JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford says that a collaboration between him and BEHEMOTH frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski is “definitely gonna happen.”

Halford has long spoken about wanting to work on a black metal album, with initial discussions between him and EMPEROR’s Ihsahn taking place back in 2006. More recently, Rob has said that he met Nergal and told the BEHEMOTH leader that he loved his music and expressed an interest in a possible collaboration.

Asked in a new interview with Elliott Fullam of Little Punk People if the Nergal “jam” is “still possible,” Halford said (see video below): “I love Nergal so much. He’s so fierce. He’s so in his world, and I really admire that in any musician that has that conviction. It’s something that it’s always there — you know, this backburner thing. It’s on the bucketlist, however you wanna call it. It’s definitely gonna happen. Just for me as a singer, I’ve always admired that kind of performance, the way Nergal uses his voice. So one day there’ll be a duet with Nergal and The Metal God. It’s gonna happen.”

Two years ago, Nergal said that it felt “surreal” and “amazing” to know that Halford is a fan of BEHEMOTH. “I feel flattered and honored,” he said. “I met Rob a couple of times. Actually, I’m gonna tell you the story how I met him the second time. It was the last SLAYER show [of the North American tour], and we were just running from room to room, signing each other’s posters and all the memorabilia and stuff. And I’m just rushing into SLAYER’s room without even knocking on the door, because that’s how chaotic the whole day looked like. And I’m just entering the room, and it’s quiet. There’s, like, 10 people — all the bandmembers, like SLAYER — and Kerry King [SLAYER guitarist] is standing next to Rob Halford and they’re watching something and it’s quiet. And I’m, like, entering the room, like, ‘Sorry.’ And I backed off. And then I was, like, ‘Oh, shit. Ah, fuck. I’m re-entering.’ And I just re-entered, just pretending it’s natural circumstances for myself. ‘Hi, what’s up?’ [Laughs] And I approached them to say hi to Rob, and Kerry was, like, ‘Yeah, we were just watching a clip from you jamming with us a SLAYER song. It’s cool.’ And I was, like, ‘Holy fuck!’ I was starstruck. I love it. It’s awesome.”

Nergal added: “Thank you, Rob. Thanks for being The Metal God, and thanks for supporting… you know, small fish as well. [Laughs].”

Brian May says he feels “grateful” to be alive after suffering a heart attack, a stomach hemorrhage and other health complications this year.

The QUEEN guitarist appeared on Tuesday’s (October 27) episode of “Good Morning Britain” where discussed his terrifying health ordeal.

“It was pretty bad, and the complications that came after it were pretty bad,” he said (see video below). “So it’s been a big mountain to climb to get back to strength again, but it’s become my new religion, really. I do my cardio rehab every day, and I’m getting strong. I’m gonna be Iron Man soon.

“I had a wonderful, wonderful surgeon, and I’m so grateful to be alive. ‘Cause a few years ago, that couldn’t have happened. I had three stents in me” — referring to short, wire-mesh tubes that act like a scaffold to help keep an artery open — “which are working just fine, and I feel good.”

As for the stomach explosion, the 73-year-old said: “That was the point where I nearly lost my life, actually — not the heart attack, strangely enough.

“You have to be so careful with the medication that they give you, because it’s great for the stents, it’s great for the heart, but it’s not very good for the rest of your body, and you can really go down. So it’s a tightrope.

“The worst thing that happened was the stomach hemorrhage, and I lost an awful lot of blood all at one time and just was wiped out,” he added. “I couldn’t move, I couldn’t get across the floor. So that was the worst point for me. But I had a bit of a bad time all around. It sounds amusing, really. A catalog of disasters. ‘Cause I had sciatica as well, and I’m not quite sure how I got that. But the pain from that was so excruciating, I couldn’t really go through the operation at first. The actual heart operation was a doddle compared to the sciatica.”

A few days ago, May told The Express explained that he thought coronavirus was to blame for his health scare because he was “the fittest person on that last QUEEN tour we did” and “didn’t tick any of the boxes to get a heart attack.”

“I have one theory, which is: I’m conscious that I had a pretty bad cough most of the way through that tour. And some of the time I felt pretty grim and I thought I was just feeling tired,” he said.

