Month: March 2021

During an appearance on the latest episode of the “Hardcore Humanism With Dr. Mike” podcast, CLUTCH frontman Neil Fallon was asked if he would agree that there is something unique about the fervor of CLUTCH fans. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I would. And it’s always hard for me to comment on, because I’ve been to every single CLUTCH show, but I’ve never seen CLUTCH in the capacity that they have. And I’ve never listened to CLUTCH in the same way like a song done out of the box; I’m so over my head with it, it’s hard to be objective about it.

“I think there’s some parallels that I’ve kind of thought about over the years with us and RUSH in some ways. RUSH — we may be very musically different on the spectrum of rock and roll, but there’s a sense — and I heard Geddy Lee say this, or I think it was Geddy Lee — that RUSH fans have a sense of ownership in the band. Almost like they’re shareholders — emotional shareholders.

“Sure, RUSH has had hits. We’ve had a couple of things that might have remotely resembled a hit, but not played on radio or anything like that. And I think because of that, it took a lot longer to build up a fanbase, mostly because of word of mouth.

“And I’ve said this before in other interviews — I think one of the worst things that can happen to any artist or band is a huge hit right out of the gates. More often than not, it destroys a band, because the bar gets so high, and then they wanna meet that, and more often than not, they never do.

“With us, it’s been a marathon and not a sprint. And our fans have kind of been along for the ride. I mean, I’ve seen people that have met and married, people that met at CLUTCH shows, and now they’re bringing their kids. And it’s pretty gratifying.

“I think sincerity, too. What you see if what you get. I would hope that that honesty is what a lot of people latch on to.”

Last December, CLUTCH guitarist Tim Sult told the WSOU radio station that the band will likely enter the studio this fall to record the follow-up to 2018’s “Book Of Bad Decisions” album.

Regarding CLUTCH’s musical approach this time around, Tim said: “We’re just gonna do what we always do — we’re gonna write songs and just keep playing them until every member of the band likes it and agrees on it.

This past September, Gaster confirmed to the “Cobras & Fire” podcast that he and his bandmates have slowly commenced the songwriting process for the next CLUTCH album.

“Book Of Bad Decisions” was recorded at Sputnik Sound studio in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Vance Powell. The record sold 26,000 copies in America during its first week of availability, giving the group its third consecutive Top 20 album on the Billboard 200.

The latest edition of CLUTCH’s “Live From The Doom Saloon” streaming concert series took place in December. The event saw the band playing a 15-song set of its classics as voted by the fans.

LACUNA COIL singer Cristina Scabbia was a guest on the The Pit ‘s podcast “Last Words”. Asked if she and her bandmates have used the coronavirus downtime to work on new music, she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “No. To be honest, no, because we didn’t want any of our music to be connected with this period, because it wasn’t something that we wanted to talk about. Of course, unconsciously, it will be inspiring us for the next record, because everything everything you live translates into music and lyrics unconsciously.

“The thing is that when you write a new record, it’s because you’re inspired by something,” she explained. “But if you don’t travel, if you don’t live experiences, if you don’t meet new people and [see] new cultures, I find it hard to find inspiration only through movies and — I don’t know — series on TV. I need to live to be inspired, and the same for the guys [in the band].”

Cristina went on to say that she and the rest of LACUNA COIL have previously used negative personal experiences as fuel for their songwriting. “I feel really inspired when something bad is happening, but at least something is happening, and I’m living it,” she said. “But this [pandemic] situation is really static.”

Last month, 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 on February 27, 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.

Organized by KeepOn Live, Arci, Assomusica and Live DMA, the “L’Ultimo Concerto?” campaign was announced in January when the venues shared images on social media of their year of foundation and the year 2021 with a question mark, suggesting that their closures due to the coronavirus pandemic could be permanent.

Between March and June 2020, the Italian government imposed a national lockdown by restricting people’s movements to contain the pandemic. Thus, museums and cinemas closed and all cultural events were either canceled or rescheduled.

Around 300,000 people working in theaters, music venues, cinemas and cultural spaces in Italy have been rendered jobless since they shut their doors due to the coronavirus crisis.

In September, LACUNA COIL took part in “Black Anima: Live From The Apocalypse”, an exclusive streaming show featuring a full performance of the band’s latest album, “Black Anima”, for the very first time, including songs never performed live, plus special backstage/off-camera moments and more. The Italian heavy rockers played the concert from the Alcatraz Club in Milan. “Black Anima: Live From The Apocalypse” was hosted on A-Live.

Hear Body Void’s crushing new song “Fawn” and then hear directly from the band about forthcoming LP Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth.
The post Track Premiere: Body Void – ‘Fawn’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

A solid-state setup that slams your signal into a simulated power amp.

An updated take on a high-gain stomp aimed at copping classic metal tones.

