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20 мар 2025
CHRIS CAFFERY: 'I Get Trashed More On The SAVATAGE Sites Than I Do On BLABBERMOUTH'
 In a new interview with RockTheLife, SAVATAGE guitarist Chris Caffery spoke about online criticism he and his bandmates have received for reactivating the band without late SAVATAGE guitarist Criss Oliva and Criss's brother, SAVATAGE mastermind Jon Oliva. Referencing the fact that he engaged in online banter during the pandemic on the social media channels of sites like BLABBERMOUTH.NET and SAVATAGE-related pages, Caffery said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I have a decent relationship with the Blabbermouth people… In the COVID time, I would watch people get stir crazy and be online. And I saw what was going on with Blabbermouth, how they were really releasing a lot of frustration in the one-liners that were happening on that site. And you could see a lot of musicians that were a part of those conversations. They were getting so mad. And I would sit there laughing my butt off at some of these jokes. And I just decided one day to join in."
Chris continued: "There was one pretty ridiculous statement made at one point by somebody that had said he was the reason why a band or a particular type of guitar metal had started, and I kept putting that person's name into all these other posts, and the Blabbermouth people knew that I was being them. 'Cause they would always have Corey [Taylor] from SLIPKNOT — they had their one name that would wind up in every post to be funny. And I was doing it with the one name I was using, and they got pretty hip to it. So, even when I get to the title and the posts come out with me in the Blabbermouth thing, they don't attack me in it. And I think that what's pretty cool is I think there's a respect that happened over the fact that the roots inside of there know that my sense of humor got what they were doing. And I never thought it was anything that was bad. It was something that was so funny in the midst of the weirdest year of my life and I just chimed in with them and it was kind of funny. So look at that and I'm just, like, it's not a bad thing. I mean, those people are all music fans and they're having a good time. And I thought it was always funny when I watched the musicians that got so upset."
Caffery added: "I've had plenty of times where people had had their comments about me. Throughout the years with SAVATAGE — I get trashed more on the SAVATAGE sites than I do on Blabbermouth, because there's always people that aren't happy about things: 'As long as Criss Oliva is not alive, it's not SAVATAGE.' It's, like, well, you wouldn't be talking about Criss Oliva… The reason why you have thousands of people [talking about SAVATAGE alive online] is because we've kept the legacy alive. It's given you the ability to have two thousand people talk shit about me instead of twenty. So your voice of no reason is heard by a lot more. And I appreciate that 'cause you're advertising the legacy of SAVATAGE. And nobody likes Criss Oliva more than me. And that that's just a fact. He was a big reason why I am who I am and where I am. So, like I said, I brush it off. And you grow up a lot on that as time goes on."
Joining Chris in SAVATAGE's current touring lineup are Johnny Lee Middleton on bass, Al Pitrelli on guitar, Jeff Plate on drums and Zak Stevens on lead vocals.
Jon Oliva, SAVATAGE's founding vocalist and keyboardist, in 2023 suffered a T7 vertebra fracture in three places, a severe injury that has left him relying on a wheelchair. Additionally, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and Ménière's disease, conditions that have further complicated his health.
Zak joined SAVATAGE in 1992 as the replacement for Jon Oliva. Zak sang on four albums with the band — "Edge Of Thorns" (1993),"Handful Of Rain" (1994),"Dead Winter Dead" (1995) and "The Wake Of Magellan" (1997) — before departing in 2000, allowing Jon to return. Both Jon and Zak took part in SAVATAGE's 2015 performance at Wacken Open Air, which marked the band's first, and only so far, appearance on stage since they went on hiatus back in 2002.
SAVATAGE's last album release, "Poets And Madmen", in 2001 was highlighted by Jon's return as lead vocalist, replacing Zak, who left the band citing family reasons, and the departure of Pitrelli, who accepted an offer to join MEGADETH in 2000. Pitrelli did record solos for some songs prior to his exit. Another very limited U.S. tour followed, supported by FATES WARNING in the early shows, and then NEVERMORE for the remainder. Around this time, Jon chose Zak's replacement in the form of Damond Jiniya (DIET OF WORMS). Damond performed Zak's parts on tour, with Jon having an increased vocal role in proceedings.
In September 2021, Jon Oliva was arrested on the west central coast of Florida for driving under the influence as well as possession of a controlled substance. Police charged Oliva with possession of cocaine, which is a felony, and DUI, which is a misdemeanor. Oliva was reportedly arrested again in July 2023 on another cocaine possession charge.
Back in 2016, Jon announced on social media that he suffered a stroke in April of that year. At the time, he said: "It was not as serious as it could have been, but it did leave me with some physical recovery challenges often associated with strokes."
Despite his health issues, Jon said that he didn't regret the way he had lived his life. He wrote: "I lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle since I was 18. It's all I knew and I enjoyed the ride very much. But there comes a time in everyone's life where you have to step back and make some life-changing decisions... which I have."
Shortly after SAVATAGE's reunion performance at the 2015 Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany, Oliva claimed that he felt better than he had in 20 years because he had "stopped drinking and eating" in preparation for the concert. He explained: "It's my voice that's freaking me out, because, even when I was in my late 20s, early 30s, doing songs like '24 Hours Ago' were always really hard to do. And, of course, I didn't realize that it was all the drugs and alcohol I was doing. But, after doing that, getting my act together and stuff, singing '24 Hours Ago', it's actually easy now. [Laughs]"
In addition to his work with SAVATAGE, Oliva is well known for co-creating the classical music-meets-prog rock and pyro act TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA alongside Paul O'Neill. Oliva has reportedly remained involved in TSO's activities even after O'Neill's April 2017 death of an accidental drug overdose.
Jon's brother Criss, who was one of the founding members of SAVATAGE, was killed in October 1993 by a drunk driver when he and his wife Dawn were en route to the Livestock festival in Zephyrhills, Florida. The driver of the other car was found to have a drunk driving record of seven prior DUIs and having a blood alcohol content of .294 percent. | +1 | |
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20 мар 2025
DAN DONEGAN: 'We Have A Lot Of Stuff Recorded' For Next DISTURBED Album
 During an appearance on the latest episode of The Mistress Carrie Podcast, DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan and drummer Mike Wengren spoke about the musical inspiration for the band's new single, "I Will Not Break", which came out on February 21 via DISTURBED's own label, Mother Culture Records. Dan said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We were out in L.A. last fall and just started getting the ideas out. And we had an album's worth of material already done. And me and Mike and Drew [Fulk, also known as WZRD BLD], our producer, were sitting in the room. And I like to keep going. Once the ball's rolling, I don't like to quit — I don't like to stop, because I always feel like the excitement's there. You've got something new so I keep writing. And David's [Draiman, DISTURBED singer] trying to play catch-up, because he's gotta write all these lyrics to these songs. So a lot of times he wants us to stop because 'cause we're getting too far ahead of him. And one day I was in the studio, and I was already digging back into old demos that I had at home, old cassette tapes that we had in the '90s, as we're going through the vault of things… So I wanted to go back and just kind of get back in that headspace of… Some of those recordings were actually just hitting the 'record' button and putting a little cassette player in the back of the room, so it's the worst quality ever. But I wanted to hear some of those improvised tapes and get in that headspace of where we were back then. And even though 'I Will Not Break' is a brand new riff, it kind of just had that vibe."
Donegan continued: "I was supposed to be tracking guitars in the studio for something else that day and I'm, like, 'Ah, let's just put that on the back burner. I just feel like doing something new.' And we just start messing around a bit and I'm just playing around with this riff for a while. I changed the riff probably 50 times as we were sitting there, and I think when the riff finally came about, I think me, Mike and Drew just looked at each other and were, like, 'That's it. That's the one. Go with that.'"
Dan added: "Cakebread is one of the wines we have backstage here [on tour]. And we were having that in the studio that night. We opened up a bottle of wine and started improvising. So the working title for the song was called 'Cakebread'."
