Grey Daze, the band that birthed a modern rock icon Chester Bennington, release The Phoenix today via Loma Vista Recordings. The 10-song bookend to 2020’s Amends, the newly-recorded album is a celebration of both Bennington and a testament to both the tenacity and talent of the surviving band members.
As news of the album’s existence was shared, Grey Daze founder, drummer and songwriter Sean Dowdell said: “Amends was more emotional and reflective. We felt sad when we were writing it. Now that we’re a couple of years removed, it’s very clear what we were going through. We were at a different stage of grief. We went through the shock and the sadness. Now, we’re back to gratitude.”
Dowdell, accompanied by bass player Mace Beyers and guitar player Cristin Davis, with producer Esjay Jones, and with the blessing of Bennington’s family, reconvened in late 2020, re-recording, and re-working the songs which initially appeared, in a very different form, on the band’s largely unknown mid-‘90s releases. A group of special guests also played on the powerful new collection, with Dave Navarro and Richard Patrick featured on “Holding You” and “Believe Me” (respectively), and Bennington’s daughters, Lily and Lila, paying homage to their dad on “Hole.” The band documented the process via a YouTube series which can be seen here.
The Phoenix’s arrival is marked with the debut of a Heidi Gadd directed video for “Drag” (see below). Dowdell explains the themes behind the song: “’Drag’ is a very dark and droning heavy track, but the underlying message is really special. Chester is telling us, literally, that life is too short to be intoxicated, life is too short to be a drag. It is a song that gives any listener with a substance abuse past something to feel good about, something to help pull themselves out of that dark place.”
Over the course of Grey Daze’s first incarnation, which ran 1994 to 1997, the group recorded and released two albums. It is those albums that serve as a foundation for both Amends and The Phoenix. Prior to Bennington’s passing he publicly announced the Grey Daze’s return, which included re-recording the band’s largely undiscovered discography. With Talinda Bennington’s blessing, and working with Producer Esjay Jones, the surviving band members: Dowdell, Beyers, and Davis, moved forward, as both a way to pay tribute to their fallen brother and bandmate, but also to expose his fans to another dimension of the dynamic singer. Amends arrived in 2020, with various media outlets praising the collection.
The album is available to stream now, here , with the physical release, including several limited-edition vinyl variants, available on July 1.
Tracklisting:
“Saturation (Strange Love)”
“Starting To Fly”
“Be Your Man”
“Holding You” (feat. Dave Navarro)
“Hole” (feat. Lily and Lila Bennington)
“Drag”
“Believe Me” (feat. Richard Patrick)
“Anything, Anything”
“Spin”
“Wake Me”
Platinum-certified and twice Grammy-nominated Michigan rock powerhouse I PREVAIL will release its third full-length album, "True Power", on August 19 via Fearless Records. The official music video for the LP's first single, "Body Bag", can be seen below.
I PREVAIL's new record, once again produced by Tyler Smyth, features the sort of stadium-sized riffs that will rattle your teeth loose from your gums and unforgettable, supremely catchy melodies that will camp out in your brain for weeks at a time. The band also alternately mixes screamed vocals that sound as though they crawled from the depths of hell with soaring, emotional vocals and heartfelt, intimate lyrics that go so deep, they hit marrow. The end result is an album that resonates with the listener in the most personal way.
"'Trauma' was a very reflective record," says singer Brian Burkheiser, referring to "True Power"'s game-changing predecessor. "I'd struggled with a major vocal injury and had been wondering whether I wanted to continue doing this thing at all. Eric [Vanlerberghe, vocals] had also lost his best friend over that same time, so there was a lot of heartache behind it. With 'True Power', we were going into a new phase. After taking that trauma and figuring out how to channel it, you find this sense of newfound confidence and an ability to grow as a person: to become truly yourself. We took a 'no rules' mentality into the songwriting, and a lot of it is heavy as fuck, but the songs sound as diverse as they've ever been, too. There is a song on the record called 'There's Fear In Letting Go', and that became a huge mantra for us. Yeah, it can be scary letting go of things, but it can also help you take back everything that's yours: which is exactly what we've done on this album."
Rising to an arena level and receiving two Grammy nominations — "Best Rock Album" for "Trauma", and "Best Metal Performance" for single "Bow Down", I PREVAIL proved that they were built to last. To date, they've racked up more than 2.7 billion global streams, are approaching 350 million YouTube views, and saw their "Hurricane" single top Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in 2020: officially the top song on U.S. rock radio at the time. A number of their singles have now been certified gold and platinum, and they have been praised by press far and wide, including Forbes, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and NPR.
"True Power" track listing:
01. 0:00
02. There's Fear In Letting Go
03. Body Bag
04. Self-Destruction
05. Bad Things
06. Fake
07. Judgement Day
08. FWYTYK
09. Deep End
10. Long Live The King
11. Choke
12. The Negative
13. Closure
14. Visceral
15. Doomed
Seven Kingdoms have released their new album, Zenith, via Distortion Music Group. The follow-up to 2017's Decennium and the Empty Eyes EP in 2019, Zenith saw 7K put the power in the hands of their fans - who ultimately responded with thunderous support by raising more than $50,000 through the campaign. The new album is led by the singles "Universal Terrestrial" and "Diamond Handed", as well as the newest single, "Love Dagger".
Commenting on the release of Zenith, lead singer Sabrina Cruz comments: "Today is the day! Zenith is finally out! We are so excited to drop this 5th full-length record! This was something we’ve been working on for almost 3 years. I'm personally delighted with Zenith. I believe we’ve delivered our best performance so far and continue to push ourselves to grow."
Speaking about their latest single, Sabrina adds: "Also today we release 'Love Dagger'! A story we all will know in some shape or form throughout our lives. It was super fun to film this at my favorite Coffee Shop in Downtown Deland, Boston Coffee House (mostly because I got to eat lol.). We also tried to capture our favorite places throughout Deland that features some of our coolest art pieces. We hope you enjoy it and thank you to our Kickstarter, Twitch & Discord family for making it possible. We hope our fans appreciate our best work to date and we thank them so much for their astounding support. Without you, Seven Kingdoms would not exist. We Love you all so BLEEPING much and look forward to playing these live soon!"
Zenith was recorded at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, FL, and 8 Arms Audio in Orlando, FL during the summer and fall of 2021. The record was mixed and mastered by Jim Morris at Morrisound Recording in November of 2021. The cover art was done by Jan Yrlund (Battle Beast, Korpiklaani, Windrose).
