After being forced to cancel its world tour and delay a highly anticipated album, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame band BON JOVI announced today that the LP, "2020", has officially been set for release on October 2, 2020 on Island Records. The band also released a new single, "Do What You Can", available everywhere now.
Originally set for release on May 15, "2020" was a completed album with a breadth and depth of songwriting, titled for a challenging and pivotal election year. Along with all of America, Jon Bon Jovi found himself unexpectedly experiencing a world-altering coronavirus pandemic, followed quickly by the staggering events of George Floyd's death and the ensuing national movement for racial equality. He knew there was even more to say about 2020. Writing from a home studio, two new songs were born: "American Reckoning" and "Do What You Can" encompass these events and made the album a complete body of work.
"I am a witness to history," said Jon Bon Jovi. "I believe the greatest gift of an artist is the ability to use their voice to speak to issues that move us."
Well known for his extensive philanthropic work, Jon spent the initial quarantine days and weeks helping feed those in need at his JBJ Soul Kitchen Community Restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey. Calling himself the "hall-of-fame dishwasher" at the restaurant, Jon was captured by his wife Dorothea in a photo, which was later posted to social media with the caption "If You Can't Do What You Do… Do What You Can." The songwriter's mind immediately went into action and a complete song was created the next day. In the spirit of togetherness that embodied the early days of quarantine, instead of releasing the complete song, Jon asked fans to "write their verse" and tell their story. Jon sang the first verse and chorus and went on to receive thousands of fan-created verses, both heartbreaking and heartwarming, in a flood of responses across band socials with the #DoWhatYouCan hashtag.
"No band has stirred more empathy, articulated the feelings of uncertainty, and comforted fans with reassurance than the Jersey rockers in the first weeks of the outbreak," USA Today said of the storied band's impact during those historic weeks.
The final version of "Do What You Can", written by Jon Bon Jovi, was performed acoustically for the first time on the star-studded Jersey4Jersey benefit special, raising $6 million for the state which was hard hit during the pandemic. In the weeks that followed, the full band was able to record the song in the studio and add it to the forthcoming album.
"2020" track listing with songwriter credits:
01. Limitless (Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Falcon, John Shanks)
02. Do What You Can (Jon Bon Jovi)
03. American Reckoning (Jon Bon Jovi)
04. Beautiful Drug (Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Falcon, John Shanks)
05. Story Of Love (Jon Bon Jovi)
06. Let It Rain (Jon Bon Jovi)
07. Lower The Flag (Jon Bon Jovi)
08. Blood In The Water (Jon Bon Jovi)
09. Brothers In Arms (Jon Bon Jovi)
10. Unbroken (Jon Bon Jovi)
Sure, "2020" is filled with fist in the air anthems and ballads that have rocked stadiums for the last 35 years. However, "2020" bears witness to the events that are shaping the world today.
Jon Bon Jovi delves into socially conscious matters such as soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder ("Unbroken", featured in the documentary "To Be Of Service"), gun violence ("Lower The Flag"), our shared social experience ("Let It Rain", "Brothers In Arms") and the political climate ("Blood In The Water").
The album — which follows the band's 2016 No. 1 release, "This House is Not For Sale" — also finds the group coming out of the other side of a period of great change.
Once again co-produced by John Shanks and Jon Bon Jovi, the record features the entire touring band — keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, bassist Hugh McDonald, guitarist Phil X, percussionist Everett Bradley, and guitarist John Shanks.
"I have a very clear vision of who and what the band is, and what this record was meant to be," said Bon Jovi.
The title, an allusion to the forthcoming presidential election year, features Jon on the album cover standing in front of the New York City courthouse in sunglasses, with an image of the American flag waving inside the frames. The imagery was inspired by a photograph of President John F. Kennedy, deep in thought before addressing a crowd.
"It's not a distinctly political record, but it's an election year so there is a wryness in the title 2020. This record had to encompass different themes, not just politics, but the state of our world today, life, love and loss," said Bon Jovi.
"2020" starts with a clear perspective, launching with the first explosive rock song "Beautiful Drug". Enveloped by crunchy guitars, Jon asks the listener to "hear my confession, it's a blessing/ it's a curse," but ultimately surmises, "love is a beautiful drug."
The band makes its mission statement extremely clear with the lead single, "Limitless", an upbeat anthem encouraging optimism in an uncertain world. The listener is implored to seize the day, as everyone is "trying to keep your head above water," and don't be afraid to go through that open door, because "life is limitless."
Jon pulls the listener closer for a real conversation with "Unbroken", written for the documentary "To Be Of Service". Jon sings of a soldier's journey through training, war and returning home with "dreams the devil shouldn't see", asking the eternal question "was it worth it to be of service in the end?" "It was a difficult song to write because I had never served and I wanted to honor those who served in a very honest way," Jon said. "I wanted to write something those men and women could be proud of. I was looking for a twist in the lyrics where the soldier who is an idealist, comes back and finds that once they hang up the uniform, the thing that they're so identified by is no longer what identifies them. These men and women come back and have to adjust to being a civilian. They are certainly never going to be the same. I wrote the song and at the very end, I was moved when the soldiers in the film said 'I'd do it again'."
"Luv Can" is a simple prayer, with Jon singing "I wish I could fill your empty/right that wrong/make it fair." While the song on the surface could be taken as romantic love, Jon explains the context as "more spiritual." There's a religious undercurrent here. It doesn't have to just be a relationship. It really can be your Creator." The song ends on a hopeful note, that "luv will let you live again."
That quiet reflection is shaken up with the next track, "Brothers In Arms", which opens with a swampy riff and lyrics of social relevance and a not-so-subtle reference to NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, with Jon singing "don't you step out of line/don't re-write or define/ what it means to see a man take a knee." The song came to Jon while in Alabama during football season, and the lyrics started pouring out. "where's my better days? where's my Jesus saves?" "We all have this shared social experience called America. Who is going to finally bring this nation, to a place where we can all be brothers and sisters? That's what I was thinking when I wrote the song."
"The Story Of Love" touches on the theme of parenthood, opening with the lines "Fathers love daughters like mother love sons." That touching lyric was inspired by Jon's own family. " I sat down to write a song for my children." The song takes a journey through the circle of life, where suddenly the child becomes the parents and the parents are getting older "I realized I was writing it about my entire family, my children, my wife and my parents. From Hello to Goodbye, that's the story of love.
