Swedish occult rockers GHOST performed the songs "Spillways" and "Call Me Little Sunshine" live for the first time during the kick-off concert of their European tour on Saturday, April 9 at the AO Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom. Fan-filmed video is available below.
"Spillways" and "Call Me Little Sunshine" are both taken from GHOST's fifth album, "Impera", whcih sold 70,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. It marked the third top 10 album — and fifth top 40-charting set — for the Swedish act.
"Impera" landed at position No. 1 in Germany and Sweden, No. 2 in the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium and Norway, No. 3 in Australia, No. 5 in France and Ireland, and No. 20 in Italy.
"Impera" was released on March 11. The 12-song effort was produced by Klas Åhlund and mixed by Andy Wallace.
GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge worked on the follow-up to 2018's "Prequelle" with Åhlund and Swedish co-writers Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, whose credits include Madonna and Lady Gaga.
Regarding his collaboration with Åhlund, Al Fakir and Pontare, as well as OPETH's Fredrik Åkesson who was brought in to sharpen the album's guitar attack, Forge recently told St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "I found that I can work really well with someone I respect, who is always pushing for the best. They make me want to write better, to get my game up a little."
GHOST's U.S. co-headlining tour with VOLBEAT kicked off on January 25 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada and concluded on March 3 in Anaheim, California.
In March 2020, at final show of GHOST's "Prequelle" tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the new character who is fronting the act for its "Impera" album phase.
Forge performed as a "new" Papa Emeritus on each of the band's first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of "Prequelle".
The New Black guitarist / Who Brought The Dog frontman Fabian "Fabs" Schwarz kept himself busy during lockdown with more musical experimentation. He recently released unleashed a full lenghth album, ROAR!, via RetroSynth Records.
Schwarz has followed up with a non-album single, "Five Best Things", featuring The New Black vocalist Fludid, and lyrics penned by The New Black guitarist CHristof Leim.
The album cover artwork, tracklist and the line-up of guest vocalists for ROAR! are available below.
Tracklist:
"Hate Me In Return" (Fludid / The New Black)
"Skull And Bones" (Bina / Savanna Skean)
"Third Eye" (Alen Ljubic / Gloomball)
"A Man Of Power" (Charly Steinhauer /Paradox)
"Home Is Not A Place"
"Laserlust" (Fludid / The New Black)
"Runaway" (Bina / Savanna Skean)
"Disco Blue" (Fludid / The New Black)
"Hate Me In Return"
The New Black is a hard rock band hailing from Würzburg, Germany, launched in 2007 by Schwarz and guitarist Christof Leim. They have released four albums to date via AFM Records: The New Black (2009), II: Better in Black (2011), III: Cut Loose (2013) and A Monster’s Life (2016).
Italian heavy rockers LACUNA COIL played their first show in front of an audience in more than two years last night (Thursday, April 7) as the support act for APOCALYPTICA at the Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia. Fan-filmed video is available below.
Prior to last night's concert, the last time LACUNA COIL played together was at the group's special September 2020 livestream event where the bandmembers performed their latest album, "Black Anima", in its entirety with no audience in attendance at the Alcatraz Club in Milan, Italy. That show was released as a live album, "Live From The Apocalypse", via Century Media.
LACUNA COIL hadn't played in front of a crowd since the completion of the band's South American tour in February 2020.
Less than two months ago, LACUNA COIL said that it had entered the studio to begin recording "a very special project." No further details have been made available.
Last June, LACUNA COIL singer Cristina Scabbia told Revolver that she and her bandmates didn't use the coronavirus downtime to work on new music. "We didn't want to force the fact that because we were home, we had to write music," she explained. "We always thought that to write music, you need to be inspired. And inspiration comes from the outside, comes from experiences that you have, things that you live. At least this is valid for us.
"Everything we do in a regular life, in a normal life enriches us and gives us input that we can put in our music," she said. "And also we like to write together. So, if Marco [Coti Zelati, bass] creates the basis of the music together with the other musicians in the band, then Andrea [Ferro, vocals] and I jump in with the lyrics and vocal lines. But we do that together. We need to enter in songwriting mode. So we didn't really like the fact that we had to write separately just because we have to put a record [together] because it's quarantine. Now we are starting to collect ideas 'cause we feel a little bit happier."
