Author: planetsixstring

Veteran rockers KIX have canceled two shows due to a member of the band contracting COVID-19.

The group has released the following statement regarding the matter: “KIX is canceling the following live dates due to a band member’s positive COVID-19 test, despite his being vaccinated.

* Friday, September 10 at Rocktember Music Fest in Hinckley, MN
* Saturday, September 11 at Arcada Theater in St. Charles, IL

“Future shows beyond these two are not affected. We will be there!

“KIX’s return to the stage this year was met with much fanfare and encouragement, among promising signs for the current touring landscape. However, the surging COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a toll on the already-struggling live music industry, and KIX fans are the latest victims.

“KIX is very disappointed but remains committed to safety of fellow travelers, fans, other bands and crew. The band was looking forward to returning to these great venues and reunited with their enthusiastic fans, and promises a return as soon as possible.”

Experts have repeatedly said that a COVID-19 vaccine is the single most important tool for preventing infections and protecting against moderate and severe disease. Some variants, such as delta, may be more likely to cause breakthrough infections, but vaccinations have shown protection against symptomatic disease caused by delta. Unvaccinated people are more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 than people who are fully vaccinated. In the United States, 97% of the hospitalizations over the past three months, since delta came on the scene, have been in unvaccinated people. Ninety-nine percent of the people who have died of COVID-19 in the last three months were unvaccinated.

Masks reduce the risk of an infected person’s spreading the virus and provide some protection for the wearer against becoming infected. A new study found that increased mask-wearing led to a significant reduction in the percentage of people with COVID-19, based on symptom reporting and SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing. The researchers tested both cloth and surgical masks and found especially strong evidence that surgical masks are effective in preventing COVID-19.

KIX CANCELS TOUR DATES AFTER A MEMBER TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

NEW YORK, NY (September 9, 2021) KIX is canceling the…

Posted by Kix Band on Thursday, September 9, 2021

Best known for his role as songwriter and lead singer of punk rock band PENNYWISE, Jim Lindberg has shared the first glimpse of his acoustic solo project with the track “The Palm Of Your Hand” produced by Ted Hutt (THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM, LUCERO, FLOGGING MOLLY). The song features David Hidalgo Jr. (SOCIAL DISTORTION) on drums, Joe Gittleman (THE MIGHTY, MIGHTY BOSSTONES, AVOID ONE THING) on bass, and Marc Orrell (DROPKICK MURPHYS, THE WALKER ROADERS) on guitar.

Lindberg began writing “The Palm Of Your Hand” over fifteen years ago, coming up with the chorus at the time but the song remained predominately unfinished until 2020 when he entered the studio to work on his forthcoming solo record. “I wanted to create two fictional characters who are struggling with shame, guilt, and self-delusion to match the chorus lyric and so that’s how ‘Left-Handed Sal’ and ‘Walleyed Sally’ were created,” he said. “It’s a song about two people who for one reason or another can’t seem to get out of their own way and end up inflicting all kinds of damage on the people around them. The only way they’ll get out from under all their problems is to ‘Let that ego drop’ and let their feelings show. The answer is right there in front of them, in ‘the palm of your hand.'”

This weekend, Lindberg will perform at BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach, California alongside JANE’S ADDICTION, CAGE THE ELEPHANT, Trever Keith of FACE TO FACE, and many more. Lindberg has curated the lineup for the festival’s “SpeakEasy” stage. The stage will also feature a pop-up art gallery provided by Punk Rock & Paintbrushes, which highlights artwork from some of the festival’s musicians and local artists.

Lindberg has been making inspiring, thought-provoking music since the 1990s. Musically, he is influenced by an array of genres from punk and folk music to old school country and americana. Lyrically, Jim takes inspiration anywhere from transcendental philosophers to real-life events; seeking always to tell a story or find the answers to life’s big questions.

Photo credit: Brent Broza

JUDAS PRIEST’s first pandemic-era tour, the rescheduled “50 Heavy Metal Years” North American trek, kicked off last night (Wednesday, September 8) at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania.

As was the case with their appearance at the Bloodstock Open Air festival in August, the British heavy metal legends, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary, threw in several rarely played songs in their set, including “One Shot At Glory” and “Invader”, as well as several tracks that hadn’t been played in a long time, such as “Rocka Rolla, “Exciter”, “Hell Patrol”, “A Touch Of Evil”, “Dissident Aggressor” and “Blood Red Skies”.