With that beautiful family portrait in mind, Jon then forces the question: what if that family were ripped apart by senseless tragedy? That nightmarish scenario is at the heart of the haunting track "Lower The Flag". The song opens solemnly, "Word just came from Upstate Joe/Lower the flag again/this time it's Dayton, Southwest Ohio/ Last night El Paso, Texas, counted 22 dead." The lyrics then lament that the news cycle will move on before there is even time to grieve, while the narrator questions "what if it was your loved one lying in the ground?" The song simply features Jon on guitar and concludes with the narrator reciting the names of cities caught in the crossfire, including Las Vegas, Nevada, Sandy Hook Elementary, Orlando, Florida, and Columbine. I was thinking, what if it was my own family? Imagine the pain you would feel if it was your wife, your kids, your husband."
With that, Bon Jovi calls for a cleansing of the spirit with "Let It Rain", asking "who is going to stop the rain from falling down?" and reminding us that "wherever there is hurting/ there is healing on the way/like sunshine breaking through a cloudy day." The last verse — "somewhere there's a church bell/ that's summoning the choir/somewhere there's a dreamer who would walk 1,000 miles" is a throwback to the "Young Guns" era. "I hadn't written anything like that in a long time. I like it because of the social justice of it, and taking a stand and saying let's purge ourselves of all of the hurt and hate and division, but who's going to be the one to stop it? Who's going to be the ones that unify us? So, let it rain and let's let the sun shine through."
When those clouds dissipate and the stars come out, the band returns to the personal with "Shine", the penultimate track on the record. A classic BON JOVI love song, it sweetly states "nothing lights up my sky like watching you shine." "You can think of it as your significant other or a child that's grown up in front of you," Jon says of the song.
The album closer, "Blood In The Water", was written in 2018, highlighting the gravity of the lyric "I'm no cable news reporter/ they got nothing new to say/I'm the voice of the new order/ the star of Anarchy today. I'm the comments you keep reading/ at the bottom off the page/I'm real power/I'm a Patriot/I'm a Russian hack by trade."
Over an illustrious career spanning more than three decades since its formation in 1983, BON JOVI has earned their place among global rock royalty and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as well as the Songwriters Hall Of Fame. With over 130 million albums sold worldwide, and extensive catalog of hit anthems, thousands of concerts performed in more than 50 countries for more than 35 million fans, and ticket grosses well over $1 billion around the world in the last decade alone, BON JOVI is the consummate rock and roll band.
German extreme metal band, Scorged, have released a music video for the new single "Black Crowned Enemy", the track is taken from their self-titled debut album, which will be released on September 25th, 2020 via El Puerto Records.
The video, in which singer Denis Horbach took over the reins from the start, shows impressively what can be expected from the upcoming album.
With ten songs and a total playing time of 44:53 minutes, they “ruffle and punch” ears, which are definitely used to harder things. It is to be hoped that the band will soon be able to show this live again.
Towards the end of the year 2016, the five-member formation rises out of pure animosity. Their music is based on a mixture of extreme metal subgenres and stands out with its bone-shaking aggressiveness and high-speed riffing combined with catchy groove parts. Every song has its own identity and great recognition value – not least because of the very intense and demonic vocals, a drilling guitar sound in addition to striking rhythms and ruthless drum fills. The lyrics deal with very personal experiences, social criticism as well as personal strength and they are performed with a great deal of authenticity and showmanship. It will be exciting to see where the journey is heading.
After 24 months of hard song writing, studio drudgery and a few concerts, an album is created which brings ten massive brutal songs and it is more than ready for the crowd. At the beginning of 2020 Scorged enter the port of the renowned record label El Puerto Records and look forward to future collaboration with the entire team.
New Jersey-based rock n' roll trio The Atomic Bitchwax released their new studio album, Scorpio, on August 28 via Tee Pee Records. The group, which originally formed in the mid-90s, consists of lead vocalist / bassist Chris Kosnik, drummer Bob Pantella, and guitarist Garrett Sweeny, all of whom are past or present members of the band Monster Magnet. Scorpio is the follow up to the group's 2017 full-length Force Field, and their eighth studio LP overall spanning more than two decades.
Order Scorpio here. Alongside the release of the album, The Atomic Bitchwax has dropped a video for the song "Easy Action".
Scorpio acknowledges the two-decades milestone in its opening revamp of the first song the band ever wrote with vocals, “Hope You Die,” the crash-in of which will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s seen them live. A generation later, it still gets the message across.
From then on, it’s all-go on nine fresh-made burners, founding bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik, guitarist Garrett Sweeny, and drummer Bob Pantella toying with tempo subtly to lace songs like “Betting Man” and “Easy Action” and “Energy” with signature-style memorable hooks amid instrumentals “Ninja,” “Crash” and “Instant Death,” the head-spinning turns of which push ahead in the aggressive stance The Bitchwax began to present in 2015’s Gravitron while still remaining imbued with new character and the loyalty to classic heavy rock that underlies all their work.
Tracked in January 2020 at Sound Spa in Edison, NJ, with Stephen DeAcutis engineering, Scorpio is a righteous next stage of the momentum The Atomic Bitchwax have been building through hard touring and release after release of gauntlet-throwing-down rock and roll. This is a band that never stops moving, and only ever moves forward.
Swedish veteran metallers IN FLAMES have released a special 20th-anniversary edition of their seminal, critically acclaimed album "Clayman".
"Clayman 20th Anniversary Edition" comes entirely remastered by Ted Jensen (PANTERA, DEFTONES, GOJIRA) and features all-new artwork in a 16-page booklet, a brand-new instrumental medley plus four re-recorded versions of fan favorites such as "Only For The Weak" and "Pinball Map". Re-recorded songs were produced by Howard Benson (MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, MOTÖRHEAD) and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge (GREEN DAY, ROB ZOMBIE). The record will be released digitally as well as on CD digipak and a 2xLP colored vinyl packaged in a deluxe trifold that includes an oversized booklet, 11 remastered tracks on a 12-inch record and five bonus tracks on a 10-inch record in a printed sleeve.
Preceding the physical release of "Clayman 20th Anniversary Edition", IN FLAMES digitally released the "Clayman 2020 EP", which features the 2020 versions of "Only For The Weak", "Bullet Ride", "Pinball Map", "Clayman" and a new instrumental track, "Themes And Variations In D-Minor".
IN FLAMES has now unveiled a new music video for the re-recorded version of "Only For The Weak" which takes you through the evolution of IN FLAMES' career via live shows since the song's initial release. Check it out below.
