Author: planetsixstring

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons spoke to Matt Pinfield of 95.5 KLOS’s “New & Approved” show about the band’s upcoming second Las Vegas residency, which will kick off at the end of the year. The legendary rockers’ engagement at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood will launch the last week of December.

Regarding what fans can expect to see this time around, Gene said: “The plus side of Vegas is that now, the culture of Vegas has changed so that it welcomes punk bands and rap and all kinds of stuff and lets them do their art their way, instead of saying that Vegas is about showgirls and magicians and stuff like that. Yes, it is, but it’s also about other artists, comedians and people coming in — Mike Tyson had a talk show there; he’s a friend. If they don’t tell you what the rules are, you make the rules. You can come in and do it your way. So that’s exactly what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna be KISS, ’cause that’s all we know how to do. THE [ROLLING] STONES already exist, and [LED] ZEPPELIN already existed, so doing second best isn’t a good idea. But we can be the best KISS, and that’s what we’re gonna do when we come in and play New Year’s Eve right there at Planet Hollywood, and we’re gonna do a bunch of shows through January and February. And our good friends the fire department promised to sort of extend the limits of what you can do indoors, and it’s gonna be safe. If you’re an asshole and don’t wanna wear a mask and stay safe and do that stuff, you’re not gonna be allowed in. We wanna keep everybody safe, responsible and have the best party on earth.”

The 12 shows are as follows:

December 2021: 29, 31
January 2022: 1, 19, 21, 22, 26, 28, 29
February 2022: 2, 4, 5

The legendary rockers previously set up shop in Sin City in November 2014 at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel And Casino. The nine-show run was captured for the “Kiss Rocks Vegas” DVD and Blu-ray set, which arrived in August 2016.

Asked by Rolling Stone what brought KISS back to Las Vegas for another residency, Simmons said: “There are matters of the heart and then there are matters of the pocket and it’s nice when they both converge. So it’s a very nice payday. They pay well and that’s reason enough. But it’s also easier for the band because you don’t have the wear and tear of traveling.”

As for what kind of production the residency will have and whether it will be scaled down or on par with the touring show, Gene said: “The answer is yes to both, because when we play stadiums around the world, those shows are like Transformers. You can make them as big as you want. KISS’s shows have been talked about for longer than you’ve been alive. Anything that’s got a roof on it, we have to scale back the pyro or we’ll blow the roof off, literally. But we are planning lots of surprises for Vegas, which nobody’s seen yet. We’re in the middle of putting that together.”

KISS is in the middle of its “End Of The Road” farewell tour, which was originally scheduled to conclude on July 17, 2021 in New York City but is now expected to last well into 2022.

KISS’s current lineup consists of original members Simmons and Paul Stanley (guitar, vocals), alongside later band additions, guitarist Tommy Thayer (since 2002) and drummer Eric Singer (on and off since 1991).

Formed in 1973 by Stanley, Simmons, drummer Peter Criss and lead guitarist Ace Frehley, KISS staged its first “farewell” tour in 2000, the last to feature the group’s original lineup.

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BEATALLICA, a satirical mashup act whose hilarious schtick marries the songwriting prowess of THE BEATLES to the deep-throated rock growl of METALLICA, will release its fourth studio album, “The Devolver Album”, on November 12 via Metal Assault Records.

A music video for the album’s lead single “Wherever And Everywhere” is set to premiere on October 1 on the band’s YouTube channel, along with the pre-order launch of the album in the aforementioned formats on beatallica.bandcamp.com. All digital and physical album pre-orders will come with an instant download of the lead single.

On the arrival of “The Devolver Album” and what to expect from the new release, the band issued the following comment: “BEATALLICA are stoked to finally be releasing ‘The Devolver Album’ after many years of arranging, re-arranging, and deranging concepts!

“Our relationship with METALLICA has been a blessing and we thank them for their support and allowances.

“‘The Devolver Album’ will have all the elements of past BEATALLICA recordings plus more. Listeners will pick up on the mash-up between original music and lyrics and METALLICA compositions along with BEATLES sensibilities, style, and influence. Thrashy, heavy, clever, subversive, and hesh, of course!

“BEATALLICA are made up of highly experienced song writers and we had a great time working in original material on this release.

“Our first single and video for ‘Wherever And Everywhere’ will be out soon.