"Diamond Handed"
"A Silent Remedy"
"Love Dagger"
"Chasing The Mirage"
"Valonqar"
"Empty Eyes"
"Magic In The Mist"
"Universal Terrestrial"
"The Water Dance"
"Life Signs"
"I Hate Myself For Loving You" (Cover)
Fan-filmed video of MERCYFUL FATE's June 18 concert at the Copenhell festival at Refshaleøen in Copenhagen, Denmark can be seen below. The influential Danish metallers' 11-song set included a brand new track, "The Jackl Of Salzburg", which is expected to appear on MERCYFUL FATE's upcoming studio album, tentatively due in 2023 via Metal Blade. Lyrically, the song is inspired by one of the last major witch hunts, the Zaubererjackl trials in Salzburg, Austria (1675-90). 139 people were executed as the followers of Wizard Jackl or Magician Jackl or Jäckel, who was himself never found.
Joining frontman King Diamond in MERCYFUL FATE's current lineup are Hank Shermann on guitar, Bjarne T. Holm on drums, Mike Wead on guitar and Joey Vera on bass.
Setlist for MERCYFUL FATE's concert at the Copenhell festival:
01. The Oath
02. The Jackl Of Salzburg
03. A Corpse Without Soul
04. Black Funeral
05. A Dangerous Meeting
06. Melissa
07. Doomed By The Living Dead
08. Curse Of The Pharaohs
09. Evil
10. Come To The Sabbath
Encore:
11. Satan's Fall
In 2019, it was announced that Vera would be replacing original MERCYFUL FATE bassist Timi Hansen for the band's summer 2020 European festival appearances due to Hansen's cancer diagnosis. Hansen passed away in November 2019 and MERCYFUL FATE's 2020 summer festival appearances were initially rescheduled for 2021 before being moved back to 2022.
In a Twitch livestream from a few days before the June 2 kick-off concert in Hannover, Germany from the MERCYFUL FATE rehearsals, which took place in Glostrup, Denmark, King revealed that he and his bandmates were planning to debut a brand new song at the 2022 shows. "We're trying," he said at the time. "We're still working on a song. I wrote the final lyrics the day of our departure [for rehearsals], I would say, and that's a couple of days ago. So the others have not heard me sing the song at all. We played a few riffs from it yesterday. I didn't sing to it at that time. But it's coming [along] here. The next couple of days we're gonna see where it leads us."
Regarding the musical and lyrical content of the new MERCYFUL FATE song, King said: "It's quite a monster, I would say. It's almost nine minutes long. So it's not just a quick little [tune]. We hope we can play it. We're gonna do everything in our power to play it. It's not recorded yet. So whatever version we might play for you could change before it actually is fully recorded. Some drums have been recorded — that's what I can say. But we will do our damnedest to play it. We put it early in the set even. But that's something to look forward to, definitely. And now we've gotta make it sound correct, 'cause the early demo versions have lots of stuff on that create a certain mood in the whole thing, which we can't do [when we perform it]. The live version will be different. I can't do the backing vocals, naturally, that is intended for the song. But that's also a challenge, to do a version that works live, of course, [with the] vocal lines. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be heavy. The subject is very heavy too. We are back in 1675 till 1690. That's a piece of history that we are describing — a nasty piece of history."
Back in October 2020, Vera told Dead Rhetoric about how he landed the MERCYFUL FATE gig: "I've been friends with King for some time. ARMORED SAINT did a tour with King back in 1988-89; we have been friends and labelmates forever. And so, he came to see me when I was on tour with FATES WARNING supporting QUEENSRŸCHE in Dallas where he lives. He came to see the show. [Metal Blade Records owner] Brian Slagel was in town. King pulled me aside backstage and told me the story of Timi going through chemotherapy and had a summer tour booked and wasn't sure he was going to be well enough to do it. If he wasn't, would I consider stepping in and helping out. Of course, I was flabbergasted and honored, yeah. I didn't have anything else going on — it was supposed to happen this summer. To honor Timi and help them out, thank you for asking me. In the back of my mind, I was thinking Timi would pull through, he would get enough energy to make it. I was sadly mistaken and it was devastating."
Two years ago, Shermann confirmed that he was working on the first new music from MERCYFUL FATE in more than two decades. At the time, he said about the writing process: "First of all, King is living in Texas, in the States. I'm living here north of Copenhagen, in Denmark. The drummer [Bjarne T. Holm] is also here, so I work with him in the rehearsal room shaping the new songs. The other guitar player [Mike Wead] is in Stockholm, Sweden, and our new bass player [Joey Vera] is in Los Angeles. So everything is [being done via] Dropbox or e-mails."
He continued: "I think there's about six or seven [tracks that are] about to be ready. The first song has been sent to King after it's been mixed and all the guys played on the song. So I sent the files to Joey in Los Angeles; he did the bass. And then I sent the same files to Mike in Stockholm; he did his solos. And now King has the first song, evaluating for the vocals to be added. And then we will rearrange certain parts to be twice as long and stuff like that."
MERCYFUL FATE's last studio album, "9", was released in 1999.
MERCYFUL FATE will be remembered for its unquestionable mark on the history of metal with its innovative sound, complex arrangements, memorable melody, and its influence on bands that later took the genre to new heights.
In 1998, METALLICA paid tribute to MERCYFUL FATE by recording a medley of classic MERCYFUL FATE songs on the album "Garage Inc." Titled "Mercyful Fate", the medley included parts from "Satan's Fall", "Curse of the Pharaohs", "A Corpse Without Soul", "Into the Coven" and "Evil".
Lars Ulrich of METALLICA (a fellow Dane) played drums on a new version of MERCYFUL FATE's "Return of the Vampire" on the "In the Shadows" album, which came out in 1993.
Multi-platinum hard rock powerhouse, Five Finger Death Punch, have launched their Afterlife World Tour. The band has released this recap video:
5FDP will release their new album, AfterLife, on August 19. The band recently dropped another track from the album, the opening song “Welcome To The Circus”. An official lyric video for the track can be viewed below:
Exclusively curated by the band, various limited edition AfterLife vinyl and merchandise offerings and collectibles are available for pre-order in the official band and label-stores. Pre-order here.
Tracklisting:
"Welcome To The Circus"
"AfterLife"
"Times Like These"
"Roll Dem Bones"
"Pick Up Behind You"
"Judgment Day"
"IOU"
"Thanks For Asking"
"Blood And Tar "
"All I Know"
"Gold Gutter"
"The End"
"IOU" lyric video:
"AfterLife" lyric video:
The band recently announced a 2022 North American headlining tour presented by Live Nation beginning this summer. The tour is set to start in Portland, Oregon on August 19, coinciding with their album release date, and will span over 30 dates as it closes out on October 15 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The band will be joined on tour by very special guest Megadeth, with additional support from The HU, and Fire From The Gods, promising an intense multi-faceted night of heavy rock music. Visit FiveFingerDeathPunch.com for dates and tickets.
Professionally-filmed footage of Steel Panther's full set at Hellfest 2022 in Clisson, France on June 18 can be viewed below.