Asked by Bandbond how IN FLAMES chose the songs to re-record for "Clayman 20th Anniversary Edition", guitarist Björn Gelotte said: "When we started thinking about this project, it was… There's a few ways you can do it — either you re-record the whole thing or you bring the old files back and remix them or you just remaster, or you do as we [did] — we picked the songs that we normally play live, or have played the last couple of years, 'cause they kind of fit into the live set that we have nowadays. So it was a matter of us picking a few, and then we just added and added, and it turned out to be, I think, four in the end, plus a little professional medley played by a real musician. [Laughs]
"We didn't wanna re-record the whole thing," he said. "I mean, it is what it is, especially at the time, and I think it sounds good the way it does."
Regarding what IN FLAMES did differently in the studio this time around, Björn said: "We've been working with Howard Benson and his team for two records now, so we kind of know each other pretty well. Technologies moved forward a lot. We saved a lot of time. We didn't have to go through 55 amps to find whatever we were looking for; we had sort of the sound in mind already. My guess is that we were way more efficient. And the songs were written, and that saves, obviously, a lot of time. We didn't wanna deviate too much from the original, but at the same time, we wanted to portray how they sound now, and also add a little bit something, just for fun."
Asked how the evolution of technology helped IN FLAMES in 2020 compared to the year 2000, Gelotte said: "Well, we used Pro Tools, I think, back then as well, so editing and cutting and all that stuff, it was pretty straightforward, pretty much as today. But I think soundwise, it's improved so much. Back then, I think we were still discussing if it was good enough or if we still wanted to do some stuff analog. I kind of like the new way of doing it, because it's really quick and it doesn't take away from the creative process, 'cause you don't have to sit and wait for shit to happen, and I like that. I'd rather be very inspired throughout the whole session than sit and wait for four hours between moving a mic, finding the right cab — all that stuff. So that has certainly improved. But there's something, obviously, if you wanna be romantic about it that a two-inch tape smells, feels and sounds a little bit different. The old desks and everything, they were actual desks — the sound went through it — not like today when they're basically big remote controls for the computer. I like the way you can really get the essence of what you wanna do and not be tired because of technical shit."
"Clayman 20th Anniversary Edition" track listing:
01. Bullet Ride
02. Pinball Map
03. Only For The Weak
04. …As The Future Repeats Today
05. Square Nothing
06. Clayman
07. Satellites and Astronauts
08. Brush The Dust Away
09. Swim
10. Suburban Me
11. Another Day In Quicksand
12. Themes and Variations in D-Minor (instrumental)
13. Only For The Weak (Re-recorded)
14. Bullet Ride (Re-recorded)
15. Pinball Map (Re-recorded)
16. Clayman (Re-recorded)
IN FLAMES' latest album, "I, The Mask", was released in March 2019 via Nuclear Blast (worldwide, excluding North America) and Eleven Seven Music (North America).
IN FLAMES guitarist Niclas Engelin has been sitting out the band's recent tour dates to focus on "personal matters." Filling in for him is former MEGADETH and current ACT OF DEFIANCE guitarist Chris Broderick.
Progressive metal act, Redemption, led by guitarist Nick van Dyk and fronted by legendary Tom S. Englund (the charismatic frontman of Swedish dark melodic metal band Evergrey), have released Alive In Color on Blu-Ray/2CD and DVD/2CD sets via AFM Records. An official live video for the song "The Suffocating Silence" can be seen below.
Co-headlining the ProgPower USA festival, Redemption's Alive In Color captures the perfect musicianship of all members in the band, making this concert a real treat for fans of progressive metal.
Intro / "Noonday Devil"
"The Suffocating Silence"
"The Echo Chamber"
"Damaged"
"Someone Else’s Problem"
"Little Men"
"Long Night’s Journey Into Day"
"Threads" (feat. Ray Alder)
"Black & White World"
"Indulge In Color" (feat. Chris Poland)
"Walls"
+ Extras
2CD tracklisting:
CD1:
Intro / "Noonday Devil"
"The Suffocating Silence"
"The Echo Chamber"
"Damaged"
"Someone Else’s Problem"
"Little Men"
"Long Night’s Journey Into Day"
CD2:
"Threads" (feat. Ray Alder)
"Black & White World"
"Indulge In Color" (feat. Chris Poland)
"Peace Sells (But Who’s Buying)" (feat. Chris Poland)
"Walls"
"Threads" (feat. Tom Englund)
"Indulge In Color" (Simone Mularoni Solo)
Neal Morse will release Sola Gratia, his new solo progressive rock concept album, on September 11. Originating from a seed planted in his mind about writing a record based on the apostle Paul, Sola Gratia quickly came together at the beginning of 2020. The album sees Neal working with long-time collaborators Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Gillette, Bill Hubauer and Gideon Klein.
Watch the lyric video for the third single, "Building A Wall", below.
Neal comments: “This song sounds like a political commentary, but really it is not. I wrote this thinking about the apostle Paul being at Stephen’s trial and also about the wall of separation at that time between the Jews and the Gentiles. Very biblical stuff. But, people can take it however they would like... My thought is that many times we humans desire to divide and separate, but God is looking to join all things together in one with him. How’s that for a quote for a rather heavy rock song! Oh, by the way… I played drums on this one! :-)“
The title Sola Gratia of course has echoes of Morse’s 2007 epic Sola Scriptura, about the life of Martin Luther, but was in fact originally the result of a simple marital misunderstanding: “I was talking to my wife Cherie about debuting this new piece at Morsefest 2020 (Morse’s annual fan convention in Nashville) and she said she thought it would be good for me to do a solo album. However, I thought she said ‘Sola album’ and – because some of the new ideas involved Paul’s aggressive pursuit of the early Christians, I could see a link to some of the themes of persecution in ‘Sola Scriptura’.”
The music was recorded “virtually” in April 2020 at the height of the Coronavirus lockdown with long term collaborators Mike Portnoy (drums) and Randy George (bass): “It’s the first album we have ever made remotely: I sent them the basic tracks and asked if they wanted to rearrange things, but they just said ‘No, it’s great!’, so they just played to it and sent their parts back over. It wasn’t an easy way to make an album, but creating always has its challenges, no matter how you do it.”
As Morse explains, it was this process that decided that Sola Gratia was to be a Neal Morse album, rather than being credited to The Neal Morse Band: “With the Neal Morse Band, the whole band works together on the writing, and while Eric Gillette plays some guitar and Bill Hubauer has added some keyboards on this one, neither of them wrote – or is singing – on this album.”
Sola Gratia will be released as a limited CD/DVD Digipak (featuring a ‘Making-Of’ documentary), Gatefold 2LP + CD, Standard CD Jewel Case and as a Digital Album. The cover art was created by another longtime collaborator, Thomas Ewerhard. Pre-order here.
Neal Morse will debut Sola Gratia live at his annual Morsefest convention on September 18 and 19, 2020. A very limited number of people will be able to attend in person, with the event also being streamed online. More details and tickets are available here.