Mike also reflected on the making of "I Will Not Break", saying: "[Dan's] riffing out, and we'll loop some beats for him and he just sits there. And he can riff for hours sometimes. Sometimes something comes out in five minutes. Sometimes it comes out in five hours. It had been going around. I'm, like, 'You know what?' I'm sitting in the back of the room. I Doordash some wine. The best that the store had on Doordash was Cakebread. So the guy shows up. I crack open the wine. Within five minutes of pouring the glasses for everybody, that riff for 'I Will Not Break' came out."
Asked when DISTURBED fans can expect a full-length follow-up to 2022's "Divisive" album, Dan said: "We really don't know. Ten minutes before you walked in the room, we were just talking with our manager too. Our main focus has been this 25th-anniversary tour [of DISTURBED's debut album, 'The Sickness']. We do have a lot of stuff recorded, obviously, with the first single out. There hasn't really been much talk about the release yet, just because we're so focused on these tours. It's hard to think about it when we're selling out the Garden and all these other places. We're just riding this wave and we're on a high right now that there hasn't been any deep discussion just yet of if it's coming out this year or next year. We've still gotta strategize that."
Donegan previously talked about "I Will Not Break" last month in an interview with Ryan McCredden of the I-Rock 93.5 radio station, DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan. He said at the time: "[That song] came late in the recording process. We were out in L.A. this past September, October and November, just getting the ball rolling. There was no really gameplan of a timeframe or deadline in any way. We had some time off the road with only a handful of shows last fall, so we said, 'Let's get back in the room and get things going again and see how the creative process goes.' And everything was going great. We wrote a bunch of material, tracked it all, and then 'I Will Not Break' kind of came late in the session. I just felt like I still had a lot left in me. And I was supposed to be tracking guitars for something else that day, and I just told my producer I felt really creative. I wanted to kind of go with this kind of old-school — I wanted to give something to David that was gonna hopefully trigger kind of that old-school delivery out of David. So we just kind of worked on this heavy groove, this beat, and I just started improvising over it, and as soon as the riff came around, we kind of all just looked at each other, like, 'That's the one. That's the one.' And then I just continued down that road and put together a rough structure. David wasn't there at the moment, at the time, so we just kind of worked out the music and put together a rough structure. And when I'd seen him next, I kind of went over it with him and he connected with it. And he kind of gave us those elements that we were looking for — the still melodic, but still quick, rapid-fire syncopation at times and just that kind of delivery we were hoping to pull out of him. And we thought it would be a great lead-off track to share with the fans."
When McCredden noted that "I Will Not Break" sounds like something DISTURBED could have recorded 25 years ago, possibly inspired by the fact that the band was preparing to embark on a 34-date North American tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 2000 debut album "The Sickness", Donegan concurred. "I was going through the archives and going through a lot of stuff here, my memorabilia, gearing up for this 25th-anniversary tour, and I came across some old demo tapes," he said. "I had actually cassette tapes, if people don't remember what those are. Back in the day, in the late '90s, when we got David in the band, we would just set up a little cassette player in the back of the room and hit 'record' and record us — crappy version, but record our practices so we could hear us just improvising ideas. And so I was kind of in that headspace 'cause I was listening to these old riffs and these old deliveries of us just kind of improvising, like I said, and it just had me in that headspace. Actually, one of the song ideas was a riff I pulled from 1998 off the demo and I kind of slid it back into the mix. I have a history of doing that. I have a way of sneaking in old ideas and seeing if it triggers anybody, if they remember it and pick up on it, if it's been that long ago. But I try to get back into that headspace. And so, even though the riff for 'I Will Not Break' is brand new, I was kind of in the spirit of that old-school DISTURBED, and that's what we were hoping to do — trigger [David] in that that kind of way."
"I Will Not Break" marks DISTURBED's first new music since its acclaimed 2022 album "Divisive".
According to DISTURBED, "I Will Not Break" is "a necessary song, about becoming stronger than the forces that constantly try to tear you down." The track includes the stirring lyrics "I've had enough of feeling terrified, now I'm deciding that I won't be hiding from anyone," which encourages listeners to push back in the face of adversity.
Fulk previously worked with DISTURBED on "Divisive", which was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee.
According to Billboard, "Divisive" sold 26,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release, with 22,000 units via album sales.
On the all-format Billboard 200 chart, "Divisive" debuted at No. 13.
DISTURBED has had five No. 1s on the all-genre chart, beginning with "Believe" in 2002.
"The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour" kicked off in Nampa, Idaho on February 25. Produced by Live Nation, each night features two sets of music, opening with DISTURBED playing the five times platinum "The Sickness" in full, followed by a full set of greatest hits. The first half of the tour features support from special guests THREE DAYS GRACE, featuring the return of original singer Adam Gontier, and opener SEVENDUST, and the second half features special guests DAUGHTRY with opener NOTHING MORE.
Since "The Sickness" was released in 2000, the album was certified five times platinum by the RIAA, spent a total of 106 weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart, and Revolver named it one of "Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums." Billboard said of the title track upon release: "'Down With The Sickness' is, of course, the quintessential DISTURBED song, harnessing all the band's seethe and its now-famous tribal beat and guitar chug into three and a half minutes of alt-metal mayhem. It's menacing, it's rhythmic, it's rebellious."
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20 мар 2025
BRIAN WHEAT Won't Be Heartbroken If TESLA Never Gets In The ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME
 In a recent interview with The Seth Williams Show, TESLA bassist Brian Wheat was asked for his opinion of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Listen, I think it's a bit of a popularity contest. I saw that THE BLACK CROWES are [nominated this year].
"If THE BLACK CROWES are gonna be put in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, then perhaps TESLA should be considered for it purely for the fact of the [TESLA 1990 live album] 'Five Man Acoustical Jam'.
"How it's been told to me is that if you do something that is kind of influential or creates a movement or whatever — okay. Well, I mean, BLACK CROWES were… And I don't wanna really talk about THE BLACK CROWES, because Blabbermouth will get on this and then [THE BLACK CROWES singer] Chris Robinson thinks I'm…
"I love THE BLACK CROWES. I've loved THE BLACK CROWES since day one, and I'm glad they're being considered."
Referencing the fact that BAD COMPANY is also nominated for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame this year, Brian said: "My question with BAD COMPANY is, why so long? Why have they waited so long? BAD COMPANY should have been in there before a lot of bands.
"I don't trip on this Rock And Roll Hall [Of Fame]," he continued. "Pretty soon it's not gonna mean shit, because everyone's gonna be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame… But I mean, just in general, it's, like, who isn't in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? There's gonna be more people in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame than aren't in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. [They'll] have to come up with a new one."
When co-host Chris Akin noted that "Five Man Acoustical Jam" "created that whole unplugged movement, which was a a legitimate movement," Wheat said: "Well, it was, but I wanna go on record and just say that we did not invent that. The thing that we did was we had the first successful acoustic live album — before Rod Stewart, before Eric Clapton, before NIRVANA. And that's what we did do — that was our contribution. So based on that contribution, do I think that merits us going in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? I don't know. I mean, you can make that argument for a lot of artists that are in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Did what they do merit them to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? I don't know.
"Listen, if they called and they wanted to put us in there, would I turn it down? No. No," he continued. "But am I gonna be heartbroken if TESLA never gets in the fucking Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? Absolutely not. What matters most to me is that 40 years later, people are still paying their hard-earned dollars to come and see us play by the thousands. And that, to me — you can keep all the fucking awards; that's the one that I'm most proud of, is that when I look out there and I see 2,500 people, wherever we go in America to play, singing our songs, and there's three generations of people…
"I don't need to be put in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, I don't need a Grammy, I don't need any of that shit to validate what TESLA has done or does," Brian added.