Setlist:
"Goin' In The Backdoor"
"Tomorrow Night"
"Asian Hooker"
"All I Wanna Do Is Fuck (Myself Tonight)"
"Let Me Cum In"
"Crazy Train" (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
"Weenie Ride"
"17 Girls In A Row"
"Community Property"
"Death To All But Metal"
"Gloryhole"
Catch Steel Panther live in concert at the following shows:
Fan-filmed video of WHITESNAKE's June 12 concert at Tauron Arena in Kraków, Poland can be seen below.
The band's setlist was as follows:
01. Bad Boys
02. Slide It In
03. Love Ain't No Stranger
04. Hey You (You Make Me Rock)
05. Slow An' Easy
06. Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City (Bobby "Blue" Bland cover)
07. Fool For Your Loving
08. Guitar And Keyboard Solos
09. Crying In The Rain
10. Drum Solo (followed by "Crying in the Rain" reprise)
11. Is This Love
12. Give Me All Your Love
13. Here I Go Again
14. Still Of The Night
15. Burn (DEEP PURPLE cover)
WHITESNAKE launched its farewell tour on May 10 at Dublin, Ireland's 3Arena. The band's 14-song set, which was part of a European tour with special guests EUROPE and co-headliners FOREIGNER, marked WHITESNAKE's inaugural performance with the group's two latest two additions, keyboardist, guitarist and backing vocalist Dino Jelusick, and Irish bassist Tanya O'Callaghan.
WHITESNAKE kicked off the concert with "Bad Boys" / "Children Of The Night" and played a set which drew heavily from the "Trouble" (1978),"Ready An' Willing" (1980),"Saints & Sinners" (1982),"Slide It In" (1984),"Whitesnake" (1987) and "Flesh & Blood" (2019) albums. WHITESNAKE also performed its staple cover of "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City", a 1974 R&B song written by Michael Price and Dan Walsh, and first recorded by Bobby "Blue" Bland for the "Dreamer" album.
In a recent interview with Finland's Chaoszine, WHITESNAKE guitarist Joel Hoekstra spoke about the farewell tour. He said: "Well, it's everybody's opportunity to come out and say goodbye to [WHITESNAKE leader] David [Coverdale] and have David say thank you for a wonderful 50 years or so. So he's been quite emotional on some of the shows already here out of the gate. I think it's an emotional tour for him. He just wants to thank everybody for a wonderful career, which I think is lovely."
Coverdale, who turned 70 in September, recently opened up about his plans to retire from touring after the band's next batch of concerts around the world, telling the "Appetite For Distortion" podcast: "I planned to retire on the 2020 tour when I was 69. I thought that was the perfect age for the singer of WHITESNAKE to call it a day. But sadly, it was not to be, as we know; other events were in store. So now the t-shirt designs don't resonate as well for 70. But it's mind-blowing to me that I'm preparing my farewell tour. And it is — make no mistake, this is the farewell tour. I'm 70. It's a very physically challenging thing for me to do at the best of times. But it's very important for me to achieve completion and to express my appreciation and gratitude to all the people — the millions of people over the years — who've supported me for five decades, fifty years. It blows my mind — it really does."
"A lot of my peers and contemporaries are on their 20th retirement tour. I don't intend to plan that," he clarified. "I must explain, though — it's me, just David Coverdale, who's retiring from touring at that level. WHITESNAKE will still make projects. I've been writing music all through COVID. I wrote some beautiful new ideas. I have ideas in case Jimmy [Page] wants to do anything — write on FaceTime, which is an alien concept to him. But all songs that we can utilize for a WHITESNAKE project. But the music of WHITESNAKE will continue. That's most important that people know. I'm just stopping touring at this level — that's it."
According to Coverdale, there could very well be new music from WHITESNAKE in the years following his retirement from the road.
"I've got a bunch of ideas for WHITESNAKE, so we may have another project there — I don't know — without the pressure of having to go on tour," he said. "We have such a solid fanbase, I think fans are gonna buy the record with or without a tour. This is just emotionally for me to be able to go out there and do stuff. And also, you've gotta remember, we've started this legacy series of box sets, similar to the 25th anniversary. We have, I think, the 35th anniversary of 'Slide It In'; the 30th anniversary of the WHITESNAKE '87 album; we have a very special project planned to accompany the tour; we have another box set planned for this time next year. And then in 2023, we have the 30th anniversary of COVERDALE/PAGE, and the 50th anniversary of me joining DEEP PURPLE. Mind-blowing. So it's not like I'm retiring. [Laughs]
"Thankfully, physically and vocally, I still have the goods," he continued. "As my wife reminds me, I was actually touring up to spring in 2020, before lockdown. And I was 68 years old, and I'm still kicking ass. Of course, having an amazing band and an incredible and enthusiastic audience gives you that energizing aspect. It's just the traveling is challenging for me. But music is oxygen to me. I'm not gonna go fishing or take up crochet; I'm gonna definitely be doing projects. I'm lucky enough to have my own studio. It's the best of a bunch of worlds. And I have to thank people in person around the world for helping me to be in this position that I am in my life at this time. I don't wanna do it through a video [on] social media: 'Sorry we can't get out there, but thank you for 50 years.' That would be heartbreaking for me."
Coverdale had both his knees replaced with titanium in 2017 after suffering from degenerative arthritis. He later explained that he was in so much pain with arthritis in his knees that it hampered his ability to perform live.
Prior to the pandemic, WHITESNAKE had been touring in support of its latest album, "Flesh & Blood", which was released in May 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.
Professionally filmed video of MEGADETH's entire June 17 performance at the Graspop Metal Meeting festival in Dessel, Belgium can be seen below.
Featured songs:
00:00 Prince Of Darkness (intro)
01:25 Hangar 18
06:43 Dread And The Fugitive Mind
11:16 Sweating Bullets
17:51 Angry Again
21:35 The Conjuring
27:11 Dystopia
32:26 A Tout Le Monde
37:21 Trust
42:33 Symphony Of Destruction
46:33 Peace Sells
55:12 Holy Wars
Late last month, MEGADETH announced bass player James LoMenzo as a permanent member of the band. LoMenzo was MEGADETH's bass player in the mid-2000s and recently stepped back in as a touring member for "The Metal Tour Of The Year". Lomenzo has now officially rejoined the MEGADETH family.
MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine commented: "I am thrilled to welcome back James to the MEGADETH family. James rejoined the fold as the touring bassist and it's been a blast having him back. We thought let's make it permanent."
James added: "I'm so excited to rejoin MEGADETH and move forward full steam into the next phase of this iconic band's history! With Dave, Kiko [Loureiro, guitar] and Dirk [Verbeuren, drums], There's no stopping us! It just feels great to be home again."
