Month: March 2021

Hear the latest from Svalbard frontwoman Serena Cherry’s Skyrim-themed black metal project, Noctule.
The post Track Premiere: Noctule – ‘Labyrinthian’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

BODY COUNT has never shied away from keeping it raw and real. In that spirit, Ice-T and crew launched a contest for fans to illuminate the musical and lyrical ballistics to their song “The Hate Is Real”, taken from the band’s latest album, “Carnivore”. Fans were asked to create and submit their own videos so the band could pick the best as the visual accompaniment to BODY COUNT’s bloody, multi-tiered take on personal and systemic hate. Now the choice has been made and you can watch the winning video for “The Hate Is Real”, created by 25-year-old Brooklyn, New York-based filmmaker Seby Martinez below.

Ice-T told Metal Hammer about “The Hate Is Real”: “One day, I heard Jim Jones from [American hip-hop group] DIPSET say, ‘Love is fake, but the hate is real.’ I said, ‘That’s a song, because I believe when people say they love you, that could be a figure of speech.’ It’s, like, ‘Yo, man, I love this dude.’ But when someone hates you, they really hate you. Hate is fuckin’ real. Whether it’s racial hate, religious hate, whatever it is, it divides us. I feel like we’re dealing with all kinds of really hateful shit and we just need to address it.”

As previously reported, BODY COUNT was honored with a Grammy in the “Best Metal Performance” category in the pre-telecast ceremony at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, which was held Sunday (March 14) in Los Angeles. BODY COUNT was nominated for “Bum-Rush”, a track from “Carnivore”.

“Carnivore” was released in March 2020 via Century Media. BODY COUNT’s second album for Century Media continued the path of its uncompromising and critically acclaimed predecessors, “Bloodlust” and “Manslaugther”, in pairing Ice-T’s impassioned and socio-critical lyrics with thick guitar riffs and nods to metal and hardcore greats like SLAYER, METALLICA, PANTERA, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. Guest musicians include Amy Lee (EVANESCENCE), Dave Lombardo (ex-SLAYER), Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED) and Riley Gale (POWER TRIP).

U.K. blasters Sulk do the very opposite via their eclectic, self-aware grindcore.
The post Blast Worship: Sulk appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

EVANESCENCE’s Amy Lee told Consequence Of Sound that teenage superstar Billie Eilish inspired her during the writing process for the band’s upcoming album, “The Bitter Truth”. She said: “I listen to all kinds of music. If I’m being completely honest, I don’t listen to rock, mostly. It’s not that I don’t like it. Of course I do. I really love the new BRING ME THE HORIZON album a lot. That’s my favorite new rock album in a good while. But my tastes are all over the place. I really do love good pop — like good, dark pop. So, with Billie Eilish, even more than her style, which is very dark, what I really love about her is just her authenticity. She’s just being completely herself. I see a lot of things in her that remind me of myself, especially when I was younger. I get inspired by all kinds of things, even if it’s just in the way that somebody arranged the songs. Like, ‘Oh, they didn’t end on the chorus. Why don’t we do something like that?'”

“The Bitter Truth” will arrive on March 26 via BMG. EVANESCENCE’s first collection of original music in ten years can be pre-ordered as a digital version, CD, vinyl and a limited-edition deluxe fan box set featuring a bonus CD, journal, poster and special cassette of exclusive audio from the making of “The Bitter Truth”. Every pre-order will automatically come with downloads of already-released songs “Wasted On You”, “The Game Is Over”, “Use My Voice” and “Yeah Right”.

“The Bitter Truth” is an epic, guitar-driven collection inspired by the (often-bitter) realities of the 21st Century and our world. The already-released songs have received early accolades from Elle, Billboard, SPIN, American Songwriter, and more, and showcase the “ferocious and hymnal” (The New York Times) sound that made EVANESCENCE a household name, as well as the drama and powerhouse vocals that made Lee “one of rock’s definitive voices” (Rolling Stone).

EVANESCENCE’s new music was produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who also worked on 2011’s self-titled LP.

Photo credit: Nick Fancher

Twice Grammy-nominated band AUGUST BURNS RED has been sharing previously unreleased tracks, such as a cover of SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s “Chop Suey!” and its metalized rendition of the theme song for the HBO series “Westworld”, over the past several months. Today, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based act revealed that these songs (and more) will live on the “Guardians Sessions” EP.

The EP features B-sides, covers, and reimagined tracks, which were recorded during the sessions for 2020’s full-length album “Guardians” and beyond.

The EP is being released digitally and on 10-inch vinyl on April 16 through Fearless Records.

To celebrate, the band has shared the track “Icarus”, which features a clean vocal cameo from bassist Dustin Davidson.