“BEATALLICA are pumped to be working with Metal Assault Records and we look forward to playing live, in support of ‘The Devolver Album’ before too long! Info and show dates can be found at beatallica.org and merch will be at beatallica.bandcamp.com. Hells yeah!!”

Produced by BEATALLICA, “The Devolver Album” was recorded at Hamtone Audio and engineered by Jeff Hamilton and Lodi Broekhuizen. Mixing and mastering duties were handled by Flemball Rasmartin at Shane Olivo Audio and Justin Perkins at Mystery Room Mastering, respectively. The artwork featured on the cover of “The Devolver Album” was created by Matt Wells of lizardmanart.com

“The Devolver Album” track listing:

01. Devolver
02. Play Me Overdrive Guitar
03. Never Borne
04. Wherever And Everywhere
05. Hesh Today
06. Here Comes Revenge
07. Numbernine
08. B. C. H. C.
09. The Damning Of Helleanor Hippie

In late 2020, Metal Assault Records very excitedly added BEATALLICA to its official label roster. MAR owner Andrew Bansal was first introduced to BEATALLICA in 2010 when the band toured the West Coast and performed at the now-defunct Key Club in West Hollywood; putting on the kind of performance only they can. Subsequently, Bansal interviewed BEATALLICA and kept track of their progress over the years as they took their show on the road all over the world, garnering a global fanbase to go with the heaps of praise received from members of METALLICA and the like, as well as from journalists everywhere.

On the live front, BEATALLICA is set to perform at the gigantic Summerfest in their hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin this Saturday September 18. More concert dates will be announced in the near future, as the band gears up to perform “Wherever And Everywhere” in support of the new record.

BEATALLICA’s third full-length album, “Abbey Load”, was released in April 2013 via Oglio Records.

Back in 2005, the members of BEATALLICA received help from METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich in their dispute with Sony Music over BEATALLICA’s “unlawful use” of the group’s compositions “without authorization or license.” Sony Music accused BEATALLICA of violating copyright laws, demanded that their webmaster pay “unspecified damages,” and forced the band’s ISP to shut down their web site. Thanks to Ulrich’s efforts, BEATALLICA was soon back online, and the legal debacle was over.

“The Internet is a swamp of piracy, so you send out cease-and-desist letters all the time,” METALLICA lawyer Peter Paterno said at the time. “Someone at Sony probably saw this site and sent out a letter and once they realized what was on it they decided it was not something worth picking a fight over. They got that this is different from someone selling BEATLES CDs and not paying royalties.”

BEATALLICA frontman Jaymz Lennfield (a.k.a. Michael “Tinker” Tierney) later told River Cities’ Reader that he believed his band’s music had the legal protection of parody. “We think we’re making something new, especially lyrically,” he said. “It’s definitely a creative process… Legally and creatively, stuff like this hasn’t been done before.”

BEATALLICA is:

Jaymz Lennfield – lead vocals, guitars
Grg Hammettson III – lead guitar, backing vocals
Jimmy Ul-nic – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Dr. Robert Stujillo – bass, backing vocals

Photo credit: Alex Weber

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Sweden’s iconic rock/metal titans OPETH will return to North America this fall for a tour with fellow masters of prog-metal MASTODON. Announced today, the bands will embark with special opening guests ZEAL & ARDOR on a two-week tour kicking off in Asheville, North Carolina on November 16 and wrapping in Denver, Colorado on December 5.

A special BLABBERMOUTH.NET presale will begin on Wednesday, September 15 at 10:00 a.m. local and end on Wednesday, September 15 at 10:00 p.m. local time. When prompted, type in the presale code “Grim2021” to access tickets before the general public. General on-sale will be this Friday, September 17 at 10 a.m. local time.

Commenting on the impending tour, OPETH vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt states: “Well, we’re about to start up the ole machine again after our longest (involuntary) break ever. We’ve kept rather silent during all this time. We haven’t done much press or public appearances. No streaming shows and of course, no ‘real’ shows. We’ve kept to ourselves, biding our time.

“Coming back to North America will be a treat, even if there are conflicting emotions. We’ve become used to being out of sight. But playing live is such an integral part of being in this band. We need to get back out there to see if we still have it in us.

“Stepping out on a stage after all this time will surely be a nerve-wrecking experience, but we count on you to help us out. We’ll be traveling with familiar faces however. Together with our friends in MASTODON. But also with new acquaintances, ZEAL & ARDOR.

