Month: March 2021

IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith has told SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that fans can expect some surprises when the band finally returns to the road once the pandemic has subsided. “I think it’ll be worth the wait, put it like that, as far as the MAIDEN thing goes,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “There are some very, very exciting things in the pipeline. So that’s all I can say, really… But I think the fans are gonna be delighted.”

IRON MAIDEN currently has European tour dates booked from June 5 through July 11, although it is almost certain that the shows will be postponed due to the coronavirus crisis.

IRON MAIDEN’s latest double live album was released in November via BMG. 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.

IRON MAIDEN hasn’t released 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.

“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.

Smith is currently promoting the debut album from his collaborative project with Richie Kotzen. Recorded on the Turks & Caicos Islands in February 2020, produced by Richie and Adrian and mixed by Kevin “Caveman” Shirley, SMITH/KOTZEN’s nine-track opus is a consummate collaboration between these two highly respected musicians who co-wrote all the songs and also share lead vocals and trade off on guitar and bass duties throughout the record.

During an appearance on this past Thursday’s (March 25) episode of SirusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, IN THIS MOMENT singer Maria Brink was asked if she and her bandmates have used the coronavirus downtime to work on new music. She responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There [are] conversations happening right now and music being made. We had time to finally build music studios in our houses. I think we’re on the same page as everybody else. And we’ve had time to empower our business in a lot of ways, learn a lot of the business side that we didn’t always typically understand or know and really diving into the business as a whole. I think we’ve been working really hard to empower the band a lot. We have some cool collaborations that we’re doing right now, and we are starting to write new music. So, it’s definitely happening.

“All that time went by, and everybody’s feeling so much right now,” she continued. “I think we all have so much emotion, so it’s the perfect time for all artists — or painters or whoever it is — to be expressing themselves, ’cause they’re filled with all kinds of stuff. That’s the artists’ dream. They want a broken heart or some sort of tragedy — same with poets — to do good art.”

Regarding whether IN THIS MOMENT thought about staging a livestream during the pandemic, guitarist Chris Howorth said: “We actually talked about it a lot at the beginning, and we were going back and forth on some ideas. And then we just decided we’re such a visual band and we want to present everything in such a way that we just didn’t feel like the cubes on the screen was gonna work for IN THIS MOMENT. So we started looking for other ways to do it — content. We also did have the album that was out, and we had a couple of videos come out throughout the break on that, so that kind of helped satiate our need to do stuff for a little bit. But we’re now at that point where we’ve gotta be on tour. Things up kicking up. It’s been a full year, and there’s no more waiting around. And we still don’t wanna do a livestream, because we know we’re going on tour — we feel it in our gut — in the summer/fall.”

IN THIS MOMENT’s U.S. tour with BLACK VEIL BRIDES, DED and RAVEN BLACK, which was originally set to kick off last March, will now take place in “late summer, early fall,” according to Howorth. The trek will be “nine and a half weeks” long and will see all the bands performing in “100 percent capacity” venues.

IN THIS MOMENT’s latest album, “Mother”, was released on March 27, 2020. The disc was once again recorded at The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada with producer Kevin Churko. The LP 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.

Greek guitar virtuoso Gus G., well known in rock and metal circles for his work as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist and as leader of his own band FIREWIND, will release a new solo single, “Exosphere”, on April 1 on all digital platforms. The track features Dennis Ward on bass and Jan-Vincent Velazco on drums. The artwork for the single was created by Gustavo Sazes, with whom Gus has worked since 2007.

Last November, Gus confirmed that he had begun work on a new solo album which he said looked like it would be “all instrumental.”

