Month: April 2021

Former FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH drummer Jeremy Spencer has revealed that the band’s onstage meltdown in Memphis nearly six years ago “sucked the life out of” him.

According to multiple reports at the time, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH performed half a dozen songs on May 1, 2015 at the Beale Street Music Festival before the entire band, except Ivan Moody, walked off stage, leaving the singer seemingly confused and talking to fans in rambling fashion.

Spencer discussed the incident in an interview with Dr. Music while promoting “Devil From Hell”, the latest single from his PSYCHOSEXUAL project. Jeremy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “That night probably was the changing point for the band. That popped my bubble, for sure. I never thought that something like that would go down on stage, and I don’t think the stage is any place for that kind of stuff to take place. But, unfortunately, alcohol took over, and it did. And I had reached my breaking point, and then I let it be known and kind of stormed off the stage and left everyone hanging up there for a long time and tried to make it as uncomfortable for them as I possibly could because I was making a fucking point. And the tour manager basically begged me to come back and finish the show. And he said, ‘I’ll book your flight home if you wanna bail after this, but please…’ And I was, like, ‘Okay. People did pay money. Let’s go do the right thing.’ And then we went up there and it still fucking sucked. It was an awful show, and the crowd, unfortunately, suffered because of one person’s bad decision making. And it’s well documented — you can see it on YouTube. The story is well known. It’s not like I’m making up bad shit about someone. It’s factual. So it sucked — it fucking sucked the life out of me. I don’t know how else to describe it other than it was extremely unpleasant. [Laughs]”

Asked if there was any tension between him and Ivan after the show or if he ended up taking the next flight home, Jeremy said: “I stuck around. We weren’t really in the same dressing room or hanging out. I would see him right before we went on stage. So nothing really changed. Until he wasn’t drinking, nothing was gonna change. You can’t reason with somebody that’s not themselves. So there was no point. It happened. So, whatever. It’s in the past.”

Back in 2016, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH guitarist Zoltan Bathory admitted that the Memphis meltdown forced Moody to confront his addictions after years of living as “a functioning alcoholic.” “For the longest time, the stage was sacred,” Bathory told Kerrang! magazine. “After that incident in Memphis, though, we looked at him like, ‘Dude, you’ve drawn a sword in a church! This is absolutely not okay!’ I was pissed. By the time you get to the point we’d made it to, you’ve basically climbed the Himalayas barefoot. We were planting our flag, and he was too fucking wasted to remember it.”

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH’s then-guitarist Jason Hook also confirmed in a separate interview that alcohol played a role in the incident, revealing: “For whatever reason Ivan decided to get shitfaced drunk — I’m probably not supposed to be talking about this — but he started to lose his temper onstage towards, basically, the rest of us, being the band… Jeremy decided that he had enough and he got up and left. Well, it’s pretty hard to play a concert without the drummer.”

This past March, Moody celebrated his third year of sobriety.

In May 2018, Moody told the Green Bay radio station Razor 94.7 that he nearly died due to an alcohol-related seizure and woke up surrounded by EMTs and his daughter holding him while crying. He also admitted that he went to rehab five times before the last time finally stuck.

Moody revealed that he was sober but massively hung over during his onstage meltdown in Europe in 2017, with the band sending him home after that and later welcoming him back on a “probationary” basis after both Phil Labonte from ALL THAT REMAINS and Tommy Vext from BAD WOLVES filled in on a couple of tours.

Spencer, who left FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH in December 2018, got clean and sober nine years ago after a particularly bad episode of drug and alcohol abuse, saying that he didn’t want to let his parents down after achieving the kind of success he dreamed of as a kid.

Teloch Vovin’s new track is a “a blackened doom epic,” with the video depicting “a night of total insanity and one’s total loss of control.”
The post Video Premiere: Teloch Vovin – “A Dirge To The Death Ov Life, Love And Hope” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Ann Wilson has told Kyle Meredith in a new interview that there are no plans for HEART to work on fresh music in the immediate future. “Nope. Not at present,” she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “We haven’t written together in a while. [Nancy Wilson, HEART guitarist and Ann’s sister] lives in the San Francisco area, and I live in Florida, and the times when we see each other are the times when HEART tours. And, of course, for the last year, HEART hasn’t been able to tour [due to the coronavirus pandemic], so I haven’t seen her for a while.

“The thing that’s happening is she’s living her life, and I’m living mine,” Ann explained. “And she’s collaborating with some really cool people [on other projects], and so am I. So when the time is right, I imagine we’ll write together or we’ll take some of these songs that she’s writing and I’m writing and do ’em with HEART. So, yeah, there’ll be collaboration in the future — of some kind.”