Scabbia continued: "We didn't want anything connected to the negativity of the pandemic… That's why I used my time to do something completely different. Because I know that what I did that it's completely different from what I usually do will make me start again to do what I did before with passion — with the same passion. I was just afraid that if I would have used all the downtime making music when I didn't really want to, it would have had a negative influence on me. And it would have been, like, 'I really don't want to do that.' And I also wanted to prove to myself that, yeah, music is main passion. I love what I do for a living, and I hope that I can do it until the day I die. But I also wanted to show myself that I can be capable of doing something else as well."
In February 2021, LACUNA COIL took part in an initiative dubbed "L'Ultimo Concerto?" (Last Concert) to highlight the increasingly uncertain future of music venues. Instead of delivering live performances as part of a scheduled free virtual stream, each of around 130 Italian artists was filmed taking the stage at a different venue and then standing there in silence as a way of commemorating the one-year mark since the first Italian venues closed.
King Crimson founder Robert Fripp and his singer wife Toyah Willcox are back with another episode in their "Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch" series. This time they take on Living Colour's "Cult Of Personality". Watch below:
A selection of Robert & Toyah's previous Sunday Lunch videos can be seen below:
On April 4th, Judas Priest was forced to cancel their show in Lowell, MA due to frontman Rob Halford battling a cold. The tour resumed on April 7th in Halifax, NS at Scotiabank Centre. Fan-filmed video is available below.
Remaining dates on the tour are as follows:
April
10 - Videotron Center - Quebec City, Quebec
11 - Place Bell - Montreal, Quebec
13 - FirstOntario Centre - Hamilton, Ontario
Lena Scissorhands Featuring Death Dealer Union have released a video for the new single, "Borderlines". Buy stream the song here, and watch the video below.
"My first song in collaboration with Death Dealer Union... It didn’t just help me stay busy and creative in the times of a big global depression but also worked as therapy in the times of need. I had fun collaborating with new musicians! Please enjoy 'Borderlines.'" - Lena Scissorhands
"With all the amazing and talented bands of the last decade, we wanted to stand apart by capturing some of the foundational aspects of Metal and yet weave a strong thread of modern female fronted Nu-Metal but with no rules!" - CC McKenna
Lena Scissorhands featuring Death Dealer Union is an alternative power metal collaboration envisioned by drummer and main songwriter CC McKenna, a skilled veteran Los Angeles musician with vast experience as an actor, model and businessman.
Everything started when CC and the guitarist Doug Weiand started to compose music together during studio jam sessions. After a few songs took shape in the recording studio, they auditioned several lead vocalists before the awesome Lena Scissorhands, a true rock/metal queen, wrote and featured some phenomenal lead vocals on Death Dealer Union songs.
Seven Kingdoms have released the first single, "Universal Terrestrial", from their upcoming full-length album, Zenith. The music video for "Universal Terrestrial" was filmed during the crowdfunding campaign, which raised over $50,000 on Kickstarter.
7K guitarist Camden Cruz says, “We are very excited to release the first song from Zenith! We are packing this one up, and two more new songs with us for the Beast in Black tour that starts this week! We will actually be shooting the music video for Chasing the Mirage while we are on tour! We had a great time filming this song a few months ago with our main man, Jimmy Garcia. We hope you love it!”
DMG CEO Maurizio Iacono comments on the upcoming release: “Seven Kingdoms have released a thunderbolt of a single with 'Universal Terrestrial' and are poised to bring American power metal to international levels with their new album Zenith."
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).
Zenith will see a June 17 release via Distortion Music Group and can be pre-ordered here.
Zenith tracklisting:
"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)
Guitarist Thomas Zwijsen has released a new video, in which he performs an acoustic rendition of "Arc Of Space", featured on Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson's Accident Of Birth album, released in 1997.
Zwijsen previously released the video below, featuring an acoustic performance of Iron Maiden's "The Parchment". Written by Steve Harris, the song featured on Maiden's latest album, Senjutsu.