LoMenzo joined MEGADETH in 2006 and appeared on two of the group's studio albums, 2007's "United Abominations" and 2009's "Endgame". He was fired from the band in 2010 and replaced with returning original MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson.
In addition to MEGADETH, LoMenzo has played with Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde and WHITE LION. For the past nine years, LoMenzo has been performing with iconic rocker John Fogerty.
LoMenzo played his first show with MEGADETH in nearly 12 years last August in Austin, Texas. The concert took place three months following Ellefson's dismissal from MEGADETH after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving him were posted on Twitter.
During an appearance on a March 2022 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", Mustaine discussed MEGADETH's reunion with LoMenzo, saying: "I'm thrilled. I think he's a really awesome person to have in MEGADETH. He was when we tried it the first time. And for whatever reason that things happen, things happened and we took a little sabbatical from playing [together]. And when things happened as they did, it was obvious to me that I needed to get a super kickass bass player to come in and cut all the tracks and learn 'em in relatively no time, because we were in the studio already, so I needed to get somebody that could really do all that stuff. And I hadn't made up my mind on James yet. So I ended up asking a super, super legendary bass player in the metal community, Steve DiGiorgio. I asked him if he would come in and guest on the [upcoming MEGADETH] record and help me to finish the record and cut bass parts. So he came out, and that was really wonderful to hear his interpretation of my songs and the stuff that Kiko and Dirk and I, the stuff that we're starting to write together; we're starting to really develop our chemistry."
MEGADETH's new album, "The Sick, The Dying, And The Dead", is tentatively due in September. The follow-up to "Dystopia" features a cover of DEAD KENNEDYS' "Police Truck" and Sammy Hagar's "This Planet's On Fire", the latter of which includes vocals from Hagar himself.
DiGiorgio is widely renowned as a pioneer on the fretless bass in heavy metal music, having played with TESTAMENT, DEATH and SADUS, among others. Within his genre, Steve is respected for his playing skills, versatility and incredible technique. He has more than 40 studio album recordings and over 20 years of touring the world.
Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on MEGADETH's sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee. A short time later, he raved about his performance on the record, telling the 96.7 KCAL-FM radio program "Wired In The Empire" that his musical chemistry with Verbeuren was comparable to the interplay between Geddy Lee and Neil Peart on classic RUSH albums. "I feel like on the new MEGADETH record, me and Dirk have those same moments," he said. "It's MEGADETH — it's not RUSH, obviously — but in the field of what we do, there were these moments that I was just going, 'Oh, my God.' This is me as a kid going, 'This is my Geddy/Neil moment right here.'"
In June 2021, Mustaine announced during an episode of his Gimme Radio program "The Dave Mustaine Show" that Ellefson's bass tracks would not be used on the new MEGADETH LP.
Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest departure.
Arizona thrash and speed metal icons, Flotsam And Jetsam, performed at Hellfest 2022 in Clisson, France on June 18. You can watch the band's full set below.
Setlist:
"Dreams Of Death"
"Hammerhead"
"Iron Maiden"
"She Took An Axe"
"The Walls"
"Desecrator"
"Prisoner Of Time"
"I Live You Die"
"Brace For Impact"
"No Place For Disgrace"
Find Flotsam And Jetsam's upcoming tour schedule here.
POSSESSED frontman Jeff Becerra, who was shot in a robbery in 1989, leaving him partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, joined Max and Igor "Iggor" Cavalera on stage last night (Friday, June 17) at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California to perform the POSSESSED classic "Death Metal".
Prior to launching into the track, Max called Jeff the "godfather of death metal" while Becerra said that it was a "bucket-list" item for his to share the stage with the Cavalera brothers and SEPULTURA founders.
POSSESSED originally split in 1987, leaving behind a short but highly influential legacy, most notably their 1985 "Seven Churches" debut, widely considered to be the first-ever death metal album. Internal tensions after the release of 1987's "The Eyes Of Horror" EP led to the band's dissolution, with guitarist Larry Lalonde joining Bay Area tech-thrashers BLIND ILLUSION, then PRIMUS, while Becerra, guitarist Mike Torrao and drummer Mike Sus each going separate directions.
Two years after POSSESSED's split, Becerra was the victim of a failed armed robbery attempt, subsequently leaving him paralyzed from the chest down and sending him into a spiral of drug and alcohol abuse. POSSESSED was reactivated by Torrao in 1990 with a completely different lineup, but only released two demos before dissolving in 1993. Becerra then reformed POSSESSED in 2007 with his own lineup, which released its first studio album in 33 years, "Revelations Of Oblivion", in 2019.
In a 2019 interview with The Underground Metal Gamer, Becerra was asked about the recovery process after being shot by two masked gunmen. "I've been in a wheelchair longer than I've been walking," he said. "It's my normal. It wasn't so much of an accident — I got shot by two different guns in a robbery. I was doing concrete construction. I worked something like 13 hours that day. I stopped to get a pack of Camels [cigarettes] and I guess I flashed a hundred [dollar bill] and on the way out, two guys in hoods, little ninja guys came running up with guns: 'Give me all of your fucking money.' I kind of resisted; I should have just given them the money, but I was fucked, I was cornered. It's not the first time I had a gun pointed at me and I knew they meant business. We scuffled, there was no way out of it and I ended up getting shot a couple of times. The first guy pushed a 9-millimeter to my chest [points to bullet hole]. It broke through the ribs and shattered the lungs and stuck on in the spine, so I still have a 9-millimeter slug stuck on the vertebrate T3. I think the second guy was covering me from about 15 feet away, so there was nowhere to run. It was more like a knee-jerk reaction because the first shot was 'pow!' and right after, 'pow!'"
He continued: "I kind of foresaw that. I put my hand up in a defensive mode. It didn't matter. The 22-caliber would have hit me in the forehead, but instead it clipped my finger off backward. You can see how it's still bent. It was like that [shows finger], but we did a bunch of rehab in the spring, so that clicked off and that was squirting out blood like some Monty Python thing. I pinched my armpit and tourniqueted it and played dead. [The shooter] came up to my forehead and his gun jammed and he was slapping the side of his gun and trying to pull the trigger to finish the job. I guess they just panicked and as they ran off, his gun un-jammed and they were just firing over their shoulders: 'Pow! Pow! Pow!' all these bullets were hitting around me and I was like 'Oh, fuck!' Then I scooted and hid under this Volvo, just playing dead for about 45 minutes. This little girl came by and she obviously was a drug addict, kind of a crackhead girl and I was, like, 'Hey, you got to call 911.' She said 'I can't. I live here. These guys will fuck me up.' I said 'I'll give you ten bucks.' She said 'Ten bucks?' I reached in with my good hand, gave her a bloody ten-dollar bill and about 45 minutes later, one solo cop came up and he was like, he couldn't have been more than 21, 23 years old. He was, like, 'This is my first solo! I'm freaking out. I can't believe this is happening.' I said, 'Call an ambulance.' He was, like, 'Oh, yeah…' That was the first time I was glad to see the police. He just kind of covered me until the ambulance came and that was it."