Earlier in the month, Ann released another new single, “Black Wing”. It is one of several songs the HEART frontwoman recorded last fall in Seattle with the help of local musicians, including current HEART bassist Andy Stoller and keyboardist Dan Walker. In addition to “Black Wing”, Wilson recorded “Tender Heart” as well as covers of Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts Now” and ALICE IN CHAINS’ “Rooster”, all three of which have already been released as singles, plus another original, “The Hammer”, which came out in February.

Nancy’s debut solo album, “You And Me”, will be released on May 7 via Carry On Music. The LP was recorded primarily in her California home studio, working with band members and special guests remotely.

HEART toured North America in the summer of 2019 after a nasty split that kept the Wilson sisters estranged for three years.

Ann and Nancy had a falling out during HEART’s 2016 tour, when Ann’s husband Dean Welter was arrested for assaulting Nancy’s then-16-year-old twin sons in a backstage altercation at a gig near their hometown of Seattle. He pleaded guilty to two lesser assault charges to avoid jail time.

After completing HEART’s 2016 tour, Nancy formed a new band called ROADCASE ROYALE and released an album, “First Things First”. ROADCASE ROYALE featured three members of HEART along with Liv Warfield from Prince’s NEW POWER GENERATION band and her guitarist Ryan Wilson.

Ann’s 2018 solo album, “Immortal”, contained cover versions of classic songs by artists who have passed away.

In a recent interview with “Rock & Roll Happy Hour With Mark And Mike”, legendary drummer Vinny Appice looked back on his involvement with “Stars”, the 1985 charity single for famine relief released under the HEAR ‘N AID banner.

On May 20 and May 21, 1985, 40 artists from the metal community gathered at A&M Records Studios in Hollywood, California to participate in the making of a record called “Stars” as a part of a very special fundraising project spearheaded by Ronnie James Dio known as HEAR ‘N AID. The “Stars” single and a video documentary on the making of the record was used to raise money for famine relief efforts in Africa and around the world. These 40 artists — including members of MÖTLEY CRÜE, JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, QUIET RIOT, TWISTED SISTER, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT and even SPINAL TAP — along with hundreds of other volunteers, donated their time and talent over four months to make HEAR ‘N AID a reality. “Stars” was a plea for unity in the fight against world hunger.

Speaking about his experience recording “Stars”, Appice told “Rock & Roll Happy Hour With Mark And Mike” (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “HEAR ‘N AID actually was — I think it was Viv [Vivian Campbell, DIO guitarist] and Jimmy’s [Bain, DIO bassist] idea, and they wrote the song. They didn’t write the lyrics and melodies, but Jimmy and Viv wrote the music. So Ronnie liked the idea. So he said, ‘All right. Let’s lay it down.’ So we went to Sound City [studio] and laid it down. And I played with Frankie Banali [QUIET RIOT] — live, two drummers. We didn’t punch him in — he didn’t do it at a different time; we did it together. There’s two drummers on that. So we just stayed out of each other’s way, especially me; I can get in the way real easy, playing fills. So we kept looking at each other, and we played it really well. So that was born, that was started. And then, obviously, Wendy’s office — Wendy Dio [Ronnie’s wife and manager] — contacted everybody in the world. And it was a hang, but it started to be out of control. You’ve got four or five guitar players coming down — main guitar players — and you can’t have people just hanging around; there’s no room in the control room. But it was just a big party. But it was a great hang. Ronnie loved everybody. And then it was vocal time. Same thing. All these vocalists came in. That we had to allow more time, because it took longer. But that was a trip, man. We got everybody. But the most popular rock stars that [were] there were the guys from SPINAL TAP — Nigel [Tufnel] and Derek [Smalls]. They were there, and we were all, like, ‘Oh, man. Look. You guys are great.’ Everybody saw that movie. It was so cool. So they were the biggest guys there.”

Due to contract differences with the labels, the “Stars” song and album weren’t released until New Year’s Day, 1986, and were only ever made available on vinyl and cassette. But Wendy Dio has said in recent years that she is continuing her efforts to correct that.

Wendy previously revealed that one of the reasons the HEAR ‘N AID reissue was taking so long to come out was the “legal stuff” that needed to be taken care of. “You can always get the bands to do something, but it’s the legal licensing of talking with the record labels they’re on and the management and so on, to get something off the ground,” she said. “So we’re hoping to do that.”

According to Deadline, IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson is teaming up with filmmaker Sacha Gervasi (“Anvil: The Story Of Anvil!” ) to co-write a narrative screenplay about the legendary concert Dickinson played with his solo band during the wartime siege in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Dickinson and his band came to Sarajevo with the help of UN troops in 1994 and held a concert at the Bosnian Cultural Centre. At the time, the city was cut off from the world, its citizens brutally terrorized by shooting, bombing and starvation with electricity and water supply being nothing short of a luxury. Bruce and his then-solo band drove through the frontlines and ultimately played a show for the people trapped in the city. What this gig meant to the people and how it changed Bruce and his band is told in the 2016 documentary “Scream For Me Sarajevo”.

