysanthema", envisions a bleak dystopian future where artificial intelligence becomes sentient and overpowers mankind, essentially enslaving us all.

"Our bassist Ryan brought this song to the band," says Ojeda, "and we thought it hit like a sledgehammer making it the perfect introduction to our new music. Peter Wichers had a big hand in helping craft this song into its final iteration."

"Harbingers" will be released on CD and digital formats. Find preorders at metalblade.com/byzantine.

"Harbingers" track listing:

01. Consequentia
02. A Place We Cannot Go
03. Floating Chrysanthema
04. The Clockmaker's Intention
05. Riddance
06. Harbinger
07. The Unobtainable Sleep
08. Kobayashi Maru
09. Irene

It has taken years of ups and downs for BYZANTINE to reach the point of creating "Harbingers". Discovered early on by LAMB OF GOD's Chris Adler, the band quickly released their debut full-length, "The Fundamental Component", in 2004. The record boasted a raw fusion of Bay Area thrash and Southern-tinged groove metal and set the tone for their future sound. Their 2005-released "…And They Shall Take Up Serpents" offering marked an even more blistering evolution. However, turmoil ultimately led to BYZANTINE's breakup, announced just one day after the release of their third album, 2007's prophetic "Oblivion Beckons".

Reforming to release the independent albums "Byzantine" (2013) and "To Release Is To Resolve" (2015),the band saw the latter dominate SiriusXM's Hard Attack Devil's Dozen for weeks, also earning them the No. 1 spot on CMJ's Loud Rock chart. Notably, BYZANTINE became only the second independent band to achieve this feat following CLUTCH's indie release "Earth Rocker".

In 2017, BYZANTINE made their Metal Blade debut with "The Cicada Tree", faultlessly merging multiple genres into their progressive groove sound, a signature blend now synonymous with the band. With "Harbingers" raising the stakes and a revitalized lineup in place, Ojeda confidently states, "If you've slept on BYZANTINE for the past twenty-five years, 'Harbingers' will awaken you."

BYZANTINE is:

Chris Ojeda - vocals
Brian Henderson - guitar, vocals
Tony Rohrbough - guitar
Ryan Postlethwait - bass, vocals
Matt Bowles - drums

Photo by Jason Adams

AVENGED SEVENFOLD's M. SHADOWS 'Couldn't Care Less' About Your Opinion Of His Band's Music: 'We're Not Making Art By Committee'

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

Regarding how concerned he and his bandmates were about the fan response to "Life Is But A Dream…", M. Shadows said: "Dave Farrell from LINKIN PARK — we were at dinner probably a year ago and we were talking about 'Life Is But A Dream…', and he said… We were in this really nice restaurant and there was a bunch of people around. And he says, 'If you were to take your record right now, or any record that you love, and show it to everybody here, how much weight would you put behind any of these people's opinions?' And the answer's zero.

"And so, at the end of the day, we're not making art by committee," he explained. "This isn't art by committee. It's not, like, everybody give us your ideas and we're all gonna kind of morph the same thing. We have A.I. to do that now; you're gonna be able to take your favorite records and A.I. can spit out something sort of like it. But you need artists and creatives to keep pushing the boundaries. Some things are gonna work, some things aren't. But at the end of the day, even if something doesn't work, it might spark in someone else, 'Oh, that was bold. Where can I push limits a little more?' And I think that's how this whole space thrives. And so for me, I couldn't care less about [other people's opinions], but one rule I made myself a long time ago is I listen to the positivity equally to the negativity, meaning I don't care about either. If a review is a 10 out 10, cool. It could be bought and paid for. Cool. It doesn't matter. If it's a zero out of 10, it also doesn't matter. So I think that you can't just walk around with all your good stuff and then ignore the bad. You have to kind of ignore them both, in my opinion."

Back in December 2023, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Synyster Gates told Metal Hammer magazine about the fan response to "Life Is But A Dream…": "I think with an album like this, time is on its side. I've been using this analogy: both of my parents' favorite band is THE BEATLES. My mom hates everything post-'Sgt. Pepper's', my dad couldn't care less about the early stuff. They both still respect the fuck out of it, but it's not for them. So, for my mom, 'Sgt. Pepper's' was the death of THE BEATLES, and I think for a lot of people, this is the death of AVENGED SEVENFOLD. But for a lot of other people, it's a birth. The birth of a different band."

