French drum company ASBA has just signed London Hudson, 18-year-old son of GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist Slash.

London is currently a member of the Southern California rock band SUSPECT208 which released its debut single, “Long Awaited”, in November. He is joined in the group by 20-year-old Noah Weiland, the son of late STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Scott Weiland; and 16-year-old bassist Tye Trujillo, son of METALLICA bass player Robert Trujillo. An EP will follow in the coming months.

In a 2018 interview with the “Appetite For Distortion” podcast, London was asked when he realized how famous his father was. “Since I was little, especially with the VELVET REVOLVER stuff, because that was the most I toured with him, was for the VELVET REVOLVER stuff,” he said. “Seeing that many people at the shows was kind of crazy, and how they all just worshipped. Then going on the last GN’R tour, and seeing all those people who still like him for much older stuff, is when it really clicked, going on that tour. But it never really hit me until this summer, where I was like, I don’t want to live in his shadow, when I started playing in the band. That’s the main reason I don’t play guitar or stringed instruments.”

London said that he got into the drums a while ago, explaining: “It was years back, for me it was around fifth or sixth grade…I played bass for a year then, and I was just getting sick of it, and just bored, and I wanted to do something different. I was at Guitar Center with my dad, and I started playing on the drum kit and really liked it.”

Solera’s Palate Jack is a hazy IPA that will win the over-hopped hearts of beer drinkers looking for a respite from bitterness.
The post No Corporate Beer Reviews: Palate Jack appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

“Black Sabbath: Breaking The Band”, which focuses on BLACK SABBATH’s huge success and subsequent downfall, will premiere on Sunday, December 6 at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on Reelz.

With its mischievous and prankster lead singer Ozzy Osbourne juxtaposed against the business-minded and reserved band founder Tony Iommi, BLACK SABBATH was, at its core, a volatile mix. Add on bad management, grueling touring demands and heavy drug use and you get a band that reached its breaking point.

Often called the godfathers of heavy metal rock music, BLACK SABBATH came from humble origins to become some of the most successful and outrageous of rock stars. Their hedonism and antics on stage were unparalleled as was their volatility off stage. “Black Sabbath: Breaking The Band” follows their journey from the band’s early beginnings in Birmingham, England in the 1960s to heavy metal infamy and their eventual breakup. Combining rare behind-the-scene footage and stylized dramatic reconstructions for moments the cameras missed, extensive archive and revealing interviews see the turbulent history of a band that battled with egos, crippling drug and alcohol addictions and music business mobsters who almost robbed them of everything they had. Sharing their personal stories of the band are former road managers Geoff Lucas and Graham Wright, and Ozzy’s former personal assistant David Tangye, along with insight from band biographer Steven Rosen and music journalist Sylvie Simmons.

“Black Sabbath: Breaking The Band” is produced by Potato, part of ITV Studios.

SABBATH finished its “The End” tour in 2017 in Birmingham, closing out the quartet’s groundbreaking 49-year career.

“The End” was SABBATH’s last tour because Iommi, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and is currently in remission, can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

SABBATH wrote and recorded its 2013 reunion album, “13”, and toured it all over the world while Iommi was going through treatment for his illness, with the guitarist having to fly back to England every six weeks.

The original lineup of SABBATH came together in 1969 with Iommi, Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. That lineup recorded and toured through 1978, and periodically reformed through the ’90s and 2000s for live work.

They regrouped again in late 2011 for a new album and tour, although Ward dropped out after a few months over financial issues. SABBATH used Ozzy’s regular touring drummer Tommy Clufetos since then for live work. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE’s Brad Wilk laid down the drum tracks on “13”, which came out in June 2013.

John Cooper, the frontman and bassist for SKILLET, a Grammy-nominated Christian rock band with three gold-certified albums and one double-platinum-certified album to its name, spoke to “The Eric Metaxas Radio Show” about his recently released debut book, “Awake & Alive To Truth (Finding Truth In The Chaos Of A Relativistic World)”. Regarding his inspiration for writing the book, John said (see video below): “My mom was a Jesus freak, so I was raised in a Christian family. My mom taught me about the Bible ever since I was a kid.