Gus previously discussed a possible new solo LP during an April 2020 interview with U.K.’s “NI Rocks” radio show. At the time, he said: “I’m thinking of making, actually, a full-on instrumental record next. I’ve done a lot of collaborations already and I’ve tried out the trio thing and I think I’m kind of ready now for that guitar instrumental record that more or less everybody wanted me to do for a number of years and I always said no. [Laughs] I needed to really get a lot of these things out of my system first and try out all these things, and I think I’m ready to try that one out now. So I don’t know how long it’s gonna take me and when it’s gonna come out. A lot will depend on FIREWIND as well and what happens with the band and how much we can tour and how the album is received. But, yeah, I’m slowly compiling ideas for possible instrumentals and an instrumental record. I think it will be a good time to let my guitar be the voice.”

In September 2019, Gus issued a digital-only solo EP, “Live In Budapest – Part 1”, consisting of four tracks recorded on the guitarist’s headline European tour in support of his latest album release, “Fearless”. The world tour saw Gus and his band share stages around the world with legendary guitarists like Richie Kotzen, Vinnie Moore followed by his own headline dates and a massive tour as special guest of Los Angeles rockers STEEL PANTHER.

Gus’s most recent solo band featured Dennis Ward (PINK CREAM 69, UNISONIC) on bass and vocals and longtime drummer Johan Nunez (FIREWIND, ex-KAMELOT).

“Fearless” was released in April 2018 via AFM Records. The follow-up to 2015’s “Brand New Revolution” marked Gus’s first release since exiting Osbourne’s band in 2017.

On “Fearless”, Gus joined forces with Ward and drummer Will Hunt (EVANESCENCE).

FIREWIND’s ninth, self-titled studio album was made available last May.

The band recently parted ways with guitarist/keyboardist Bob Katsionis and singer Henning Basse.

FIREWIND’s new vocalist is Herbie Langhans, who has previously played with AVANTASIA and SINBREED.

The new single drops April 1st on all digital platforms and features Dennis Ward on bass & Jan-Vincent Velazco on drums! You can pre-save the single here: https://t.co/Bpq4bAF0Hk
— Gus G. (@gusgofficial) March 29, 2021

MACHINE HEAD’s Robb Flynn and Jared MacEachern held the latest “Electric Happy Hour” on Friday, March 26 during which they performed their sixth album, 2007’s “The Blackening”, in its entirety. You can now watch the video below.

Featured songs:

5:42 Clenching The Fists Of Dissent
14:23 Beautiful Mourning
22:50 Aesthetics Of Hate
30:40 Now I Lay Thee Down
36:37 Slanderous
42:17 Halo
58:03 Wolves
1:08:47 A Farewell To Arms
1:18:29 Imperium
1:30:09 The Dagger
1:35:53 Battery
1:37:45 Thunder Kiss ’65
1:39:55 Old
1:50:48 Darkness Within (acoustic) (intro 1 – memories from The Blackening)
2:01:14 Darkness Within (acoustic) (intro 2)
2:03:50 Darkness Within (acoustic)

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Flynn has been staging “Acoustic Happy Hour” solo sessions every Friday, during which he has performed a number of MH tunes as well as covers of other artists’ songs.

Flynn told Kerrang! magazine about “Acoustic Happy Hour”: “It’s just basically a free show on Facebook. I try to learn two new songs every Friday. I take requests, and I try to play MACHINE HEAD songs that have never been played live acoustic. Last week I covered MUSE, TOOL and LYNYRD SKYNYRD. It’s been fucking awesome. The first three or four were horrible — I knew they were — but I knew that if I kept sucking for six weeks I would get past it.

“For the first 20 years of my career, I never took singing lessons,” he continued. “Then I did some about 10 years ago. With these acoustic shows, I’ve been back in contact with my old singing teacher to try and figure out why I can do a three-and-a-half hour MACHINE HEAD show, but this clean singing is kicking my ass. It’s been an opportunity to un-learn all the wrong shit and get an opportunity to do things right.”

In November, MACHINE HEAD released a new single, “My Hands Are Empty”, via Nuclear Blast. The song marked the first musical collaboration between Flynn and original “Burn My Eyes” guitarist Logan Mader in 24 years.