“‘Icarus’ was a b-side from ‘Guardians’ because it just didn’t fit the vibe of the album,” says Davidson. “I’m happy that our fans can hear it now because it’s riffy and super fun to play on guitar. It’s the first ABR song that I’ve sang on, and for fans of my side project, BEST CASE SCENARIO, I think you’ll hear the influence sprinkled throughout this one.”

Guitarist JB Brubaker explains how this EP came to be. “The ‘Guardians Sessions’ EP was put together on the foundation of two songs: ‘Standing In The Storm’ and ‘Icarus’,” he explains. “Those songs were recorded in September of 2019, when we were finishing up our album ‘Guardians’. Both tracks got cut from the record, as we had too much material and they were the black sheep of the group. When all touring was shut down in March of 2020, we began working on a couple of cover songs and re-imagined versions of some songs from ‘Guardians’. Those songs were recorded in the summer of 2020. We wanted to be productive with our downtime and work on a project that would be fun for both us and our fans.”

“Guardians Sessions” EP track listing:

01. Standing In The Storm
02. Icarus
03. Chop Suey!
04. Westworld
05. Paramount (Reprise)
06. Extinct By Instinct (Reprise)

In a brand new interview with France’s Heavy1, Rob Halford spoke about his decision to leave JUDAS PRIEST in 1992 before going on to record and tour with the aggressive metal group FIGHT and the industrial project 2WO before his return to traditional metal with the eponymous band HALFORD in 2000 and eventual PRIEST comeback in 2003. Asked if it was important for him to explain his side of the story in his autobiography, “Confess”, which came out last year, Halford said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I think it’s important, yes. There are lots of unauthorized books about PRIEST, and they’re all made up of little tidbits of gossip and information or rehashed interviews from other magazines. If you want the truth, you go to the source.

“Never in a million years would I ever have wanted to leave — formally leave, go away — from JUDAS PRIEST,” he continued. “It was genuinely a communication breakdown.

“Artists, musicians, we’re super-sensitive people. My God, the smallest thing can make us [react negatively]. Me, diva — the diva Metal God. And that’s just kicked back artistic sensitive emotional instinct. So I thought here was an opportunity just to try and explain what really did happen. And it just seems crazy that 10 years had to pass. But as I say in the book, some of that was not coming from me; it was coming from different places. And so just to set the record straight, I think, was important.”

Rob previously spoke about his exit from PRIEST during a September 2020 interview with Chris Warburton of BBC Sounds. At the time, he said: “I was in a different place there professionally, especially associated with some of the business connections that I had at the time.

“We finished that glorious ‘Painkiller’ world tour, which was a real slog,” he continued. “All of these tours that we do, they’re incredibly long and tiring, but we do it because we love to do it; we love to see our fans around the world. But prior to this ‘Painkiller’ tour, we’d gone through that really, really difficult time with the Reno trial” — referring the infamous 1990 trial in which PRIEST was accused of inserting subliminal messages into its music — “so we had that kind of filtering behind us in the background as we forged ahead with this incredible ‘Painkiller’ record and tour.

“Hindsight, call it what you will, we should have said, or I should have said, at the end of that ‘Painkiller’ tour, ‘Guys, I’m gonna go off for a couple of years and just chill and maybe do some stuff.’ But that’s not the way it turned out. We just fell into this terrible miscommunication. Bands are like families — you fall out in your family. It took about 10 years for us to repair that, particularly on my part. But there you go. At least I was able to get out of my system the things that I was searching for as a musician. I had my great times with the FIGHT band, the 2WO project, the HALFORD project. It all led me back to the place where I was destined to be as a musician, which is to be with JUDAS PRIEST.”

FIGHT’s initial lineup was completed by JUDAS PRIEST/RACER X drummer Scott Travis, Russ Parrish (a.k.a. Satchel of STEEL PANTHER) on guitar, Brian Tilse on guitar and keyboards and Jay Jay on bass.

FIGHT released two studio albums in the early 1990s — 1993’s “War Of Words” and 1995’s “A Small Deadly Space”.

The 2WO project issued the much-maligned “Voyeurs” album in 1998 via Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records label and sold poorly before Halford returned to his roots and formed the aforementioned HALFORD.

Although Reznor is given “executive producer” credit for the “Voyeurs” disc, the project is largely the work of Halford and co-writers John 5 and Bob Marlette.

Halford’s autobiography, “Confess”, was released via Hachette Books. The book was described by the U.K.’s The Telegraph as “one of the most candid and surprising memoirs” of last year.