Carbon Black will release their third album, We Remain, on May 6. Today, the band release a video for the first single, "Under Order", featuring Tim "Ripper" Owens. Listen to the song here, and watch the video below.
Recorded piece-by-piece throughout the last eighteen months, the album We Remain is a hard hitting statement of perseverance and tenacity. Australian bush fires, political unrest, isolation and the global pandemic fuelled a collection of furious personal songs that dig deep into their experiences of the last two years and pull no punches. This is their most ambitious project to date.
The album was by mixed by Kevin “Caveman” Shirley (Dream Theater, Silverchair, Iron Maiden) during lockdown in his studio in Sydney, Australia. Recording sessions were engineered and produced by Lachlan Mitchell (Nazxul) at Parliament Studios, Sydney. Mastering was overseen by Alan Douches (Mastadon, Clutch) at West West Side, NY. Album artwork and animation is by Mike Morphett (Mortal Sin, Alcatrazz).
We Remain tracklisting:
"Red Flag"
"The One Who Knows My Name"
"Scars"
"Under Order" feat. Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens
"We Bleed"
"One Enemy"
"Our Reprise"
Toronto rockers, Danko Jones, have released a video for "Get To You", the latest single from their album, Power Trio, which landed at #25 on our BravePicks 2021 list. Watch below:
Power Trio is available via Sonic Unyon Records. Order the album here.
Tracklist:
"I Want Out"
"Good Lookin'"
"Saturday"
"Ship Of Lies"
"Raise Some Hell"
"Blue Jean Denim Jumpsuit"
"Get To You"
"Dangerous Kiss"
"Let’s Rock Together"
"Flaunt It"
"Start The Show" (feat. Phil Campbell)
MEGADETH kicked off the 2022 leg of "The Metal Tour Of The Year" with LAMB OF GOD, TRIVIUM and IN FLAMES last night (Saturday, April 9) at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
MEGADETH's setlist was as follows:
01. Hangar 18
02. Dread And The Fugitive Mind
03. Sweating Bullets
04. She-Wolf
05. Trust
06. Conquer Or Die
07. Dystopia
08. Symphony Of Destruction
09. Peace Sells
10. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
Fan-filmed video can be seen below.
The 2022 leg of "The Metal Tour Of The Year" will hit a further 21 cities before wrapping in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 15.
Last month, MEGADETH bassist James LoMenzo discussed the band's setlist for the 2022 leg of "The Metal Tour Of The Year" during a bassist roundtable video chat with Knotfest's Ryan J. Downey. "You have to take into account that Dave's [Mustaine, MEGADETH frontman] been through a lot with his voice, so a lot of the songs that we pick are predicated on [the fact] that he is healing correctly," the bassist said at the time, referencing Mustaine's recent battle with throat cancer. "So that's part of it as well. But it's a long road ahead. We're always swapping in songs. We've got a whole pile — they're all sitting, waiting to be let loose. That's the great thing about being in this band, is that there's just an inexhaustible catalog.
"I don't know how to say this delicately, so I'll just say it. The truth of the matter is when you go to see a lot of your favorite bands — let's be the fan guy; okay, let's go to see our favorite band… I remember when JUDAS PRIEST was doing all of 'Nostradamus'," he continued. "It was a good record, but it wasn't 'Hell Bent For Leather'. And I've gotta say that people wanna hear the songs that they love. Why wouldn't you play them for 'em?
"So that's the problem with a band like MEGADETH," James added. "And there are bands, as we move along — all bands, as you move along, you start just getting this giant catalog. And how do you get enough in there to give the core fans what they really want as opposed to the esoterics? You try and throw a thing here and there, but you've gotta keep the hits, man."
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.
Asked in an interview with Melodic.net what it has been like for him to play with MEGADETH on "The Metal Tour Of The Year" last summer after such a long absence from the band, James said: "Well, I'm really having the best time. Dave's [Mustaine] been really welcoming and supportive, and the band as a whole is just fantastic. It's a real powerhouse. Dirk is a dream drummer for this type of music, and Kiko's just so musically deep. Dave's playing as good or better than ever and now that he's on those Gibson guitars, his sound is so much more gut punching then I remember it."