Asked whether he's read any of the comments about the album online, Synyster said: "Funnily enough, I thought it could go either way. We've actually had really amazing support from the press, so I don't want to make people think that we feel like we aren't supported by the press at all. I actually feel it's good that it just hasn't been ignored. Even the bad reviews, people have talked about it. People are still interested in us, so that's all I could ask for, really. The negative comments, I feel they're the minority. I think people have been really thoughtful in considering this album."

M. Shadows previously discussed the reactions to "Life Is But A Dream…" in June 2023 during an appearance on the "Let There Be Talk" podcast with with rock and roll comedian Dean Delray.

"With our new record right now, all you see are 10-out-of-10 reviews and zero-out-of-10 reviews," M. Shadows said. "But it's the best way to be because the people that hate it absolutely hate it. It's one of those things where, in 2023, having a zero out of 10 is actually better than anything you could ask for, because people are talking, and it's a weird society we live in at this point."

"All artists can do is be a reflection of themselves at any point in time," he continued. "There's nothing worse than when people are trying to put you in a box and want you to write the same music you wrote when you were in high school or 20 years old. Those were reflections of who we were back then; we were aggressive, young kids that were just kind of all over the place making a certain type of music. And every record kind of changed. But this one in particular — much more musical in terms of not having to have one foot fully in metal. It's got so many different eclectic influences that we've had our whole life that we never really were able to kind of quantify. Like if you think about THE RESIDENTS or MR. BUNGLE, all these different things that we were growing up listening to. And I think is just where we're at right now. It's a different type of record. The philosophy, all of it, is different, and so it's not gonna appeal to people that want the same thing or more of the same or they're there in their life right now. It doesn't mean they're not gonna get here. Maybe they're just not here right now. Maybe it's our job to put our arm around them and say, 'Hey, we're up the street at this bar. And let's hang out here. This is what we're doing now.'

"There are so many psychological things that go into if people like records or not or if they don't or what they're listening to at the time. And it's not really our job to figure that out; it's just our job to put something out that we totally back and we appreciate. And we'll see where it goes. It's hard to really talk about it, 'cause there's really no right or wrong answer. It's okay to hate this record."

The 43-year-old Shadows, whose real name is Matt Sanders, went on to cite a few other examples where certain records represented a departure from the sound and direction that fans expected their favorite artists to go.

"There's a few records I think of, for my era and my age, when they came out. One is 'Pinkerton' by WEEZER," he said. "They blew up with the 'Blue' album, and then they put out 'Pinkerton', which is why one of my favorite records of all time — it's dirty, it's lyrically uncomfortable, it's all these things. That's one. And then 'Disco Volante' is one from MR. BUNGLE. MR. BUNGLE was already weird with the self-titled [album], but 'Disco Volante' was just, like… Mike Patton is not even singing; he's just making noises the whole time. It's like them messing around with keyboards. It blows my mind. 'Yeezus' is one for me with Kanye [West]. He put out pretty much a heavy metal record. Everyone in hip-hop hated it, and now it's one of his essential records. But there's always those things that kind of stand outside the box and outside the norm and they ruffle feathers and people have knee-jerk reactions. And I think this is definitely one of those. But you've gotta make sure that it's backed up with musicality. It's gotta be backed up with some depth. It can't just be weird for weird's sake. And I think that's a lot of people's go-to on this: 'I hate it because they're just trying to be weird.' It's, like, no, actually, we're not. 'They're trying to be prog.' It's, like, prog is the last thing on our minds. We don't care about that. All we care about it writing shit that feels cool.

"People overthink it and they try to even put these things in boxes," Shadows added. "And I think prog has even become its own box, which sucks, 'cause prog should be so many different directions. Why does prog have rules? The world is funny. People like to put things in a box so they can kind of discuss it better, I guess. But this record is kind of boxless, I guess."

M. Shadows previously discussed AVENGED SEVENFOLD's songwriting approach on "Life Is But A Dream…" earlier in June 2023 in an interview with Lou Brutus of HardDrive Radio. At the time, he said: "We were just looking for really bold moments — in life, in art, in film. Things that we could sort of wrap our minds around an audio representation of how we were feeling about certain things.