Tracklisting:
“Preface”
“Overture”
“In The Name Of The Lord”
“Ballyhoo (The Chosen Ones)”
“March Of The Pharisees”
“Building A Wall”
“Sola Intermezzo”
“Overflow”
“Warmer Than The Sunshine”
“Never Change”
“Seemingly Sincere”
“The Light On The Road To Damascus”
“The Glory Of The Lord”
“Now I Can See/The Great Commission”
More video of Vic And The Rattleheads, aka Megadeth, performing at a secret show at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY on December 12, 2016, has been released. Watch the band perform "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", as well as the previously posted "Peace Sells", "Symphony Of Destruction", "Dystopia", "Sweating Bullets", "Tornado Of Souls", "Rattlehead" and “Hangar 18”, below:
Rust In Peace: The Inside Story Of The Megadeth Masterpiece, by Dave Mustaine with Joel Selvin, will be released on September 8. Pre-order in a variety of limited edition autographed bundles here, and watch a short video trailer below.
A new book by the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of Megadeth, the original lead guitarist of Metallica, and the author of the New York Times bestseller, Mustaine.
Rust In Peace: The Inside Story Of The Megadeth Masterpiece details the making of Megadeth’s iconic record, Rust In Peace, which was released in 1990, at an incredible time of flux and creativity in the rock world. Relayed by Dave Mustaine, the book covers the process of hiring the band and supporting cast, of trying to handle the ensuing success, and ultimately the pressure of fame and fortune - which caused the band to finally break-up. In short, it’s a true story of groundbreaking anti-pop that was moving toward the mainstream (or the mainstream that was moving toward the band), at a time of great cultural change, power, ego, drugs, and other vices that went hand-in-hand with rock n' roll, circa the late eighties-early nineties.
Little did Mustaine know that the birth pangs of the record were nothing compared to the oncoming pain and torment that would surround it. Alcohol, drugs, sex, money, power, property, prestige, the lies the band was told by the industry - and the lies they told each other - were just beginning, and much like rust in real life, these factors would ultimately eat away at the band’s bond until only the music survived.
Rust In Peace: The Inside Story Of The Megadeth Masterpiece is a story of perseverance, of scraping off the rust off that builds over time on everything: ourselves, our relationships, pop culture, art, and music.
Foreigner have released the video for "Headknocker", from their 2019 release, Double Vision: Then And Now, which was released on CD+DVD, Blu-Ray+CD, Limited 2LP+Blu-Ray, and Digital. Order the title here, and watch the video below.
Album tracklisting:
"Cold As Ice"
"Head Games"
"Waiting For A Girl Like You"
"Headknocker"
"The Flame Still Burns"
"Urgent"
"Juke Box Hero"
"Feels Like The First Time"
"Double Vision"
"Blue Morning, Blue Day"
"Long, Long Way From Home"
"Dirty White Boy"
"I Want To Know What Love Is"
"Hot Blooded"
DVD / Blu-Ray tracklisting:
"Cold As Ice"
"Head Games"
"Waiting For A Girl Like You"
"Headknocker"
"Say You Will"
"Urgent"
"Starrider"
"Juke Box Hero"
"Feels Like The First Time"
"Double Vision"
"Blue Morning, Blue Day"
"Long, Long Way From Home"
"Dirty White Boy"
"I Want To Know What Love Is"
"Hot Blooded"
Bonus:
"The Flame Still Burns"
"Fool For You Anyway"
"A Pair Of Questions", the new video from Greg Puciato, the wildly adaptive musician whose resume ranges from the unpredictable THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN to the pop-infused electro outfit THE BLACK QUEEN and the metal supergroup KILLER BE KILLED, can be seen below. The track is taken from Greg's debut solo album, "Child Soldier: Creator Of God", which will be released on October 23.
"I'd been writing for so many different projects, DILLINGER, then THE BLACK QUEEN, and KILLER BE KILLED...and I just kept on writing,” explains Puciato of the 15-song album that sees him singing and performing all instruments, save the drums. "It felt as if I had more to say, but nothing that necessarily filled the script of those bands, so I ended up with something that I found to be intensely personal and super satisfying, but also confusing as far as what to do with it. When I realized that it was a solo release, it was sort of an 'oh that's interesting' moment, both terrifying and exciting at once, and challenging, and new, and that combo is almost always a good sign, so I committed to it.
"It's important to continue taking risks in order to grow both your creativity and your future possibilities, to create new avenues and freedoms for yourself, and it also felt like a good time for me to integrate and own everything that I am into one thing, without fragmentation or limitation. I needed to come out from telling myself that I always have to be 'guy in a band,' and to release this as my own name."
"Child Soldier: Creator Of God" was recorded in Los Angeles from the halcyon days of 2019 throughout the early, tumultuous months of 2020. The album was produced by Nick Rowe (VAMPIRE WEEKEND, HAIM) and mixed by Steve Evetts (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, THE CURE). Participating drummers are Ben Koller, Chris Pennie and Chris Hornbrook.
Former MACHINE HEAD and current VIO-LENCE guitarist Phil Demmel has teamed up with singer Dino Jelusick (TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, DIRTY SHIRLEY, ANIMAL DRIVE), bassist Rudy Sarzo (QUIET RIOT, OZZY OSBOURNE, WHITESNAKE, THE GUESS WHO) and drummer Mike Portnoy (SONS OF APOLLO, THE WINERY DOGS, DREAM THEATER) to record a "quarantine" cover version of the OZZY OSBOURNE song "Revelation (Mother Earth)" as part of Phil's new series "Collab-A-Jam".
Phil uploaded the video to his YouTube channel, writing in an accompanying message: "This series wouldn't be complete without this song included. It's my favorite [Randy Rhoads]-era Ozzy song/solo so when Mike told me it was one of 3 songs on his 'to do' list, it was time to tackle this song. Dino and I had been waiting for a song to do with MP and since the BPMD record had come out and I wanted to wait a bit before doing another with him.
"This needs to be epic and although having Marta handle the piano/synth bells/vocoder parts was going to be legit, I wanted something filling more space and immediately asked Julie (who killed it on 'Falling' for us) to add as much as she wanted and see what she would come up with. Having these 2 on this song with their ideas and performance makes it incredible.
"We needed a Bass player and I shot for the moon. Rudy is the most professional, courteous, polite, capable and compassionate musician I've worked with and as he said 'of course, I'd be honored' I knew it was going to be special, in many ways.
"It's no secret Randy is my favorite musician. His passion for not only music but also for performing has struck something with me and I'm paying tribute in this way to maybe inspire others to follow his life's work.
