Month: August 2021

“Freeze My Mind”, the new Anuk Rohde-directed video from EMIGRATE, the side project of RAMMSTEIN guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe, can be seen below. The song is taken from EMIGRATE’s upcoming fourth album, which is tentatively due before the end of the year.

As a member of RAMMSTEIN, the music world’s most explosive live act, Kruspe has been part of a ground-breaking global success story that continues to build and to ignite; along the way, he’s turned his attention to a number of parallel projects, such as constructing a studio (and a home) in his native Berlin, but it’s his decision to launch the EMIGRATE setup that has given him the greatest chance to satisfy creative instincts outside of the parent group.

The first EMIGRATE album appeared in 2007 (a self-titled record that went Top 10 in Germany, with single/video “My World” appearing on the soundtrack to the third “Resident Evil” movie); “Silent So Long” followed in 2014, featuring guest vocals from such high-profile artists as Marilyn Manson, Jonathan Davis, Peaches and the legend that will always be Lemmy. EMIGRATE’s third album, “A Million Degrees” came out in November 2018 and was described as “less a successor to ‘Silent So Long’ and more a re-booted take on the overall concept, continuing Kruspe’s desire to craft something personal.”

“I really want the freedom to collaborate with different people and to explore different kinds of music,” Kruspe explained when “A Million Degrees” was first released, “to express myself as both a writer and a singer away from deadlines, timelines and other such restrictions. The idea is to keep experimenting and to keep challenging myself. Plus, EMIGRATE works in an organic way, so musicians can come and go, and it’s still okay, it’s positive…”

RAMMSTEIN’s seventh, untitled album came out in May 2019 via UME/Spinefarm in Europe and Caroline Records in the U.S.

RAMMSTEIN will bring its full-scale stadium production to North America for the first time ever in the summer of 2022.

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station, JUDAS PRIEST’s Scott Travis spoke about the recent passing of SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison. Asked if he ever had a chance to meet Joey and what he thought of Jordison’s drumming, Travis said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, he was a phenomenal, crazy drummer. I never met him. We toured together on the Ozzfest tour in 2004. It was right when Rob [Halford] rejoined [PRIEST]. And I think it was the same tour that the original BLACK SABBATH, I believe, was on it, with PRIEST and BLACK LABEL [SOCIETY]. And then, apparently, on the other stage would have been — what they called the smaller stage — was a band called SLIPKNOT. I used to hear them play, but I regret now not going over and actually paying more attention to ’em, ’cause, obviously, that’s when Joey was still in the band. But since that, which was 2004, I became a big fan of his and, obviously, listened to a lot of his stuff.”

He continued: “Just like Vinnie Paul [Abbott, late PANTERA drummer], it’s really regrettable that these fantastic drummers are no longer with us. It makes me appreciate every day and every minute I spend behind the kit, because just those two drummers, and a few other drummers — A.J. Pero from TWISTED SISTER passed recently, and we lost Frankie Banali [QUIET RIOT]. Drummers, man — we explode like with SPINAL TAP; we will explode on a drum stool on stage. I don’t know what it is; I really don’t. [Maybe] we just abuse ourselves too much or something. But I’m very appreciative of every minute and all the time we have left on this earth, especially after the last two years of this crazy pandemic and all the people that have suffered through that. It’s mind-numbing that it’s happened, but at the same time, like I said, those of us that have survived, we need to be appreciative of every day above ground.”

Jordison’s family confirmed that he passed away “peacefully in his sleep” on July 26 of an unspecified cause. He was 46 years old.

SLIPKNOT announced its split with Jordison in December 2013 but did not disclose the reasons for his exit. The drummer subsequently issued a statement saying that he did not quit the group.

The same year that he exited SLIPKNOT, Jordison launched the band SCAR THE MARTYR and later, VIMIC. He also collaborated with former DRAGONFORCE and current KREATOR bassist Frédéric Leclercq in SINSAENUM.

MEGADETH played its fifth show with bassist James LoMenzo in nearly 12 years this past Wednesday night (August 22) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “The Metal Tour Of The Year” concert at the the Isleta Amphitheater saw MEGADETH share the stage with co-headliners LAMB OF GOD, along with TRIVIUM and HATEBREED.

MEGADETH’s setlist was as follows:

01. Hangar 18
02. The Threat Is Real
03. The Conjuring
04. She-Wolf
05. Sweating Bullets
06. Trust
07. Conquer Or Die!
08. Dystopia
09. Symphony Of Destruction
10. Peace Sells

Encore:

11. Holy Wars… The Punishment Due

Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below (courtesy of YouTube user Loren P).