Featuring footage from the historic gig, the film also meets those that made it to the show and made the show happen; determined to keep living their lives despite the atrocities going on around them. Interviews with the band, crew and security bring home the reality of the situation that was not only dangerous, it was barbaric.

Dickinson said: “The few incredible days I spent in Sarajevo with my solo band pre-Christmas in 1994 were some of the most intense of my life. Crafting a story to bring the emotions, madness, tragedy and triumph to the screen is no easy task. My own journey was as a long-haired heavy metal singer driving through firefights into a city that had been under siege longer than Stalingrad. Mine was not, of course, the only journey taken on that day, and afterwards, at home in London, I left behind in Sarajevo travelling companions on the road of life. This movie is actually dedicated to their story, not mine.”

Gervasi commented: “I first met Bruce Dickinson as a 15-year-old MAIDEN fan in London in 1982. Now, nearly 40 years later, to be co-writing this extraordinarily intense and personal story with Bruce himself is a genuine and unexpected honor. The real story of the kids and local musicians who attended that show is as poignant as it is inspiring. Many of them didn’t make it. As Bruce has already said, we hope this film will be a tribute to them.”

A clip of Dickinson and Gervasi discussing the project on Alex Ferrari’s podcast “Next Level Soul”, which will air on Saturday, can be found on Deadline.

Two years ago, Bruce was declared an honorary citizen in Sarajevo. Dickinson accepted the award in person, saying that it was great that his visit 25 years earlier “still means this much to people to give me this symbolic award.”

“While this is a great honor, I think that this award belongs equally to the people of Sarajevo who are still here,” he said.

“Scream For Me Sarajevo” was released in 2018 on DVD, Blu-ray and digital via Eagle Vision. In addition, the music from the film was issued on CD/double LP via BMG.

Regarding the now-cult concert, Dickinson wrote in his autobiography “What Does This Button Do?”: “We weren’t protected, there was no plan and the bullets were real, but fuck it, we went anyway. The gig was immense, intense and probably the biggest show in the world at that moment for the audience and for us. That the world didn’t really know didn’t matter. It changed the way I viewed life, death and other human beings.”

In a brand new interview with Brazil’s “Inside With Paulo Baron”, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford was asked why the band’s founding guitarist K.K. Downing decided to exit the group a decade ago. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I’m not gonna talk too much about this subject because it’s what we call a ‘hop topic.’ But I think K.K. spoke for himself. K.K. wanted to retire and he wanted to do other things. Again, I can only reinforce that we give him our best and give him great wishes and good luck with everything that he’s doing now. And that’s it for me.

“I know what it’s like when there are these things that happen in bands — whether it’s PRIEST, whether it’s IRON MAIDEN, whether it’s MÖTLEY CRÜE, whether it’s VAN HALEN, whether it’s KISS. All bands have gone through these kinds of changes for various reasons. And they’re very deep — emotionally, they’re very deep.

“So, that’s it. That’s as much as I’m gonna say.”

Downing, who left PRIEST in 2011 amid claims of band conflict, shoddy management and declining quality of performance, was replaced by Richie Faulkner, nearly three decades his junior.

Last year, Downing announced the formation of KK’S PRIEST, in which he is joined by fellow former PRIEST members Les Binks (drums) and Tim “Ripper” Owens (vocals). The band, which pays homage to Downing’s past, is rounded out by guitarist A.J. Mills (HOSTILE) and bassist Tony Newton (VOODOO SIX).

In 2019, Halford didn’t rule out Downing’s reunion with PRIEST, saying “what will happen will happen.” But bassist Ian Hill has said that there are no plans for PRIEST to invite Downing to return to the band. “Richie took over from Ken,” Hill told Riff Magazine. “He’s done an absolutely tremendous job, he really has. And he’s made Ken’s parts his own now. He’s got his own angle on the lead breaks. Ken’s part’s been taken, and there’s no plans to have Ken back, really. Hey, listen, never say never. But at the moment, we’re going along quite well without Ken, so it could stay like that, I think, at least for the foreseeable future.”

In 2018, Downing dismissed as a “load of bollocks” Hill’s explanation for why K.K. wasn’t invited to rejoin the band after fellow guitarist Glenn Tipton’s Parkinson’s diagnosis was made public. “We were like brothers; we went to infant school together and secondary school together, and we lived our career together,” Downing said. “But I’m not totally happy about what’s being said. Ian seems to be [saying] things like, ‘None of the fans are missing K.K.,’ and, ‘Richie has brought a new energy to the band.’ And I’m going, ‘Ian, dude, on that last tour, I was the energy. I slowed down because people weren’t keeping up with me.’… So I’m thinking, Ian, get a grip with yourself, mate. You’ve just replaced the energy with some energy. Fine — well, great. But that’s not moving forward, Ian.”