Becerra calls the ensuing period the "five dark years" in reference to a spiral of drug and alcohol abuse. "I really didn't handle it well," he said. "I essentially tried to kill myself with drugs and alcohol. I lived alone for five years and basically just wrote and listened to a lot of demo tapes that were sent and got thousands of fan mail asking me to come back. It was always the plan, but I wanted to do the things in life that I felt that I needed to do as a man. I'm not saying this is everybody, just for me, I didn't want to wake up and be 50 and all I ever had done is play satanic death metal. I've always been kind of afraid of college. I went to college and made straight As, alpha gamma sigma and webmaster and was one of 20 gold robes. I did that. I got my four-year [degree] in three and a half years. I got married and had a couple of beautiful kids. Then I got divorced and that was time to bring POSSESSED back. I was already playing and touring by then and when you're gone all the time, it's hard to maintain a solid relationship. You got to give a lot to be in a death metal band. You just got a do it. I'm still really tight [with her]. Me and my ex-wife are still best friends. It was amicable. It's a win-win. I got two beautiful kids and a band and everything."
"Revelations Of Oblivion" was released in May 2019 via Nuclear Blast. The album was recorded at NRG studios and Titan Studios with Becerra as executive producer and Daniel Gonzalez as co-producer for the album. Mixing and mastering was handled by Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN, BLOODBATH) at Abyss Studios in Sweden. For the artwork, the band enlisted Polish artist Zbigniew Bielak (PARADISE LOST, DIMMU BORGIR, DEICIDE, GHOST, GORGUTS).
w/ Jeff Becerra at the MAX & IGGOR CAVALERA show in San Francisxo tonight!!!
Fan-filmed video of Tom Keifer's June 18 performance at the Blue Note in Harrison, Ohio can be seen below.
Keifer's story begins as the singer-songwriter, guitarist and front man of hard rock heavyweights CINDERELLA. His signature voice, guitar and bluesy, no-B.S. arena-shaking songwriting, played an integral role in moving records to the tune of 15 million worldwide. Tom Keifer is enjoying continued success recording and touring with #keiferband — Tom Keifer, Savannah Keifer, Tony Higbee, Billy Mercer, Kendra Chantelle, Jarred Pope and Kory Myers — releasing two critically acclaimed solo albums, "The Way Life Goes" and "Rise".
"Rise", released September 13, 2019 on Cleopatra Records, features the rousing, rollicking rock singles "The Death Of Me" and "Hype". Both singles landed in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Top 40. Keifer's deep-seated roots shine through to the very core on "Rise", something that was embedded at the very heart of his music created during the multiplatinum CINDERELLA days.
"When this band came together, we all felt a bit like broken souls, each with our own unique story," Tom explained. "If you ask anyone in the band, they would all say this band came along at just the right time. Every human who walks this planet faces challenges and extreme adversity they have to overcome. As a band, we feel fortunate to be able to face those things together. There is a piece of every band member in the 'The Death Of Me' as well as throughout the entire 'Rise' album."
The common thread to each song on "Rise" is the intuitive interplay between each member of #keiferband, a tight but loose collective that's spent the last few years on the road honing their live craft together. "Rise" is the studio-bred equivalent of a band just now realizing the full scope of its powers.
"We were trying to capture the feeling of what people have witnessed live with this band," Keifer explained. "There's an off-the-rails, real live feel to 'Rise' — and that's what we were going for. It shows a real kind of angst and reckless abandon that we tried not to polish too much. And when we pull it back on the ballads, it's more about the emotion, the soul, and making people feel something in a different way."
"To me, the perfect rock and roll record is perfectly fucked up," Keifer said with a hearty laugh. "You try to make each record interesting and different. I don't ever want to make the same record twice, even though there's a common thread between them. Everything doesn't have to be perfectly in place, but there is a balance you try to strike. Sometimes there may be something about it that's technically not 'right,' but there's a vibe, an energy and an attitude to it that I always try to preserve."
This past March, Keifer said that he was "not prepared" for last year's passing of CINDERELLA guitarist Jeff LaBar. Jeff was found dead by his wife, Debinique Salazar-LaBar, on July 14, 2021 inside his apartment in Nashville. He was 58 years old.
"I've gotta tell you, you're never really ready for that kind of loss; you're not prepared to hear that kind of thing," Keifer told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". "And everyone is still trying to grieve and process it. It's an emotional topic. Jeff was just such a passionate, amazing person, musician, human. He had a huge heart. And it was a tough one, man. It still is, for everybody."
Tom continued: "Jeff and I had a really good relationship throughout out career. Obviously, in bands there's times when you have differences; that's part of being in a band. It's true what people say about bands — that they're like a family, but, honestly, it's like that and even more intense, because there's so many different facets that inform the dynamics between bands; everything from business to creativity and everything in between. But despite any differences that we've had over the years, and the band in general, as I've always said, we've never aired anything like that.
"Jeff and I had a great relationship," Keifer repeated. "I loved Jeff — I really did — and have so many great memories of our journey together. He was amazing, and not just what he contributed to the music. Jeff had such a great sense of humor, and some of my favorite memories with Jeff are just kind of cutting up together on the bus. We were both big movie fans and could quote pretty much all our favorite movies. And we'd sit in the front lounge and quote 'Arthur' and 'The Big Lebowski' and 'Caddyshack'. He was just a really passionate, really fun guy to be around, and obviously, an amazing performer. He was a huge part of CINDERELLA.
"Like I said, you're never ready for that. And everyone is really honestly… I'm in touch with Eric [Brittingham, bass] and Fred [Coury, drums] regularly — everybody close to him — and we're still trying to process it. We really are."
Although CINDERELLA hasn't released a new studio album since 1994's "Still Climbing", the band started playing sporadic shows again in 2010 but has been largely inactive for the last few years while Keifer focused on his solo career.
Fan-filmed video of KISS's June 18 concert at Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden can be seen below.
The band's setlist was as follows:
01. Detroit Rock City
02. Shout It Out Loud
03. Deuce
04. War Machine
05. Heaven's On Fire
06. I Love It Loud
07. Say Yeah
08. Cold Gin
09. Guitar Solo
10. Lick It Up
11. Calling Dr. Love
12. Tears Are Falling
13. Psycho Circus
14. Drum Solo
15. 100,000 Years
16. Bass Solo
17. God Of Thunder
18. Love Gun
19. I Was Made For Lovin' You
20. Black Diamond
ncore:
21. Beth
22. Do You Love Me
23. Rock And Roll All Nite
KISS's "End Of The Road" farewell tour launched in 2019 and is scheduled to end sometime in 2023, 50 years after the band's formation.