The setlist was as follows:

01. One Shot At Glory
02. Lightning Strike
03. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
04. Exciter
05. Turbo Lover
06. Hell Patrol
07. The Sentinel
08. A Touch Of Evil
09. Rocka Rolla
10. Victim Of Changes
11. Desert Plains
12. Blood Red Skies
13. Invader
14. Painkiller
15. The Hellion / Electric Eye
16. Hell Bent For Leather
17. Breaking The Law
18. Living After Midnight

Fan-filmed video footage can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Kirby Ray of the Cape Girardeau, Missouri radio station Real Rock 99.3, JUDAS PRIEST drummer Scott Travis spoke about what fans can expect from the band’s current North American trek, which will conclude on November 5 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

“We have a whole new set designed and the production — meaning the lights and the video screens behind the band, the actual stage set,” Scott said. “We have some props we’ve never used before that are gonna make appearances throughout the show. And so all of that is new, as you have to do with every tour — you have to just come up with all new stuff. It’s almost like a wardrobe; you can’t wear the same thing twice. So, that’s all new. And because JUDAS PRIEST have a 50-year catalog, it’s a blessing and it’s a curse in the sense that you’ve got a 50-year catalog, if you will, to choose from, but at the same time you can’t do everything. So we are gonna pull out some new old songs — songs that JUDAS PRIEST recorded way back when and either never had played live or if they did play it live, it was literally 40, 45 years ago. So we’re doing some of that again. And then playing some newer new songs, if that makes sense. In other words, something off maybe ‘Painkiller’ we haven’t done in a while or ‘Firepower’ that we haven’t done. And an amalgamation of that, along with some classics, and you’ve got a new JUDAS PRIEST set.”

For the Bloodstock Open Air appearance, JUDAS PRIEST was rejoined by guitarist Glenn Tipton for three songs.

Tipton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s seven years ago — after being stricken by the condition at least half a decade earlier — but announced in early 2018 he was going to sit out touring activities in support of JUDAS PRIEST’s latest studio album, “Firepower”. He was replaced by “Firepower” album producer Andy Sneap, who is also known for his work in NWOBHM revivalists HELL and cult thrash outfit SABBAT.

As he has done a number of other times over the course of the last three and a half years, Tipton joined PRIEST onstage on Bloodstock for the encore, performing “Metal Gods”, “Breaking The Law” and “Living After Midnight”.

In early April, JUDAS PRIEST’s European tour, which was scheduled to kick off in late May, was once again postponed due to “ongoing COVID-19 vaccine issues.” The trek will now run from May 27, 2022 in Moscow, Russia until July 31, 2022 in Oberhausen, Germany.

Hachette Books has set an October 5 the release date for the new 336-page hardcover book “Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen” by music journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill.

“Eruption” offers a new look at guitar legend Eddie Van Halen via a groundbreaking oral history composed of more than 50 hours of interviews with Eddie, his family and friends.

Published to coincide with the first anniversary of Eddie’s death from cancer, the book highlights his greatest triumphs as a groundbreaking musician, including an unprecedented dive into VAN HALEN’s masterpiece “1984”. It takes an unflinching look at Eddie’s early struggles as a young Dutch immigrant unable to speak English, which resulted in lifelong issues with social anxiety and substance abuse. It also examines his brilliance as an inventor who changed the face of guitar manufacturing, as well as his turbulent marriage to Valerie Bertinelli and his relationships with bandmates David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar.

As entertaining as it is revealing, “Eruption” is the closest readers will ever get to hearing Eddie’s side of the story regarding his extraordinary life.

Highlights include:

* Details of his childhood struggles as the son of biracial and immigrant parents
* Eddie’s battles with social anxiety, which encouraged later problems with alcohol and cocaine
* His impact on the guitar industry, including how he built his own guitar with spare parts, known as “Frankenstein,” and created a trend that eventually changed the way electric guitars were made, revolutionizing the guitar industry
* His often-stormy relationships with VAN HALEN’s trio of singers David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone
* His long and complicated marriage to Valerie Bertinelli; his close relationship with his son/bassist Wolfgang Van Halen; and his marriage to second wife and publicist Janie Liszewski, who helped him recover from substance abuse and supported him through his many cancer treatments
* Details of his 20-year cancer battle and death

Official book description: When rock legend Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020, the entire world seemed to stop and grieve. Since his band VAN HALEN burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut album in 1978, Eddie had been hailed as an icon not only to fans of rock music and heavy metal, but to performers across all genres and around the world. VAN HALEN’s debut sounded unlike anything that listeners had heard before and remains a quintessential rock album of the era.