"Listen, I can't get caught up in that shit. I mean, I ain't gonna lose any sleep over it. It's, like, 'Okay, cool.' I was happy to see Chris and Rich [Robinson of THE BLACK CROWES] get nominated. And I was happy to see them recognize Chris Cornell for SOUNDGARDEN, 'cause I think Chris Cornell was a great singer and a true artist. I didn't really pay too much attention to who else was there except BAD COMPANY. And I was, like, 'It's about time.'
"To me, that first BAD COMPANY record was as classic and influential as 'Van Halen I' was, to me. They were both equally as… I mean, you had the 'Bad Company I' record, just like you had 'Led Zeppelin I', just like you had 'Van Halen I'. And you had THE BLACK CROWES' first record. And a lot of people have TESLA's first album [1986's 'Mechanical Resonance'], which they consider to be a classic first album. And listen, I'm not gonna say that it wasn't. I'm proud of that fucking record. It is a good first record. I look at a lot of bands' first records that are in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and their first records aren't very fucking good."
Asked if TESLA's hypothetical Rock Hall induction would see original guitarist Tommy Skeoch reunite with his former bandmates for a performance at the event, Brian said: "Absolutely. So [would] Troy [Luccketta, original TESLA drummer]. So [would current TESLA guitarist] Dave Rude. Absolutely. If that were ever to happen, it would not be right. But Tommy would definitely be there. And so would Dave Rude. You would see TESLA with three guitar players… Yes, if that ever were to happen, the whole original band would play and so would Dave Rude. So there'd be six of us up there."
Released last November, TESLA's latest six-song EP, "All About Love", includes four versions of the title track (acoustic, electric, hybrid, live); a live version of "Walk Away", a concert favorite from "Reel To Real, Vol. 1"; and another new song, "From The Heart", an instrumental track by guitarist Frank Hannon.
Some fans criticized TESLA for adopting a 1980s-style polished production for its latest album, 2019's "Shock". The follow-up to June 2014's "Simplicity" was helmed by DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen, whose own group is no stranger to slicked-up, glossy-sounding recordings.
In September 2023, TESLA released the official music video for its cover of AEROSMITH's "S.O.S. (Too Bad)". The song is a bonus track on TESLA's live album, "Full Throttle Live!", which arrived in May 2023. The LP includes the band's "Time To Rock!" single, plus other songs, all recorded in August 2022 at Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis, South Dakota.
In September 2021, original TESLA drummer Troy Luccketta announced that he would "take a little time from the road" to spend with family and friends. He has since been replaced at TESLA's gigs and in the recording studio by Steve Brown, the younger brother of former DOKKEN drummer Mick Brown.
TESLA's debut album, 1986's "Mechanical Resonance", went platinum on the strength of the hits "Modern Day Cowboy" and "Little Suzi". The 1989 follow-up album, "The Great Radio Controversy", produced five hits, including "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)" and "Love Song", which hit the pop Top Ten. | +1 | |
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20 мар 2025
DREAM THEATER's JOHN PETRUCCI: 'We Didn't Miss A Beat' With MIKE PORTNOY Returning To The Band
 In a new interview with John The Metal Mailman of the KBER 101.1 FM radio station, DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci discussed the band's decision to reunite with Mike Portnoy in October 2023, 13 years after the drummer first left the progressive metal titans. Asked if it felt like it had been that long since they last played together, Petrucci said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, in some ways, yes, and in some ways, no. We've accomplished so much over those, not only the past 15 years, but over 40 years. I mean, it's crazy that we're doing a 40th-anniversary [tour]. But Mike coming back was, like, we didn't miss a beat. He's just our buddy and our brother and it just feels so great to have him back. And playing live on stage together again, you can feel the energy and the chemistry is just so evident. You look out in the audience and people are just loving it. So, yeah, it's pretty amazing."
Regarding whether he prefers working in the studio over being on the road, Petrucci said: "Honestly, I love it all. I could live in the studio. I love that environment. I love being creative and the whole vibe, just being in your own space with the guys, or even if it's just you and the engineer, and having fun capturing sounds and playing. I literally could just live in there. But then once I get on the road, I'm, like. there's nothing like live performance, interacting, the challenge of trying to play this stuff live and having to have all your chops ready. And then you're touring the world, seeing great places, you get to travel, and that's a wonderful thing as well. So I kind of — I love it all. It's great."
DREAM THEATER kicked off the North American leg of its 40th-anniversary tour on February 7 at The Met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The trek is "An Evening With Dream Theater" and is the first tour of North America since Portnoy's return to the lineup, joining singer James LaBrie, bassist John Myung, Petrucci and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. The tour will conclude on March 22 in New York City.
DREAM THEATER's sixteenth studio album, "Parasomnia", came out on February 7, 2025 via InsideOut Music. The LP marks DREAM THEATER's first release with Portnoy since 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings".
"Parasomnia" was produced by Petrucci, engineered by James "Jimmy T" Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returns once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art.
Portnoy co-founded DREAM THEATER in 1985 with Petrucci and Myung. Mike played on 10 DREAM THEATER albums over a 20-year period, from 1989's "When Dream And Day Unite" through 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", before exiting the group in 2010.
Mike Mangini joined DREAM THEATER in late 2010 through a widely publicized audition following the departure of Portnoy. Mangini beat out six other of the world's top drummers — Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy — for the gig, a three-day process that was filmed for a documentary-style reality show called "The Spirit Carries On".
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20 мар 2025
MOONFALL To Unleash Debut Album In April 2025; “Countess Carody” Streaming
 Iron Bonehead Productions is proud to present the long-awaited debut album of Finland’s Moonfall, Odes To The Ritual Hills, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
Hailing from the ever-fertile Finnish black metal scene, Moonfall’s origins date back to 2008. The duo released one demo in 2010, Ad Majorem Sathanae Gloriam, before disbanding the next year. The band reactivated in 2020 and released a demo, with a split with Regere Sinister the following year.
However, this duo – Goatprayer and Black Moon Necromancer, both of whom handle multiple instruments depending on the recording – have been insanely prolific together, currently playing in the esteemed Witchcraft as well as other such cults as Necromonarchia Daemonum, Funerealm Gloom, Darkera, and Infernathan. Even separately, both men are notable: among many others, Goatprayer maintains the monolithic Ceremonial Torture, while Black Moon Necromancer currently plays guitar for the legendary Beherit.
Still, Moonfall have yet to release a full-length display of their dark, defiant powers… until now. Fittingly titled Odes To The Ritual Hills, Moonfall’s long-awaited debut album encapsulates their ancient aesthetic whilst pushing it to more-depraved depths. With all the bands both Finns number between them, some sonic traits remain consistent – utterly gutsfucking bass, sewer-drenched vokills, an ominously lumbering gait, a wholesale defiance of modern “black metal” or even “doom” tropes – and some influences, such as old Necromantia and Barathrum as well Greece’s Lemegethon and Colombia’s Nebiros, figure prominently. And as tempting as it is to liken Moonfall as an aesthetic counterpart to the mighty Ceremonial Torture, Odes to the Ritual Hills proves that the duo are digging their own, absolutely ancient earth.
The album as a whole comprises four songs across nearly a half-hour, with two songs at ten minutes each; its song sequence is such that atmosphere is incredibly heightened, akin to a moonlit walk across misty moors. Of course, burly bass guitar guides these mystical journeys with an insistent, almost-sexual throb – some could point to domestic underground deviants Ride for Revenge here – but the vintage synths, sensually swirling with their own dark magick, really put Moonfall in rarefied territory. That Odes to the Ritual Hills is bookended by two shorter, all-synth instrumentals does not undersell the album’s intrinsic power; in fact, their strategic placement is integral to the record’s all-engrossing journey.
With these Odes to the Ritual Hills, Moonfall have at last returned from the darkest past with the year’s truly oldest record.