“Going on tour during these times means serious restrictions of course. It will be strange in so many ways. But once we’re up there we trust the power of music will take over and make us feel secure. We collectively look forward to this (with a slight touch of pure fear).

“To wrap this up: Won’t see you in the pub (unfortunately), but we sincerely hope to see you through the limelight. For us, this coming tour is already memorable. Odd!”

Following the release of their latest, critically acclaimed record “In Cauda Venenum”, OPETH’s touring was unfortunately cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two years later, the band will make its long-awaited return to North American stages in support of the record and the upcoming release of “In Cauda Venenum (Connoisseur Edition)”, which features a remastered version of the album transferred to magnetic tape and cut directly to vinyl with three unreleased bonus tracks.

“In Cauda Venenum (Connoisseur Edition)” is available as a separate 2LP (180g) version in Swedish and English that includes a 16-page booklet illustrated by internationally renowned Travis Smith. In addition, you can get a limited premium boxset featuring both versions, a 60x60cm poster, as well as an exclusive EP with three previously unreleased OPETH songs in two languages: “Pöbeln” / “The Mob”, “Cirkelns Riktning” / “Width Of A Circle” as well as “Frihet & Tyranni” / “Freedom & Tyranny”.

Åkerfeldt adds: “During the pandemic we’ve put together a vinyl remaster ‘connoisseur’ edition of our latest album, ‘In Cauda Venenum’ that features three (six really, if you count both versions of each song) previously unreleased tracks from the sessions. These tracks have a high obscurity factor, but I’d like to think they are high quality. Quite different from the rest of the songs on the album, but quality nonetheless. Everything put together in a nice package, for your pleasure.”

OPETH tour dates with MASTODON:

Nov. 16 – Asheville, NC – ExploreAsheville.com Arena
Nov. 18 – Boston, MA – The Wang Theatre
Nov. 19 – Albany, NY – Palace Theatre
Nov. 20 – New York City – Hammerstein Ballroom
Nov. 21 – Washington, DC – The Anthem
Nov. 23 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
Nov. 24 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
Nov. 26 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Nov. 27 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
Nov. 28 – Sugar Land, TX – Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
Nov. 30 – Mesa, AZ – Mesa Amphitheatre
Dec. 01 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
Dec. 02 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
Dec. 04 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Union
Dec. 05 – Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom

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Steve Vai has announced an extensive tour of the U.S., with 54 scheduled appearances confirmed. Vai’s “Inviolate” world tour will begin at House Of Blues in Las Vegas on January 27, 2022, and wrap in Los Angeles on April 2 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel.

The general on-sale will go live on September 17, with a VIP pre-sale available on September 15.

For tickets, visit Vai.com.

A variety of EVO Experience VIP bundles are available. EVO Experience offerings, dependent upon tier purchased, include signed JEM Jr. guitars; an invitation to a pre-show group question-and-answer session, meet-and-greet and photo with Steve; soundcheck viewing access; a guided tour of Steve’s instruments and gear; exclusive merchandise; commemorative VIP laminates and access to premium tickets.

This run is the first excursion of many planned which together are a multi-faceted world tour that will bring the guitarist and composer to most continents across the globe touching down in dozens of countries. Vai has been working on a new studio album and those details will be shared imminently. These appearances will present an all-new show featuring a lot of new music, with plans for performances to be staged for the next several years.

Vai will be joined by his long-tenured ensemble members Dave Weiner (guitar, keyboards), Philip Bynoe (bass) and Jeremy Colson (drums).

Vai shares: “A performer thrives on performing. It’s been my life for the past 49 years, with the exception of the last two years, so we are chomping at the bit to get out there and play for people. A music concert has the ability to dissolve the many challenges we face, and celebrate one of the good things in life, live music.”

Tour dates:

Jan. 27 – Las Vegas, NV – House Of Blues
Jan. 28 – El Cajon, CA – The Magnolia
Jan. 29 – Riverside, CA – Fox Performing Arts Center
Jan. 30 – Phoenix, AZ – Celebrity Theatre
Feb. 01 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Rockwell at The Complex
Feb. 02 – Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater
Feb. 04 – Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre
Feb. 05 – Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre
Feb. 06 – Dallas, TX – House Of Blues
Feb. 08 – Houston, TX – House Of Blues
Feb. 09 – San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theatre
Feb. 11 – Birmingham, AL – Lyric Theatre
Feb. 12 – Macon, GA – Hargray Capitol Theatre
Feb. 14 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
Feb. 15 – Clearwater, FL – Bilheimer Capitol Theatre
Feb. 16 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live
Feb. 17 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL – The Parker
Feb. 18 – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL – Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
Feb. 19 – Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Charlotte
Feb. 21 – Charleston, SC – Charleston Music Hall
Feb. 22 – Alexandria, VA – The Birchmere
Feb. 23 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre
Feb. 24 – Red Bank, NJ – Count Basie Theatre
Feb. 25 – Huntington, NY – The Paramount
Feb. 26 – Port Chester, NY – The Capitol Theatre
Feb. 27 – Providence, RI – The Strand
Mar. 01 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
Mar. 02 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur
Mar. 03 – Albany, NY – The Egg
Mar. 04 – Rochester, NY – Kodak Center
Mar. 05 – Harrisburg, PA – Sunoco Theatre
Mar. 06 – Greensburg, PA – Palace Theatre
Mar. 08 – Warren, OH – Packard Music Hall
Mar. 09 – Detroit, MI – Masonic Cathedral Theatre
Mar. 10 – Morgantown, WV – Metropolitan Theatre
Mar. 11 – Louisville, KY – Old Forester’s Paristown Hall
Mar. 12 – Nashville, TN – CMA Theater
Mar. 13 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
Mar. 15 – Chicago, IL – Copernicus Center
Mar. 16 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
Mar. 17 – St. Paul, MN – The Fitzgerald Theater
Mar. 18 – Kansas City, MO – The Uptown Theater
Mar. 19 – Lincoln, NE – Bourbon Theatre
Mar. 20 – Des Moines, IA – Hoyt Sherman Place
Mar. 22 – Sioux Falls, SD – The District
Mar. 23 – Fargo, ND – Fargo Theatre
Mar. 25 – Billings, MT – Alberta Bair Theater
Mar. 26 – Bozeman, MT – The ELM
Mar. 27 – Missoula, MT – The Wilma
Mar. 28 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
Mar. 29 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
Mar. 31 – Turlock, CA – Turlock Community Theatre
Apr. 01 – Napa, CA – Uptown Theatre Napa
Apr. 02 – Los Angeles, CA – The Theatre at Ace Hotel

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Trafalgar Releasing has announced that on November 4, in celebration of 50 years of THE DOORS’ legendary album “L.A. Woman”, “The Doors: Live At The Bowl ’68 Special Edition” will transform movie theaters worldwide into concert venues giving fans the closest experience to being there live alongside Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek. In addition to viewing the full concert film, this special event includes extras filmed exclusively for the big screen: a brand-new musical performance of Densmore and Krieger with special guests, plus a conversation with Densmore, Krieger and the band’s manager, Jeff Jampol.

On July 5, 1968, THE DOORS lit up the storied stage of the Hollywood Bowl with a legendary performance that is widely considered to be the band’s finest captured on film. Performing on the back of their third album release, “Waiting For The Sun”, and the U.S. No. 1 single “Hello, I Love You”, the quartet had been honing their live performances over the previous two years and were in absolute peak form.

This theatrical “Special Edition” release creates an in-cinema experience for fans like no other. The film has been remastered in stunning Dolby ATMOS (where available) and 5.1 surround sound by Bruce Botnick, the original engineer and mixer for THE DOORS, who recorded the live performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1968 and co-produced “L.A. Woman”. “The Doors: Live At The Bowl ’68 Special Edition” features the concert in its entirety, including “Hello, I Love You”, “The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)”, “Light My Fire”, “The End” and more. Krieger stated: “The magic that has been done to enhance the picture and sound quality of this show will make everyone feel as though they have a front-row seat at the Hollywood Bowl.”

“We are thrilled to bring fans of THE DOORS together in cinemas worldwide to share in a much-needed concert experience,” said Kymberli Frueh, SVP of programming and content acquisitions at Trafalgar Releasing. “The 50-year celebration of ‘L.A. Woman’ was a perfect opportunity to capture a brand-new performance with current band members, reminisce on that era, and share memories from the legendary concert.”

The event will be screened in cinemas around the world for one night only on November 4, 2021. Public tickets are on sale beginning on September 21 at TheDoorsFilm.com where fans can find the most up-to-date information regarding participating theaters and sign up for event alerts.

