Month: March 2021

BEHEMOTH frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski has praised the Polish government’s decision to keep churches open over Easter.

Despite facing soaring COVID case numbers and one of the highest death rates in Europe, the Polish government decided to allow religious services to go on but tightened limits on the number of people attending church, permitting one person per every 20 square meters.

Earlier today (Saturday, March 27), the Polish-born Darski, who has always been outspoken against religion, took to his Instagram to write: “Polish government has just announced full lockdown in Poland. Pretty much EVERYTHING shuts down: restaurants, malls, gyms, barbershops but… churches. As much as I despise 99% of their mindless decisions this one puts a big smile on my face.

“I deeply believe churches should be fully open despite pandemic. Not 100% capacity but 150% or more! Go and share your passion my fellow Catholics, share the sign of peace, hold your hands… kiss each other if needed! French kissing too if there’s desire for that! Christian LOVE should have no boundaries really!

“No one expects intelligence, common sense or imagination from Polish Catholics bu we do expect they do NOT compromise their faith, don’t we?

“Remember, Jesus saves…!

“Off to churches, GO !!!!!”

As of Thursday, Poland had has recorded 2,120,671 cases and 50,340 deaths, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The country has a death rate of 106 per million, which is well above the European average of 67 per million, based on the most recent two-week average.

On Wednesday, the nation of 38 million inhabitants recorded its highest daily number of new COVID-19 cases in the pandemic, reaching almost 30,000. There were 575 deaths.

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SCORPIONS have abandoned their plans to work with producer Greg Fidelman on their new album.

The German-Polish-Swedish hard rock legends spent the last few months recording the effort at Peppermint Park Studios in Hannover, Germany. Tentatively due later this year, the disc will mark SCORPIONS’ first release since 2017’s “Born To Touch Your Feelings – Best Of Rock Ballads”, which was an anthology of new and classic material.

SCORPIONS originally intended to record the new album in Los Angeles with Fidelman, whose previous credits include SLIPKNOT and METALLICA. However, because of the pandemic, some of the initial work was done with Greg remotely, after which SCORPIONS opted to helm the recordings themselves with the help of their engineer Hans-Martin Buff.

During an appearance on MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn’s “No Fuckin’ Regrets With Robb Flynn” podcast, SCORPIONS drummer Mikkey Dee stated about the band’s decision to proceed without Fidelman (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Unfortunately, because of this corona, we could not come to L.A., and [Greg] could not come to Germany. So we were trying for a whole month, via Zoom, to work on songs. And then he was with us [virtually] in the early evening, and we were working together on certain songs and arrangements. But it was almost impossible for him to get our feeling and for us to understand his feeling. So we decided that it was probably better that we were trying to do this on our own. And that’s what we’ve been doing. But I’m sure Greg would have put his magic ears to this album, and it would have been fantastic too. But, unfortunately, we had to make the best out of the situation. We were even talking about breaking in the fall, maybe in October or something already. We talked about maybe breaking the record and then come back and maybe fly to L.A. in February or March. We thought it’d be open by now. But look, here we are — it’s even worse than it was in October. So if we would have been sitting here now and broke the recording October, we would have wasted six months here.”

Elaborating on the early recording sessions with Fidelman, Dee said: “He was listening and working on this with us. But it’s really hard to get that feeling, of course. And when he wanted to change some stuff, we were sitting in the studio going, ‘What does he fucking mean here?’ ‘But it sounds great here.’ So it’s very hard to communicate [virtually]. But maybe next record — who knows? [So] we decided to move forward and continue recording and do the best we could. And we have Hans-Martin as an engineer. He’s brilliant, by the way. He worked on a lot, a lot of stuff for a lot of musicians. And he’s so fast, and he has a great ear, and he feels everybody on their instrument, which is important. He knows drums, he knows bass, he knows guitars, and they speak German as well, so that helps out when they can go at it and work on some stuff. Now, with this done, I think this is the only way we have to do it, and I think we chose the right way. Because if we would have stuck to really have Greg on this, we couldn’t even have started now. So who knows? Maybe we could have started in June or July [of this year]. We captured a moment when we all were fresh and really wanted to make a new album. Who knows what the feeling would have been if we started in June?”