“I think it’s possible that I had the COVID virus early on in the tour of Korea, Japan and Australia in January, and got through it, but it’s thickened the blood, which apparently it does, and that could have been the trigger that gave me the heart attack.

“I thought it was too early to get it [COVID] but the evidence now seems to be that the virus was around,” May added.

Brian also thanked his wife Anita Dobson for saving his life.

“She was incredible,” he said. “She totally saved my life because I couldn’t do anything and she just kind of nursed me, so I will forever be in her debt. She did an incredible job on me.”

Here’s a Halloween special to lose your threads over: TUBE SOCK NEGATIVE, a gothic group of animated undergarments, has set out to prove that black matches with everything and that even the tightest knit sock can have a soft side. The sock puppet outfit’s song “Sock Nvr. Worn” pays homage to its undead counterpart TYPE O NEGATIVE’s 1993 hit “Black No. 1”.

By emulating the dark and ominous themes found in the lyrics of the late Peter Steele, “Sock Nvr. Worn” delves into the harsh reality that “life is lonely for a stocking not used.” The “moon beam’s sheen” offers a glimpse into the vampiric features of Feeter Steel as he gazes upon the “brand named mark” across his mistress. Functionless laundry is simply vagrant cotton. They are the vagrants.

YouTube artist Sock Puppet Parody has created a laundry list of parody videos including sock puppet tributes to SLAYER, METALLICA, SLIPKNOT and many more. This year’s Halloween iteration was lovingly carried out by steadfast fans of TYPE O NEGATIVE! Don’t mistake lack of socks for fashion.

Steele passed away in April 2010 from heart failure at the age of 48.

Legendary rock band FOREIGNER is inspiring first-time voters and fans to head to the polls with an election-inspired version of hit song “Feels Like The First Time”, which dropped today on the band’s social media channels. Filmed in partnership with HeadCount, a non-partisan organization that uses the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy, FOREIGNER’s Kelly Hansen, Jeff Pilson and Bruce Watson recorded the video from ballot boxes across Los Angeles. HeadCount’s mission is to inform and empower through importance of voting through music and culture into real action.

FOREIGNER’s last album, “Can’t Slow Down”, was the only full-length collection of new songs to have been released by the band since Hansen took over vocals after original singer Lou Gramm left the band for good in 2002. The album entered the Billboard Top 30, driven by the radio singles “In Pieces” and “When It Comes To Love”. The band also has released a series of live albums and compilations, including 2016’s “In Concert: Unplugged” and 2017’s “40”.

Hansen told The Rockpit that the process of making “Can’t Slow Down” was “incredibly exhausting” and “a lot of hard work.” He added: “It took up any empty time that we had and our energy, and it took huge amounts of money to complete that record. And the day that it was released, people were trading it for free on the Internet. That’s really disappointing, when you know how much time and effort you put into something.

“I would never say never, but from having had that experience, I think people who aren’t musicians or trying to make a living as an artist will understand that it’s just become the norm now — you don’t pay for anything you just get it for free,” he continued. “Or, even if you subscribe to a music service, the amount of cash that goes to the artist for a download or a stream is absolutely inconsequential. It means absolutely nothing to anybody. I’ll give you an example. I had a large piece of a song, and I got a statement for my royalties, and it streamed 42,000 times, and I got 42 cents. That’s indicative of the times.”

FOREIGNER’s current lineup is rounded out by Mick Jones (guitar), Tom Gimbel (rhythm guitar, sax, vocals), Michael Bluestein (keyboards) and Chris Frazier (drums).

IN THIS MOMENT has just dropped the sanguine music video for the song “As Above So Below”. The track is taken from the band’s latest album, “Mother”, which came out in March. Recorded, once again, at The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada with producer Kevin Churko, the disc contains three covers, including the STEVE MILLER BAND’s “Fly Like An Eagle” and QUEEN’s “We Will Rock You”, which features vocal backup from HALESTORM’s Lzzy Hale and THE PRETTY RECKLESS’s Taylor Momsen.