Regarding how he ended up returning to MEGADETH, James said: "Dave's management reached out at first to see if I'd even be available, which I really wasn't, but after a call with Dave, I realized how important for MEGADETH and even for myself this would be. Time was ticking, so I knew it would be a crunch, but having been here once before the re-learning curve was a tad less steep. I made some arrangements with the Fogerty camp, and they were gracious enough to allow me a leave to do this."
Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the group's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.
Swedish death metal tyrants Demonical have issued a music video for a new song, titled "We Conquer The Throne", in anticipation of their seventh studio album Mass Destroyer, set for release on May 6th via Agonia Records. The video, which was directed by Tobias Rydsheim of Svartna Film, can be seen below.
Struck by a burst of inspiration, Demonical indulged in a creative spree immediately after the release of their antecedent offering,"World Domination; and with expertise worthy of death metal veterans, shaped it into Mass Destroyer. Developed in less than two years, the album reflects the energy that spawned its creation, and keeps to the Swede's HM2-beaten track, promising a few twists along the way. Adorned in an old fashioned attire, Mass Destroyer packs a gruesome punch, embodies organic sounding and delivers a truly fiendish experience from well-seasoned old-school death-dealers.
"A huge inspirational boost hit us so why waste time and wait? Just hammer while the metal is hot," explains the band, as to what seems to be a tried and true process, that already preceded Hellsworn (2009), Death Infernal (2011) and Darkness Unbound (2013). "The outcome is here, our seventh full-length and another vicious Demonical assault of Stockholm-style death metal madness and beyond," the band comments. "Once again and as always, we wanted to crawl back in time and explore the early days of death metal but with traces and hints of various other metallic subgenres."
Mark Riddick (Absu, Arsis) added his gruesome touch to Mass Destroyer in designing the fiendish cover artwork. Glashuset and Sellnoise Studios were used for recording with Johan Hjelm and Jonas Arnberg behind the helm, while Karl Daniel Liden mixed and mastered the album at his Tri-Lamb Studios.
"We worked with the same production team as last time and the result turned out nothing but great," the band continues. "A dynamic and breathing album we all feel very satisfied and proud off. Can’t wait to destroy the masses!"
Album formats:
- Digipak CD
- Box CD
- Tape
- LP (Black, Red and PD)
- Digital
"We Conquer The Throne"
"Sun Blackened"
"Fallen Mountain"
"Wrathspawn"
"Dödsmarsch"
"Lifeslave"
"Cemented In Ire"
"By Hatred Bound"
"Fallen Mountain" lyric video:
The May release of Mass Destroyer will see the band head out on a headlining string of six dates in Germany and Czech Republic with Nervochaos and Repuked as support.
Lineup:
Christofer Säterdal - vocals
Eki Kumpulainen - lead guitars
Johan Haglund - rhythm guitars
Martin Schulman - bass
Ronnie Bergerståhl - drums
"'Playing The Victim' and everything coming after it feels like the step forward we’ve always wanted to make with our music. It’s more aggressive, technical, and overall more catchy than anything we’ve done before, but it’s only the first of many. 'Playing The Victim' is just the tip of a very angry iceberg," says Christian Mayfield, vocalist for Acacia Ridge.
If there was ever a band that captured what it feels like to stand at the event horizon of a black hole, it’s Acacia Ridge. If there was ever a band that made you want to drive a ’72 Camaro through a brick wall just for the hell of it, it’s Acacia Ridge. If there was ever a band that captured the moment of agonizing adrenaline right before a tidal wave storms in, it could only be Acacia Ridge.
After the success of their first album, Watch Your Monarchs Fall, the band immediately turned their eyes to the future with the goal of creating heavier, more intricate, and overall better songs.
Enter "Playing The Victim", the first of a long line of earth-scorching singles that promise to redefine what Acacia Ridge is capable of. Their new music features faster guitars, catchier vocals, and the kind of drums that rearrange the inside of your ears. Acacia Ridge isn’t here to “defy-genre.” They’re here to make some damn good rock music.
"Playing The Victim" will be available on Spotify, Apple Music, and other major streaming platforms on April 15th.
Releasing the new album AQVA this past January via Rockshots Records, progressive power metal legion Beriedir is sharing with fans their latest music video for the track "Rain".