When psychedelic rock icons MONSTER MAGNET got off the plane in the USA after their “Powertrip” tour of Europe in February 2020, they already realized that they’d dodged a bullet. The band members were all healthy, despite having spent the last week of the month-long excursion gigging overseas, and at that point, many of those countries were in total lockdown. Part two of that tour, North America, was scheduled to begin three weeks later, but the rest is history… no live music, anywhere. So, what’s a band that’s been touring regularly for 30 years to do with this newfound downtime?

Frontman Dave Wyndorf tells the inspired tale below, but without further ado — Napalm Records is pleased to present the next chapter of MONSTER MAGNET’s rabbit hole deep dive, “A Better Dystopia” (out May 21, 2021): a delightfully (and psychotically) curated collection of ’60s and ’70s proto-metal and late-era psych obscurities covered by the heavy New Jersey legends themselves.

While the album marks a new frontier for MONSTER MAGNET as their first covers record, this is not your typical set of standards released to pass time. “A Better Dystopia” sees the band pay homage to some of their favorite songs of all time, while reflecting on the paranoia, dystopia and revolution of both now — and then.

Fans can experience a first taste of “A Better Dystopia” via the swaggering riffs and swirling vocals on album’s first single “Mr. Destroyer” (originally by POO-BAH) today via a new video.

Wyndorf says about the birth of “A Better Dystopia”: “We all agreed that we would be bored out of our minds within a month of lockdown. MONSTER MAGNET loves the road. It’s a lifestyle. So, I considered our options. Rather than panhandle on the Internet, hawking masks and Zoom-rocking practice sessions for dollars, I suggested we record a ‘bunker record.’ A total DIY affair (band only) recorded and mixed in Bob Pantella’s small-but-potent Freak Shop Studios/rehearsal space right here in New Jersey. But what to record?

“I didn’t feel much like writing, but working on anything was better than watching the news as hospitals filled up, people died, and American politics went bat-shit crazy. The world roared ‘Dystopia! Apocalypse! Revolution!’ I’d heard those words before, and they brought to mind my childhood in the late ’60s/early ’70s… and the music… and short playlist of songs (just one of many) that I’d been carrying around with me on my whatever device to listen to before shows. Of course, these tunes have also been in my head for more or less my whole life. These were not the popular hits of the time. This was like a playlist from the fourth dimension… strange bits of musical obscurity, mostly dredged up from that inglorious and freaky ‘twilight zone’ time that preceded arena rock, heavy metal, reggae and disco. A no-man’s land of hard rock that still had remnants of psychedelia and garage punk but had abandoned any notion of ‘flower power’ or frat house fun. And of course, they rocked.

“Yeah, these songs were it.”

Wyndorf is at the top of his game on “A Better Dystopia”, delivering each lyric in his own inimitable style, and musicians Phil Caivano, Bob Pantella, Garrett Sweeney and Alec Morton own the sound — vintage and old school, dense and heavy, with searing fuzz leads and pounding bass and drums all played in a deft style that’s almost been lost in modern music. The album opens with “The Diamond Mine”, as Dave Wyndorf recites a classic monologue by Dave Diamond, an American radio DJ whose programs in the late ’60s and early ’70s helped popularize many psychedelic and acid rock bands. At this point the real trip begins, as the opening chords of the HAWKWIND classic “Born To Go” gear up for launch. Tracks like standout “Mr. Destroyer” (POO-BAH) spur visions of some untold freak revolution — or perhaps dinosaurs battling on a burning planet at the end of time — creating a perfect blend of hard rock and psychedelia. Feverish “Motorcycle (Straight To Hell)” (TABLE SCRAPS) is pure punk fury of the old school tradition, evoking a cross between Iggy Pop and MOTÖRHEAD as Wyndorf wails “I’m gonna drive it straight to HELL!” Falling even further down the mind-bending rabbit hole, MAGNET offers their stunning, whirlwind take on the often-overlooked hard rock classic “Learning To Die” (DUST) and a masterful version of the STOOGES-meets-goth epic “Solid Gold Hell” (THE SCIENTISTS). The album closes with a bonus nuclear cover of MORGEN’s “Welcome To The Void”, inviting you to restart the ride again and again.

Wyndorf concludes: “The great bands whose music we lovingly interpret here were (and some still are) on the fringe, underrated, and in our opinion, really, really cool. I think that’s reason enough for us to do this album. Furthermore, ‘A Better Dystopia’ is a collection of songs that I think reflect (knowingly or unknowingly) a paranoid time in history, but also deflect that same paranoia by owning it, fully. And of course, it ROCKS.”