Tracklist:
“1560” (2:10)
“Countess Carody” (10:09)
“Ode To The Ritual Hills” (9:36)
“Thus Spoke Satanael” (5:13)
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20 мар 2025
ROBERT MASON: 'There's No Urgency' For WARRANT To Release New Music
 In a new interview with Joe Scibilia of The Rock N' Roll & Coffee Show, WARRANT singer Robert Mason was asked if there are any plans to release new music as a follow-up to 2017's "Louder Harder Faster" album. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We have something that might happen. I kind of feel that there's that huge nostalgia component. My ego doesn't mean I have to put a record out just for the sake of it. And I understand you make a certain piece with — fans wanna come and hear the nostalgia, and that's our role, that's our lane to kind of stay in. If we come up with something great and we wanna put something out, we certainly might. I've got ideas. I know [WARRANT bassist Jerry] Dixon does as well. He and I worked together just a couple of years ago on a bunch of material for something that might have been a record that we just kind of put aside for a minute because he started playing with the band less and we were trying to concentrate on just making our live band and our consistent touring as good as possible for us."
Asked if there is really a reason for a band like WARRANT to put out an album in today's musical climate, Robert said: "We wrestle with that, but that's the nostalgia component. Sometimes promoters or agents say, 'Well, we can sell a new tour and a thing,' I'm, like, 'Yeah, but there's so much nostalgia and that's what really fans [want to hear].' We play a couple of songs off the two records which I did with the band, songs we wrote to do that, and people dig it. We do 'Louder Harder' and I get 'em to scream the chorus and they're still into it. There's a certain component — and I love those people — that are into that. But I think as years go by, the one thing is if you're one of the last bands standing, then the herd narrows and you become one of those bands. It can go either way, and I sometimes I wake up and I'm, like, 'Man, we should do a record,' and then I go, 'You know what? I watch the people's reaction to the catalog material and I still get off on doing it. And so does the band.'"
He continued: "There's no urgency to put something new out there. The climate of a band of guys in their 60s — what are we gonna get? A radio hit? It's a bygone era, and if it makes a good story for interviews, cool. And it's satisfying to play new songs. I will always do that in one respect or another. I write for other people. There's some film and TV work and stuff that we've all dabbled in. It's still satisfying. And it's something in your soul. It makes you feel good to be creative if you're a songwriter type. But then again, those hits are the hits. They're still fun to play, and that gets a great reaction from the audience. So then is that my time best served? No."
Regarding whether he would ever put out a solo record, Mason said: "I've been asked. And I play piano. I wake up and make coffee every morning and go sit at a very nice antique grand piano in my house and go hammer away on it heavy handed, like I do everything. And I write a ton — I have a ton of guitar stuff and a ton of piano stuff.
"It seems almost gratuitous and weird and like egocentric to [make a solo album]," he explained. "I write with a bunch of friends in Nashville, and some in particular you just get on great with and every time you hang out and do something, it's just magic.
"I might someday. I would almost wanna do something to throw a curve ball and do an acoustic-piano-and-voice thing only, or very little instrumentation. I wouldn't wanna put a rock band together and do it necessarily, 'cause then it's, like… The thing is, if you go play live, you're, like, 'I do that. That's my job.' I would rather explore something completely different. Or at least genre specifically different that would be, like, 'Wow, that's that guy? Really? He doesn't scream like he's coughing up a lung. He can actually sing that too."
Elaborating on the musical direction his solo music might take, Robert said: "I grew up, man, in love with my dad's music and crooners and music from the 40s, 50s and 60s. So, I have lots of sides."
"Louder Harder Faster" was released in May 2017. The disc was recorded with Jeff Pilson — a veteran bassist who has played with DIO, FOREIGNER, DOKKEN and T&N, among others — and was mixed by Pat Regan, except for the song "I Think I'll Just Stay Here And Drink", which was mixed by Chris "The Wizard" Collier (FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, PRONG, LAST IN LINE).
Mason replaced original WARRANT singer Jani Lane in 2008 and has brought a degree of stability to the band after Lane's unceremonious departure and subsequent 2011 death.
Last month Dixon told Mark Strigl about WARRANT's plan to release new music: "We're kind of thinking and probably implementing kind of like a box set of things we have with Jani, unreleased stuff. We have maybe a song from a demo. We've got, like, nine records that [the rights] have come back to us over the years. So we wanna do some sort of box set with some new music as well, but also include all of WARRANT — Jani years, Jaime St. James years, 'Born Again', 'Rockaholic', all of [it]."
Asked if there are "numerous tracks" with Jani Lane that have not been released, Jerry said: "There actually are hardly any, but there's a few that we got back that we're working on finding. There's a lot of things that happened with the legality of stuff, but there are a couple diamonds that we have found. But we released everything with him. We never did anything just to go do it. If we were gonna record, it was a purpose — it was for a soundtrack or a record. So, you pretty much have 99.9 percent of everything out that we've done."
Elaborating on what might be included on the aforementioned box set, Jerry said: "Like, say we're writing and we're recording with Jani and he's talking, but it's not a finished song yet. So it may be something that entails video. We're sharing all that stuff. The making of 'Dog Eat Dog', we have a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff of that record that nobody's ever seen."
Regarding WARRANT guitarist Joey Allen's comment from October 2024 that he and his bandmates were collecting footage for a possible documentary, Jerry said: "Yeah, we have that in the works too, but it's a lot of speculation and people have ideas, but who's doing the work? So we'll figure it all out. But, yeah, I think it's time to do that and not give everything away on social media for free and just let people steal it and take it and molest it. And it's disgusting. We wanna put something out that people can take home and enjoy, like the old days."
Last October, Joey was asked by Become A Guitarist Today whether there has been any talk of a follow-up to "Louder Harder Faster". He said: "Here's the deal with WARRANT on records, is that the first three records, Jani Lane was the the creative force behind all the songwriting, which is fantastic. I mean, he was great at it. And it was a magic time for everybody. When you've got a guy that's bringing in songs like '[Mr.] Rainmaker' and 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', and nobody else is bringing in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', you're, like, 'Okay, keep on going.' And so when he wasn't in the band, and then you've got the five of us, it's kind of the same thing. Whoever writes the music brings it in. If it's good and it's complete, then there you go. And I'm not a songwriter as much as I am a guitar player. I'm great at interpreting people that can't play guitar great and turning it into some cool-sounding riffs, the way I play. But it gets to the point where if there's riffs out there and you need somebody to come in and write lyrics to it, well, then everybody should pay attention and see if there's a riff out there. So the choices of songs and how we put a record together is very arduous. It's very difficult for WARRANT, for some reason. And it's amazing that after a record like 'Louder, Harder, Faster' that the band was still together. So, looking forward to another record, you're, like, 'Hmm.' [Laughs] 'Do you wanna do that again now — what is it? — seven years later?' And I think there's some desire, but it's not heavy."
He added: "New music's different now. People do records, nobody cares. So do we do a few songs at a time and release a song or two? I don't know what our model is gonna be. We're not going away. How's that? You want us to go away? We're not. And we still do 50 or 60 shows a year over here [in the U.S.]."
Allen went on to say that WARRANT fans can expect to see something else that might satisfy their craving for new product.
"We've gotten through a lot of our archives of videotapes and pictures and things that we all four of us have in our boxes in the attic and we've gotten them down," he said. "Because everybody had those little video cameras back in the day. So, there is private video from 1987. And I think we're trying to catalog all that data and kind of put together some type of a documentary with that stuff. And that's the next project. So if anybody was in the band from the front end on, from 'Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich' on, they're gonna get a peek behind what we were doing, what you thought we were doing. Were you right? Were you wrong? I mean, it's certainly not gonna be X rated by any means, but if you see some of the shit that did go on, it's great fun. I don't know if it'll be rated as a comedy or what, but there's some funny shit in there. So that's it."