“For 20 years on the road, people always ask, ‘What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?’ And I say the best advice I’ve ever been given is seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will be added to you,” he continued. “It is the foundation of life. If you build your life on top of the words of Jesus Christ — and, of course, the Scriptures — then you will be unshakeable, because you are in line with the Creator. But if you don’t build your life on that foundation, then everything else is going to fall. And I think we’re even seeing that in America. We’re even seeing it in the Christian church in America at large. The Christian church no longer believes in the absolute truth of the word. We’ve replaced it with emotionalism; we’ve replaced it with the way we feel like we want things to be; and we’ve replaced it with putting ourselves on the throne.

“This book talks about some of the philosophies of the day, a little bit about critical race theory, a little bit about post-modernism, identity politics, how that’s coming, but it leads to that. So you can break those things down and then get to authority of Scripture. Because without authority of scripture, we don’t have anything to put our lives on.

“The reason I’m so passionate about it is, in my line of work, I ran into so many professing Christians who said, ‘John, I’m totally into Jesus. I’m just not into the Bible.’ And I kept thinking, ‘That’s not even possible. That doesn’t even make any sense.’ Jesus is the word.

“I call this book ‘Theology For Dummies’,” John added. “Maybe you can’t sit through a John Calvin book. You can sit through my book, and I hope that it can help people who are outside of faith, maybe not even familiar with Christianity, understand authority of scripture and the person of Jesus Christ, who is fully man but also incarnate of God.”

After traveling the world for 23 years as the lead singer/bassist for SKILLET, the Memphis, Tennessee-born Cooper, who lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin, says he has noticed one consistent issue: people are desperately confused. “Awake & Alive To Truth” tackles the reigning philosophies of our day of post-modernism, relativism, and the popular view of the goodness of man-and combats these viewpoints by standing on the absolute truth of the Word of God. “Awake & Alive To Truth” answers some of the most asked questions in modern culture. Cooper takes readers on a journey through personal stories, the doctrine of original sin, the authority of Scripture, the danger of trusting your emotions, and ends with the greatest news possible: God wants to rescue you from the chaos and the darkness and bring you into His glorious light.

In the fall of 2019, Cooper launched his “Cooper Stuff” podcast following the chain reaction to a popular post he titled “What In God’s Name is Happening in Christianity?” dealing with faith leaders and ‘influencers’ falling away from their faith. Since then, Cooper has taken hot-button issues head-on, and gained an ever-growing audience. One of his more recent episodes, currently with over 500,000 views, came when an outbreak of violence took over downtown Kenosha, just blocks from his home, after the Jacob Blake shooting. Other topics/titles have included “Cancel Christianity,” “Falling Into The Abyss Of Wokeness,” “Christian Leaders Are Failing Us,” “Civil War In The Church, “Equity, Diversity And Inclusion Is The New Sex, Drugs And Rock ‘N Roll,” and many more.

“In an era of tolerance and self-proclaimed love, why are we getting angrier and lonelier?” Cooper asks. “One big reason is because relative truth doesn’t work. If nothing is absolutely true, then anything can be viewed as good. Political and social movements create a popular opinion that through social media and the news media are promulgated as virtuous, only to be changed the next day.

“I wrote ‘Awake & Alive To Truth’ because we live in a culture that is more concerned with tone rather than honesty, emotion rather than critical thinking, and empathy rather than truth. I believe truth is revealed by God and God alone. The identity you belong to — the color of your skin, your gender, or your economic status — cannot be a prerequisite for understanding the truth.”

LACUNA COIL’s Cristina Scabbia has called out people who claim that the coronavirus is “just a flu” and that the impact of the virus has been vastly exaggerated.

Earlier today, the Italian singer took to her Instagram to share a photo of her negative coronavirus test, and she included the following message: “Nope, I’m not pregnant, sit down 😉 But. I got tested and I am negative to covid-19.