"With some of my earlier Jams I recorded single/pass tracks, but with this one I wanted it to respect it as he would. 2 rhythm, 2 6-string acoustic, 2 solo, 1 12-string and 1 nylon-string tracks later, I hope you all enjoy what the 6 of us accomplished.
Rock powerhouse I PREVAIL has shared the impactful and topical video for its new single "Every Time You Leave", which is currently ascending the rock radio charts.
"Every Time You Leave" is I PREVAIL unlike you've ever heard them. The track demonstrates the band's songwriting prowess and shows a more contemplative side of their musical style. The video takes a close, hard and unsettling look at the difficulties and traumas faced by the people and the families who are on the frontlines of both sides of war.
Previously, I PREVAIL shared an intimate performance video of the song, which was recorded during quarantine. The song and video feature Juno-nominated Canadian vocalist Delaney Jane, showcasing the rich element of male-female vocal interplay that highlights the rawness of the heartfelt lyrics. Watch the stripped down and quietly powerful performance here.
I PREVAIL continues to grow at an exponential pace. The band has generated nearly 500 million streams on last year's sophomore blockbuster "Trauma". The group also received nominations for two Grammy Awards in 2020 — in the categories of "Best Rock Album" for "Trauma" and for "Best Metal Performance" for the single "Bow Down". The band's accomplishments have been lauded by mainstream media, including Variety, NPR, Psychology Today and SPIN.
ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS, the project led by FEAR FACTORY vocalist Burton C. Bell, will release its second full-length album, "Apocrypha", on October 9 via Dissonance Productions. The recording will be available on CD, two limited vinyl formats and through all major digital outlets.
The official music video for "Ghost Heart", the first single from "Apocrypha", can be seen below.
Comments Bell: "I am very proud to present the first single, 'Ghost Heart', from our latest recording, 'Apocrypha'. The song was recorded exactly the way I wanted it to sound; powerfully mysterious, which also describes the video created by Victor Hugo-Borge. A surreal landscape for the cinematic tones that is the moving track 'Ghost Heart'."
Born of life, love and spirituality, Bell's unmistakable, harmonious inventory once renowned in one of metal's finest pioneering acts has brought life to a new concept, a genre of its own.
Ambient atmospheres, melodies and introspective lyrics shed light of Bell's visions, as seen in their purest form. An intimate nature that ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS envisioned, to draw the minds, hearts and aspirations of a people to a higher level of thinking to a feeling with cohesive celebration and reflection in the beauty of existence.
In early 2002, Burton retreated to the quiet, simplicity of rural Pennsylvania for seven months with his friend and musical confidant John Bechdel, escaping the onslaught of Los Angeles, and industry alike. A mentor in music, philosophy and demeanour, Bechdel unwittingly guided Bell along the creative path of this new conceptual movement.
With Burton's unprecedented vocal sound and style, coupled with the brilliantly orchestrated musical compositions of both Bell and Bechdel (synonymous with pioneering tags to the industrial/metal genre), the pair began experimenting with textured melodies of melancholic tones, best attributed to the 1980s and 1990s underground scene. ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS echoes the sounds of a prophetic hallucination, fears and dreams with remorse of things lost and forgotten; but with a hope of redemption and light in the future.
In 2004, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS independently released "Iconoclast", printed only on CD and vinyl to a limited number.
In 2008, with the help John Bechdel and Paul Raven, Burton brought ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS to MINISTRY legend Al Jourgensen's label, 13th Planet. With the guidance and special collaborations with Jourgensen during the recording and mixing in El Paso, Texas, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS added the guitar talents of Eduardo Mussi. It also featured Paul Raven's last contribution as a bass player on the track "Mars Becoming".
That same year, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS' debut LP, "Numinosum", came out through 13th Planet. Upon release, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS performed special, intimate shows, including the album release performance at Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in New York. They also had the honor of supporting KILLING JOKE for their reunion tour in honor of their fallen friend, Paul Raven.
In 2017, the friendship between renowned U.K. solo artist Jayce Lewis and Burton brought in the essential camaraderie, talents and studio that perfectly suited the recording of "Apocrypha".
Northstone Studios, based in the countryside of South Wales, connected to the 250 year old Court Colman Manor, the studio built by Lewis's own hands using the ancient stones of the monastery that once stood there, the rustic detail proved a perfect setting for ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS' very own Jayce Lewis to record, produce and mix the "Apocrypha" album, a recording process that literally stirred the souls that remain within the stone walls of Lewis' Northstone Studios. During the vocal recordings of the title track, a recording was inadvertently captured from the aether; an eerie, unrecognizable and untranslatable, syllabic phrase whispered within the vocal booth. The event is now the intro to the title track, "Apocrypha".
In truth, the making of "Apocrypha" has been a decade-long journey of writing and recording, from California, Pennsylvania, New York and Wales. In 2018 the band decided to utilize the crowdfunding platform PledgeMusic to jumpstart the project. After a very successful campaign, raising 124% of their goal, PledgeMusic went into administration, eventually declaring bankruptcy. and in turn, would never release any of the funds dedicated to ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS. Nevertheless, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS persevered to complete the album.
After ten years of writing and recording, along with reflection on the very personal nature of this project, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS will renew its journey in 2020.With plans of conceptualized touring, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS continues to grow as Bell's main creative endeavor, well into the future.
OCEAN HILLS dropped their third single and second music video "Santa Monica" which is a classic rock themed anthem geared for the summer. “Santa Monica” is about sand, the beach, and living life, with fun and happiness. With all the negativity and fear going on In today’s world this song is very much needed. So if you're into guitar solos and Rock N Roll this song is for you. It’s the title track from the new OH album to be released November 27th.
Shapeshifting progressive metal pioneer Ihsahn has once again pushed the boundaries of unconstrained creation — this time with the release of his striking single/video tribute to Norwegian pop pioneers A-HA.
He has shared the video for his cover of the band's "Manhattan Skyline", which appears on his new EP, "Pharos", out September 11 via Candlelight Records. The version features the phenomenal vocal talents of Einar Solberg of LEPROUS.
"Manhattan Skyline" was originally released by A-HA in 1986 and reached No. 13 in the U.K. singles chart. With a refresh for 2020, Ihsahn has produced a delicate but true-to-the-original tribute, combining a soft, ballad-like verse that explodes into a bombastic rock chorus featuring all the melodramatic grandeur of the original.
Directed and filmed by Troll Toftenes, the video sees Ihsahn at his most passionate. With the breathtaking landscape of Norway as the backdrop, Ihsahn plays his Aristides T/0 Lilac Pearl Satin guitar atop Gaustatoppen, the highest mountain in Norway, at sunset while Solberg's earnest and emotional vocals soar to otherworldly levels of brilliance.