According to Mikkey, the other members of the SCORPIONS should be completed with all the recordings in about two weeks, after which the album will be mixed by Michael Ilbert at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany.

Singer Klaus Meine previously told Talking Metal that the goal with using Fidelman to produce the new LP was to bring “the old vibe from albums like ‘Blackout’, ‘Love At First Sting’ or even ‘Lovedrive’. We try to focus on those albums and this attitude,” he said. “If we get there, who knows — it’s so many years later. But it’s the spirit and it’s the whole vibe around this album. This time, the focus is on the harder songs.”

According to Meine, SCORPIONS’ new LP will feature “no outside writers at all,” unlike 2015’s “Return To Forever”, which was largely co-written by the album’s producers, Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen.

Fidelman began his career as the guitarist and songwriter for RHINO BUCKET before launching his career as a producer, engineer and mixer, finding an early mentor in Rick Rubin.

SCORPIONS’ last full-length collection of new recordings was the aforementioned “Return To Forever”, partially comprising songs the band had in the vault from the ’80s. It was the final recorded appearance of SCORPIONS’ longtime drummer James Kottak, who was dismissed from the band in September 2016. He has since been replaced by Dee, formerly of MOTÖRHEAD.

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Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman spoke with Darren Paltrowitz — host of the “Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz” — about how he has spent his downtime during the coronavirus pandemic. He said: “I’ve held up pretty good. I’ve been lucky. A lot of my friends have been all on tour, and the plug got pulled, or worse yet, just before a tour where you rehearsed and done pre-production, rented gear and vehicles and all that, and then the plug [gets pulled]. I’ve heard horror stories. I had none of that. I had a tour coming up that got canceled before we started money spending. And I’ve had a tour postponed, I’ve had Tokyo Marathon opening ceremony postponed. But aside from that, really, I’ve been lucky. It gave me much more time to work on ‘Tokyo Jukebox 3’. My family’s healthy, I’m healthy, and I’ve had a lot of time to do work that I needed to get done, with ‘Tokyo Jukebox 3’ and two videos made and a lot of other projects that, frankly, wouldn’t have got done if it weren’t for COVID. So I’m almost thankful. I’m not thankful for the way it happened, but I’m thankful for the chunk of time that it allowed me to do other work. So I’m one of the very fortunate ones.”

Friedman will release his new studio album, “Tokyo Jukebox 3”, on April 16 via The Players Club/Mascot Label Group. The record, which was made available in Japan last October, is the third in a series that began with “Tokyo Jukebox” in 2009, and then “Tokyo Jukebox 2” following in 2011. The trilogy presents Friedman’s inspired performances to Japanese repertoire he’s chosen to cover.

As previously reported, Marty’s long-awaited documentary, titled “Spacefox”, will tentatively arrive later this year. The film, which is being directed by Jeremy Frindel, the founder of Substratum Films, follows Friedman’s reinvention from lead guitarist in MEGADETH to one of the most famous TV personalities in Japan.

Last June, Friedman released a “Home Jams” version of his song “Self Pollution”, which originally appeared on his 2017 album “Wall Of Sound”. The new rendition of the song featured Friedman, along with his longtime bandmates Kiyoshi (bass) and Jordan Ziff (guitar), plus Anup Sastry (drums). The split-screen video was filmed in Tokyo, Osaka, Phoenix and Baltimore, with each musician separated in his or her home.

Friedman’s latest live record, “One Bad M.F. Live!!”, came out in October 2018. The album was recorded in Mexico City on April 14, 2018 during the final concert of Friedman’s world tour in support of “Wall Of Sound”.

