Month: March 2021

Sammy Hagar received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine earlier today (Thursday, March 11).

The 73-year-old former VAN HALEN frontman took to his Instagram to share a video of him getting the final dose of the vaccine. He wrote in a caption: “I dislike shots as much as anyone. But I want to get back to playing live concerts, traveling the world without putting anyone at any risk my family my friends and myself Included. #2shot #moderna #bettersafethansorry #letitrock”.

Last June, Hagar made headlines for an interview in which he said that he was willing to sacrifice himself to COVID-19 if it means saving the economy. At the time, Hagar was one of several musicians interviewed by Rolling Stone about staying at home instead of touring while coping with the uncertainties of the pandemic.

“I’m going to make a radical statement here. This is hard to say without stirring somebody up, but truthfully, I’d rather personally get sick and even die, if that’s what it takes,” Hagar began.

“We have to save the world and this country from this economic thing that’s going to kill more people in the long run. I would rather see everyone go back to work. If some of us have to sacrifice on that, okay.”

Hagar suggested that if the cost of human lives is necessary for the economy to fully recover, he was willing to die from the coronavirus. “I will die for my children and my grandchildren to have a life anywhere close to the life that I had in this wonderful country. That’s just the way that I feel about it,” he continued. “I’m not going to go around spreading the disease. But there may be a time where we have to sacrifice. I mean, how many people die on the Earth every day? I have no idea. I’m sorry to say it, but we all gotta die, man.”

Sammy also said that he would be willing to play live concerts in packed venues “before there’s a vaccine, if it’s declining and seems to be going away.”

After the Rolling Stone article was published, Hagar released a statement in which he revealed that the interview was done a month and a half earlier and insisted that he will do his part in “getting back to work in a safe and responsible way and getting this economy rolling again.”

Sammy said: “I did that interview when we were already several weeks into the stay-at-home, which my family and I took very seriously, and things were starting to look up, the curve was beginning flattening. So when I was asked if I’d be comfortable enough to get back onstage before a vaccine was out, I was cautiously optimistic. I said, ‘Yeah, not too soon. I want to make sure it’s not escalating. When it’s declining and seems to be going away.’

“Big picture, it’s about getting back to work in a safe and responsible way and getting this economy rolling again. I will do my part. I stand by that. I employ 200 people directly and when we tour even more. Like everything today, it’s a watch and see over the next few months but we remain cautiously optimistic that with the right improvements and safety measures in place, we might be able to play shows. That said, as things change, for the better or worse, we will appropriately adjust our plans.”

Last year, SAMMY HAGAR & THE CIRCLE’s U.S. tour with NIGHT RANGER was officially canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe.

Joining Hagar in THE CIRCLE are bassist Michael Anthony (VAN HALEN, CHICKENFOOT), drummer Jason Bonham (BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, JASON BONHAM’S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING) and guitarist Vic Johnson (THE WABORITAS).

THE CIRCLE’s first album of all-original material, “Space Between”, was released in May 2019 via BMG.

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Tom Hamilton received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine earlier today (Thursday, March 11).

The 69-year-old AEROSMITH bassist took to his Instagram to share that he got the final dose of the vaccine. He wrote in a caption: “Moderna #2! I’m invincible!”

A new poll from the Pew Research Center showed that more than two-thirds of U.S. adults plan on getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

The poll, released last Friday, found that 69 percent of adults say they are going to receive the coronavirus vaccine.

The Pew poll showed that 19% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, 32% say they will definitely get the vaccine and 17% say they will probably get it.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has estimated that about 70-85% of Americans would need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.

America’s two main vaccines have shown 95% efficacy against the coronavirus.

As of late January, the CDC discovered that only 11 per 1 million people experienced severe reactions from the Pfizer vaccine, and only 2.5 per 1 million people who received the Moderna dose.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which became available in the United States earlier this month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it emergency use authorization, was tested with new variants of COVID-19, and has shown to be effective against them; Pfizer and Moderna were tested prior to the emergence of these variants.

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KORN guitarist Brian “Head” Welch has opened up about the backlash he has received from the Christian community for his decision to rejoin the band.

Welch, who left KORN in 2005 after becoming a Christian and returned to the band eight years later, talked about the criticism he has received from the more conservative members of the Christian community for being a part of the secular rock scene, which many believe is dark and evil.

In an interview with “The Conversation”‘s Roxanne Grace, Welch said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “At first, I engaged with [the online detractors] and tried to change them. And you give scripture. But that doesn’t work. And I feel like if they did it to Christ, they’re gonna do it to us. So I learned the ability to just ignore and walk away and not to respond. Or a quick delete off your page — just ban the user and move on. Because all it is, it’s, like, demonic activity trying to — they’re trying to hit your insecurities, and they’re trying to get you to feel the sting of the rejection, and they’re trying to get you to respond. And there’s not enough time in the day, with family, friends and work and everyting, to engage in negativity. So a quick delete and ‘ban user.'”

He continued: “Look, they’re not in your tribe — they don’t get you — so just go somewhere else. Go with your people, who you agree with or get fed by, or whatever. That’s what’s worked for me.

“If you really wanna make demons mad, staying in rest and ignoring them is torturous for them. ‘Cause they want attention and they want bitterness. So if you just ban the user and delete and move on, you send the message that you haven’t fallen into the trap.”