Produced by Live Nation, the rescheduled trek will hit a further 23 cities before wrapping in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada on Saturday, October 2.

LoMenzo joined MEGADETH in 2006 and appeared on two of the group’s studio albums, 2007’s “United Abominations” and 2009’s “Endgame”. He was fired from the band in 2010 and replaced with returning original MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson.

In addition to MEGADETH, LoMenzo has played with Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde and WHITE LION. For the past eight years, LoMenzo has been performing with iconic rocker John Fogerty.

Mustaine has yet to reveal who played bass on the band’s new album after Ellefson’s tracks were removed from the LP following his dismissal from the group in late May.

Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on MEGADETH’s sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

In July, Mustaine announced during an episode of his Gimme Radio program “The Dave Mustaine Show” that Ellefson’s bass tracks would not be used on the new MEGADETH LP.

In early May, on the same day that sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving Ellefson were posted on Twitter, he released a statement on Instagram denying all social media chatter that he “groomed” an underage fan.

On May 24, Mustaine — who formed MEGADETH with Ellefson in 1983 — announced the bassist’s departure from the band.

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest departure.

In the latest episode of AXS TV’s “Rock & Tell”, HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale shares her rock and roll collection and the stories behind them. Among the items Lzzy discusses are a laminate signed by Ronnie James Dio when HALESTORM opened for HEAVEN & HELL in 2009, and the Grammy Award HALESTORM received in 2012 in the category of “Best Hard Rock/ Metal Performance” for “Love Bites (So Do I)”.

Earlier in the month, HALESTORM released a new single, “Back From The Dead”. The track is taken from the band’s upcoming fifth full-length album, due in 2022. An accompanying video for “Back From The Dead”, which was directed by Dustin Haney (Noah Cyrus, Luke Combs) and produced by Revolution Pictures, features Lzzy and her bandmates in a morgue and cemetery somewhere between life and death.

HALESTORM’s latest release was last year’s “Halestorm Reimagined”, a collection of the band’s reworked original songs as well as a cover of “I Will Always Love You”, the love ballad made famous by Whitney Houston and Dolly Parton.

Lzzy and her brother Arejay formed the band in 1998 while in middle school. Guitarist Joe Hottinger joined the group in 2003, followed by bassist Josh Smith in 2004.

In December 2018, HALESTORM was nominated for another Grammy, this time in the “Best Rock Performance” category, for its song “Uncomfortable”.

According to the Grammy web site, HALESTORM’s award for “Love Bites (So Do I)” marked the first time a woman earned a Grammy in the category.

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 album, “Quantum Leap”, on October 8 via AFM Records. The official music video for the disc’s latest single, “Enigma Of Life”, can be seen below.

“Quantum Leap” came together over the course of the worldwide pandemic that, unfortunately, prevented FIREWIND’s self-titled album from 2020 from gaining any real momentum. Immobilized by the quarantine measures that kept him at home, Gus began compiling musical ideas to keep himself occupied, which led to the full-on effort to write and record an album during the summer of 2021.

“I didn’t make ‘Quantum Leap’ with the intention of it being the next one in the cycle of solo albums,” Gus admits. “It was more of a case of, ‘What else is there?’ I needed the creative outlet.”

Gus agrees with the suggestion that one has to make an instrumental album for him or herself; if people happen to enjoy it, that’s a plus. It’s an approach he takes with every album he makes, but if heavy metal is considered a niche market doing an instrumental album is an even smaller corner of that. Being a part of the music industry over the past 20 years has taught Gus that the business and the market has evolved to the point that instrumental albums are far more readily accepted compared to when he started.

“As an artist nowadays, you can basically do whatever you like and there’s an audience out there for it,” he says. “Instrumental music might not be a big seller, but everybody and can listen to anything, and there are no limits to what I can do. There’s a track on the record that’s a little bit synth-wave [‘Night Driver’], there’s bluesy ballad thing [‘Enigma Of Life’], there’s a track that has more prog elements [‘Into The Unknown’], there’s some power metal [‘Demon Stomp’, ‘Judgement Day’], so it’s all under the hard rock / heavy metal umbrella, but I wanted it to have some variety. It doesn’t sound like I wrote 10 different riffs on the low E string and put a bunch of solos over it. And there’s no excuse for anybody to say, ‘I like the music but I hate that type vocals…’ because there are no vocals. [Laughs]”

“Quantum Leap” was assembled in pieces, featuring new compositions and material taken from Gus’s “riff vault,” where he stores unfinished ideas and revisits them when he’s able. The album started as a full-on solo outing, with Gus programming drums and playing guitar, bass and keyboards, but a chance encounter with drummer Jan-Vincent Velazco — who volunteered his services and subsequently blew Gus away — opened up the production. Producer/engineer Dennis Ward, who was responsible for mixing and mastering “Quantum Leap”, ended up laying down bass tracks on eight of the 10 tracks.