Over the course of more than four decades, Eddie gained renown for his innovative guitar playing, and particularly for popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique. Unfortunately for Eddie and his legions of fans, he died before he was ever able to put his life down to paper in his own words, and much of his compelling backstory has remained elusive — until now.

In “Eruption”, music journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill share with fans, new and old alike, a candid, compulsively readable, and definitive oral history of the most influential rock guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. It is based on more than 50 hours of unreleased interviews they recorded with Eddie Van Halen over the years, most of them conducted at the legendary 5150 studios at Ed’s home in Los Angeles. The heart of “Eruption” is drawn from these intimate and wide-ranging talks, as well as conversations with family, friends, and colleagues.

In addition to discussing his greatest triumphs as a groundbreaking musician, including an unprecedented dive into VAN HALEN’s masterpiece “1984”, the book also takes an unflinching look at Edward’s early struggles as young Dutch immigrant unable to speak the English language, which resulted in lifelong issues with social anxiety and substance abuse. “Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen” also examines his brilliance as an inventor who changed the face of guitar manufacturing.

As entertaining as it is revealing, “Eruption” is the closest readers will ever get to hearing Eddie’s side of the story when it comes to his extraordinary life.

Renowned quartet GOV’T MULE — led by Grammy Award-winning vocalist, songwriter, guitar legend, and producer Warren Haynes — has announced its first-ever blues album, “Heavy Load Blues”, and released the first original track off the forthcoming collection, “Heavy Load”. The ominous acoustic blues number is highlighted by Haynes’s mournful vocal and supple yet deliberate riffing. “Heavy Load Blues”, due out November 12 via Fantasy Records, encompasses an even mix of Haynes’s originals and revered covers originally made famous by the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Junior Wells, Ann Peebles, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and even Tom Waits and THE ANIMALS. To coincide with the album’s announcement, GOV’T MULE has released a behind-the-scenes video of the making of “Heavy Load Blues”.

“Heavy Load Blues” is available for pre-order now at all DSPs. Each digital pre-save will include an instant download of the song “Heavy Load”. Physical CDs and vinyl are also available for pre-order now from the band’s webstore, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and local record stores. A deluxe edition featuring additional studio and live tracks, including another Haynes original and covers originally by Savoy Brown, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and more, will also be available.

“For me, personally, it’s kind of been on my list of things to do for years,” shares Haynes. “I didn’t know if it was gonna be a solo album or a GOV’T MULE record. We play some traditional blues on stage from time to time and although it’s usually never more than a few songs per show, our approach to the blues is unique and based on our collective chemistry as a band.” He adds, “This album gave us a mission. Although in some way it was ‘anything goes,’ we wanted to stay true to the spirit of the blues in a traditional sense. It’s not a blues/rock record — it’s a blues record. We wanted it sonically to sound different from a normal GOV’T MULE record.”

Though technically considered a studio album, “Heavy Load Blues” was recorded live in the studio at The Power Station New England on analog tape, utilizing vintage guitars, amps and other equipment to capture an authentic sound. The 13-track album was produced by Haynes alongside engineer and co-producer John Paterno (Michael Landau, Robbie Williams, THE STEVE GADD BAND).

One of the many standout tracks is the Junior Wells standard “Snatch It Back And Hold It”, which allowed the band to freely cover a classic while sandwiching a spontaneous jam called “Hold It Back” in the middle of a soulful, stirring interpretation that was given a decidedly funky groove. In that regard, while several titles may sound familiar to blues enthusiasts, the band — Haynes, Matt Abts (drums), Danny Louis (keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals) and Jorgen Carlsson (bass) — often opted to put its own spin on them. “I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home”, originally recorded by Ann Peebles, is one of the few songs on the record the band has previously played live. On their version, Haynes’s nimble guitar riffs are played out over a solid foundation of organ and rhythm, resulting in a kind of funk-like finesse. For the Howlin’ Wolf song, “I Asked Her For Water, She Gave Me Gasoline”, GOV’T MULE, who are known for pushing the parameters while melding a variety of genres — rock, R&B, jam, funk, jazz, and practically everything in-between, opted for a heavy, up-tempo and funky version that is a far cry from the original.