Ihsahn admits that his love of A-HA is not new, saying, "There are some hints of A-HA even on the second EMPEROR album."
This revelation may frustrate followers of the orthodoxy present within extreme music. But for Ihsahn, he has never worried about being confined to certain expectations.
"I never wanted to be as one-dimensional [with] this black metal image," the artist explains. "When I turned 40, I stopped caring. But if you start out playing black metal when you're 16, it's hardly because you want to be everybody's favorite."
"Pharos" is another triumph for Ihsahn, a polymathic composer who has already leant his iconoclastic spirit to rule-breaking bands and projects. He has yet again woven intricate, sonic landscapes that cement his status as a true musical alchemist. Recorded at his home studio, with additional drums by Tobias Solbakk at Jukes Joint Studio, "Pharos" is musically and conceptually a reverse image of "Telemark" — the first of the two linked EPs, released back in February of this year.
The light to "Telemark"'s dark, "Pharos" features three original compositions and another cover, which is the haunting "Roads", which was originally done by British trip-hop collective PORTISHEAD.
"'Telemark' was everything that was close to my heart: basic guitar riffing, screaming vocals," Ihsahn said. "I thought, 'I need to do a sequel where I do the exact opposite' — things that I don't know how to do, explore sonic territory that I haven't explored."
"Pharos" EP track listing:
01. Losing Altitude
02. Spectre At The Feast
03. Pharos
04. Roads (PORTISHEAD cover)
05. Manhattan Skyline (A-HA cover, featuring Einar Solberg of LEPROUS)
EVANESCENCE has released the official music video for "Use My Voice", the band's new single that "captures the current socio-political zeitgeist of advocacy and activism" (MTV). The visuals follow frontwoman Amy Lee, her bandmates, and a diverse group of citizens as they unite for change and justice. The clip was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Eric Howell. Lee first met Howell back in 2015 when she was asked to write the end title theme for his film "Voice From The Stone", starring Emilia Clarke ("Game Of Thrones").
Beginning with Amy alone in the dark and ending in a collective light-filled demonstration as the day breaks, the video serves as a hopeful metaphor of moving from darkness into a more illuminated future by being heard.
Earlier this month, EVANESCENCE partnered with HeadCount, one of the leading non-partisan, non-profit voter information services in the U.S. to help people navigate the registration and voting process by providing information on options to vote safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are proud to stand up and join the fight against the injustice, lies and oppression that plague our country and the world," Amy said. 'No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, or who you love, your voice matters. We hope to shine a light in the darkness, to empower and inpire. Use your voice. Vote."
"Use My Voice" follows "Wasted On You" and "The Game Is Over" as the third track to be released from "The Bitter Truth", EVANESCENCE's forthcoming new album, and their first containing all-new material in nearly a decade.
EVANESCENCE's new music is being produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who also worked on 2011's self-titled LP.
When asked in an interview with U.K.'s Rock Sound if it was still accurate to describe the new EVANESCENCE material as "dark" and "heavy," as she did last year during the early stages of the songwriting process, Lee said: "It's hard to sum up. I don't think you can sum it up just by saying that. In our first sessions that we did when we were writing together, definitely we were focusing mostly on just raw and heavy, because we'd just come off of 'Synthesis' and we were just dying to kind of document our sound as a group — which is cool, and we needed it, and it is a part of this album for sure. But it's gonna be more of a full palette than just that.
"It's been a really long time since we've put out a full new album, so it's important that we kind of do it all and use all of the parts that make up our sound, if that makes sense," she continued.
"We are still writing, and it's not all down, so it's hard to sum it up… but one of the things that we've been kind of aiming towards is taking the elements of what maybe are things that make up our sound and try to separate them and give each of them their own space. So some of the songs don't have strings and are fully rocking and heavy. And then some of the songs might be really in the electronic zone, and something might be more on the orchestral side. But overall, definitely coming off of what we just came off of, it's gonna be a rock record."
On the topic of "The Bitter Truth" album title, Amy said: "As the lyrics had started to form, and just my feeling in this moment in general, there's a big theme of disillusionment for me. Just growing up and seeing that fairy tales aren't really real. And it's hard to be a grownup — it really is. Because somebody else isn't in charge, we really have to be able to make our own decisions, find out our own information, protect ourselves. People die — we're all going to. There's no magic castle. So that sounds like a lot of doom and gloom when I say it, but there's a choice to accept that truth and live in it and embrace it and choose to live and choose to live in a moment, and the choice to just give up. And there's a struggle there, but my choice is most definitely to take that pill."
EVANESCENCE spent much of the last two years recording and touring in support of 2017's "Synthesis", which contained some of the band's best-loved songs — as well as a couple of new ones — reinvented with full orchestra over a deep electronic landscape.
Canadian melodic death metal heavyweights KATAKLYSM will release their 14th full-length studio album, "Unconquered", on September 25 via Nuclear Blast Records. The official music video for the disc's second single, "Underneath The Scars", can be seen below.
KATAKLYSM frontman Maurizio Iacono said: "'Underneath The Scars' is a bulldozer of a track that will surely ignite the world's metalheads into straight headbanging madness. We look forward to bringing this beast live when the time comes.
"Since all the KATAKLYSM members live in different states and countries as well as all the travel restrictions in place, there was no way we could get together and film another concept video as we had planned. So we dug up some unreleased footage from last year's European headlining tour and decided to pull together a cool montage of what we miss the most — playing live with our crazy fans by our side! Meanwhile, crank up 'Underneath The Scars' and pull them horns up in the air!"
"Unconquered" was recorded and engineered by the band's long-time producer and guitarist Jean-François Dagenais at JFD Studio in Dallas, Texas. KATAKLYSM enlisted legendary Colin Richardson, post retirement, to aid in the mixing of "Unconquered"'s weightier and modernized sound with additional help from Chris Clancy's technicality and precision. "Unconquered" stands among the best produced albums in the band's career.
The infamous heart beast, which also appeared on "In The Arms Of Devastation" (2006), "Prevail" (2008) and "Heaven's Venom" (2010), makes its return with a cover image created by artist Blake Armstrong.
Jason Momoa, the hulking star of the superhero film "Aquaman" and diehard metalhead, got his hands on an early copy of the upcoming "Metallica And San Francisco Symphony: S&M²" release. His short video review of the set can be seen below.