“We are so excited to show the world the magic we created with handsomedevilspuppets and Jeremy Saffer,” says IN THIS MOMENT frontwoman Maria Brink. “It was a challenging time to bring a music video together with everything that’s been going on, so we had to get creative. We are so thrilled with the outcome and that we had to push ourselves out of our box to manifest this video. We feel grateful to collaborate with other artists and to be able to bring ‘As Above So Below’ to life for all of you. Enjoy.”

Originally formed by Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth in 2005, IN THIS MOMENT released its debut album, “Beautiful Tragedy”, in 2007. Their 2014 album “Black Widow” landed at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the Hard Rock Albums chart.

Last month, Brink told the Philadelphia radio station 93.3 WMMR that she and her IN THIS MOMENT bandmates were “talking about” hosting a special livestreamed concert for fans amid the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re all separated, though, throughout the country — we don’t live in the same place — so we’re just trying to figure out how’s the best way to do this,” she explained. “But we definitely are gonna do that, and we’re talking about it.”

Grammy Award-nominated band and activists FEVER 333 and acclaimed singer, songwriter and activist GRANDSON today contribute covers of two LINKIN PARK classics to a new double A-side Spotify Singles recording. These special recordings mark the first time the popular Spotify Singles program has dove into the catalog to celebrate a classic album: the 20th anniversary of LINKIN PARK’s diamond-selling, groundbreaking debut album, “Hybrid Theory”.

GRANDSON delivered a rendition of “One Step Closer” while FEVER 333 provided their take on “In The End”.

GRANDSON recharges the riffs of “One Step Closer” with punchy production and glitchy electronics, while FEVER 333 sharpen the edges of “In The End” with tenacious rhymes and a hard-hitting delivery.

GRANDSON commented: “I first heard ‘In The End’ when I was just a kid, illegally downloaded it off Kazaa when I was, like, ten and learned all of Mike’s [Shinoda] verses. Then, 10 years later, I played the Forum with Mike in front of thousands of people.

“Chester [Bennington] is an all-time great, and I could never try and sing like he does. We had to pitch the song down just so I could come close to hitting the notes in this song. I just wanted to try and pay homage and do this incredible song justice.”

Jason Aalon-Butler of FEVER 333 remarked: “I will never forget that overcast morning in Los Angeles walking from my locker in the F building down the now-infamous 11 stair handrail at Westchester High (now of numerous skate vids fame) toward the bungalows that housed my algebra 2 education and being stopped by my only web site-building homie to tell me of this ‘awesome’ new band he found called LINKIN PARK.

“‘In The End’ was the song that made me believe that rap and rock still belonged together. I studied their tasteful marriage of the two styles from that moment on and created my own music with that in mind.

“I wish I could tell my 14-year-old self that one day I’d receive a DM from Mike Shinoda about him liking my music. I wish even more that I could tell my younger self he’d offer to share his talents and energy with me to make more music. I don’t think 14-year-old me would believe it, though. 35-year-old me still doesn’t.”

FEVER 333 just released their new EP, “Wrong Generation”, via Roadrunner Records / 333 Wreckords Crew and is currently in the midst of its “Worldwide D333monstrations For The Wrong Generation” livestream tour.

GRANDSON is set release his full-length debut, “Death Of An Optimist”, on December 4 through Fueled By Ramen. The forthcoming album includes recent singles “Identity”, “Riptide” (co-produced by Shinoda) and “Dirty”, which is currently climbing the Alternative Radio chart.

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN have added four dates to their summer 2021 “Legacy Of The Beast” European tour.

The trek will now kick off on June 5 at St Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland and hit Arena in Zagreb, Croatia on June 7 and Grouparama Arena in Budapest, Hungary on June 9. LORD OF THE LOST will serve as the support act at these shows. The fourth and final extra show will take place on July 6 at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany, with SABATON and AIRBOURNE as support. AVATAR and LORD OF THE LOST will support at Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium on June 27 and AMON AMARTH and AIRBOURNE will open at the Gelredome in Arnhem, Netherlands on July 10.

This completes the “Legacy Of The Beast” summer 2021 touring schedule and no further dates will be added. As always, there will be an exclusive pre-sale for IRON MAIDEN fan club members at the appropriate time.