"Under a faint rain, in the early morning through an old city, this track makes us face the effects of regret, guilt, and nostalgia. Despite seemingly hostile, the suffocating roads of that place turn into an unlikely embrace, while the now pouring rain hides our tears. Anger suddenly adds to the mix, directed both outwards and inwards, while everything fades into a downpour after a hymn to that city," adds the band.
AQVA features ten tracks of progressive, power, and melodic death metal that were mixed and mastered by Simone Mularoni (Domination Studio).
AQVA, despite not being a real concept album with a story articulating itself throughout the tracks, touches its various topics through the many forms in which water manifests, be it a river, a storm or tears. The album deals with rather introspective matters, trying to give a new perspective on situations that Biriedir thinks their listeners will find relatable and hoping that they will maybe take shelter in their audio experience, using them as their own voice when only music can speak for us.
“We think AQVA will positively surprise our older fans and lead new ones, this record is much more diverse and has definitely matured in songwriting. The main goal of AQVA as a whole is to figuratively “submerge” the listener with a spectrum of themes, both musical and lyrical, related to water and its shapes. Water is the element of flow, it’s the substance that conceals, preserves, and washes all away. The lulling nature of a silent shore or a rapping rain is juxtaposed with the fearsome imagery of the undertow, riptides, and tidal waves. We tried to convey these atavistic sensations differently from track to track. The singles were chosen to showcase the variety of approaches to this theme,” adds band founder Stefano Nüsperli.
RISE AGAINST has shared a gripping new video for "Nowhere Generation" single "Talking To Ourselves" — a standout track about falling to complacency and feeling as though no one is listening — that features evolving and cryptic transmissions for fans to discover via QR codes, and are encouraged to follow over the next few weeks.
"The intention behind the video was to yet again shed light on us as a society and to expand on the feeling that we have progressively lost our humanity," explains director Ryan Valdez. "In our video, the QR codes represent little windows to the world outside of our bubbles, only to be dismissed and swiped onto the next event. It feels so bleak. Heartbreaking headlines are so disposable and just another hashtag buried in the news of celebrity gossip and trending dances. As we watch and Tim sings 'Are we talking to ourselves,' I hope it reminds us to be human, listen, speak up and do better."
The new video follows the February release of "Talking To Ourselves (IDLES Inner Monologue Remix)", a pulsing, synth-driven, transformative re-working by British band IDLES.
RISE AGAINST, who are currently on the road through April 22, playing the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto tonight, will head back out on tour this summer for a U.S. headline run that includes shows at The Forum in Los Angeles (July 19) and The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City (August 9), with support from THE USED and SENSES FAIL.
RISE AGAINST's latest album, "Nowhere Generation", saw its title track, No. 1 Rock-charting hit earn various spots on Billboard's Year-End Charts for radio airplay, including No. 4 at Mainstream Rock Songs and No. 5 at Rock Airplay Songs, as well as iHeartRadio's No. 10 most played Alternative song in 2021. The band was also Billboard's No. 9 most-played artist on rock radio in 2021, alongside Billie Eilish, FOO FIGHTERS and more.
On "Nowhere Generation", the multi-gold and platinum band draws a line in the sand with its blazing and aggressive punk rock and lyrics that shine a spotlight on the social and economical deck that has been stacked against our younger generations' pursuit of The American Dream. The album debuted at the top of multiple Billboard charts with its first week sales (No. 1 on Rock, No. 3 on Top Current Albums, No. 3 on Vinyl, and the Top 40 of the Top 200), and earned great press from outlets, including Revolver, Consequence, Loudwire, Brooklyn Vegan, Grammy.com, American Songwriter, The Line Of Best Fit, Clash and Kerrang!, among others. The album's June 4, 2021, release date was also declared "Rise Against Day" in Chicago, the band's original hometown.
Last November, RISE AGAINST shared the "Nowhere Sessions" EP, a six-track live expansion of the album that captures and celebrates the anthemic intensity of the band's renowned performances. Singles from the EP included "Talking To Ourselves (Nowhere Sessions)" and a cover of CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL's "Fortunate Son".
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