Unlike many instrumental albums, “Quantum Leap” doesn’t feel like a musical root canal or long and drawn-out brain surgery. Each of the 10 tracks are solid and compact musical ideas, with Gus’s guitar acting as the voice. In this respect, writing “Quantum Leap” was a challenge because he is so used to writing in a specific formula utilizing vocals. He found himself falling into the loop of overplaying a few times during the production because of the lack of vocals, but was able to overcome the problem once he acknowledged it.

“When I first wrote ‘Exosphere’, for example, there were so many things going on in the track but it wasn’t saying anything,” says Gus. “I really needed to have the guitar taking a vocal approach. I knew that if I just kept the playing technical it wasn’t going to be enjoyable. So the playing isn’t always about technique, and once I found the formula it was easier to create melodies for the record.”

“I’m a guitar player and I cannot stand most instrumental guitar albums,” he adds. “The classic are the classics, but very rarely do I get into them because after the third track it just seems like an endless guitar solo where everything that sounds the same. That’s something I wanted to avoid on ‘Quantum Leap’ and I think I succeeded in doing that.”

“Quantum Leap” track listing:

01. Into The Unknown
02. Exosphere
03. Quantum Leap
04. Chronesthesia
05. Enigma Of Life
06. Judgement Day
07. Fierce
08. Demon Stomp
09. Night Driver
10. Not Forgotten
11. Force Majeure (feat. Vinnie Moore)

40-year grind/punk veterans Psycho worship at the “Vulture Church.”
The post Track Premiere: Psycho – ‘Vulture Church’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

BUTCHER BABIES have released a new single, “It’s Killin’ Time, Baby”, featuring guest vocalist Craig Mabbitt (ESCAPE THE FATE).

“From beginning to end, ‘Killin’ Time’ is a relentless groove-infused face melter that is guaranteed to give you bang-over,” says BUTCHER BABIES guitarist Henry Flury. The single, out today, was inspired by the DC Comics character Lobo, a heavy metal bounty hunter. It was recorded by Matt Good (FROM FIRST TO LAST) and will be featured on BUTCHER BABIES’ upcoming independently released EP alongside recently released singles “Last Dance”, “Yorktown”, “Sleeping With The Enemy” and “Bottom Of A Bottle” (feauturing Andy James).

“I can’t think of a better song to release the day before we hit the road on our first tour in over two years,” exclaims BUTCHER BABIES co-vocalist Carla Harvey. “It’s killin time, baby…in more ways than one!! As a lifelong comic book aficionado, it was so much fun to write a song based on one of my favorite characters, the bounty huntin’ space cowboy himself, Lobo. When Heidi [Shepherd, co-vocalist] and I were penning the lyrics we thought, are we really writing a song about a Bastitch on a Spaz Frag? Hell yes, because just like Lobo, we like a good time. It was also a cool new experience for us to throw another singer in the mix for this one! Craig Mabbitt’s screams add another level to this banger…enjoy!”

“HOLY FRAGG, SPACE HOG!,” shouts Shepherd. “We are fraggin’ stoked to bring to you our latest banger, ‘It’s Killin’ Time, Baby!’ inspired by the main man himself, Lobo! This bounty hunter, biker has a way of stealing even the blackest of hearts. Between breaking legs and breaking hearts, Lobo embodies the heavy metal attitude we all need in 2021!

“We were so lucky to have our buddy, the very talented Craig Mabbitt from ESCAPE THE FATE and DEAD RABBITS, join us in this jam! Our incredible producer, Matt Good, brought this comic-themed dream to life and we CANNOT wait for you to hear it and then rock it LIVE in the pit!!”

Mabbitt commented, “Thank you to the BUTCHER BABIES for including me in this awesome track, and for introducing me to Lobo!!”

BUTCHER BABIES will embark on their first tour since the pandemic with a headlining run starting tomorrow, Saturday, August 28 in West Virginia at Metal In The Mountains festival and lasting until October 8, including stops at Rocklahoma, Louder Than Life and Aftershock festival. The “Butcher Babies Vs. Goliath” tour will see the band perform their 2013 debut album “Goliath” (Century Media) in its entirety along with fan-favorites and new previously unheard music. The fully female-fronted lineup will include support from INFECTED RAIN and STITCHED UP HEART, with KALEIDO also appearing on select dates.