"At this point, playing around with melody, playing around with tones, playing around with left turns, curveballs was really appealing to us.

"I think we've proven to everyone, whether they like the band or not, that we kind of know the rules of music, and this record, we were able to just go break all the rules," he continued.

"Mike Shinoda [of LINKIN PARK] put it to me really perfectly — I love his insight on a lot of things — and he said, 'This record is like you guys throwing paint at the wall, but if a fourth-grader was doing it, you'd say that's just paint on the wall. But because of everything you've done before, we all know you know how to make a beautiful painting, so this record is actually really special because it's not just paint on the wall. You guys have broken all the rules and done things in an abstract way. But we wanna listen and pay attention because we know what you guys have done before.' And I thought it was an interesting way of putting it, 'cause those [LINKIN PARK] guys — Dave ['Phoenix' Farrell] and Mike — have been big fans of this record. And I think that was a cool way of putting it."

M. Shadows added: "We kind of just really wanted to push the boundaries — the musical boundaries, the lyrical boundaries, the themes — and we didn't want anything on the record to sound generic or phoned in or not exciting. We wanted to redo everything we've ever done, where even the song lengths and the way we kind of put these little pieces of ear candy, but we get away from it quick. Or staying away from three choruses, or if there is three choruses, they're all vastly different. And really thinking about turning the traditional landscape of how you would normally put a song together on its head, but do it in an interesting way — not just to do it, but just to do it in a way that we think people will enjoy and give them sort of a reason to get to the end of songs or get to the next song on the record. And I think that was just a mindset this time, was just a little different — really looking at those things."

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

Avenged Sevenfold

RUSH's ALEX LIFESON: 'I'm Just A Guy Who Loves Playing Guitar'

In a new interview with The Rockman Power Hour, RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson insisted that he still has a modest view of his place in the music world, despite his status as one of the most legendary rock musicians of the past half century. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "You get a lot of celebrity thrown at you and all of that stuff. It's just normal in this fan world. But honestly, I'm just a guy who loves playing guitar, and I always have, since I was 11 years old. I feel so lucky that I have that, and it's not about having a successful career or any of this.

"I play guitar every day. I play usually for — I don't know — three or four hours a day," he explained. "I play for an hour before I go to bed every night. I like to have a little puff, and then I sit down. I keep a couple of guitars in the bedroom, and I go back and forth — it's nylon string one day, steel string [the next day] — and I play for an hour, and I'm lost. And I don't play scales or I don't practice. I just play guitar because it's so fucking amazing to be able to do that. And I'm gonna do it until my last breath. I know that. And I don't attach any kind of specialness to it. It's just blessing for me that I can do that. And then if I can apply it to other people's music and use my skills that I've learned over the years to do something to make their music better, that's a real gratifying experience for me.

"I work on a lot of different projects," Lifeson added. "I'm working on a project now with some of the guys from BARENAKED LADIES and the RHEOSTATICS on a Great Lakes documentary, and it's all jam based, so we have hours and hours of jamming and now we're editing and putting it all together. Wow. What a great experience that is, because it's not being a big shot. It's there playing with other great players, making great music, and everybody's contributing. And that's the essence of being a musician and being a part of this whole musical world. It's not about being a big shot."

RUSH drummer Neil Peart died in January 2020 after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 67 years old.

RUSH waited three days to announce Peart's passing, setting off shockwaves and an outpouring of grief from fans and musicians all over the world.

Since Peart's death, Lifeson and Lee have not recorded any new music or performed live under the RUSH name, although both of them confirmed that several drummers reached out to them in the days after the legendary drummer's passing about the possibility of stepping in for Neil.

Lifeson made his mark on the music industry over 50 years ago, redefining the boundaries of progressive rock guitar. His signature riffing, copious use of effects processing and unorthodox chord structures befitted him the title by his RUSH bandmates as "The Musical Scientist." While the bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with RUSH, he has contributed to a body of work outside of the band as a guitarist, producer and with the release of his 1996 solo album "Victor". Lifeson ranks third overall in the Guitar World readers' poll of "100 Greatest Guitarists" and is also included in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time."

ENVY OF NONE, the band featuring Lifeson, Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH),Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne, released its second album, "Stygian Wavz", on March 14 via Kscope.

Photo credit: Richard Sibbald (courtesy of Kscope)

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