Leading up to the release of “Heavy Load Blues”, GOV’T MULE will continue with their 2021 tour dates. The in-progress outing offers fans a variety of options to catch the road warriors, including co-headlining shows with TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE and dates on Willie Nelson’s “Outlaw Music Festival” tour alongside Nelson, Sturgill Simpson, THE AVETT BROTHERS, and more, as well as headlining shows and other festival appearances.

Coming up later this winter, the band returns to Jewel Paradise Cove Resort in Runaway Bay, Jamaica for Island Exodus 12, the ultimate “concert-cation” experience from January 16-20, 2022. Hosted by GOV’T MULE, who will perform three full two-set shows, and Warren Haynes, offering his unique, interactive “Q and Play” set, a hybrid concert performance and storytelling session, the multi-day experience will also feature intimate beachfront concerts from DAWES and THE WAR AND TREATY, who will perform multiple sets, and special guest Ron Holloway, who will present an extended afternoon “Sax On The Beach” set. Attendees arriving early for Exodus Eve on January 15 will see “RoHo” part of Melvin Seals & JGB + Ron Holloway’s “Legion of Melvin” show.

“Heavy Load Blues” track listing:

01. Blues Before Sunrise
02. Hole In My Soul
03. Wake Up Dead
04. Love Is A Mean Old World
05. Snatch It Back and Hold It – Hold It Back – Snatch It Back and Hold It
06. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
07. (Brother Bill) Last Clean Shirt
08. Make It Rain
09. Heavy Load
10. Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home
11. If Heartaches Were Nickels
12. I Asked Her For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)
13. Black Horizon

Deluxe Version – Bonus Tracks:

01. Hiding Place
02. You Know My Love
03. Street Corner Talking
04. Have Mercy On The Criminal
05. Long Distance Call
06. Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home (Extended Version)
07. Need Your Love So Bad (Live)
08. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl with Hook Herrera (Live)

Photo Credit: Jay Sansone

RUSH bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee will be honored with a solo Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday, September 11 at the Artists For Peace And Justice (APJ) gala in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Lee is being recognized for his “commitment to philanthropy,” including his support of brain cancer research, Toronto Food Bank, Alberta Floods, Doctors Without Borders, Grapes For Humanity, United Way, Canadian Museum For Human Rights and Casey House.

The APJ is a nonprofit organization that encourages peace and social justice and addresses issues of poverty around the world.

Over the course of their five-decade-long career, the members of RUSH have thrown their support behind a wide variety of worthy causes often privately and sometimes publicly. From their earliest shows at Toronto’s historic Maple Leaf Gardens, the band started working with the Toronto Food Bank to encourage fans to bring food for those in need. Eventually deciding to do their first charity concert at Maple Leaf Gardens to benefit the United Way in the early ’80s, and an amFAR show to benefit AIDS research in the early ’90s, engaging themselves and their fans in positive pursuits naturally became part of the RUSH ethos.

As dedicated advocates of human rights, in 2008 RUSH donated $100,000 from a Winnipeg concert’s gate to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. In the same year, on their “Snakes & Arrows Tour”, the band donated $100,000 from their show in New Orleans to Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation to assist in the revitalization of the city post Hurricane Katrina, and sponsor the construction of a house in The Lower Ninth Ward dubbed “The House That Rush Built”.

From their 2010 “Time Machine” tour onwards, RUSH donated $1 from every concert ticket sold to various charities including Doctors Without Borders. In 2013, the band performed an incredibly successful benefit concert at Red Deer’s Enmax Centrium with all proceeds going to the Canadian Red Cross to help victims of the flooding that devastated many regions of southern Alberta. The event raised more than $575,000 and was one of the largest donations made to the Alberta Flood Relief.