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MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson and SONS OF APOLLO vocalist Jeff Scott Soto have been collaborating on some new material recently under the moniker ELLEFSON-SOTO. They are joined in the group by Italian guitarist Andy Martongelli and drummer Paolo Caridi, both of whom previously worked with David on his ELLEFSON solo project.

Asked by Chris Akin of “The Classic Metal Show” what ELLEFSON-SOTO will sound like, David said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I look at it like this. When people come to me, they go, ‘Oh, dude. It’s thrash,’ and, ‘It’s heavy,’ it’s, like, I’m already in the greatest thrash band in the history of the world, so I don’t need to do thrash anywhere else. I do that in MEGADETH. I play with the guy who invented the genre. So, to me, when I do other things, it’s fun to expand. And I’m always writing. I bring certain things into MEGADETH that I know are fitting, I think, of that style. There’s a lot of stuff I write that’s not, and I don’t bring it there.

“This stuff that Jeff and Andy and I are working on, some of it’s quite progressive,” he continued. “And we’re able to go there because of the capabilities that we have. So there’s definitely no lack of musicianship. You’re gonna go, ‘These guys, they’re serious. They know what they’re doing.’ So that’s good. And I think, quite honestly, people would expect that. I know for Andy, who’s a few years younger than me and Jeff, and being from Europe, is a pretty good barometer; that’s a good temperature that we can gauge. He even said, he goes, ‘C’mon, Jeff. ‘I Am A Viking’. C’mon. All of us in Europe, we just think that’s…’ Just like people know me from ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’ and ‘Holy Wars’, the die has been cast with Jeff with the early days of Yngwie [Malmsteen], of course, and now what he’s been doing recently with SONS OF APOLLO and solo stuff.

“I think the fans, they wanna see us in a certain sphere,” David added. “But at the same time, we can take a few chances on a couple of things. In fact, the very first song I had Jeff sing on last year was actually a ballad. Which, I think, for me, was great, because I know Jeff can sing the hard stuff… So, quite honestly, the first thing Jeff and I worked on was not some shred Vivaldi neoclassical metal thing; it was not that at all. And I think that, for me, actually, quite honestly, got me really excited, going, ‘Okay, there’s a wide berth here of what we can do.’ And I think that’s when we started throwing some ideas back and forth. It just got us all excited going, ‘Wow, this is pretty wide here. We’re not limited to just being a one-trick pony.”

Jeff also weighed in the ELLEFSON-SOTO, saying: “Yeah, it’s gonna be heavy. It’s got a lot of classic influence, because we come from that world. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel; we’re just trying to do our own version, our own color, our own shape of the wheel. So that’s exactly what we’re doing with this. It’s gonna have some great shred moments, it’s gonna have some great vocal-melody-and-hooks moments. And, like I said, it’s gonna be heavy, but I think we’re also gonna start being able to tap into other things, just to kind of create our own little brand, our own little version of what we think would work best for each other. And that’s one of the great things about collaborating with David. He’s not saying, ‘It’s gotta be like this.’ And if I send him something, to this day, all the songs that we’ve done, I haven’t gotten a, ‘Well, this is all right. I think it could be better with this.’ We pretty much hit it on the nail every time. Like with everything, ‘I heard this. And I thought maybe if you wanna do a harmony with that or maybe remove this and add…’ That goes without saying; that’s gonna happen with anybody and everyone you collaborate with. But the overall structure of how we’re working together, it works so easy and so well, but yet we’re still inventing something that sounds like us.”

The full ELLEFSON-SOTO interview will air tonight (Saturday, March 27) on “The Classic Metal Show” at 10:00 p.m. EST.

Earlier this week, ELLEFSON-SOTO released its cover version of the RIOT classic “Swords & Tequila”. The song was originally featured on the 1981 RIOT LP “Fire Down Under” (Elektra). The playthrough video can be seen below.