“A Better Dystopia” track listing:

01. The Diamond Mine
02. Born To Go
03. Epitaph For A Head
04. Solid Gold Hell
05. Be Forewarned
06. Mr. Destroyer
07. When The Wolf Sits
08. Death
09. Situation
10. It’s Trash
11. Motorcycle (Straight To Hell)
12. Learning To Die
13. Welcome To The Void (bonus track)

MONSTER MAGNET is:

Dave Wyndorf – Vocals, Guitar
Phil Caivano – Guitar
Garret Sweeny – Guitar
Alec Morton – Bass
Bob Pantella – Drums

Photo credit: Gonzales Photo / Per-Otto Oppi / Alamy Live News

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. The ELLEFSON-SOTO version of the RIOT classic “Swords & Tequila” has just been released across all digital streaming outlets via Ellefson’s Combat Records.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 David Ellefson and Andy 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.

The ELLEFSON-SOTO recording lineup:

David Ellefson – Bass
Jeff Scott Soto – Lead Vocals
Andy Martongelli – Lead & Rhythm Guitars
Paolo Caridi – Drums
Rick Hughes – Lead Vocals (on “Swords & Tequila”)

Says Ellefson: “Jeff and I have been friends for so many years that it’s great to finally collaborate on some material together. He has such a distinctive voice and perfect style for some new ideas my guitarist Andy Martongelli and I have been composing. We are excited about the progress of it all and thought this would be a perfect time to give a little sneak preview.”

Jeff adds: “As COVID-19 became a big negative around the globe, it actually offered many artists a chance to finally collaborate with one another that might have never happened otherwise… As I have known David for many years, I knew from our other efforts outside of our day jobs that we could come up with some badass jams…and here we are, letting you in on our cool little secret.”

As for the choice of cover song, Ellefson reminisced: “The first time I ever heard of RIOT was on the Castle Donington ‘Monsters Of Rock’ album from 1980. For me, they were the USA representatives during the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. And ‘Swords & Tequila’, along with the entire ‘Fire Down Under’ album for that matter, show the band delivering its rowdy and high-energy rock and roll like no other band in the USA was doing at that time. So, it is an honor to offer them much-deserved reverence, as well as a reminiscent tribute to the mighty Guy Speranza, who fronted the band like a god during that period.”

Soto adds: “What can I say? This was a classic metal track from RIOT that we all knew growing up, when David brought up that we should cover it I was thrilled. But when we added Rick Hughes from the band SWORD onto it, it truly came to life! 40 years after its release, we hope you dig this new version we built for you!”

Vocalist Rick Hughes is the founding frontman of the iconic Quebec power metal group SWORD. The Canadian quartet formed in 1981 and has released a string of metal classics, including its eponymous 1984 Aquarias Records debut “Metalized” which has been esteemed by fans and musicians alike, including the likes of METALLICA, MEGADETH, MOTÖRHEAD and many more.

Hughes explains: “To me, music has always been the best medicine and that is why in this time of not being able to perform with live musicians in front of a live audience, I was more than happy to participate in this camaraderie of seasoned musicians.”

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

The University Of South Carolina Libraries will be home to a one-of-a-kind collection of memorabilia from the rock band KISS.

The collection is a gift from John Upshaw Downs, Jr., a Charleston businessman, and his wife, Margaret Norris Downs, who have a deep interest in music and art. The Downs offered the collection to the University Libraries earlier this year after they read about the Libraries’ acquisition of the Gary Lee Watson comic book collection.

KISS was founded in 1973 by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. While they are known for their music and their stage performances, they are also known for their highly developed business and marketing plans. KISS is considered to be one of the most influential rock bands of the late 20th century and they are still performing.

The Downs’ remarkable collection, which includes 26 guitars played by the band and handcrafted guitar cases, offers a backstage look at the legendary band whose hits include “Detroit Rock City”, “I Was Made For Lovin’ You”, “Shout It Out Loud”, “Tears Are Falling” and “Rock And Roll All Nite”.

The collection is comprised of approximately 400 items, including:

* 26 guitars, originally owned and signed by members of the band
* Concert photographs by Len DeLessio
* Early black-and-white signed photographs
* Original artwork by Paul Stanley, KISS guitarist and a founding member of the band
* Concert memorabilia, including backstage passes

The Downs Family Kiss Collection will greatly enhance the University Libraries 20th and 21st century popular music holdings. This collection connects well with University Libraries’ popular culture holdings, including 19th, 20th and 21st century music, film, television, comics and graphic novels and art. Students, faculty and researchers in music, visual arts, modern history, business history, and marketing will use the Downs Collection. This acquisition also stands to establish the University Libraries as a repository for contemporary music archives.

The collection is currently being processed and readied for an exhibit in summer 2021.