Joey previously talked about the possibility of a new WARRANT album in March 2024 in an interview with the "Rimshots With Sean" podcast. He said at the time: "New record? I don't know. The last one was fun to make, and [producer] Jeff Pilson was fun to work with. And the one before that [2011's 'Rockaholic'] with [producer] Keith Olsen — God rest his soul — was great and fun to do.
"It's such an undertaking for us, and the return on making a record is [miniscule]," he explained. "You know what I mean? And not everything's about money. It's, like, can we play it live? Well, you can, but people are just gonna sit there and look at you, like, 'Where's 'Cherry Pie'? Where's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'? Where's 'Down Boys'? Where are those hits I wanted to hear?' And so you can't go out and play three or four or five new tunes, which would be — for me, thumbs up. I would dig to do that. But we have a responsibility to play the songs that people really wanna hear too. So it's a double-edged sword. And that's what I mean when I [say], what's in it for us? It's not financially. The thing in it for us is to play new music, to create new music, to grow. Let's not be a nostalgia act. So I don't know if it'll be a new record or if it'll be a song at a time or whatever — I'm sure sooner than later something [will] happen — but nothing's going on right now."
In December 2023, WARRANT guitarist Erik Turner told Robert Miguel of Uvalde Radio Rocks that he and his bandmates were "not sure" what they were going to do as far as new music was concerned. "It's just been a little bit — there's just been some stuff going on where we haven't really been doing any new music," he revealed. "We have some riffs [being thrown] around. We have some half-finished songs going on. Due to some personal stuff going on, we're just kind of on hold as far as the new record goes. Nothing horrible, but just band stuff."
In March 2023, Allen told Mankato, Minnesota's "The Five Count" radio show that he and his WARRANT bandmates were "actually writing right now for a record. So people are sending riffs around. You can do it on the Internet nowadays," he explained. "We just have a cloud-based files system where we just upload ideas. And somebody will take an idea, a music idea, and put some lyrics to it, and we'll start to craft our songs. So maybe by this fall we'll dig into the studio again and [record] the follow-up to 'Louder Harder Faster', which came out, I think, six years ago this year. The recording process takes about four or five weeks, so maybe early next year we'll have something new out for everybody to listen to and back on the road we will go to support that."
Nearly four years ago, Mason told the "Thunder Underground" podcast that there wasn't "a defined schedule" for WARRANT's next studio album, but he added that he and his bandmates are "always writing."
In 2020, Turner told the "Talking Metal" podcast that WARRANT was "throwing some ideas around" for a new LP. He said: "I've been sending Robert some riffs, and Robert's been working on songs. I've got a song going with Jerry. So it's a slow, long process for us, but the seed of a new record has been started. Now, that doesn't mean the seed will grow into a record. We've got a long way to go. We don't have one finished song. We've got a couple of things cooking, and we're actually sending ideas around back and forth to each other."
WARRANT is rounded out by original drummer Steven Sweet. | 0 | |
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20 мар 2025
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20 мар 2025
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19 мар 2025
DAVE LOMBARDO On Filling In For METALLICA's LARS ULRICH At 2004 DOWNLOAD Festival: 'It Was A Challenge'
 During an appearance on the latest episode of "The David Ellefson Show" video podcast, former SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo reflected on how he and SLIPKNOT's Joey Jordison filled in for METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich when he was unable to appear at the Download festival in England in June 2004. Ulrich later blamed his non-appearance on exhaustion, caused by an unrelenting tour schedule and the break-up of his seven-year marriage to Skylar Satenstein. Jordison played eight tracks from the 11-song set, with Lombardo and Ulrich's then-drum tech Flemming Larsen helping with the remaining cuts.
Lombardo said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, fortunately Joey, he had a METALLICA cover band when he was young, before SLIPKNOT or maybe even during SLIPKNOT. And so he was very familiar with a lot of their newer albums. I was into, obviously, the first three four — I think up until 'Master Of Puppets'. And then while at first I wasn't into the 'Black Album' eventually the Black Album grew on me, 'cause it is a masterpiece. And so I was more familiar with their earlier stuff. And so when I saw the setlist, I was, like, 'Okay, well, I could do these,' which was 'The Four Horsemen' and 'Battery'… So, when they told me, I said, 'Look, I can do the two. I could probably figure out some of the other ones.' But they had me just go up and do the first two, and then Joey, and, obviously, Flemming went up and finished the rest of the songs. So I was grateful. I was awesome. I have a picture in a frame, personalized frame, with all their names and everything, saying how grateful they were that I came up, I stepped up and helped them."
Lombardo continued: "One of the real special moments was in the rehearsal. We were in one of those — I guess it was a small portable rehearsal room. They have a drum set in there, they've got their amp, they jam, get warmed up, get ready. And we were in there, and I could see their excitement when I was playing the song. They were really into it. And I kind of sped everything up a little bit, just kicked them in the ass a little. And it was fun, man. It was that moment that was really special. Then we went on stage. And obviously professional mode steps in, and you really have to focus and make sure that everything's right and you kick ass for the moment. But it was a challenge — exciting, fun, grateful moment in history that will never be repeated again."
Elaborating on the feedback he received from the METALLICA guys for his performance, Dave said: "Some of Kirk's [Hammett, METALLICA guitarist] commentary, which I'll keep private, was really, really funny and very complimentary and very kind from them.
"I have nothing but respect for those guys," the drummer added. "I have absolute respect."
Back in January 2021, Lombardo told the "Speak N' Destroy" podcast about his 2004 performance with METALLICA: "I remember being approached by SLAYER's manager, and he just basically said, 'Hey, Dave, we have a bit of a crisis. Lars can't make the show.' And I was, like, 'Okay, what's going on?' And they asked if I'd be interested. I don't know if he said if I'm interested in doing the [full] set or a few songs — whatever — but I took one look at the setlist, and I wasn't very familiar with their later material, so I agreed to the two opening songs.
"I met up with the guys, and we hung out in their little rehearsal room, dressing room, and we jammed the two songs that I was familiar with, and then shortly after that, we went on stage," he continued. "We had a great time in the room. I love those guys. I've never had any beef with them or anything. It's always been amicable and kind. They've always been great towards me, and I have likewise. So we had a great time.
"And I've known [METALLICA bassist] Robert Trujillo since the SUICIDAL [TENDENCIES] days. And I actually performed with Trujillo on a cover of 'Battery' [for the 2001 album 'Metallic Assault: A Tribute To Metallica']. Yeah, that's out there. So we played that [at Download], and then, of course, 'The Four Horsemen' — we did that as well.
"It was a lot of fun," Dave added. "It was a moment in history, a moment in time, and I loved it — it was amazing. Especially when I went into the double-bass section in 'Battery', at the end, and James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] was, like, 'Fuck!'"
Back in 2014, Lombardo was asked during a clinic in Italy to comment on the fact that Ulrich's drumming skills are constantly questioned. He replied: "I think Lars is a good drummer. He's a good arranger. He arranges… Without Lars, there wouldn't be a METALLICA. So you have to give him credit for what he does for the band."
Lombardo continued: "It's very important... When you have a chemistry within a band. There's four members of the band. When there's chemistry, like a special interaction between musicians, if you take one musician out, it's not the same. If you take Lars out of the equation, it won't be the same."
While speaking with U.K.'s Rhythm magazine back in 2009, Lombardo was a bit more critical of Lars's drumming abilities, saying that playing with METALLICA at Download in 2004 was a great experience, but adding that it was good to "show 'em how it's done!" Dave continued. "No disrespect to Lars, because Lars is great and he's a very nice guy, but he needs to spend a week at my house and we need to sit down and play. I could show him — 'No, Lars, like this!'… 'Let's chill, let's relax, have some coffee and let's play!' [Laughs]"
A few months later, Lombardo was asked by Noisecreep if Ulrich had ever accepted his offer of drum lessons. "Oh man, no, he hasn't," Lombardo said laughing. "Yeah, but that was all done as a joke. It's just me having fun."