“Happy? For sure. Celebrating? Nope, we are not out of this mess yet and I still think about the ones who lost their lives and others who are still fighting for it.

“Even though way more people (compared to the first lockdown period) around me got the virus, I have been trying to prevent as much as I can, wearing a mask and keeping my distance from others and so far I’ve been lucky.

“Please be careful out there, we all want to go back to normality and whoever thinks ‘it’s just a flu’ should definitely visit some hospitals of simply the houses of some people I know who met this micro bastard. It’s definitely no fun.

“Wish you all the best and all the health”.

This past July, Scabbia blasted people who promote the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a strategy conceived by global elites — such as Bill Gates — to roll out vaccinations with tracking chips that would later be activated by 5G, the technology used by cellular networks. She also criticized people who refuse to wear a mask in public spaces to protect others from possible infection.

About 2 percent of diagnosed coronavirus cases are lethal, compared with 0.1 percent of diagnosed flu cases, according to The Washington Post.

More than 1.6 million people have been infected with the coronavirus in Italy, where LACUNA COIL is based, and more than 58,000 have died.

Italy recorded 993 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, eclipsing the 969 peak reached on March 27, when the country was in full lockdown.

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Graham Bonnet says that he will “still be recording and performing with ALCATRAZZ” despite the fact that he has parted ways with the musicians who performed with him on the band’s latest album, “Born Innocent”.

Earlier today, ALCATRAZZ members Jimmy Waldo, Joe Stump, Gary Shea and Mark Benquechea issued a statement saying that will be joined by singer Doogie White (RAINBOW, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST) for all their 2021 touring. The announcement came less than a month after Bonnet said that he was “no longer affiliated” with ALCATRAZZ’s manager Giles Lavery.” At the time, the other ALCATRAZZ members shot back, saying that they were “still represented” by Lavery and blasting Bonnet for “dictat[ing] to us who our collective or individual manager may or may not be.”

Earlier today, Bonnet released the following statement via his social media:

“Hey everyone! Graham here. I’ve received some messages this morning in reference to the press release by my former band members and feel compelled to address them here rather than respond individually.

“Just to be clear, I will still be recording and performing with ALCATRAZZ. I am the founder and main songwriter and have been since the band’s inception in ’83.

“I’m currently in the studio finishing up the third GRAHAM BONNET BAND album and once delivered, I will begin working on a new ALCATRAZZ record.

“I’ll be announcing the incredible new ALCATRAZZ line-up in the spring and can’t wait to take this show on the road! See you then!”

When Waldo, Stump, Shea and Benquechea announced that they were working with White, they vowed to put on “an explosive live show featuring all of the ALCATRAZZ classics that you know, plus added selections from Doogie’s work with RAINBOW and MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST/TEMPLE OF ROCK.” They also floated the possibility of “a couple [of] new songs as well.”

Waldo, Stump, Shea and Benquechea’s version of ALCATRAZZ has launched a Facebook page where they will be posting all their news going forward.

“Born Innocent” was released in July via Silver Lining Music. The LP featured Bonnet alongside fellow founding members Waldo and Shea, plus guitarist Joe Stump. Chris Impellitteri wrote the music and played all guitars on the “Born Innocent” title track, while Bob Kulick wrote and laid down guitar for “I Am The King”. Former ALCATRAZZ guitarist Steve Vai wrote “Dirty Like The City”.

Hey everyone! Graham here. I’ve received some messages this morning in reference to the press release by my former band…

Posted by Graham Bonnet & Alcatrazz on Friday, December 4, 2020

“Metallica: The Story Of The Songs” will premiere this Sunday, December 6 at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT on Reelz. It is described as a look at the making of METALLICA hits “One”, “Enter Sandman” and “St. Anger”, three of the tracks that helped turn the band from underground thrash metal pioneers to indisputable conquerors of the heavy metal world.