“My Hands Are Empty” was the latest in a line of singles to be released by MACHINE HEAD, which issued “Do Or Die” in October 2019, “Circle The Drain” in February, and the two-song digital single “Civil Unrest”, consisting of “Stop The Bleeding” and “Bulletproof”, in June. “Stop The Bleeding” featured guest vocals from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE frontman Jesse Leach, and was written and recorded just days after the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.

In July, MACHINE HEAD canceled its previously announced rescheduled 2020 tour dates for Europe and Australia due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe.

Each show on MACHINE HEAD’s “Burn My Eyes” 25th-anniversary tour consisted of two parts: part one saw Flynn and MacEachern performing alongside new recruits, guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED) and British drummer Matt Alston (DEVILMENT, EASTERN FRONT); while part two featured “Burn My Eyes” played in its entirety for the first time ever, with original “Burn My Eyes”-era drummer Chris Kontos and Mader joining in.

British heavy metal vocalist Blaze Bayley, who fronted IRON MAIDEN more than 20 years ago, spoke to the Crowcast about how the rise of grunge in the early 1990s forced most hard rock bands off the radio and MTV, with album and tour sales plummeting.

“When I was in MAIDEN, we were at war with grunge, man,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “Grunge was trying to kill us. The U.K. press, they thought the sun shone out of various bands’ bottoms, and they wanted MAIDEN to die. We went into the heartland of death — we played Seattle at the height of grunge, man, and it was one of the most awful gigs I’ve ever done. There were these people looking at us like we were some kind of dinosaur, and they were going, ‘Why aren’t they dead yet?’ And then you’ve got a few rows at the front going, ‘MAIDEN! Yes!’ It’s just unbelievable. And that’s the war that we had with [1995’s] ‘The X Factor’ and [1998’s] ‘Virtual XI’. We were fighting for the very existence of real heavy metal. And where are they now? Metal is forever, ’cause it’s in the heart of fans.

“I’m sorry, but grunge, it was fashionable,” Blaze continued. “And the best thing about what I do is it’s not fashionable. I’m always unpopular, and that’s why I’ve lasted so long. I’m tiny, but if I was gonna be really popular, I would be up, then gone. ‘Have you heard of Blaze Bayley?’ ‘Yeah, isn’t he that artist that’s really small, a cult figure?’ ‘Yeah.’ And they’ve been saying that for 25 years, the same thing. So because of that, I haven’t disappeared. If everybody liked me, it would be kiss of death for my career.”

In a 2014 inteview with The Metal Voice, Blaze said that he didn’t leave MAIDEN of his own accord. “I was fired,” he said. “They said I wasn’t good enough. And I said, ‘Well, is Bruce [Dickinson] coming back?’ And they said, ‘Yes.’ And I think what was happening at the time was that worldwide, CD sales had gone down and EMI had closed all their manufacturing facilities around the world. The record business was shrinking, so, really, I think it was more of a business decision that Bruce came back at the time. And, yeah, I was just gutted by that. I think it took me about four years, really, before I kind of accepted what had happened. And I think, really, if things had been slightly different, then it would have been very difficult for Bruce to come back, because the songs that I was working on at the time, the ideas for what I thought would be [my] third IRON MAIDEN album, I really thought that that would be it, that third album would really show fans that we were serious and that this lineup would work. But I didn’t get the chance to make that third album.”

Bayley fronted IRON MAIDEN from 1994 until 1999. The two MAIDEN albums he appeared on, “The X Factor” and “Virtual XI”, sold considerably less than the band’s prior releases and were their lowest-charting titles in the group’s home country since 1981’s “Killers”.

Since leaving IRON MAIDEN in 1999, Bayley has released a number of albums, including several under the moniker BLAZE and more than a handful under his own name. He also appeared on 2012’s “Wolfsbane Saves The World”, the first album of new material by WOLFSBANE since the group’s self-titled 1994 effort.