Lombardo added: "Of course someone ask[ed] me about Download festival. It's like, 'Yeah, show him how it's done.' [But] I don't need to show him, he's amazing, but there's always that kind of rivalry, that fun rivalry."
In a 2005 interview Ulrich stated about his non-appearance at the 2004 Download: "It was the first-ever METALLICA gig I'd ever missed."
He continued: "You wanna try laying in a hospital in Germany while Dave Lombardo — the greatest drummer on the planet — is playing with your band. That's not easy."
Photo credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva
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19 мар 2025
GUNS N' ROSES Parts Ways With Longtime Drummer FRANK FERRER
 GUNS N' ROSES has announced the amicable exit of Frank Ferrer, the longest-serving drummer in the band's storied run. The Axl Rose-fronted outfit thanks Frank for his friendship, creativity, and sturdy presence over the past 19 years, and they wish him success in the next chapter of his musical journey.
Frank first joined GUNS N' ROSES during a show in June 2006, helping anchor the rhythm section during subsequent tours, including their recent outings featuring the reunited trio of Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan. Ferrer's last show with the band took place November 5, 2023 in Mexico.
During a May 2020 appearance on the "Appetite For Distortion" podcast, Ferrer was asked to name "the most challenging song to play" in GUNS N' ROSES' live set. He responded: "That's a really good question, because there's three eras in GUNS — there's the 'Appetite [For Destruction]' [era] with Steven [Adler], there's the '[Use Your] Illusion' [period] with Matt [Sorum], and then there's the Brain [Bryan Mantia]- Josh Freese 'Chinese Democracy' [era]. And all three eras are really unique. The 'Appetite' songs don't sound like the 'Illusion' songs — they don't have the same feel. So, the toughest part… I mean, in a weird way, it's almost kind of like all of 'em, especially from the Sorum-Adler era. And what I try to do as a groove drummer is try to sit somewhere in between both drummers, so you still have a punk rocky, off-the-rails kind of feel, but then a nice, solid, dependable foundation, like Sorum gives you. So, it's kind of challenging. Now, the 'Chinese Democracy' stuff is more straight ahead. The challenges I have with that is playing it more like Brain played them, even though I was able to add some stuff myself later on, once I joined the band."
He continued: "The toughest part is finding the right groove in between those two eras — the first two eras — I think. And I think especially with Slash [guitar] and Duff [McKagan, bass] in the band now, because it was their era — they wrote that stuff; it's their music — I'm able to find a nice spot where those guys are really comfortable playing the songs, but I'm also comfortable playing from my heart without being cerebral and having to think too much about the parts. So, I would say somewhere in between those two drummers."
Ferrer joined GUNS N' ROSES in 2006 as a temporary fill-in for Mantia. Before he knew it, Ferrer was a permanent member of GN'R, contributing to five songs on the "Chinese Democracy" album.
When not touring with GN'R, Ferrer played with a couple of side projects, THE COMPULSIONS and his personal band PISSER.
In 2016, Ferrer spoke to Music Radar about his approach to playing some of GUNS N' ROSES' classic songs. He said: "I really try to keep the spirit of the way the song was played. When we play the 'Appetite…' stuff, I try to have the push and pulls. Steven's [Adler] punk rock bits are great.
"Adler's playing was one of the greatest rock drumming performances in the history of music," he continued. "You can put it in the top ten. His playing on 'Appetite…' is perfect. Then with [Matt] Sorum, it's a little more tight and more reserved kind of playing. I do try to keep that spirit, though.
"I have tremendous respect for the drummers in GUNS N' ROSES. I love Brain [Bryan Mantia] so much. What Brain told me was to try and make the songs my own. I never forget that. Obviously my own personality comes through, especially on some of the funkier stuff. I might give a more New York hip-hop kind of feel to it."
Photo credit: GUNS N' ROSES (courtesy of The Oriel Company)
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19 мар 2025
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19 мар 2025
RICHIE KOTZEN On 'Rewarding' Musical Partnership With ADRIAN SMITH: 'It's A Creative Conversation'
 After their March 5 acoustic performance at Los Angeles's Grammy Museum, SMITH/KOTZEN principals Richie Kotzen and Adrian Smith were interviewed by FOZZY frontman and professional wrestler Chris Jericho. Some excerpts appear below.
On the origins of SMITH/KOTZEN:
Adrian: "I always feel weird saying this, but actually, my wife met Richie in a bar. It was perfectly innocent, Richie assures me. She was a fan of his music. I'd heard [his] album 'Mother's Head Family Reunion'. I thought it was fantastic, but it was quite a few years ago, and he'd sort of dropped off our radar. Then my wife said, 'Have you seen what Richie's doing lately?', and I checked it out. It was fantastic. I moved to L.A. part-time about 15 years ago, and almost 10 years ago, Richie and I became friends. We used to jam at my house — in a little room, we'd play BAD COMPANY, Stevie Ray [Vaughan], anything just for a laugh. And then my missus said, 'Why don't you guys write together?' I wouldn't have thought that – I mean, this guy does it all, but the combination is unusual. But it works. I'm happy to be involved in it. It's been very productive. We write very easily — the writing, it just flows. [We want to] keep this music alive."
On their shared influences:
Adrian: "In the early '70s, in my mid-teens, I was really open to this music I discovered — DEEP PURPLE, HUMBLE PIE, [and] later on, FREE, BAD COMPANY. That's music I grew up with, and it stays in your blood. It makes such an incredible impression on you when you're a kid — you hear it, and it just knocks you sideways. Having said that, Richie's got his own influences... but we take that basic sort of spirit, and then make it into a song that you can remember, not just a riff played over and over again. You try make a song out of it that's got some substance."
Richie: "I think that's what connects [us] — Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, HUMBLE PIE, FREE, BAD COMPANY, Paul Rodgers, early Rod Stewart. Personally, I kind of delve a little into the jazz/fusion world — I played with Stanley Clarke for a while, and I'm a big fan of that style. George Benson was my first concert I ever saw, and that floored me. To me, he's the greatest guitar player ever. Shortly after that, I saw Stevie Wonder… that had a big impact on me. Then on the other side of the coin, when I was very young, [I discovered] IRON MAIDEN… Every morning before school when I was little, 'Woe to you…' [the intro of 'The Number Of The Beast'] would echo throughout the house as I got dressed."
On whether it's unusual for Kotzen to share the spotlight with another guitarist:
Richie: "It's a nice departure. It's like, you take a break from yourself, and it's nice to kind of lay back and support someone singing. I come from the school as a musician that if there's vocals [and] if there's singing, everything is designed and built to support the singer, the vocal. That's the focal point. If there's no singer, if it's instrumental music, then everything is built and designed to support either the soloist or saxophone or whatever it is, or the melody. In this instance, I kind of adopt that philosophy — to support Adrian when he's singing [and] make sure whatever I'm doing complements what he's doing, and if he's going to take a solo, the key to it is to listen. A lot of times, what happens with a lot of rock musicians, they get on stage and figure, 'Well, I'm just gonna do me, and I'm going to just play all this shit that I learned how to play. I'm going to fit it in where I can,' and that's not real musical. We both listen to each other, [and] we respond as a conversation. It's a creative conversation, and it's very rewarding…
"I have a lot more experience playing in a trio. I'm very comfortable with it. The dynamic of the improvisation element is what attracts me to it, because it's easy for three guys to kind of play off of each other and create on the spot, so the music kind of reflects that. [SMITH/KOTZEN] is different, because in a sense there's more structure. [Adrian] and I work out a lot of things that we're going to play together and how we fit together. It's hard to compare and contrast, because it really is two different animals. It's two different hats. But I love what we're doing, so I don't want to compare one to the other. They're different – not better or worse, just different."