In a phone interview, KISS frontman Paul Stanley stated about the band's live shows: "There's nothing really that can compete or come close to the combustive emotional nature of what we do on stage and the connection to the fans. That's something that's irreplaceable. That's something that there's nothing to compare it to."
Regarding KISS's decision to complete one last tour before calling it quits, Stanley said: "This is really a time of joy and for us to be up there and celebrate what we've done together. It's much better than finishing a tour, let's say, and then a year later deciding you don't want to go out and two years later you decide you don't want to go out. In that sense, you've called it quits, but this is so much better for us and better for the fans to go out there with the highest of spirits and the greatest of shows."
Speaking about the "End Of The Road" stage production, Stanley said: "The show this time really is the ultimate KISS show. With that in mind, we wanted to put together something that really raised the bar, not just for us, but as happened over the years, raises the bar for every act out there. That's a good thing because the fans win because of it. This show is more bombastic. There's more pyro. The lights are stunning. The automation involved, the computer synchronization is unlike anything we've ever done, and yet it doesn't lose, we don't wind up with something that's technical and sterile over something that's passionate and gritty. So it's a marvel, I've got to tell you. It left us speechless when we first saw the finished stage. And for us to be silent is a miracle in itself."
KISS was forced to put its farewell trek on hold in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last October, Stanley said that the final concert of the "End Of The Road" tour will likely happen by early 2023.
"End Of The Road" was originally scheduled to conclude on July 17, 2021 in New York City but has since been extended. The trek was announced in September 2018 following a KISS performance of the band's classic song "Detroit Rock City" on "America's Got Talent".
KISS's current lineup consists of original members Stanley and bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, alongside later band additions, guitarist Tommy Thayer (since 2002) and drummer Eric Singer (on and off since 1991).
Formed in 1973 by Stanley, Simmons, drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley, KISS's first "farewell" tour in 2000 was the last to feature the group's original lineup.
MÖTLEY CRÜE's Tommy Lee sat behind the drums for the first three songs of the band's concert last night (Saturday, June 18) at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida despite sustaining four broken ribs a couple of weeks ago. As was the case at the opening show of "The Stadium Tour" two nights earlier in Atlanta, Georgia, the drummer defied doctor's orders to take part in the CRÜE's long-awaited return to the stage with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS.
Lee played "Wild Side", "Shout At The Devil" and "Too Fast For Love" with his bandmates and then left from behind his kit to address the crowd.
"You guys, you're not gonna fucking believe this shit," he said (see video below). "Some of you may know; some of you may not know. For those who don't know, about — I don't know — 12, 13 days ago, I broke not one, not two, not three, but four fucking ribs right here [places left hand on his right side]. And I'm fucking, like, 'Are you fucking kidding me, dude? Fuck!' We've been waiting way too long for this shit, man. My fucking heart is broken — along with the ribs. So the doctor goes, 'Listen, bro. By the way, no fucking playing.' I'm, like, 'Dude, there's no fucking way. We have a tour in a fucking few days. What the fuck am I gonna do?' So I'm gonna fucking pop in and out as much as I can. It hurts like a fucking bitch. And my boy Tommy up here, he's gonna fucking help me out here. And I'll be back out. I'll see you guys in a minute. But at the fucking time, at this moment, the show must fucking go on, goddamnit."
Lee was replaced for the remainder of the set by Tommy Clufetos, who plays drums in Ozzy Osbourne's live band and who sat behind the kit for BLACK SABBATH on the legendary heavy metal act's final tour. Lee briefly returned later in the night to play piano on "Home Sweet Home".
The setlist for the Miami Gardens concert was as follows:
01. Wild Side
02. Shout At The Devil
03. Too Fast For Love
04. Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) (Tommy Lee replaced on drums by Tommy Clufetos)
05. Saints Of Los Angeles
06. Live Wire
07. Looks That Kill
08. The Dirt (Est. 1981) (Machine Gun Kelly on tape)
09. Medley: Rock And Roll, Part 2 / Smokin' In The Boys Room / White Punks On Dope / Helter Skelter / Anarchy In The U.K.
10. Home Sweet Home (Tommy Lee temporarily returns to play piano)
11. Dr. Feelgood
12. Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)
13. Girls, Girls, Girls
14. Primal Scream
15. Kickstart My Heart
On Friday, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx praised Tommy for "beasting" through the first five songs of the band's set in Atlanta, writing on Twitter: "The fact that Tommy was told by the doctor to not play with 4 broken ribs & he beasted half our show is a miracle. We are a band and are proud of his strength. He is doing the whole tour and day by day adding more songs. What a fucking animal. Anybody out there ever break ur ribs?"
CRÜE's long-delayed North American trek with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS was originally planned for 2020 and later moved to 2021 and then to 2022. "The Stadium Tour" will conclude on September 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The next show on the trek is scheduled to take place tonight (Sunday, June 19) at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
Clufetos is Sixx's bandmate in a project called L.A. RATS. The quartet, which also features Rob Zombie and John 5 (ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON),came together last year expressly to record a cover of "I've Been Everywhere" for the soundtrack to the movie "The Ice Road".
"The Stadium Tour" marks the CRÜE's first live dates since wrapping its 2014/2015 farewell tour. CRÜE toured with POISON back in 2011 and DEF LEPPARD teamed up with POISON for a string of road dates in 2017, but this jaunt marks the first time all four acts have hit the road together for an extended tour.
CRÜE fans who shelled out for the band's 2014/2015 "farewell" tour were led to believe that the group would never return after playing its final show on December 2015 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The band touted the signing of a pre-tour "cessation of touring" agreement as cementing the fact it truly was the end of CRÜE's life on the road. @MrTommyLand has not “quit” the tour. He’s still out there. Here’s proof. Miami he played 3 songs and home sweet home. For broken ribs - he did great. Great show! #stadiumtour#motleycrue@MotleyCruepic.twitter.com/LbTGuQuwOh
Finnish cello-rock quartet, Apocalyptica, have released the video below, featuring their performance of "I Don't Care" at Graspop Metal Meeting 2016, featuring vocalist Franky Perez.
Vocals for the song were originally performed by Adam Gontier (Saint Asonia, ex-Three Days Grace) for Apocalyptica's 2008 album, Worlds Collide.
After the release of their track “I’ll Get Through It” with Franky Perez and Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath), Apocalyptica now announce the first of three classical instrumental tracks to be released throughout this summer.
“Bolero” is Apocalyptica’s own version of Maurice Ravel’s classic ballet piece and it therefore marks the band’s first reinterpretation of a classical song since “Hall Of The Mountain King” in 2000. Listen to Bolero here, and watch the video below.