Blaze will release a new studio album, “War Within Me”, on April 9. All songs were written and produced by Blaze and guitarist Christopher Appleton.

“War Within Me” finds Blaze moving forward from the success of his “Infinite Entanglement” trilogy released in consecutive years 2016-2018. The 10 brand new songs draw influences from Blaze’s experience with IRON MAIDEN, plus his extensive solo career which started with his “Silicon Messiah” album in year 2000.

“War Within Me” is not a concept album but does include a positive thread throughout. The LP was recorded during 2020 with work split between Blaze’s studio at home in the West Midlands and Christopher Appleton’s studio in Greater Manchester. The now-very-consistent lineup, chosen from British metal band ABSOLVA, played on the album — Christopher Appleton (guitar, backing vocals), Martin McNee (drums), Karl Schramm (bass). Blaze and Appleton shared the work mixing and producing, while Ade Emsley (IRON MAIDEN, TANK, BRITISH LION, VOODOO SIX) handled the mastering. The striking and detailed artwork is provided by Akirant Illustration (IRON MAIDEN, “Star Wars”).

In a new interview with Brazil’s Kazagastão, CANNIBAL CORPSE bassist and founding member Alex Webster was asked if he thinks he and his bandmates will be able to hit the road in support of their upcoming 15th studio album, “Violence Unimagined”. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I think we will; it’s just a matter of when. And that’s so unclear right now. It could possible that bands are gonna be doing touring by the end of 2021. I think for us, we kind of just decided that 2021 is probably not going to work. Even if bands start touring in late 2021, there’s gonna be so many trying to at the exact same time. We’re hopeful that maybe in the first half of 2022, we could start to tour in support of this album. Of course, it’s completely different from how we normally do things. Normally, the album comes out, and we’re already on tour or we start a tour right at the exact time that the album comes out. So, yeah, it’s different.”

Webster said that he and his bandmates “miss” being on tour. “I think us and hundreds, and maybe thousands, of other bands feel the same way,” he added. “It’s really such a big part of being a band, especially in this day and age when, really, most of how you make your living is from touring and selling merchandise on tour, and that sort of thing. So, on a business side of things, of course, we miss it. And then, it’s what we do — it’s what we love to do. When we put out an album, we’re looking forward to being out there for two years, on and off, going all over the world, seeing our fans.”

“Violence Unimagined” will be released on April 16 via Metal Blade Records. Erik Rutan, one of the death metal’s most acclaimed guitarists who is known for his time as part of MORBID ANGEL throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, as well as handling vocals/guitars for HATE ETERNAL, lent his guitar as well as production skills to the effort, which was recorded at his Mana Recording in St. Petersburg, Florida. Rutan previously produced four CANNIBAL CORPSE albums (in addition to “Violence Unimagined”), alongside the likes of GOATWHORE, SOILENT GREEN and BELPHEGOR. Filling in live on guitar since 2019, in 2020 he became a full member, contributing to the writing process.

Rutan joined CANNIBAL CORPSE as the replacement for longtime guitarist Pat O’Brien, who was arrested in Florida more than two years ago on charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault. Deputies said he burglarized a house and charged at a deputy with a knife.

Photo credit: Alex Morgan

Legendary Swedish deathsters HYPOCRISY have completed work on their long-awaited new studio album. The follow-up to 2013’s “End Of Disclosure” is tentatively due later in the year via Nuclear Blast Records.

The news of the HYPOCRISY LP’s completion was broken by mainman Peter Tägtgren on Friday. He posted an Instagram picture of him raising a glass and he wrote in an accompanying caption: “HYPOCRISY ALBUM IS DONE!!! 11 songs, 52 minutes.. mastered and done! Let’s celebrate. Now it’s up to the record company to find a good release date.”