IRON MAIDEN summer 2021 European tour dates:

Jun. 05 – Basel, Switzerland – St. Jakobshalle
Jun. 07 – Zagreb, Croatia – Arena
Jun. 09 – Budapest, Hungary – Groupama Arena (Special guests Lord Of The Lost)
Jun. 11 – Warsaw, Poland – PGE Narodowy
Jun. 13 – Bremen, Germany – Buergerweide
Jun. 15 – Prague, Czech Republic – Sinobo Stadium
Jun. 16 – Wiener Neustad, Austria – Stadium Open Air
Jun. 19 – Barcelona, Spain – Olympic Stadium
Jun. 21 – Lisbon, Portugal – Estadio Nacional
Jun. 24 – Bologna, Italy – Sonic Park
Jun. 26 – Stuttgart, Germany – Mercedes Benz Arena
Jun. 27 – Antwerp, Belgium – Sportpalais
Jun. 30 – Gothenburg, Sweden – Ullevi Stadium
Jul. 06 – Frankfurt, Germany – Deutsche Bank Park
Jul. 08 – Cologne, Germany – Rhein Energie Stadium
Jul. 10 – Arnhem, Netherlands – Gelredome
Jul. 11 – Paris, France – La Defense Arena

As previously reported, BMG will release IRON MAIDEN’s new double live album on November 20. Containing over 100 minutes of classic MAIDEN music and available in multiple formats, including a limited edition Mexican Flag, triple colored (180g) vinyl and a limited-edition deluxe two-CD book format, “Nights Of The Dead, Legacy Of The Beast: Live In Mexico City” was recorded during the band’s three sold-out arena shows there in September 2019 and is a celebration of their “Legacy Of The Beast” world tour which began in 2018 and will finish next summer in Europe.

Last year, it was rumored that IRON MAIDEN had completed work on a new studio album. The group hasn’t issued any fresh music since 2015’s “The Book Of Souls” LP, which was recorded in late 2014 in Paris, France with longtime producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley.

If the reports of a new MAIDEN album are true, it will mark the band’s 17th studio effort and the sixth to be produced by Shirley, who has worked with MAIDEN for the past two decades.

“The Book Of Souls” was the longest MAIDEN album, clocking in at 92 minutes, with lyrics heavily based in the themes of death, reincarnation, the soul and mortality.

Video of of this past Monday’s (October 26) City Council meeting in Pasadena, California where a memorial honoring legendary VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen was discussed can be seen below (starting at around three-hour and 54-minute mark).

City manager Steve Mermell was directed to come up with ideas for how to best honor the musician, who died on October 6 at the age of 65.

“It’s an incredible story for Pasadena to express pride in,” said Councilmember Victor Gordo.

Among suggestions for the memorial are for alleyway Electric Drive to be renamed for Eddie; erecting a monument somewhere in the city; renaming a park; a life-size statue; and turning his childhood home into a historic landmark.

Gordo suggested that Mermell bring together a public group to figure out for the most appropriate way to remember Van Halen, who attended school in Pasadena with his drummer brother Alex, and played backyard parties in the area with VAN HALEN in the early 1970s before signing a record deal and achieving worldwide fame.

According to Pasadena Now, there may be other remembrance of Eddie Van Halen in the works. Pasadena City College will also consider a memorial at its next Board of Trustees meeting, and the Pasadena Center Operating Company has received an inquiry for a virtual concert to raise funds to build a statue.

In the last three weeks, the city has been bombarded with requests to pay tribute to Eddie “to recognize both his local connection to Pasadena, as well as the impact that his artistry had on music,” Mermell wrote in a report.

“Recognizing Van Halen the band and/or individual members should be considered,” according to the report. “With his passing, Eddie Van Halen’s international recognition as a musical artist is noted for the significant impact he had on the Rock & Roll genre and his legacy is a source of hometown pride for the city.”

Following Eddie’s death after a long battle with cancer, fans left flowers at his childhood home on Las Lunas Street in Pasadena. Additional flowers, candles and fan mementos were placed on Allen Avenue where Eddie and Alex scratched their band’s name into the wet cement of a sidewalk when they were teenagers.