ELLEFSON-SOTO’s version of “Swords & Tequila” was produced by Ellefson and Martongelli, mixed by Alessio Garavello in Wembley, England and mastered by Maor Appelbaum in Los Angeles, California. The video is directed by Elia Turra for Fisheye Studio in Verona, Italy.

More new tracks from ELLEFSON-SOTO are in the works with release details to be announced.

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RATT singer and founder Stephen Pearcy and his solo band will take part in a livestream concert on Friday, April 2 at 7 p.m. PDT from the world-famous Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip. He will be joined by members of ACE FREHLEY, LITA FORD, DANZIG, HELLYEAH, ARCADE and “a very special guest.”

Asked in a new interview with 80’s Glam Metalcast who the “special guest” is that will be making an appearance with him, Pearcy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I kind of put it out there that my drummer from RATT, Bobby Blotzer, might be showing up, so we can count on that, probably.”

During the same chat, Pearcy confirmed that he will not make a new RATT album unless all the surviving members of the band’s classic lineup are involved: Blotzer, guitarist Warren DeMartini and bassist Juan Croucier. “I will not do another record [unless it’s with the original guys],” he said. “There’s no way in hell. I’ve given DeMartini and everybody courtesy. Why would I do that? There’s no reason. We tried with [RATT’s 2010 album] ‘Infestation’. People go, ‘That’s a great record.’ I’m, like, well, that’s because it was the only thing that we were able to give you. If there was Juan in there, if there was Robbin [Crosby, late RATT guitarist] in there, if there was the original guys — the nucleus — you would have gotten a better record. It’s just the way it is; that’s just the way it works. Because as dysfunctional or functional as we are, that’s what makes our music.

“Look, Carlos Cavazo [former QUIET RIOT guitarist] was in the band for a bit. We wrote the first two singles [from ‘Infestation’], Carlos and I. So there you go right there. It wasn’t even really a true RATT record. No disrespect to the guys that played on it. But I just wouldn’t do that to RATT, to the brand. It wouldn’t work. So we will see what happens. But I will not do another RATT record, no, unless [it’s with] the original guys. I put the feelers out there. Who knows? Maybe the doorbell will ring. I ain’t counting on it. But who knows?”

Tickets, merchandise and VIP packages for Pearcy’s livestream concert are available at stephenpearcy.veeps.com.

The concert will be available on demand through April 5.

Last month, it was reported by Metal Sludge that Pearcy would be joined by Blotzer for the filming of the virtual concert with his solo band over February 26 and February 27.

The rumors of Blotzer playing with Pearcy again came a month after Stephen confirmed to SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that he was back on speaking terms with the drummer, who led his own version of RATT for a couple of years beginning in late 2015 before becoming embroiled in a legal battle with the singer, DeMartini and Croucier over the rights to the band’s name.

“I do talk to Bobby,” Pearcy told “Trunk Nation”. “Bobby and I are — it’s love-hate, brother kind of a gig. We keep in touch and talk about positive things. He still has interest, so there are some things to talk about. And Warren is the same.”

“Look, life goes on,” he explained. “Life’s short. Hate’s not a good thing. There’s communication. But I can’t say anything.”

Pearcy and Croucier are the sole remaining original members in RATT’s current lineup, which made its live debut in July 2018 in Mulvane, Kansas. Joining them in the band are drummer Pete Holmes (BLACK ‘N BLUE, RATT’S JUAN CROUCIER) and guitarist Jordan Ziff (RAZER).

RATT hasn’t released any new music since “Infestation”.

RATT — featuring Pearcy, Croucier and DeMartini — played a number of shows in 2017 after reforming a year earlier in the midst of a highly publicized legal battle with Blotzer over the rights to the RATT name. They were joined at the gigs by Cavazo, who played on “Infestation”, and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso, who previously played with Y&T, WHITE LION and MEGADETH, among others.