Rhino will also celebrate THE DOORS this fall with the release of “L.A. Woman (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)” on December 3. The 3-CD/1-LP set expands the band’s legendary sixth and last studio album with more than two hours of newly remixed audio, taken from the original multitrack session tapes, by “L.A. Woman” album producer and engineer Bruce Botnick.

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Three years after the release of “The Hunt For White Christ” (2018), Swedish death metal veterans UNLEASHED return with their new studio album, “No Sign Of Life”, due out November 12 via Napalm Records.

Led by founding frontman Johnny Hedlund, and featuring drummer Anders Schultz and two guitarists Tomas Måsgard and Fredrik Folkare, UNLEASHED transports the listener straight into an outraging battle with 11 forceful tracks that revive the essentials of death metal, facing the sheer brutality of war. UNLEASHED is back to defend its throne, forging another uncompromising musical weapon that continues the marvelous legacy of Vikings.

To satisfy the bloodthirst, UNLEASHED just released their staggering brand new track from “No Sign Of Life”, titled “The King Lost His Crown”, alongside a sharp lyric music video. The track dives right in without mercy, dominated by destructive guitars, blasting drums and the well-known chunky and brutal screams of Hedlund.

Johnny on the first single: “In the aftermath of the battle of Jorsala, where the Midgard Warriors stood victorious, White Christ is now being hunted from the once so holy city. The enemy flees towards the desert, and his armies are about to lose faith in their leader. It seems that the king lost his crown.”

The silence gets crushed right within the first notes of the album opener “The King Lost His Crown” and invents a paving rage that leaves no time to catch your breath during its entire playing time. The album unfolds with “Where Can You Flee” as an unstoppable war battalion and builds upon UNLEASHED’s well-established trademark sound and strong lyrics. Bare-boned screams are accompanied by epic shouts praising Odin and heavy guitar riffs as the journey of clashes continues in “The Highest Ideal”, until the album reaches its glorious peak with “Here At The End Of The World” as a fading hymn for the victorious march that leaves the battlefield behind in ashes.

UNLEASHED on the album: “It is our hope that our warriors all over the world will enjoy the new album just like they have our previous ones. We have, as always, tried to stick to our roots while testing our steel to develop the genre of Viking death metal even further. Hail Odin!”

“No Sign Of Life” track listing:

01. The King Lost His Crown
02. The Shepherd Has Left the Flock
03. Where Can You Flee?
04. You Are The Warrior!
05. No Sign Of Life
06. The Highest Ideal
07. Midgard Warriors For Life
08. Did You Struggle With God?
09. Tyr Wields The Sword
10. It is Finished
11. Here At The End Of The World

UNLEASHED is:

Johnny Hedlund – bass, vocals
Anders Schultz – drums
Tomas Måsgard – rhythm guitar
Fredrik Folkare – lead guitar

Photo credit: Jens Rydén

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Maryland rockers CLUTCH played a brand new song apparently titled “Boss Metal Zone” during their September 11 concert at Reverb in Reading, Pennsylvania. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be seen below.

“Boss Metal Zone” is the second new CLUTCH song to be played by the band on its current run of shows. On September 5, CLUTCH performed a track said to be titled “Strive For Excellence” during its first fan-attended live concert in 21 months, which took at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, Alaska.

CLUTCH drummer Jean-Paul Gaster recently told the Chicago-based webzine Metal Kaoz that he and his bandmates have “written a lot of songs” in the last year for the follow-up to 2018’s “Book Of Bad Decisions” LP. He said: “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. 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.

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SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor stars in the Halloween-themed horror anthology movie “Bad Candy”, which arrived at select theaters on September 10 and is now available on demand.

Due on Blu-ray on September 28, “Bad Candy” was written and directed by Scott B. Hansen and Desiree Connell, and also features Zach Galligan, the star of the “Gremlins” and “Waxwork” franchises.

“Bad Candy” follows local Halloween stories of both myth and lessons learned in the community of New Salem. With its annual Psychotronic FM Halloween show, re-enactment radio DJs Chilly Billy (played by Taylor) and Paul weave the tales of the supernatural of years gone by. In this small town, it’s a grimy ending for most, but will a few good souls survive?

In an interview with FirstGlance Film Festivals, Taylor stated about “Bad Candy”: “It’s a pretty cool little horror movie that has a linear story going through it, but it’s really kind of made up of different short stories — almost like a ‘Creepshow’ kind of format, which is pretty cool. It’s basically re-enactments of the stories that I’m actually telling on the radio, for the most part. It was a small-budget film done by some people who knew my manager, and who had worked with him before. And they asked if I wanted to be a part of it, and I was, like, ‘Yeah, of course. I’m totally down.'”