For over a decade, BUTCHER BABIES have been crushing stages worldwide with their vicious live performance and explosive energy. Their stage presence is a hypnotic spectacle that leaves audiences hungry for more as they’ve displayed on tours among the likes of MEGADETH, ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, DANZIG, IN THIS MOMENT, HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD, CRADLE OF FILTH, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY and many more.

Hailing from the City of Angels, BUTCHER BABIES have released two EPs and three albums to date, with their latest 2017 LP, “Lilith”, debuting at #1 on iTunes Metal chart and #7 on iTunes Rock chart.

In a new interview with Metal Hammer magazine, former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted discussed the sound of the band’s “…And Justice For All” album. While “…And Justice For All” is considered one of METALLICA’s classics, it has been criticized almost since the day it was released in 1988 for the lack of any bass guitar on the record. Newsted’s playing is virtually buried in the mix — and many fans feel that drummer Lars Ulrich, who had very specific ideas for how he wanted his drums to sound, is to blame.

Newsted said that he was “fucking livid” when he heard “…And Justice For All” for the first time. “Are you kidding me?” he told Metal Hammer. “I was ready [to go] for throats, man! No, I was out of my head, because I really thought I did well. And I thought I played how I was supposed to play.”

Newsted went on to say that METALLICA’s sound always revolved around Ulrich and guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield. “Lars and James were the original garage band duo, as far as that goes,” he explained. “They always made the records that way, from [1982 demo cassette] ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’, it was Lars and James, guitar and drums. On the original ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’ cassette — if you happen to ever see a real copy or a photo of a real copy — in Lars’s handwriting, in ink pen, on the label of the cassette, [it reads] ‘Turn bass down on stereo.’ On ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’! They mixed it how it was supposed to be mixed: there’s the bass and there’s the guitar from all the way back. But Lars didn’t want [that] because it messed with his drums somehow, so when he sends the demo out to fucking Combat Records and wherever, [his instruction is] ‘Turn the bass down before you even listen to this.’ Before you even get it going, just turn the bass down. Right from the get-go. Before you even start. That’s where he’s been his whole goddamn life, so why would it be any different when it came to [‘…And Justice For All’]? They made ‘Kill ‘Em All’ that way, they made ‘Ride [The Lightning]’ that way, they made ‘Master [Of Puppets]’ that way, all of them. Those two guys in a room [mimics drum beats and playing], that’s the way it always happened. [For] the most successful metal band of all time. So you argue with this shit? I’m not really sure. Now it’s become the best garage band album ever [for artists such as] BLACK KEYS, WHITE STRIPES, DUO JETS, the different ‘power duos’ of garage stuff.”

Two years ago, Hetfield defended the sound of “…And Justice For All”, saying that he and his bandmates simply “wanted the best-sounding record” they could make. “It was not all about, ‘Fuck [Jason]. Let’s turn him down.’ That’s for sure,” he said. “We wanted the best-sounding record we could make. That was our goal. We were burnt. We were frigging fried. Going back and forth [between touring and mixing the album]. Playing a gig. No earplugs, no nothing. You go back into the studio, your hearing is shot. If your ears can’t hear any high end anymore, you’re gonna turn it up. So we’re turning the high end up more and more and more and all of a sudden, low end’s gone. So I know that played a bigger part than any hazing or any ill feelings towards Jason, for sure. We were fried. We were burnt.”

Hetfield also addressed some of the criticism leveled at METALLICA by one of the “…And Justice For All” album mixers, Steve Thompson. In a 2015 interview with Ultimate Guitar, Thompson suggested that Ulrich was the culprit for the lack of any bass guitar on the record, claiming that Lars wanted his drums to sound a certain way — even if it meant cutting out the bass.

“We wanted it tight,” James explained. “We wanted it fucking tight. That’s what we wanted. We wanted the snare, we wanted the guitar, we wanted everything up front and in your face and really tight. And we thought we got it. And, you know, we kinda know what we want to sound like. Can we sit behind a desk and make it happen? No. We ask people to do it, and they do it. So [Thompson] did his job. He’s got nothing to apologize for or point fingers at. No one’s to blame for ‘something.’ It is a piece of art. It happened and it ended up the way it is for a reason. And for reasons we were just talking about. We were burnt. We’re traveling, we’re playing a gig, our ears were fried. We were not sleeping. He doesn’t need to defend himself. He was a part of an awesome album in history, so I think he should be maybe be a little easier on himself.”

James also once again dismissed calls for METALLICA to remix “…And Justice For All” so that Newsted’s contributions are more audible.