Apocalyptica will be touring the US extensively in 2022, as well as playing multiple summer festivals, among other dates, before hitting Europe with the aptly named Epic Apocalypse Tour alongside Epica and Wheel. All dates can be found here.
Baltimore-based death metal savants, Misery Index, recently released their new record, Complete Control. watch a drum playthrough of the track, "The Eaters And The Eaten", below.
Complete Control was mixed by Will Putney, mastered by Jens Bogren / Fascination Street studios and features artwork by Matt Lombard, which can be seen below.
Complete Control, the seventh studio album and Century Media debut for Misery Index, is a riff-driven assault that captures the tension of the modern condition and channels it into 9 songs of ripping end-times death metal. Spewing with Orwellian invective and razor-sharp songwriting, Complete Control is a much-needed hammer to the face; a wake-up call for the disaffected and dispossessed.
Complete Control tracklisting:
"Administer The Dagger"
"The Eaters And The Eaten"
"Complete Control"
"Necessary Suffering"
"Rites Of Cruelty"
"Conspiracy Of None"
"Infiltrators"
"Reciprocal Repulsion"
"Now Defied!"
“Complete Control” video:
"Infiltrators" video:
"The Eaters And The Eaten" video:
Misery Index lineup:
Darin Morris: guitar
Mark Kloeppel: guitar, vocals
Adam Jarvis: drums
Jason Netherton: bass, vocals
METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo joined DOWN on stage Thursday (June 16) at the end of the Philip Anselmo-fronted band's set at the Copenhell festival in Denmark. British musician Paul Bond, who is apparently traveling with DOWN as part of the band's road crew, shared video of Trujillo's appearance and wrote in an accompanying message: "OK … so this DID happen last night! Rob Trujillo got invited to jam with DOWN, but Kirk [Windstein, DOWN guitarist] handed his guitar to ME! I got to share the stage with DOWN and Rob… as James Hetfield, Lars [Ulrich] and some of KORN watched from the side! If there weren't documentary evidence, I probably would have passed it off as a weird dream!!!"
METALLICA headlined the first night (Wednesday, June 15) of Copenhell, which is taking place over four days at Refshaleøen in Copenhagen. Other bands who were scheduled to perform at the sold-out event are IRON MAIDEN, KISS and JUDAS PRIEST.
Last month, Windstein spoke to Pierre Gutiérrez of Rock Talks about the status of DOWN's long-discussed EP of "obscure" cover songs. He said: "We have been talking about this for a long time. What's been happening is DOWN is kind of now as it started, which was a side project. We love doing it and it's a ton of fun and we love it — we love the band; it's an amazing band — but everybody's back to doing their other bands. Pepper's [Keenan, guitar] doing C.O.C. full-time, Jimmy's [Bower, drums] doing EYEHATEGOD, I'm doing CROWBAR, Phil's got a lot on his hands and a lot of projects, as he always did and always will.
"I would love to knock out this cover-song EP," he continued. "We really haven't, to my knowledge, agreed upon the songs a hundred percent yet. Right now we're more concerned with just being properly rehearsed for the shows that we have coming up at the end of May. And we have three festivals in Europe at the end of June that we need to be prepared for as well. So we're kind of concentrating on that, and maybe after that we'll see where we're at with the cover-song EP."
Asked by Gutiérrez if the members of DOWN have already picked a few songs to cover on the upcoming EP, Windstein said: "We have a few that I think we all agree on, but in the end it's really Phil's choice. The other guys, and Phil as well, have texted each other back and forth and e-mailed each other a million different songs that we think would be good. To me, we need to just sit down and have an actual meeting and say, 'All right, guys. What songs are we gonna do? And let's learn 'em. And make 'em sound like DOWN.' We don't wanna be a cover-song band like you have on a cruise ship or something; we want to redo these songs in a DOWN style. And no disrespect to cover-song bands on a cruise ship or anywhere else… But seriously, we just need to agree on the songs and get down to work with it.
"Life starts to take over as you get older," Kirk added, explaining the delay in recording the new DOWN EP. "We have children, and some of us are married… Life starts to take over where it's difficult with everyone's schedule, like, 'Okay, when can we all get together?' Because this one's got this family function going on and this one's got this family function going on. As you get older, it does make it a little more difficult. But we just need to get in a room and talk and figure it out. And I can't wait to do that; I think it's gonna be great."
Pressed about which tracks have already been agreed upon for inclusion on the DOWN covers EP, Kirk said: "I'd rather not [discuss that in interviews yet] because there's only maybe one or two that are really set in stone. Some of it's some obscure stuff, so I would rather… When we have one hundred percent agreement on all the guys as to what we're gonna do, then maybe in interviews we'll talk about it."
When Gutiérrez mentioned that it would be cool to hear DOWN cover a KISS song, Windstein said: "Pepper threw one out that I love, so you never know. Once again, it's really up to Phil in the end, what he feels is great for his voice and what KISS song, if we did, would we do. I mean, we have one in mind, but can we make it sound like DOWN? Maybe so. It's gotta sound like we wrote it; it's gotta sound like us."
As for the possibility of a new full-length album of original material from DOWN, Kirk said: "That's another thing that needs to be discussed at some point. To me, it would almost be easier to just everybody write riffs and get together than try to decide on which cover songs to do. I'm sure that we'll get around to it at some point. We're not getting any younger and it's something that we enjoy and I think that the fans would love it as well. So I'm sure at some point we'll get around to it."
Joining Windstein in DOWN's current lineup are Anselmo, Keenan, Bower and bassist Pat Bruders.
Last August, DOWN took part in a very special in-person live and virtual experience. "NOLA Town Throwdown" was held at the Fillmore in New Orleans, Louisiana and featured fans attending the show in person as well as watching it in real time from the comfort of their living room.
In August 2020, DOWN celebrated the 25th anniversary of "NOLA" with a special livestreamed event. Dubbed "The Quarter Century Throwdown", the high-production, multi-camera event took place using cutting-edge streaming technology to create a one-of-a-kind virtual concert experience.
A founding member of DOWN, Windstein left the band in 2013 in order to focus on CROWBAR and his family life. He was replaced by Bobby Landgraf, DOWN's former guitar tech who was previously in GAHDZILLA MOTOR COMPANY, a 1990s outfit also featuring Jason McMaster (DANGEROUS TOYS, WATCHTOWER),and HONKY.
Windstein announced his return to DOWN in 2019, with the band confirming a number of festival appearances for 2020 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "NOLA", all of which have since been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe.
Prior to the August 2020 livestream, DOWN's last live appearance took place in August 2016 at the Psycho Las Vegas festival in Las Vegas.
OK … so this DID happen last night!