VAN HALEN was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Eddie Van Halen No. 8 in its list of the 100 greatest guitarists.

Former SEPULTURA and current SOULFLY frontman Max Cavalera says that he didn’t expect his decision to cut off his trademark mono-dreadlock to “cause such a shitstorm.”

The Brazilian-born musician permanently got rid of his dreadlock earlier this month. On October 19, Gloria Cavalera, who also manages Max, took to her Instagram to share a photo of her holding Max’s hair, with her newly shorn husband standing next to her. She wrote in an accompanying caption: “It must be snowing in hell today!”

Max discussed the response to his decision to part with the dreadlock during a new interview with Dave “Higgo” Higgins of Australia’s MMM Hard N Heavy radio station. He said (hear audio below): “It was kind of crazy. I wasn’t expecting that reaction. In fact, when I decided to cut it, it was kind of out of the blue. I woke up one day and I told my wife, ‘I think I wanna cut my dreads.’ And she was very surprised, ’cause it’s been with me for 23 years. She [was, like], ‘Really? Seriously?’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah, it’s bugging me. It’s very heavy. I kind of feel like I need something new, something fresh in my life.’ So we just did it.

“It was a Sunday afternoon at my house,” he continued. “We were having a family dinner. I just went in the backyard and she had a pair of scissors, and [I said], ‘Cut it off. Just cut it off. Let’s not make a big deal.’ But she took a picture and posted the picture. And that was a problem. That was where the shit hit the fan. [Laughs]”

Cavalera went on to say that he was taken by surprise by the strong response to his new look.

“I didn’t expect that, man,” he reiterated. “My son called me. He was, like, ‘You’re number one on Google News.’ I don’t even know what that is. I was, like, ‘What the fuck is that?’

“I think [Gloria] wants to frame it and put it on the wall in the house and then do something with it eventually in the future. Those are manager things that I don’t get involved with, manager decisions. [Laughs]

“I tell you what, man — it feels great not having that thing around,” he explained. “It was good, but it had its time. It was time to go; it was time to move on. I feel like I’ve been liberated from the dread. It was very heavy, man, and it was really long — it was all the way to my ass.

“Everybody was, like, ‘2020 doesn’t get more weird than this. Even Max is cutting his dreads.’ Which I didn’t even think about it until later, that I did it. I was, like, ‘Yeah, it actually is in 2020 that I cut my dreads off.’

“It’s just one of those things,” Max added. “Like I said, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I just woke up one day, and I was, like, ‘I think I’m done with this. I think it’s time to cut it off.’ And I just did it. And it’s finally done. But I didn’t know it was gonna cause such a shitstorm. [Laughs]”

The so-called mono-dreadlock has been criticized in some circles, with the Sick Chirpse web site famously describing it in a 2015 article as “solid chunk of bedraggled, matted and minging hair [which] seems to go hand in hand with personal neglect and crushing laziness.”

Max discussed his hair in a 2011 interview with MyTicket. Asked what the secret was to having “the most famous dreadlocks in the history of metal,” Cavalera said: “Just leave it there, and it grows, and leave it alone. I wash it. It’s clean. I did find food one time. I opened one of them up and found some macaroni or cheese or rice. I think my wife was going through the dreads and [she said], ‘There’s some food in here, right?’ A stash from tour.

“But, yeah, I just let it grow,” he explained. “I’ve been growing it since 1997. That’s when I started. I never stopped. There’s been rumors that I cut it off. Sometimes fans come to me and say, ‘Hey, man, let me see your dreads. Oh, they’re still there. I heard that you cut it off.'”

Max started growing his dreadlocks a year after SEPULTURA’s classic lineup fell apart when the rest of the band split with Gloria as their manager. His brother, drummer Igor Cavalera, stuck around with the group for another 10 years before also leaving SEPULTURA and re-teaming with Max in CAVALERA CONSPIRACY.

View this post on Instagram

It must be snowing in hell today!
A post shared by Gloria Cavalera (@gloriacavalera) on Oct 18, 2020 at 5:19pm PDT