Asked if there was anything in particular that drew him to the project, Corey said: “I’ve been a horror fan my whole life, and that’s reflected in the movies that I’ve been in, the music that I make, the bands that I’ve contributed to. So it was just one more thing for me to kind of try and stretch. Any time I get a little bit part like that, I’m always down to try new stuff.”

Taylor also talked about what it was like being on the “Bad Candy” set, saying: “I got to work with Zach Galligan, which was really rad. I was a big fan of his work when I was growing up, and getting to work with him and meet him, he’s just such a cool dude that it just made it easy. We were there for two full days really kind of mapping out and filming everything. And we just rolled with it, man. We just had as much fun as we could, just making fun of each other.”

As previously reported, Taylor also stars in another horror film called “Rucker”. It is described as a genre-bending terror film about a serial killer trucker who attempts to salvage family relationships. Olympic College film professor Amy Hesketh serves as the film’s director and fellow OC professor Aaron Drane produced the film. Both are credited with co-writing the screenplay.

A longtime fan of horror films, Taylor was featured prominently in the “In Search Of Darkness” documentary, which came out in 2019.

Corey told Syfy network’s “Metal Crush Mondays” how he first got into horror movies: “My mom took me to see the ‘Buck Rogers [In The 25th Century]’ movie when I was a kid. I must’ve been four or five, but the trailer before the movie was John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’. You’ve just got these incredible visuals, this sense of it’s autumn, it’s Halloween and there’s just this dude in the background of every shot. I can remember as a five-year-old just being transfixed. Like, I suddenly didn’t care about Buck Rogers. I think it was the one moment in my life that really galvanized my taste in what my young mind thought was cool. It was actually a couple years later that I actually got to watch it and to this day it’s one of my favorite movies.”

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In a new interview with Australia’s “Scars And Guitars” podcast, guitarist Bill Steer of British extreme metal pioneers CARCASS addressed the suggestion that this band’s fourth album, 1993’s “Heartwork”, was an influence on groups like AT THE GATES, IN FLAMES and DARK TRANQUILLITY, who are part of what is now widely now widely known as “the Gothenburg sound,” a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines death metal with the melodious and harmonic elements of the new wave of British heavy metal. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’ve met some of those guys. I mean, you could say I maybe know a couple [of them]. Jeff [Walker, CARCASS bassist/vocalist] certainly does. I’ve not really heard anything of that nature from them. I guess one or two of the guys in IN FLAMES seem to be admirers of ‘Heartwork’ or whatever. All I can say is it might have been a factor, but I think there’s other things going on. When I hear AT THE GATES, for example, stylistically, I think that’s fairly different from us. They plow a different furrow. It’s much more kind of direct and focused, I suppose. Our stuff is more sprawling. So it covers more territory. But if you really want the kind of heads-down, meat-and-potatoes death metal with a bit of melodic spice, that’s what they deliver. So I’m definitely aware that for a lot of people, that band is what it’s all about. There are people who think that’s where the melodic kind of strain of death metal originated and they perhaps just don’t own any CARCASS records; it’s not their bag.”

Last month, Walker told “Scars And Guitars” that he didn’t believe CARCASS was an inspiration for any of the Swedish melodic death metal bands. “I don’t think those bands — and I use this word in a true sense — would ever admit to any CARCASS influence,” he said. “They were running parallel at the same time. So I don’t think that’s fair to say that we had influence on those bands… I don’t think we inspired them either. I think ‘Heartwork’ was as much a maligned album as [1996’s] ‘Swansong’, in all honesty, back in its time. I don’t remember getting rave reviews. I don’t remember it being a very positive time. There was a lot of pushback against ‘Heartwork’ from our own fans.”

CARCASS’s seventh studio album, “Torn Arteries”, will be released on September 17 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP title references an old demo created by original drummer Ken Owen back in the 1980s.

In 2019, CARCASS released its first single in over five years, “Under The Scalpel Blade”, followed by a four-song EP titled “Despicable” (October 2020).

CARCASS’s comeback album, 2013’s “Surgical Steel”, sold around 8,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 41 on The Billboard 200 chart.

Photo credit: Ester Segarra

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