“All this [bass discussion] is after the fact, and it’s, like, who gives a shit, man, really?” Hetfield said. “And why would you change that? Why would you change history? Why would you all of a sudden put bass on it? There is bass on it, but why would you remix an album? You can remaster it, yes, but why would you remix something and make it different? It’d be like… I don’t know. Not that I’m comparing us to the Mona Lisa, but it’s, like, ‘Uh, can we make her smile a little better?!’ You know?! Why?”

In a 2008 interview with Decibel magazine, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett attempted to explain the lack of bass on “…And Justice For All”, saying that “the reason you can’t hear the bass so well is because the bass frequencies in Jason’s tone kinda interfered with the tone that James was trying to shoot for with his rhythm guitar sound, and every time the two blended together, it just wasn’t happening. So the only thing left to do was turn the bass down in the mix. It was unfortunate, but for some reason or another, that album is known for the low end being there without the bass being very high up in the mix. It was an experiment, too — we were totally going for a dry, in-your-face sound, and some people really like that sound. A lot of the newer-generation bands, especially, think that album sounds great. But at the end of the day, it was an experiment. I’m not really sure it was 100 percent successful, but it is a unique sound that that album has.”

In the Ultimate Guitar interview, Thompson said that he spoke out because he was tired of being blamed for the lack of bass. He remarked: “They flew us out [to METALLICA’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2009] and I’m sitting with Lars. He goes, ‘Hey, what happened to the bass in ‘Justice’?’ He actually asked me that. I wanted to cold cock him right there. It was a shame because I’m the one getting the shit for the lack of bass.”

Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that fans were extremely vocal about the sound of the album at the time of its release. “I mean, it was unbelievable, you know, ‘…And Justice For All’, ” he said. “People were saying, ‘That’s the worst-sounding record, where’s the bass, and it sounds like it was recorded in a garage, and…’ But, you know, listen, you do the best you can in the moment and then you move on.”

Virtuoso cellist Tina Guo has unleashed her full-length album, “Dies Irae”, via Sony Music Masterworks. Leading up to today’s album drop, Tina has previously released tracks “Moonlight Sonata”, “Toccata And Fugue” and “Adagio” by Albinoni. In celebration of “Dies Irae”, Tina has also released the dreamily futuristic music video for her original track “Moonhearts In Space”, featuring vocals from none other than the inimitable musician, songwriter, producer, and political activist Serj Tankian of SYSTEM OF A DOWN.

Speaking on today’s release, Guo shares: “I am SO excited for the ‘Dies Irae’ album release after three years in the making, and to share the ‘Moonhearts In Space’ song and video with everyone!

“I have been a huge fan of Serj for so many years and it really was a dream come true to be able to collaborate together. A huge preemptive thank you to everyone for taking the time out of your day to listen and watch, the amazing support and positivity over the years has been an incredible blessing and I’m so grateful for you!”

Tankian commented: “I really enjoyed working with Tina on ‘Moonhearts In Space’. Her ability to take classical and destroy it with rock and metal is really enjoyable. At a time when we are already traveling to space, it’s imperative to realize the intention with which we travel inwardly or out.”

Furthermore, metal fans can also spot Tina in SABATON’s latest music video, “Steel Commanders”. The clip was released in tandem for the “Spirit Of War” in-game event in World Of Tanks.

Guo has reimagined and reinvigorated classical music as a cellist, composer, artist, and performer. The Grammy Award-nominated and BRIT Female “Artist Of The Year” Award-nominated cellist stands out as the rare talent who can bring an outdoor festival crowd to its feet or ignite the score of a record-breaking blockbuster. As a soloist, her cello courses through the soundtracks for “Wonder Woman”, “The Lion King”, “Inception”, “Dunkirk”, “Pirates Of The Caribbean 5”, “X-Men Dark Phoenix”, “Iron Man 2”, “Cyberpunk 2077”, “Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2, 3, & 4”, “League Of Legends, “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate”, “CSI: NY”, “The Vikings”, and most recently the sci-fi blockbuster “Dune”, to name a few.

She has accompanied Hans Zimmer, Steven Tyler, Skrillex, Joe Bonamassa, FOO FIGHTERS, Al Di Meola, and Carlos Santana on stage and John Legend, Ciara and many more on tape. She thrived in the spotlight on Cirque Du Soleil’s Michael Jackson “The Immortal” world tour, which entertained 3.7 million-plus concertgoers in packed arenas and became one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. Not to mention, she lit up the sold-out League Of Legends world championship at the Staples Center streamed over 33 million times. Along the way, she also picked up 53 million YouTube views, 374,000 subscribers, and 40 million Spotify streams to date.