Less than a month after leaving KORN, Welch — wearing a white robe and sporting a long beard — was baptized in Israel’s Jordan River, along with about 20 other members of the Valley Bible Fellowship, the Bakersfield, California, church in which he spoke two weekends earlier.

Welch officially returned to KORN in 2013, one year after joining the band onstage at the Carolina Rebellion festival in Rockingham, North Carolina to perform “Blind”.

Since his conversion to Christ 16 years ago, Welch has been very open about how God changed his lifestyle and restored his relationship with his daughter.

In recent years, Brian has been preaching that people don’t have to wait until they die to see if having an encounter with the presence of God is real.

Both Welch and KORN bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu have had highly public, though separate, conversion experiences, ones that have been greeted with a certain amount of skepticism.

KORN’s latest album, “The Nothing”, was released in September 2019 via Roadrunner/Elektra. The follow-up to 2016’s “The Serenity Of Suffering” was once again produced by Nick Raskulinecz.

Welch’s LOVE AND DEATH project released its second album, “Perfectly Preserved”, on February 12 via Earache Records.

Get crushed by the “Excruciating Weight” of Lithuanian death metal duskbringers Crypts of Despair. All Light Swallowed is out April 23rd.
The post Track Premiere: Crypts of Despair – “Excruciating Weight” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

The tour will support the band’s new album, Sweep It Into Space, which comes out April 23rd.

DC’s Myopic and the Baltimore, Maryland’s At the Graves joined forces to craft a collaborative effort that pushes, not only both projects’ respective sounds but their creative capacities as well
The post Full Album Stream: Myopic and At the Graves – “A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Tony Iommi says that he is “not at all happy” about the release of the Ronnie James Dio-era BLACK SABBATH song titled “Slapback” which was uploaded to YouTube several days ago.

Gary Rees, the stepson and executor of the estate of SABBATH’s longtime keyboardist Geoff Nicholls, shared the track last Friday (March 5), writing in an accompanying message that he had found it on a cassette tape that contained other material recorded during SABBATH’s 1979 songwriting sessions for the following year’s album “Heaven And Hell”.

Asked in an interview with SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” on Thursday (March 11) what he could remember anything about this purportedly unreleased tune, Iommi said: “I’m not at all happy with [Nicholls’s estate releasing the song] — at all. And it’s left a really bad taste in my mouth. At that point, when we did that, Geoff wasn’t even involved in the band; I hadn’t even got Geoff over at that time. That is actually Ronnie playing bass on that… And that was just in the lounge recorded on a cassette.”

As for why “Slapback” never saw the light of day before, Iommi said: “We had one or two things that we’d jam around on and play on and stuff, but it [wasn’t] right for the album, so we didn’t put it into shape; we didn’t record it [properly] or anything,” he explained.

Iommi’s assertion that Dio played bass on “Slapback” seemingly contradicts Geezer Butler’s claim that he is featured on the track. On Monday, the BLACK SABBATH bassist told “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that “Slapback” was one of the songs he and his bandmates worked on before he exited SABBATH for a short time in order to deal with some personal issues. “It’s probably the reason I did leave,” he joked. “It was just one of those songs that didn’t make the grade.”

Asked if he in fact played bass on the recording that was uploaded to YouTube, Butler said: “Yeah, that was right before I left. It was just a one-off thing. We just jammed it and didn’t think anything more of it. It didn’t really work.”

The “Slapback” upload came a month and a half after Rees shared a previously unreleased rehearsal recording of BLACK SABBATH playing the “Heaven And Hell” title track during the same sessions. That recording featured Nicholls on bass due to Butler’s absence during the initial writing stage for the LP.

Butler went on to say that it’s “incredible” to see both these recordings see the light of day more than 40 years later. “And it’s quite good quality as well,” he said. “I’ve heard the two songs from the Geoff Nicholls thing. It’s reasonable quality.”

Dio joined SABBATH for the first time in 1979 and quickly found kindred spirits in Butler, Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. When “Heaven And Hell” was released in April 1980, the album was met with effusive reviews for the band’s return to form on metal masterpieces like “Neon Knights” and the title track. The LP reached No. 9 in the U.K. and No. 28 in the U.S., where it was also certified platinum.

Released on March 5, “Heaven And Hell: Deluxe Edition” added several bonus tracks that have never been made available in North America, including versions of “Children Of The Sea” and “Die Young” recorded live in 1980 in Hartford, Connecticut. The set concludes with live rarities like “E5150” and “Neon Knights” that originally appeared in 2007 on the Rhino Handmade’s limited edition collection “Black Sabbath: Live At Hammersmith Odeon”.

Nicholls died in January 2017 after a long battle with lung cancer.

Geoff, who played keyboards on all of SABBATH’s albums between 1980 and 1995 and toured with them, was reportedly in remission from cancer at the time of his death but succumbed to the side effects of chemotherapy.

Nicholls’s first appearance on a SABBATH album was on “Heaven And Hell”. Although his main role with SABBATH was on the keyboard, Nicholls also played some rhythm guitar at concerts. In addition to not always being credited as a full member of the band, Nicholls rarely appeared on stage during SABBATH shows and would instead play on the side of the stage or backstage.

Nicholls’s involvement with the band ended when Adam Wakeman (a member of Ozzy Osbourne’s solo band) was chosen to play keyboards during SABBATH’s 2004 and 2005 tours as part of Ozzfest.