METALLICA is the most popular metal act in history with eight Grammy Awards and $1.4 billion in live ticket sales, but what was the inspiration behind their three career-defining songs? Starting with their 1989 breakthrough anti-war anthem “One”, hear from engineer Michael Barbiero who provides unique insights into the recording process, the controversy and self-sabotage that almost derailed the recording. METALLICA would later release the gruesome and chilling “Enter Sandman” that skyrocketed them to global commercial success and a bigger mainstream audience. Viewers will also see the band’s bickering and infighting as told by Mike Tacci who was sound engineer on the frontlines, while METALLICA music video director Wayne Isham lifts the lid on filming the nightmarish video for “Enter Sandman”.

With the band at breaking point after a slew of critically panned records and with frontman James Hetfield battling crippling addiction and personal demons, their next album proves to be their toughest challenge yet. Title track “St. Anger” sees METALLICA risk their commercial credibility releasing their most experimental and raw-sounding record to date. We hear from longtime METALLICA sound engineer Mike Gillies who witnessed the aggression and implosion of a band teetering on the brink of collapse and recalls the unique recording process that led to this huge hit.

Relive METALLICA’s wild ride and the three songs that saw them become the biggest heavy metal band on the planet.

“Metallica: The Story Of The Songs” is produced by ViacomCBS International Studios UK.

NORTH KINGSLEY, the musical collective of bassist/guitarist Shavo Odadjian, producer Saro Paparian and lyricist/vocalist Ray Hawthorne, has dropped its second three-track EP, “Vol 2”, via 22 Red Media, a subsidiary of Odadjian’s lifestyle and cannabis brand 22 Red. Launching the new release is the politically charged lead single “False Idols” featuring RZA (WU-TANG CLAN).

Speaking on the collective’s new single, Hawthorne shares: “We, as individuals, empower and idolize people who care for their own interests above ours. We need to recognize that. We need to look at things from all angles, and decide on our own what we agree and disagree with. We can’t continue to fall in line with the false idols that we bring upon ourselves. They’re coming from more places than you may think.”

“Vol 2” track listing

01. False Idols (ft. RZA)
02. Rifle In Thought
03. Shadowbox

With the launch of the project and the release of its first three-track EP “Vol 1” back in August, NORTH KINGSLEY has set out to do things differently. The way music is released, distributed and marketed is all being approached in a unique and creative way. Instead of a full album release, NORTH KINGSLEY is releasing miniature volumes of three tracks every few months.

When Shavo began experimental studio sessions with Paparian and Hawthorne, he had no idea that it would turn into anything more than a creative outlet to jam with like-minded musicians. The result was a genre-bending mix of deep, cinematic instrumentals and thought provoking, socially charged words.

Capitalizing on a musical legacy that includes musical collaborations with the likes of funk master George Clinton, spiritual hip-hop guru RZA and legendary production accomplice Rick Rubin, Odadjian’s sonic blueprint for his new project takes in everything from crisp and hard trap beats to gritty rock flavors.

In 2018, Odadjian came to Paparian, who provided him with an education in the latest, cutting-edge studio techniques. As an Armenian-American raised on everything from SOAD to surf rock, Paparian took that base principle and spent years around the underground Los Angeles hip-hop community, going to club nights where people would manufacture beats and he and Ray would lose themselves for hours as often as they could.

Hawthorne, the final component to join the inner workings of NORTH KINGSLEY, is a longtime associate of Paparian. Armed with knowledge of today’s political, social and entertainment landscapes and showcasing a lyrical dexterity that can take him anywhere from Hemingway to animation and scholars to psychopaths, nothing is off limits when it comes to how he communicates his ideas.

With a razor-sharp approach to both the creative and business output of the project, NORTH KINGSLEY is a socially conscious, creative force shaped by the modern age. Drawing on a multitude of cultural, visual and political influences, they aim to create a musical movement that is both rooted in what’s come before, but that focuses on creating what’s next.

Photo credit: Armen Keleshian

This week’s spew of new releases reeks of the latest riffs from Undergang, Nominon, Paradise Lost and more!
The post Five For Friday: December 4, 2020 appeared first on Decibel Magazine.