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Serj Tankian, the Armenian-American vocalist from SYSTEM OF A DOWN, whose grandparents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide, recently spoke to RT’s “Going Underground” about his meeting with Ahmet Ertegun, the legendary founder and CEO of Atlantic Records who was the son of a Turkish ambassador.

Serj said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I had a band that we had signed to my imprint, to my label, and there were a number of record companies interested in doing a distribution deal. So we met up with Universal Records, Atlantic Records at the time, and a few others in New York with the band. And after the meeting, I remember the CEO of Atlantic saying, ‘Hey, do you wanna meet the old man? He’s still here. His office is right next door.’ And I’m, like, ‘Ertegun?’ I’m, like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ He signed Ray Charles and LED ZEPPELIN and all these bands. So I went in and sat down with him and had a nice 10-minute chat.

“I can’t tell you anything else, but I got an inkling that he had some defensive aspect of me being Armenian,” he continued. “When I said, ‘Listen, just so you know, I’m Armenian. I grew up in Los Angeles,’ and this and that, and he kind of got defensive. And it didn’t really affect me much. So I got on Google and I typed ‘Ahmet Ertegun’ and I typed ‘Genocide’ after, and I realized that he had been responsible for funding foreign policy institutes and chairs at universities who hired authors and writers that denied the Genocide. And that was an awakening for me.”

Tankian went on to say that he reconnected with Ertegun at a later date. “He called me, and he said, ‘I think the Armenian Genocide should be recognized,'” Serj recalled. “And I said, ‘Okay. Great. Why don’t you write it on a letterhead and send it to me? And I won’t publicize it unless my back is against the wall with my community.’ And he said, ‘I can’t do that, because I have homes in Turkey. I don’t know what would happen to that.’ And I’m, like, ‘Then don’t do it. I wouldn’t want any violence enacted upon you or your family or anyone else.’ But it was very clear that that was an incendiary issue. And even though he was very close, he said, to the prime minister and the government officials there, he didn’t wanna take that step.”

Shortly after Ertegun’s 2006 death, Armenian-American writer Harut Sassounian revealed that he had met with Ahmet a couple of years earlier to discuss Armenian-Turkish issues. He also said that Ertegun was considering the possibility of issuing a public statement on the Armenian Genocide prior to his passing.

In 2019, both the U.S. House and Senate passed a bill declaring that the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks was, in fact, a genocide.

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Former IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dennis Stratton has once again commented on the band’s nomination for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s class of 2021. The top vote-getters will be announced in May and inducted in a Cleveland, Ohio, ceremony in the fall.

According to the Hall Of Fame, the IRON MAIDEN members that would get inducted include the current lineup of singer Bruce Dickinson, bassist Steve Harris, drummer Nicko McBrain, and guitarists Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers, along with Stratton, former singer Paul Di’Anno and former drummer Clive Burr.

Asked about the fact that former IRON MAIDEN singer Blaze Bayley, who fronted the band from 1994 until 1999 and appeared on two albums, “The X Factor” and “Virtual XI”, was not included in the list of members who will enter the Rock Hall should MAIDEN get inducted, Stratton told the “Uncle Steve’s Iron Maiden Zone” podcast (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, when I first heard that he wasn’t included, I was a bit shocked and a bit… I don’t know. It was weird. Why? Why wasn’t he? Now, I know for a fact he was with them for five years and two albums, and he contributed a hell of a lot to them two albums. But people told me that it’s something to do with the committee that run this Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. It has to be certain years, involved with so many years. So I don’t actually know. Someone would have to read the rules to me. But I definitely think it’s heartbreaking not to be included.”

Stratton went on to say that for him to be nominated for the Rock Hall is “one of the biggest honors” of his career. He added: “Now, I didn’t know Bruce had said anything [negative] about the Hall Of Fame. Someone told me that he had said a few things about the Hall Of Fame. I don’t know what he said. But I know that he said something. Now, personally for me, I was blowing my own trumpet, saying, ‘Please vote.’ ‘Cause this is a big honor for me; it means the world to me. But I’m not speaking for the band; this is me personally. Now, if the band and the management don’t fancy it or it’s not their scene and they’re not interested, then so be it. You have to respect the band or the management’s decision.