The Hawaiian-born actor, who is perhaps best-known for his role as Khal Drogo in HBO fantasy epic "Game Of Thrones", is a huge heavy metal fan, having previously said that he listened to a lot of PANTERA, METALLICA and MUDVAYNE to get himself into the right frame of mind for playing a warrior like Conan in Marcus Nispel's remake of the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger action adventure "Conan The Barbarian". More recently, he tapped vocalist Oli Peters of the Canadian death metal band ARCHSPIRE to coach him on how to mimic his distinct vocal style for the early troop rallying scene in the Apple TV+ sci-fi series "See".
"Metallica And San Francisco Symphony: S&M²" documents METALLICA's September 2019 sold-out shows with the San Francisco Symphony. The package will be available in various formats, ranging in price from $17 to $300, on Friday, August 28.
The "S&M²" concerts were historic on multiple levels: They served as the grand opening of San Francisco's Chase Center, reunited the band and Symphony for the first time since the 1999 performances captured on the Grammy-winning "S&M" album, and featured the first-ever symphonic renditions of songs written and released since those original "S&M" shows.
The sold-out concerts were rapturously received by the 40,000 fans who traveled from nearly 70 countries, as well as the media: Rolling Stone raved "the group proved that anything was possible," Variety noted an atmosphere "buzzing with excitement," while the Mercury News witnessed "a concert that fans will be talking about for decades to come," and Consequence Of Sound hailed "a true celebration of METALLICA and their musical prowess."
"Metallica And San Francisco Symphony: S&M²". "S&M²" will be available in a staggering array of formats, ranging from a digital album on all leading streaming outlets, to 4LP vinyl, 2CD, DVD and Blu-ray versions, to a limited edition color vinyl 4LP + 2CD + Blu-ray Deluxe Box featuring sheet music, guitar picks, poster and more, all the way up to a Metallica.com exclusive Super Deluxe Box, limited to 500 copies, each featuring actual sheet music used by the Symphony during the shows and hand-signed by all four band members (in addition to including everything in the Deluxe Box). With this long-awaited Blackened Recordings release, "S&M²" can be fully experienced by others beyond those who squeezed into the Chase Center over those two unforgettable evenings.
"S&M²" is a landmark release in the METALLICA catalog, both sonically and visually. Produced by Greg Fidelman with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, the "S&M²" live album captures more than two and a half hours of James, Lars, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo joining forces with the nearly 80-strong San Francisco Symphony, legendary music director of the orchestra Michael Tilson Thomas, and conductor Edwin Outwater. The concert film is a brand-new edit done by Joe Hutching ("Through The Never") and both the audio and visuals have been taken to the next level from the October 2019 theatrical version that played in over 3,700 cinemas worldwide.
The three-hour concerts were split into two parts and included a rendition of "Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)" from METALLICA's debut album, "Kill 'Em All", performed as a solo by the Symphony bassist Scott Pingel in tribute to METALLICA's late bassist Cliff Burton.
Wait a minute... who sent an early copy of S&M2 to this dude??? Heads are gonna roll! ? ?
Glad you diggit, bro! We hope everyone out there digs it too!
QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT will release their first-ever live album, "Live Around The World" on October 2 in CD, CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray and vinyl formats. The set presents a compilation of concert highlights captured the world over personally selected by Roger Taylor, Brian May and Adam Lambert from over 200 shows they have performed with several featured here becoming available for the very first time. These cover concerts from Rock In Rio, Lisbon, to the U.K.'s Isle Of Wight festival, Summer Sonic, Japan, selected U.K. and North America tour dates, and — from one of their very last performances before lockdown — the Fire Fight Australia benefit show. All formats include the band's entire 22-minute Fire Fight Australia appearance in which they performed QUEEN's original history-making 1985 Live Aid set in full: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Radio Ga Ga", "Hammer To Fall", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions".
The 20 tracks featured include firm QUEEN fan favorites like "Don't Stop Me Now" and "I Want To Break Free" as well as rarities such as their versions of the Freddie Mercury-penned "Love Kills" and "I Was Born To Love You". The live album comes in CD, CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray and vinyl versions, with the DVD and Blu-ray featuring extra performance footage which include a Roger Taylor "Drum Battle" with drummer son Rufus Taylor, and Brian May "Last Horizon" guitar solo.
A preview of "Live Around The World" in the form of "The Show Must Go On", recorded at London's 02 Arena on July 4, 2018, can be seen below.
Since their first appearance together in 2009 when QUEEN members May and Taylor appeared as guests on the finale of the eighth season of "American Idol" on which Lambert was a contestant, the combination of QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT has gone from strength to strength becoming one of the world's biggest drawing touring bands. Their most recent tour of Oceania saw them selling out to massive audiences, with a single show at Sydney's ANZ stadium drawing a record crowd of over 60,000. To date the band has played to a worldwide audience approaching four million.
Had this been different times, Brian, Roger and Adam would have just ended a further tour with a colossal run of 27 shows across nine European countries. However, the arrival of COVID-19 forced their imminent European summer tour to be postponed until next year. With this in mind, QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT looked to other ways to console the almost half a million disappointed fans already holding tickets. This is when they turned first to YouTube. No strangers to the platform with 12.5 million subscribers already following them, the band presented a special QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT "Tour Watch Party", an hour-long show of live highlights from previous tours across the world. The positive engagement from fans worldwide showed that despite the global blackout of live shows, the show could still go on. But it wasn't just the 500,000+ viewing fans who were impressed, so were the band themselves.
"We hadn't really watched those clips before; we were always too busy touring," Taylor said. "We weren't aware of how good the band sounded. So we thought, well, maybe there's a live album of highlights of concerts that we've done over the last eight years with Adam Lambert to be made."
May said of the historic live album: "As we all grapple with the challenge of creating live shows in a world dominated by a formidable viral enemy, it seemed the perfect time for us to create a collection of hand-picked live highlights from our QUEEN shows over the last seven years with our brother Adam Lambert.
"It's a first! As you watch and listen to these tracks you'll be journeying all around the world with us, and experiencing a complete virtual live set. The collection climaxes in Sydney earlier this year when, in support Fire Fight Australia, we recreated the complete QUEEN Live Aid set. It was a historic event for a great cause — with perhaps the highest adrenaline level since the original Live Aid in 1985. It makes me particularly happy that we can now share this unique moment with the whole world."
Lambert added: "When we couldn't tour this year, we wanted to give the fans something in place of that, and a live album just felt right. It's the first time we have released an album together, and we have had a lot of fun putting it together, picking out favorite performances over the past seven years."
QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT's only previously released track, their lockdown version of "You Are The Champions", with all the proceeds going towards the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization, was viewed close to four million times in its first month on YouTube.
QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT's postponed 27-date European "Rhapsody" tour is now rescheduled to begin May 23, 2021, in Bologna, Italy, with its final date to be played in Madrid, Spain, on July 7. The full set of dates includes a 10-day residency at London's The O2 Arena in June.
"Live Around The World" CD / vinyl track listing
* "Tear It Up" (May) The O2, London, UK, 02/07/2018
* "Now I'm Here" (May) Summer Sonic, Tokyo, Japan, 2014
* "Another One Bites The Dust" (Deacon) Summer Sonic, Tokyo, Japan, 2014
* "Fat Bottomed Girls" ft. Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (May) American Airlines Center, Dallas, USA, 2019
* "Don't Stop Me Now" (Mercury) Rock In Rio, Lisbon, Portugal, 2016
* "I Want To Break Free" (Deacon) Rock In Rio, Lisbon, Portugal, 2016
* "Somebody To Love" (Mercury) Isle of Wight Festival, UK, 2016
* "Love Kills" (The Ballad) (Mercury/Moroder) iHeart Radio Theater, Los Angeles, USA, 2014
* "I Was Born To Love You" (Mercury) Summer Sonic, Tokyo, Japan, 2014
* "Under Pressure" (Queen/Bowie) Global Citizen Festival, New York, USA, 2019
* "Who Wants To Live Forever" (May) Isle of Wight Festival, UK, 2016
* "The Show Must Go On" (Queen) The O2, London, UK, 04/07/2018
* "Love Of My Life" (Mercury) The O2, London, UK, 02/07/2018
Enslaved are set to release their 15th studio album, Utgard, on October 2 via Nuclear Blast. They have released the third single from the album, entitled 'Urjotun'. It is one of their most experimental songs yet, accompanied by a psychedelic video detailing dark visions and a journey to the outer reaches of the subconscious.
Vocalist Grutle Kjellson comments: "The lyrical idea for Urjotun had been spinning around in the chaos in the back of my head for quite a while, when Ivar sent me the riff-demo last autumn. I knew instantly that this was it, the very soundtrack of the rise of the primeval giant, the Urjotun! Our mutual love and fascination for that early krautrock scene and for bands like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk, finally fully ascended in an Enslaved song, almost 30 years after we picked up those legendary kraut-albums. It’s funny, that in Germany they referred to this kind of music as 'Kosmische Musik', cosmic music! And, that is exactly what this song is about; cosmic chaos. On top of this, director David Hall, made a perfect projection and visualization of our troubled minds.”
In the trailer below, guitarist Ivar Bjørnson discusses the current band lineup and the recording of the new album.
Utgard will be available in these formats:
- CD jewel case (available with signed insert from Recordstore.co.uk)
- Limited Edition Black Vinyl (available with signed insert from Recordstore.co.uk)
- Limited Edition Grey Vinyl (300 copies)
- Limited Edition Blue Vinyl (300 copies)
- Limited Edition UK Exclusive Transparent Green Vinyl (300 copies + available with signed insert from Recordstore.co.uk)
Cyhra guitarist Euge Valovirta has launched a new band, Red Wolf. Their first video, "Crossing The Line" can be viewed below. The song will be released on all digital platforms on September 2nd. The album Sessions Vol. 1 will be released on October 14th featuring 10 songs of riff based, groovy kickass metal.
It all started in Spring 2020, during the COVID – 19 lockdown, when Euge Valovirta (Cyhra) had received compliments and questions about the songs he had used on his YouTube channel’s videos which were just 1-2 minute clips of cool riffs basically written for a particular video about a certain amp, effect pedal, etc.
Around the same time Adde Larsson, with whom Euge had played several Cyhra shows since he had filled in for Alex Landenburg, called Euge that he really likes Euge’s solo album, Easy Does It, and if he ever plans to record another he’d like to be the drummer on that.
Since all of their main band’s tours were cancelled, they had plenty of time so they decided that Euge will complete the aforementioned clips into full songs at his home studio in Helsinki, Finland and Adde will then record drums on them in his hometown Gothenburg, Sweden. When the demos of the songs were finished Euge decided that the songs require vocals and someone to finish the writing process with him and the first guy he thought who’d be perfect for the job was Samy Elbanna (Lost Society) and Samy replied immediately, without hearing a single song, that he is in.
Around the same time, Euge thought that he wants his old bandmate from Suburban Tribe Janne Joutsenniemi (Stone, Suburban Tribe) to play bass on the songs and Janne also replied immediately that he is in. Janne also growls on the album which he hasn’t done since Stone’s last album Emotional Playground (1991).
After the drums were done Euge, Samy and Janne recorded their parts at their home studios and by early July the recordings were finished, without the guys meeting once during this time, and the mixing started at IYP studios in Gothenburg, Sweden by Matthias Törngren.
Euge Valovirta: “All of this happened very naturally & effortlessly and this has been probably the easiest album writing & recording process that I’ve ever been a part of and I’m really happy how everything turned out. 'Crossing The Line' was the first song we completed and it set the direction for the rest of the album. It’s working title was 'JCM800' ‘cos it was written for my YouTube channels’ – video about my all time favourite amp; Marshall JCM800 2203 which I used on the album, naturally."
Samy Elbanna: "As a person who always has enjoyed creating and doing as much as possible, this was an absolute dream to be a part of! This has been without a doubt one of the funniest and most organic projects I’ve ever had the honor to participate! Great songs and a great group of guys, what could be better?!"
Janne Joutsenniemi: "I haven’t played or sung for a while so this was a nice change for me to rock out with the guys, even from a distance since everybody played their parts on their own for obvious reasons. I haven’t even met or talked with Adde but it was really fun to play the bass on top of his drums and my playing fitted naturally to his playing. I can hear hear the fresh and enthusiastic touch in everyone’s playing and everything was done in the spur of moment since we had no time or need to analyze and rehearse things any further. It was straight forward full speed ahead, trusting your own intuition and that’s what music is all about."
Adde Larsson: "Having been working together with Euge as a stand in drummer for Alex Landenburg in Cyhra for about 2 years and with a bunch of shows and tours under the belt together, me and Euge have really hit it off and he has become a very good and dear friend of mine. When this opportunity rose to do this project together there was absolutely nothing that would stop me in my tracks to take the change and join! To also be playing with Samy and Janne in the same band was a massive extra privilege and a surprise to say, especially knowing what they have achieved in their individual careers! It makes me very humble and excited to be a part of this machine and it’s just simply awesome and honouring to be a part of this all."
ÑØÀ
Bon Jovi
![=]](/img/news-bord-shr.gif){kind=small}
Ãåðìàíèÿ
Øâåöèÿ
Âåëèêîáðèòàíèÿ
Íîðâåãèÿ
Êàíàäà