In a new interview with The Sessions, Nita Strauss, the Los Angeles-based guitar shredder for the ALICE COOPER band, spoke about how she has been using the downtime during the coronavirus pandemic. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Honestly, I can say without hesitation this has been the busiest year of my life. It really has. Because every artist has been forced to adapt; you adapt or you die. Not literally, but you must adapt, you must pivot in the 2020-2021 era. So I released my online guitar course. I put together three modules that take someone from picking up the guitar for the very first time all the way through all the techniques that I know, basically. And it’s called ‘Rock Guitar Fundamentals’. And the web site is the best URL ever — it’s IWantToPlayGuitar.com, which I love. I started a Patreon page, so that’s where I do weekly live streams with them. I taught my way through almost a full Alice Cooper set and a bunch of different technique, sort of, workshops and everything like that. I’ve been writing my second solo album, which I’m very excited about. We built this pretty studio that you see behind me. It’s barely just getting finished up, so we actually built this from the ground up, which was a huge learning experience. I didn’t know how many walls you need to soundproof a room, especially when you have someone like Josh [Editor’s note: a reference to Nita’s longtime boyfriend and manager Josh Villalta] hitting the drums in here. So it’s been whirlwind of a year, but it definitely has also been a gift of time. So many things that I wanted to do that I was just getting so overwhelmed with that we now have the time to do.”

Strauss’s new disc, which is tentatively due later this year, will be the follow-up to her first solo LP, “Controlled Chaos”, released in 2018 via Sumerian Records.

Last year, Nita told Heavy New York that her second solo album will still be “an instrumental shred record. I put a lot of different facets of my personality — of which there are many — on ‘Controlled Chaos’, so you’ll see the more aggressive side still, you’ll see the lighter side and the happier side, the more peaceful side,” she said. “I just finished one of the ballads for this record, and I’m immensely proud of how it came out. So there will definitely be a wide spectrum of different emotions going on. And the biggest change, I guess, would be I am gonna have a guest singer or two on a couple of songs on this one. So that would be the main difference between the two records.”

Nita’s live show is mostly instrumental in nature, combining originals with covers.

Strauss has been playing with Alice Cooper since 2014 when she replaced Australian musician and former Michael Jackson player Orianthi. She joined Alice in time for a mammoth MÖTLEY CRÜE tour. She was recommended to Cooper by the legendary rocker’s former bass player and WINGER frontman Kip Winger.

TESLA bassist Brian Wheat has taken issue with the label “hair metal,” saying that the the pejorative term was coined in as a way to disparage acts thought to have been all flash and no substance. Speaking to “The Cassius Morris Show”, Wheat said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I find [the term ‘hair metal’] condescending. What does fucking hair have to do with the music? Should we be called ‘cock metal’ because we all have big dicks? Seriously, it’s, like, ‘hair metal’ — what does that have to do with [anything music-related]? It’s condescending. It’s a putdown. It’s almost like saying, ‘Well, the music’s not valid. They just had good hair.’ That’s what it’s like.

“You can take the greatest hair metal band, whoever it is. I don’t even know — who’s hair metal? Would MÖTLEY CRÜE be considered hair metal? I guess they would. Well, ‘Home Sweet Home’ was a great song. What did fucking hair have to fucking do with that song? ‘Dr. Feelgood’ was a great song. So it’s condescending. It’s a putdown. Should we say about NIRVANA ‘uncleanly music,’ ’cause they look like they didn’t bathe?

“I don’t like it,” he reiterated. “Just talk about the music, because that’s what what matters. Not about the hair. If you wanna call it anything, call it ’80s metal — call it 1980s rock. ‘Cause that’s what it was — it was rock that came out of the ’80s and early ’90s. THE BLACK CROWES came out a year later than TESLA, and they’re not called a hair metal band.

“Why call us a hair metal band when all we were doing was imitating AEROSMITH?” heat, who is promoting his recently released autobiography, “Son Of A Milkman: My Crazy Life With Tesla”, added. “I think we’re very parallel to an AEROSMITH. I think, personally, if you can’t go see AEROSMITH and you wanna see a good version of AEROSMITH, go see TESLA. They’re very similar. I mean, Jeff Keith looks like Steven Tyler; he sings like Steven Tyler.”

“Son Of A Milkman: My Crazy Life With Tesla” arrived in December via Post Hill Press.

TESLA spent most of 2019 touring in support of its latest album, “Shock”, which was released in March of that year via UMe. The follow-up to 2014’s “Simplicity” was produced by DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen.

Check out a full stream of the debut EP from Canada’s death metal crew Abjection!
The post EP Stream: Canadian Newcomers Abjection Deliver Death Metal Hell appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Hear long-running Swedish stoner rockers Greenleaf return with their new album, Echoes From a Mass.
The post Full Album Stream: Greenleaf – “Echoes From a Mass” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.