In 2018, Tägtgren told Australia’s Sticks For Stones that the musical direction of HYPOCRISY’s next album would be “a mix between old and new HYPOCRISY.”

“End Of Disclosure” was was produced by Tägtgren at his Abyss Studio in Sweden. The artwork was created by Wes Benscoter (SLAYER, KREATOR, NILE, VADER).

HYPOCRISY’s “Hell Over Sofia – 20 Years Of Chaos And Confusion” DVD/CD was released in October 2011 via Nuclear Blast. The disc contained footage of the band’s February 27, 2010 concert at the Blue Box club in Sofia, Bulgaria.

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During the latest episode of Elton John’s Apple Music 1 show “Rocket Hour”, the legendary singer told guest SG Lewis that he recorded “something” with METALLICA.

“I’ve just done something with METALLICA,” he revealed. “During this lockdown period, I’ve been working with [the virtual band] GORILLAZ and people like that. I haven’t been doing any Elton stuff, but I’ve been doing great stuff with other people.”

It is not clear what project with METALLICA Elton was referring to, but earlier this year, Miley Cyrus said that he upcoming METALLICA covers album will feature John playing the piano on her version of “Nothing Else Matters”.

In a January 2021 interview with U.K. radio station Capital FM, Cyrus said: “I did a METALLICA cover of ‘Nothing Else Matters’ featuring Elton John on piano, I’ve got Yo-Yo Ma, Chad Smith; so many all-stars in this band. I’m so excited about this collaboration.”

Cyrus continued: “I mean, having Elton John and METALLICA and me … I love when ingredients don’t quite fit. Or it seems like a concoction that no one would ever put together, and you gotta have someone like [the song’s producer Andrew] Watt that will take that risk.”

In September 2019, around the time when METALLICA played two concerts concerts with the San Francisco Symphony at the city’s Chase Center, drummer Lars Ulrich posted a picture of him, his wife and John on Instagram, writing: “Beyond inspiring to spend an evening in the company of one of the greatest songwriters and entertainers ever… thank you Elton for your generosity and embracing vibes!”

Last year, John made a guest appearance on on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Ordinary Man” album, playing piano and singing on the title track.

Earlier this month, METALLICA celebrated the 35th anniversary of its classic third album, “Master Of Puppets”, by performing the song “Battery” on an episode of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”.

In January, Ulrich told Classic Rock that METALLICA was making “glacial” progress on the follow-up to 2016’s “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” album. Two months earlier, Ulrich said in an interview with Rolling Stone that METALLICA was nearly a month into “some pretty serious writing” sessions for its next studio album. That same month, Lars told Kara Swisher at the CNBC Evolve Summit that he and his METALLICA bandmates have been working on new music for “the last six [to] eight weeks virtually.” But he admitted that they have encountered a myriad of technical issues which have slowed their progress.

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On a recent episode of the “Loaded Radio” podcast, EPICA guitarist/vocalist Mark Jansen spoke to Scott Penfold about what it’s been like to work with singer Simone Simons for the past two decades after the breakup of their romantic relationship. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We are very close friends. I was just talking to her, like, one hour ago. We are very good friends. We understand each other.

“I think it’s very unique to have a good relationship with your ex-girlfriend; not many people have the same way,” he continued. “And not many new partners would like that, but our partners have no problem with it whatsoever. So it’s a very unique situation, and I’m really happy that it worked out this way. Because for both of us, EPICA is our passion, our love, and we would have never wanted to give it up just because the relationship ended. And then, afterwards, we still became tight friends. That’s great. So I’m really thankful that we could work it out this way.”

Simone’s husband is KAMELOT keyboardist Oliver Palotai, with whom she shares a seven-year-old son, Vincent G. Palotai. They live in Germany. Jansen’s girlfriend is the Italian opera singer Laura Macrì, with whom he lives in the south of Italy.

EPICA’s latest album, “Omega”, was released on February 26 via Nuclear Blast.