“I’ve watched the [fan] voting on my phone, and I see the voting, which is from Tina Turner and the top one — I don’t know who that is — and the FOO FIGHTERS, the voting is quite mediocre,” he continued. “Now, I know for a fact that I can talk personally for me, not for MAIDEN, but the amount of fans in this world — not only South America — the amount of fans in the world, if they voted for IRON MAIDEN, that wouldn’t be hundreds of thousands, that would be millions. And MAIDEN would [win the fan vote] — they would [win] it without a problem. But because [MAIDEN has] stayed quiet [about it and not publicized the nomination], if it’s not their scene, then you have to respect the management, respect the band and say, ‘Good luck to you guys.’ And if they’re not interested, then so be it. But for me, it is a big honor. And that’s what you have to go along with.”

Stratton was a member of MAIDEN for less than a year, but he nonetheless made a vital contribution to the band’s classic first album.

To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each nominee’s first single or album had to have been released in 1995 or earlier.

A voter pool of more than 1,000 artists, historians, journalists, and members of the music industry will select the new class. Fans also have a chance to take part in the process by voting at Rockhall.com or at an interactive kiosk at the museum in Cleveland. Their selections will count as a single “fan ballot” that gets tabulated along with the others.

Dickinson made headlines in 2018 when he referred to the Rock Hall as “an utter and complete load of bollocks” during a spoken-word gig in Australia, insisting that the Cleveland-based institution is “run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock and roll if it hit them in the face.”

Bruce later told The Jerusalem Post that he was “so annoyed with that coverage because they took my statement out of context to make it seem like I was upset that we weren’t in the Hall Of Fame.

“I’m really happy we’re not there and I would never want to be there,” he continued. “If we’re ever inducted, I will refuse — they won’t bloody be having my corpse in there.

“Rock and roll music does not belong in a mausoleum in Cleveland,” Bruce added. “It’s a living, breathing thing, and if you put it in a museum, then it’s dead. It’s worse than horrible, it’s vulgar.”

Two years ago, Harris said that he didn’t care that IRON MAIDEN has yet to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame despite the fact that it has been eligible since 2004.

“I don’t mind that we’re not in things like that,” he told Rolling Stone. “I don’t think about things like that. It’s very nice if people give you awards or accolades, but we didn’t get into the business for that sort of thing. I’m certainly not going to lose sleep if we don’t get any sort of award, not just that one, any award. I don’t think we deserve to have this or that necessarily. With what we do, whatever comes of it is great. Whatever doesn’t come of it is great, too.”

Even though artists are eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single, iconic hard rock and metal groups like MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST and MOTÖRHEAD have yet to be recognized by the institution, which inducted GUNS N’ ROSES in that band’s first year of eligibility.

Harris previously said that he wasn’t concerned about whether IRON MAIDEN will eventually be inducted into the Rock Hall. “I don’t really think about it, to be honest. I think awards are things that are nice to have when you get them, but it’s not something you’re really striving for — it’s not what it’s about it,” he said. “It’s never been about that. It’s aways been about just trying to make good music and go out and play good live shows, and that’s it, really. Hopefully people will appreciate it. It’s probably nice when people give you awards — don’t get me wrong; I think it’s great — but it’s not something that you would lose sleep over if you didn’t get any.

“It’s the way that I am,” Harris added. “I don’t know. Maybe the rest of the guys [in the band] might think differently to me, but that’s the way I think. It’s not that I don’t care about [awards]. It’s just… And it’s not that they’re not meaningful when you do get ’em — it’s nice. But I certainly don’t worry about it or anything like that. I think other people are the ones that make a bigger deal out of it than us, about whether we got one or not.”