Rob Trujillo got invited to jam with Down, but Kirk handed his guitar to ME! I got to share the stage with Down and Rob… as James Hetfield, Lars and some of Korn watched from the side!
If there weren’t documentary evidence, I probably would have passed it off as a weird dream!!!
U.S. rockers The Loyal Order has premiered their new music video for “Last Words” via BraveWords! The video was directed by Rob Daiker and was filmed at Island Station Media Lab. Save/download “Last Words” here and watch the music video below:
The Loyal Order first hatched as a studio project several years ago when Jeff Buehner was approached to write a theme song for a regional outdoor hunting reality show. He reached out to guitarist Brandon Cook for a heavy riff, and the result was a song called Off the Grid (Superhuman). It aired regionally in the Pacific NW for two seasons.
A bass player by trade, singing is a new beginning for Jeff. The songs were originally crafted with a different singer in mind, but after laying scratch tracks for the first few songs, the producer (Kevin Hahn) convinced him to lay the final tracks himself.
From this songwriting partnership between Buehner and Cook, the songs began to flow. They soon approached producer Rob Daiker at The Commune in Portland, Oregon, who has crafted major label releases with Slowrush, The Dan Reed Network, and Royal Bliss.
Rounding out the band is Patrick Young on bass and Kyle Baltus on the drums; prominent Pacific NW rock players that have made names for themselves locally and nationally.
From Ashes To New have released “Heartache” via Better Noise Music. The band, which boasts four Top Ten Active Rock singles and over 345M streams across digital music platforms, also premier an impactful new video to accompany the single. Listen to “Heartache” here, and watch the video below.
The new song sonically depicts the true “phoenix rising from the ashes” story behind the band’s name. From the opening lines, “Growing up in a prison is, Nothing different than the town I’m used to living in,” the track highlights the humble beginnings, poverty, family addiction, mental health issues each band member has faced, along with the current awareness of how those things have changed the trajectory of how they live now.
Directed by JosiahX, the “Heartache” music video captures and illustrates the feeling of the darkness from which each band member originated.
Lead singer Matt Brandyberry reflected on what inspired the song, saying, “Heartache. It's something we have all experienced and for most of us, something that defines a large portion of our lives. Filling our hearts with happiness gets us through each passing day, but the moments that cause pain are what condition us for our futures. Our stories began with heartache and from that heartache we manifested our happiness. With the good comes the bad, but from the bad we create the great. We are nothing without the heartache.”
This summer the band will be joining Memphis May Fire on the Remade In Misery tour across North America. The tour will kick off in Charlotte, NC on June 24 and end in Alton, VA on September 10. Fans can catch the band in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Denver, and San Diego. See a full list of dates below.
June
24 - Charlotte, NC - The Underground
25 - Pittsburgh, PA - Enclave
26 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
28 - New York, NY - Gramercy Theatre
29 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
30 - Montreal, QC - Fairmount Theatre
July
2 - Toronto, ON - Velvet Underground
3 - Pontiac, MI - Crofoot
5 - Columbus, OH - King of Clubs
6 - Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge
8 - St. Louis, MO - Red Flag
9 - Kansas City, MO - Truman
11 - Denver, CO - Oriental Theater
12 - Grand Junction, CO - Mesa Theater
15 - Mansfield, OH - INKcarceration Festival
16 - Cadott, WI - Rock Fest
19 - Ventura, CA - Ventura Music Hall
20 - Pomona, CA - Glasshouse
22 - San Diego, CA - Soma-Sidestage
23 - Las Vegas, NV - 24 Oxford
24 - Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom
26 - Lubbock, TX - Jake's Backroom
27 - Austin, TX - Emo’s
28 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
30 - Pensacola, FL - Vinyl Music Hall
31 - Orlando, FL - The Beacham
August
2 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
3 - Nashville, TN - Basement East
SEETHER recently announced the deluxe edition of its acclaimed 2020 album, "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum". The effort, containing 22 tracks in all, five of which are previously unreleased, will be available on July 1. The official music video for the set's latest single, "What Would You Do?", can be seen below. The emotionally cathartic, terror-stricken visual, directed by Jon Vulpine (THREE DAYS GRACE, SKILLET, BACKSTREET BOYS),takes the band's well-known predilection for horror-film exhibitionism to a new level.
Teeming with SEETHER's signature combination of melody and cathartic release, the wealth of exceptional songs that encompasses the expanded deluxe edition of "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" bolsters leader Shaun Morgan's status as one of rock's most prolific and successful songwriters. It includes all 21 songs recorded during the "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" sessions, along with the alternate version of "Wasteland" that was originally featured on last year's "The Purgatory" EP.
Produced by Morgan and engineered and mixed by Matt Hyde (DEFTONES, AFI),the acclaimed "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" ("If you want peace, Prepare for war") was released in August 2020, spawned three No. 1 singles on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and at Active Rock radio and garnered some of the best reviews of the band's storied career.
Morgan stated about the brand-new track "Leech": "This song is a generalized reflection on abusive relationships and how they shape the way we see the world. Those are most often personal, but more often these days they are social. There is so much digital noise surrounding us all that we choose to ignore, at the peril of our kids and our collective wellbeing. We are slaves to smart phones and the absolute cancer that is social media, and it will not end well. Different viewpoints that stray from the echo chambers that people choose to live in result in public crucifixion and irrational hatred that is driven by a powerful propaganda force that spoonfeeds our opinions to us."
He continued: "Turn off the fucking TV, delete your social media and read a goddamn book or spend some time with your neighbors. We need to stop living in this procured vapid digital universe where we are merely products to enrich assholes and live more in the real world. I say that as an introvert, but even I can see the impending downfall of decency and morality."
Since forming in Pretoria, South Africa in 1999, SEETHER (Morgan, Dale Stewart, John Humphrey and Corey Lowery) has amassed a global, devoted fan base with an unbroken sense of purpose and commitment. Their impressive sales and chart history includes three platinum and two gold albums, 18 No. 1 singles, 21 Top 5 multi-format hits, single sales topping 17 million and over two billion streams worldwide across all platforms. SEETHER is Billboard's No. 8 all-time mainstream rock artist, which covers the over 40-year history of the chart's existence.
SEETHER recently finished a U.S. arena tour as special guests of BREAKING BENJAMIN.
"Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" deluxe edition track listing:
01. Dead And Done
02. Bruised And Bloodied
03. Wasteland
04. Dangerous
05. Liar
06. Can't Go Wrong
07. Buried In The Sand
08. Let It Go
09. Failure
10. Beg
11. Drift Away
12. Pride Before The Fall
13. Written In Stone
14. What Would You Do?
15. Will It Ever End?
16. Feast Or Famine
17. Wasteland (alternate version)
18. Leech*
19. Deliver Me*
20. On My Way*
21. Leave Me Be*
22. Crossed The Line*
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