RUSH has also been a passionate supporter of Little Kids Rock, a national non-profit organization that works to restore and revitalize music education programs in disadvantaged U.S. public schools. In efforts to provide percussion instruments to schools, the group created a premium Neil Peart Paragon Cymbal Pack, each of which came with a free splash cymbal personalized, autographed and dated by the RUSH drummer himself. This cause-based marketing initiative went on to raise over $50,000 for Little Kids Rock. Working with their endorsement companies, they set up partnerships for their signature items which have seen many positive charitable efforts such as Neil Peart with DW, Sabian and ProMark, where one campaign raised over $60,000 for Child Advocates. Alex Lifeson donated royalties from his signature Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess guitar to the Domenic Troiano Foundation for guitar music scholarships.

The bandmembers also donated their time, funds and awareness through their personal interests and events. An avid baseball fan, Geddy Lee donated close to 400 baseballs signed by former Negro League baseball players from his personal collection to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City in 2008. Alex Lifeson is a supporter of Casey House as well as The Kidney Foundation to which he donates his paintings that led to almost $300,000 in funds raised. During the band’s South American tour in 2010, Peart was moved by the rescue of the trapped miners in Chile. When he wrote a story about his experiences touring in South America, he rallied RUSH fans and his readers to make a $1 donation for his story. Neil matched their donations, and together they raised $10,000 for the Chilean Red Cross.

RUSH was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 1994, made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 and inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2010. They have received a star on both Canada’s Walk of Fame (1999) and Hollywood Walk Of Fame (2010). RUSH received the highest artistic honor in Canada by winning the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 2012 and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013.

Ex-SCORPIONS drummer Herman Rarebell has blasted his former bandmates, calling them “rude” and accusing them of “greed” over their apparent refusal to allow him to rejoin the band.

Rarebell, who was a member of the SCORPIONS from 1977 to 1995, discussed the possibility of his return to the group in an interview for the next issue of Classic Rock magazine. Asked if he was disappointed not to have been invited back into the fold following the 2016 dismissal of longtime drummer James Kottak, Herman said: “I’ll tell you how disappointed I am. I sent them a message offering my services, and never even got a reply. I thought that was very rude. Now I hear the SCORPIONS are claiming their new album will be a return to the glory days of the eighties. If they’re serious about that, they should get [former bassist] Francis [Buchholz] and me back, and also Dieter Dierks who produced all those classic albums. You know why they won’t do that? Greed. It would mean having to share everything five ways and not three.”

Rarebell also criticized his former bandmates for seemingly not giving him enough credit for their commercial success in the 1980s. “The band never mention me in interviews, which I find ridiculous,” he stated. “But there’s a new documentary in the pipeline from ITV on the band. I am being interviewed for this, so I can finally set the record straight on my role.”

In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Herman stated about the huge commercial success of SCORPIONS’ 1982 album “Blackout”: “Mercury Records was totally behind us and they believed in us. They wanted us to keep making albums. They wanted us to grow and do better each time out. ‘Lovedrive’ went gold. ‘Animal Magnetism’ went gold and then ‘Blackout’ was the first one to go platinum. [Rudolf] Schenker / [Klaus] Meine / Rarebell was a great songwriting team. You can see that from how many successful albums we had. After I left the band, they didn’t have any more hits.”

Rarebell also talked about the inspiration for the lyrics to “Rock You Like A Hurricane”, which was released as the lead single from SCORPIONS’ ninth studio album, 1984’s “Love At First Sting”. “Those lyrics were very easy to write,” he said. “I woke up early in the morning after fucking and doing cocaine all night and I opened up the curtains. ‘It’s early morning, the sun comes out. Last night was shaking and pretty loud. My cat is purring and she scratches my skin.’ She had scratched my back during our lovemaking. I just sat down and wrote it right then and there. It was five in the morning and the girl was still in bed as I was sitting there writing it. The next day, I said to Rudolf, ‘I have some great lyrics for that riff you have.'”

Herman’s solo album “Nip In The Bud”, originally recorded 40 years ago, was re-released last month, remastered and available digitally for the first time.

Andrew W.K. will release his fifth full-length studio rock album, “God Is Partying”, this Friday, September 10 via Napalm Records. The long-awaited nine-track opus of maximalist grandeur drops nearly 20 years after the release of his full-length debut, “I Get Wet”.

Gifting fans with one last taste of the new album before it drops this Friday, Andrew W.K. has revealed a follow up to recent new singles “Babalon”, “I’m In Heaven” and “Everybody Sins”, titled “Stay True To Your Heart”. The track’s mechanical heartbeat builds towards a butterfly drum fill, bursting into an utterly soaring chorus, as the Party God conveys one of “God Is Partying”‘s most addictive hooks. “Stay True To Your Heart” is a standout offering, evoking the uniquely delirious euphoria that Andrew W.K. delivers so well.