On how making SMITH/KOTZEN albums differs from making albums with IRON MAIDEN:
Adrian: "MAIDEN these days, we record live in the studio. We don't even rehearse – someone brings a song in; we play it a few times; and the producer goes, 'I think I've got that.' With Richie, we sit down, the two of us, in a room. There's no producer – there's nobody, just us. And we build the song from scratch, from a demo usually – and we just build it, and build it, and build it until that will turn into the master that you hear, but it started life as something on one of our hard drives. It's great – you can go at your own pace. I think for this [new] album, we wrote six songs two years ago, then we had a break because we were busy, and then we came back and said, 'Well, what do we need? We need a fast one; we need a ballad.' And then we just finished it off."
On whether they scaled down their expectations when launching a side project together:
Adrian: "I didn't really think beyond just doing it for the satisfaction of doing it, although as it sort of developed, I thought, 'Well, maybe this has got some legs.' I've done a lot of stuff in the past, and I just haven't really followed through with it as strongly as I should have, but this one, I was so pleased with it, I thought, 'You should go get this out there. I think people would enjoy it.'
Richie: "I don't really think very much beyond what I'm working on in that moment. When Adrian and I were writing together, I didn't have any kind of expectations beyond, like, 'Let's just finish the song that we're working on,' and once we had a collection of songs that we liked, it became, 'Wow, let's release it – let's make a record.' I don't really step outside myself and analyze too much, like, 'Oh, I'm playing for 200 people,' or, 'I'm playing for a thousand people,' or this or that – I do the music because I love making music, so that's the only real thing I focus on, and if there's a gig to be done, to make sure I'm prepared."
SMITH/KOTZEN's second album, "Black Light/White Noise", will be released via BMG on April 4.
Photo credit: Piper Ferguson | +2 | |
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19 мар 2025
DON AIREY: 'Guitar Players Are Very Strange People; They're Very Insecure'
 In a new interview with Rock 'N' Roll Grad School, Don Airey, who has played with countless hard rock greats, including BLACK SABBATH, JUDAS PRIEST, OZZY OSBOURNE, DEEP PURPLE and WHITESNAKE, spoke about a keyboardist's role in a rock band, particularly when it comes to collaborating with legendary guitar players like Ritchie Blackmore, Gary Moore and Randy Rhoads. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Part of the job of being a keyboard player is you provide the backing, especially in rock, to the guitar player. Now guitar players are very strange people; they're very insecure. The more talented they are, the more eccentric and unsure of themselves [they are], 'cause they don't really know how they do what they do."
Don continued: "I remember a story about Randy California, who was in a band with [Jimi] Hendrix early on, and he said, 'Jimi, how are you getting those sounds?' And Jimi went, 'I don't know, man.' He just didn't know. When you're a keyboard player, you do know how you do it. So you've just gotta take charge of the situation, to a certain extent, without letting the guitar player know and just make him feel comfortable. And that's part of the thing.
"I'm very proud of some of the backing tracks I've done, to Ritchie and to Randy and Gary Moore especially," Airey added. "I think I really helped Gary to just be happy with what he was doing, because I went, 'Well, this is how we do it. How about doing something different at the end?' You've just gotta collaborate with them and hope that the magic happens, and it usually always does."
When one of the interviewers noted that being a keyboardist also means, in some ways, learning how to be a band leader, Don, who is currently promoting his new solo album "Pushed To The Edge", said: "There's two arts of leading. You can lead from behind, which is what I do, say, in a group situation like RAINBOW or something, or even with PURPLE; you've just got to be at the back, but trying to push things forward. But with this situation, with 'Pushed To The Edge', I really was leading the charge and just trying to get the best out of people. That's what you hope for.
"You can't tell people what to do; you just have to provide the milieu which sparks something in them — and in yourself as well, you hope. [Laughs] Most of all."
"Pushed To The Edge" will be released on March 28 via earMUSIC.
As one of the most recorded keyboardists of all time, with over 300 albums featuring his unmistakable sound, Airey's skills have been valued by nearly every rock 'n' roll superstar. The list includes legendary artists and bands such as Ozzy Osbourne, RAINBOW, WHITESNAKE, JUDAS PRIEST, Gary Moore, Brian May, JETHRO TULL, BLACK SABBATH, and, of course, DEEP PURPLE, the band Airey has been a full-time member of for over 20 years. After last year's success, when DEEP PURPLE secured their fourth consecutive No. 1 album with "=1" and a subsequent global tour, Airey kicks off 2025 with the same energy in his solo work.
Joining Airey on the new album is an all-star lineup featuring Carl Sentance (NAZARETH) and Mitchell Emms ("The Voice UK") on vocals, DEEP PURPLE guitarist Simon McBride, drummer Jon Finnigan, and bassist Dave Marks. Produced in the finest hard rock tradition, "Pushed To The Edge" is a raw gem — crafted without tricks or shortcuts, staying true to the pure musicianship of world-class artists.
Last September, Airey told Roppongi Rocks' Stefan Nilsson about his plans to release a new solo album: "Well, I've always kept the solo… I had my own band. That's how we found Simon, 'cause Simon became part of my band, and a very big part of it. We started writing together, and it was a very good partnership. And I always had it in my head, 'If Steve [Morse, former DEEP PURPLE guitarist] decides to leave PURPLE, we won't have to look very far for someone.'"
Photo credit: Franz Schepers
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19 мар 2025
BUCKCHERRY Shares Music Video For Title Track Of Upcoming Album 'Roar Like Thunder'
 California rock veterans BUCKCHERRY will release their eleventh album, "Roar Like Thunder", on June 13. The official music video for the LP's title track was filmed in Los Angeles by director Tom Flynn and 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 | +1 | |
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19 мар 2025
Watch CHRIS HOLMES Perform W.A.S.P. Classics On 2025 'Monsters Of Rock' Cruise
 Fan-filmed video of former W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes and his solo band performing aboard this year's Monsters Of Rock cruise can be seen below.
In a February 2025 interview with Canada's The Metal Voice, Holmes was asked what it has been like for him to perform an all-W.A.S.P. setlist at some of his recent solo shows. He said: "Before, like years ago or whatever, last year and previous time, I hated it. I didn't like it. But now — I played, a few months ago, a place called the Patriot [in Crumlin, Wales], and it was sold out, and we played all W.A.S.P., and it was a kickass show."
He continued: "I had a part in writing every song that we play. I'm not playing something that I didn't help write. I know my name's not on a lot of the writing credits, but that's the way it is. I helped write them. I don't care what people say, blah blah blah. And I just want everybody to know I'm not out to try to sound better than W.A.S.P. or Blackie [Lawless, W.A.S.P. mainman] or whatever; I'm not out to try to do better. I'm just there to play Chris Holmes, what I do, and have people enjoy it. That's all. I'm not trying to be better.
"You get on the Internet, everybody's comparing everything… Hey, go eff yourself, whoever says that crap," Chris added. "I'm tired of it. I just like playing stuff that I play for me, for the people that enjoy it. I'm not trying to be better. But anyway, I enjoy playing the W.A.S.P. stuff. I enjoy it."
Asked what he thought of Blackie and the rest of the current W.A.S.P. lineup going out and playing the band's first album in its entirety on a recent U.S. tour, Chris said: "I could care less what he does. I used to bitch about not getting my publishing [royalties for the early W.A.S.P. albums], this and that. Hey, I let it go. I don't care. I could care less. I don't even wanna hear his name. I don't care what he does. He's over. I don't deal with anybody with that crap. I'm playing Chris Holmes.
"Yeah, he goes out and plays that because he's got to," Chris added. "Nobody's gonna go see Blackie Lawless; they're gonna see W.A.S.P. If he went out as Blackie Lawless, you think people would go see it?
"Whatever," Holmes added. "I don't wanna even talk about the guy. I'd rather talk about what I'm doing. To me, that whole thing's a joke. A joke. It's show business. Show business. My thing's music. I like the music. Whatever I do, none of it's gonna be fake. It can't. I'm not a fake type of person. I hate it. I don't like — whatever they call, the sampling; some people call it backing tracks, karaoke sampling. I don't know."