Tipton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease seven years ago — after being stricken by the condition at least half a decade earlier — but announced in February 2018 he was going to sit out touring activities in support of PRIEST’s latest album, “Firepower”.

Three years ago, Downing revealed that he sent two resignation letters to his bandmates when he decided to quit JUDAS PRIEST. The first was described as “a graceful exit note, implying a smooth retirement from music,” while the second was “angrier, laying out all of his frustrations with specific parties.” Downing later said that he believed the second letter was “a key reason” he wasn’t invited to rejoin PRIEST after Tipton’s decision to retire from touring.

Halford’s autobiography, “Confess”, was released in September via Hachette Books. It was written with Ian Gittins, co-writer of “The Heroin Diaries” by Nikki Sixx.

Downing’s own autobiography, “Heavy Duty: Days And Nights In Judas Priest”, arrived in September 2018 via Da Capo Press.

It’s the ultimate NWOBHM showdown when Def Leppard’s High ‘n’ Dry takes on Diamond Head’s Lightning to the Nations in today’s Fight Fire with Fire.
The post Fight Fire with Fire: ‘High ‘n’ Dry’ vs. ‘Lightning to the Nations’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Drummer Jean-Paul Gaster of Maryland rockers CLUTCH recently spoke to Dimitris Kontogeorgakos of the Chicago-based webzine Metal Kaoz about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band’s follow-up to 2018’s “Book Of Bad Decisions” LP. He said: “Over the last year, we’ve written a lot of songs for our new album, and we’ve done some streaming shows too, which was something we knew nothing about prior to the pandemic. But we educated ourselves quickly, and that kept us busy for a lot of last year as well.

“We’ve been writing now for our new album that we will record in the fall, and I think we’re spending more time than ever in the studio, just trying out different ideas,” he continued. “And most of the ideas don’t ever really make it to the end; we try 10 things and we keep one.

“I think we are even more selective than we were before as to which ideas we really decide to focus on. And I think it is because we have so much more time. Before, we would come home for a tour and maybe we would have three weeks off. So, the first week, we don’t do really much of anything — everybody goes back home to their families and we rest — and then the next two weeks we would get together and we would just jam really hard and get a bunch of ideas, and then on the road and play those ideas, and then come back and do it again. And that process might go on for a year and a half. This has been different. This is the first time where we’ve had so much time at home to work on ideas and never really tried them in a live setting. So I’m not sure how it’s gonna impact the record. But I think it’s gonna make for a different album — whether it’s good, bad or otherwise, it’s too early to tell. But, for sure, it’s a different dynamic, and it requires more of us.

“So often, when we have new ideas and we put them in front of an audience, you can really tell right away — we know right away if the song is the right tempo, we know right away if the riffs are where they need to be, if the chorus is the way it needs to be,” Gaster added. “It’s a testing ground. And we don’t have that right now. So, for that reason, I think we are being a lot more careful about what ideas we really wanna focus on, and which ones we think, ‘You know what? We’ve done that before. Let’s do something a little different.'”

Gaster went on to say that the new CLUTCH album will likely arrive in early 2022 — “hopefully before we start really hitting the road again. And it’ll be fun to get back out there,” he said. “Man, I just miss it so much.”

“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.

Puck Hcky, the hockey-based fashion brand, has released a bunch of new items with MINISTRY just in time for the playoffs.

Matt Marini, CEO of Puck Hcky, says: “Check out the great pictures of Al of MINISTRY in one of our new hockey jerseys from the collection! What makes the collaboration with MINISTRY so special is that Al is truly a HUGE hockey fan and he has a say on every piece we put out together! So all MINISTRY and Puck Hcky fans know that we crafted every item together with Al…it’s awesome working with him!”

The Ministry x Puck Hcky collection includes pro-level quality crested jerseys, hoodies, flannels, hats, raglans and tees.

The entire collection is available at www.puckhcky.com.

Based in Royal Oak, Michigan, about 10 minutes north of Detroit, Puck Hcky started in 2015 when Marini decided that the hockey world needed a “cool” fashion brand and his partner, Puck Hcky president Amy Steffek, pushed to “go for it.” “So we jumped in, and Puck Hcky was born,” Marini told California Rubber. “We are having an absolute blast with the brand and growing day by day. We have an amazing crew here, too. Everyone is totally focused on making Puck Hcky the go-to hockey-fashion brand for the masses.”

Regarding Puck Hcky’s artist collaborations, Marini said: “What makes all of the collaborations special is that we truly get each partner to participate in the creation of the designs, which brings a certain level of authenticity to the end-products. We refuse to put any product out for sale until they are 100 percent approved by each partner we work with. It’s awesome.”