Having been eligible for induction for more than a decade and a half, IRON MAIDEN is one of the biggest bands on the planet. Since the release of their self-titled debut album, the British heavy metal legends have released a further 15 full-length studio records, and sold over 100 million copies.

Rock Hall rules state that artists become eligible a quarter century after their first records were released, but the Hall also claims that other “criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock ‘n’ roll,” which is, of course, open to interpretation.

Eligible for induction since 1999, KISS didn’t get its first nomination until 2009, and was finally inducted in 2014.

DEEP PURPLE was eligible for the Rock Hall since 1993 but didn’t get inducted until 2016.

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Sonicbond Publishing has set a May 28 release date for “Alice Cooper In The 1970s” by Chris Sutton.

In “Alice Cooper In The 1970s”, Sutton explores the story of ALICE COOPER the band and the solo performer from the early years through to the decadent end of the decade. It is the first book to offer a fully rounded approach to the Cooper phenomenon and give full credit to the musicians.

The book features interview material from key figures, including Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith from the original band, plus their session guitarist Mick Mashbir. From the solo Alice years in the 1970s, there is new material from Prakash John, John Tropea and Allan Schwartzberg. There are observations too from Ernie Cefalu, whose company Pacific Eye And Ear designed the album covers. Several other musicians, concert promoters and even the band’s first roadie have also contributed their thoughts.

All of the albums and singles from “Don’t Blow Your Mind” until “From The Inside” are examined in detail, along with related archive releases and songs that didn’t make the cut.

Sutton has been a fan of Cooper since 1972 and the famous debut appearance on “Top Of The Pops”. The reunion of the band for their U.K. tour in 2017 stands as one of his happiest memories. He manages Smethwick Heritage Centre museum, and has written several publications for them. He has also written several plays. “Alice Cooper In The 1970s” is his first venture into music writing, with others to follow. He lives in Great Malvern, U.K.

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RIOT V vocalist Todd Michael Hall will release his first-ever solo album, “Sonic Healing”, on May 7 via Rat Pak Records.

Todd received national attention when he appeared on the 18th season of NBC’s hit television show “The Voice”. After being selected by judge Blake Shelton for his version of FOREIGNER’s “Juke Box Hero”, Todd explored the idea of making a solo album.

As the world shut down during the recent pandemic, Todd connected with METAL CHURCH guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof to write the tracks that would become “Sonic Healing”. Vanderhoof also produced the album that is now available for pre-order.

“Music has a healing effect to get you up and running,” Todd explains. “People use it to console themselves on a daily basis. It’s such a weird time right now. So ‘Sonic Healing’ is meant to be good positive rock. We definitely paid homage to our favorite bands, but we added a new twist. There’s a hunger for this music, and there aren’t many artists trying to scratch the itch. We’re here to scratch the itch and bring the energy.”

From the infectious guitar riffs of the opening track “Overdrive” to the anthemic album finale of “Long Lost Rock & Rollers”, Todd showcases his vocal range and passion for rock music. Songs like “Let Loose Tonight”, “Running After You” and “Like No Other” are testaments to the magic that was created when Todd and Kurdt began to focus on their deep love of classic rock icons like BOSTON, RUSH, STYX, FOREIGNER and REO SPEEDWAGON. Todd’s multi-octave voice and Kurdt’s riff-writing capabilities create memorable songs that are reminiscent of the artists that inspired them to pursue a career in music. With thought-provoking lyrics and rock-solid guitar riffs, “Sonic Healing” delivers all the power and punch that one would expect from these high-level players.

“Sonic Healing” track listing:

01. Overdrive
02. Let Loose Tonight
03. All On The Line
04. Running After You
05. Love Rain Down
06. Sonic Healing
07. Like No Other
08. Somebody’s Fool
09. To The Bone
10. Long Lost Rock & Rollers

Photo credit: Doug Julian

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