In a September 2024 interview with Cassius Morris, Blackie was asked if he has seen Chris's documentary film "Mean Man: The Story Of Chris Holmes", written and directed by French filmmakers Antoine De Montremy and Laurent Hart. The project, which was made available on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD in January 2021, was born in 2014 after De Montremy and Hart had an opportunity to meet and direct Holmes in a music video for the Holmes-penned song "Let It Roar" in Cannes. At that time, the now-66-year-old rocker had more or less disappeared from the music scene, leaving his home in the U.S. to seek a new beginning with his wife Sarah in France.
Blackie said about "Mean Man": "I have no desire to see anything that has to do with that. First of all, you wanna base anything you're gonna do in life on truth. And you know what? It may be his truth, but your truth doesn't necessarily make it fact. Anybody can have their own truth, but that doesn't make it real. And when somebody's spewing a bunch of hate because they can't create on their own… Listen, if the guy had genuine creativity, he wouldn't give two hoots about what I do. So, that's the yardstick on how you judge those things. And if somebody's coming from a perspective where they're not telling the truth, I'm not gonna waste my time on that."
Asked if that was the reason that he didn't participate in the documentary, Blackie said: "Well, I don't recall being invited, but if I would have, I wouldn't have done it. Like I said, I've got no desire to do something… I mean, if it's based on truth, then I might have taken a look at it. But for a guy to do a tutorial for an hour, or however long it was, to sit and give just their side of the story that's not based on truth, why do I wanna be part of that?"
Blackie also once again dismissed the possibility of a reunion of W.A.S.P.'s original lineup — Lawless, Holmes, guitarist Randy Piper and drummer Tony Richards — for the tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of W.A.S.P.'s first album. He said: "Allow me to be unapologetic for just a moment. The band that I have now… Mike Duda is one of the best bass players in the world. Doug Blair is one of the best lead guitar players in the world. Aquiles Priester, his drumming speaks for itself. I'm fortunate enough to be in a band with world-class musicians, the guys that are way better than me. And I look around sometimes during the show at I think to myself, 'Wow, I get to play with these guys.' And I'm being honest here — they're far better than me. So why would I wanna go back to something that would be taking a step backwards?"
Lawless continued: "I understand that the hardcore fanbase likes to romance ideas in their heads. I totally get that. But when we started doing [W.A.S.P.'s fourth studio album, 1989's] '[The] Headless [Children]', I was moving in directions that required musicianship that the original band could not do. I don't mean to be overly hard. It's just, again, these are just facts. If you want to do stuff where the degree of difficulty is up there, then you're gonna have guys that can play it and play it consistently. And then by the time 'Headless' was done and I moved into [1992's] 'The Crimson Idol', forget it. I mean, look at who played on that record. Your average run-of-the-mill musician is not gonna be able to do that. And again, I was privileged to work with guys that were world-class musicians. So if you're gonna get that level of creativity, professionalism, it's almost impossible to duplicate in an original situation. If that band grows together, then yes, you could. But if the band does not grow together, then it's never gonna happen. And it doesn't matter whether it's us or what band it is, that's gonna be the same every time."
Lawless also addressed the perception that W.A.S.P. is essentially his solo project, with hired guns helping him achieve his vision. He said: "No man's an island — no man. And I have gone to great lengths to speak out about the guys that are in this band to make sure that the world knows who they are. At no point have I ever wanted this to be just my situation.
"I grew up playing sports," he explained. "To me, team is everything. And I'm much more happy and comfortable, relaxed, it's a much more enjoyable situation in a team surrounding. So that's always been the thing that I focused on the most. What the world sees is when they look at the records, they see me as the primary songwriter. So I think that that's a lot of where they get that from. But when it comes to making those records, you see that I don't play all those instruments. I do what I do, but those other guys, they're doing their fair share of contributing to making those records what they are."
Holmes joined W.A.S.P. in 1982 and remained with the group until 1990. In 1996, the guitarist returned to W.A.S.P. and stayed with the band until 2001. Chris has not played with W.A.S.P. since.
Back in January 2021, Holmes was asked by Cassius Morris if he had approached Lawless about participating in the making of "Mean Man: The Story Of Chris Holmes". Chris said: "I didn't, but Antoine did, and he said [Blackie] didn't have the time to do it."
Explaining that his relationship with Blackie is "over" and calling Lawless a "narcissist," Chris said: "When I left [W.A.S.P. for the final time] — or I really never left. [Blackie] just got another guitar player. They never even told me [I was out]. I found out that they were doing shows [without me]. So, I was, like, 'Wow. I must be out.' He never called me. Since then, I've dug in and found out some shitty stuff, what happened to me, and he knows that I know that, and he probably will never wanna talk to me ever again."
In October 2020, Chris said that he would never consider returning to W.A.S.P. unless Lawless agreed to pay him the publishing royalties that he allegedly owes him. He told Canada's The Metal Voice: "A lot of people think I made money from W.A.S.P. I've never gotten my royalties, or even my songwriting. All the stuff that I wrote, I've never gotten paid one penny. And you know whose fault it is? It's my my fault for not knowing the business, how it is. I trusted somebody.
"After every album, when the album is done, how they split up the publishing with the publishing contracts, the publishing companies — that's where the money comes from," he continued. "I was never told about when that meeting was. Because the other guys in the band never wrote — I was the only one [other than Blackie]. So I'm the only one that they have to screw over to get all the publishing. So I was never told. Then when I dug into it in about 2006 or [2007], I went into Sanctuary Music, had a lawyer go in to find out where all my publishing is, and I was written in as a session player into all the records. And if you don't know about it, and you're not told, and you don't see, you don't know. So I trusted Blackie Lawless about that. And when I found out, it really kind of yanked me wrong. It yanks me wrong — it makes me see he was sticking a knife in my back from the first day, from the first album, and not telling me, and being my best friend."
As far as Holmes is concerned, Lawless is solely to blame for him not getting his due from the W.A.S.P. records that he was involved with.
"If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be where he's at — I guarantee you that," Chris said. "And then he screws me like that. It's all right. It's been a long time. It's something that I will never, never get over. I'll take that to the grave with me. I'm pissed thinking about it.
"Anyway, that's the kind of person he is. Everybody thinks, 'Wow! He's got the greatest…' Yeah, he's got an outrageous voice, Blackie, yeah, but he turns his back on his bandmembers real bad — he screws 'em. I'm the only guy in the band that ever came back to get screwed twice, which I did. I came back for 'Kill.Fuck.Die', and I was promised half publishing on that album. Didn't get crap. Knowing that I couldn't get in to see what was written in the contracts, of course. That's why I wrote the song 'Two Faced Mother Fucker'. It's about him. It's on 'Shitting Bricks'. And I've got one on the new album. It's called 'The Truth'. It says, 'You can't handle the truth.' It's on my new [album]. I'm gonna write a song about him on every album."
Addressing the possibility of his return to W.A.S.P., Holmes said: "Everybody asks me about a W.A.S.P. reunion. Sure, I'd love to play a W.A.S.P. reunion — if he pays me my publishing. If it doesn't, then he can have a reunion with Randy Piper, Johnny Rod and [Steve] Riley and everybody else. I'm not gonna play it. It's not worth it.
"I came back to W.A.S.P. in '95. I got screwed again," he added. "Screw me once, screw me twice — you're not gonna screw me a third time."
During a November 2017 press conference in Moscow, Russia, Lawless was asked what he would say to those W.A.S.P. fans who continue to call for the band to reunite with Holmes. He responded: "People get divorced for certain reasons, and there's times when the kids want the parents to get back together, but sometimes it never happens. And this is one of those [times]. Sorry." | +3 | |
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Karg