Andrew W.K. says about “Stay True To Your Heart”: “What is the most brutal form of positivity? I want to get in there. Being and staying. Being true to yourself isn’t the same as staying true to your heart. They told me all about this when I started forming. Approving the disapproval of others. Happiness. Seriousness. Zones of care — yourself, your family of supervisors, your city of strangers, your bathroom, your basement, your street. What does it mean for me to be not-human? What does it mean for a not-human to posses my party mindset? It’s not appropriate for me to analyze this song in that way. The song is meant to analyze me. And the listener is meant to party.”

Hovering in the fluorescent spotlight of his legendary party power, “God Is Partying” sees Andrew W.K. ransack the corners of the human psyche, reaching a triumphant apex in his catalog, 20 years after the release of his chart-topping 2001 full-length debut, “I Get Wet”. Emotive yet steadfast, ominous yet invigorating, “God Is Partying” embraces both the break-ups and break-downs of life, and Andrew W.K. once again provides his audience with the perfect soundtrack to celebrate life in all its perplexing and euphoric intensity.

Channeling the manic euphoria that has compelled Andrew W.K.’s auditory insignia for decades, “God Is Partying” is soaked with a flood of epic energy — often traversing seemingly impenetrable lyrical themes while remaining refreshingly relatable, inspiring, and vital for survival. From sinister metallic bastions like the buzzing single “Babalon” to the timeless story telling of “Remember Your Oath”, the album will have fans embracing their own party power and reveling in the depths of musical euphoria. “God Is Partying” opens triumphantly with Andrew W.K.’s hyper-melodic keyboard stylings introducing the menacing and magical music of “Everybody Sins”, perfectly setting the scene for the dramatic immensity to follow. Tracks like the poetic “No One To Know” and the soaring tension of “Stay True To Your Heart” transport the listener to the precipice of a paradoxically infinite sonic horizon — rising into synthesizer-infused epics of mega-jumbo rock music, each track showcasing another example of Andrew W.K.’s expanding abilities as a vocalist and songwriter. Only halfway through the album is the listener driven directly into fiery depths with the massive track “I’m In Heaven” before ascending back up and into the sonic stratosphere with the tracks “My Tower” and the album’s gargantuan closer, “And Then We Blew Apart”.

“God Is Partying” track listing:

01. Everybody Sins
02. Babalon
03. No One To Know
04. Stay True To Your Heart
05. Goddess Partying
06. I’m In Heaven
07. Remember Your Oath
08. My Tower
09. And Then We Blew Apart

Various formats will include additional bonus tracks “I Made It” and “Not Anymore”.

You know that classic moment in “The Wicker Man”, when Edward Woodward suddenly realizes that he’s toast? That flicker of horrified realization: that’s what MASTIFF sound like. For reasons that will become clear when you hear this horrifying slab of disgust, the British quintet sound very much like the right band for the right moment. Bilious with contempt for the state of things and utterly, remorselessly black-hearted from start to finish, “Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth” is a sustained scream in the face of uncontrollable madness.

It’s also a deeply fucking weird record. “The Hiss” should go down in extreme metal history as one of the most disturbing opening tracks of all time. A slow-motion nightmare, crippled with distortion and disintegrating in real time, it slithers and spirals like some hideous, coiled discharge belched from Cthulhu’s spiny rectum, offering nothing but dismay and psychosis as reward. With that atmosphere of crazed dread established, MASTIFF truly let rip on “Fail”: a rush of tumbling skulls and sledgehammer force, it showcases an enhanced upgrade for the muscular slurry that made this band such an irresistible underground concern via previous albums “Plague” (2019) and “Wrank” (2016, both released via APF RECORDS). Whether through a bigger production or simply a surfeit of hateful energy, “Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth” is a heavyweight statement, and the unapologetic lack of anything remotely commercial or accessible makes that statement all the more potent.

One might even suggest that eONE have been exceptionally brave in signing a band whose music may cause more sensitive listeners to run shrieking from the room. But since the era demands it, MASTIFF have proudly upped the ugliness, banished all light and delivered songs like “Midnight Creeper” and “Futile”, monochrome, murderous torrents of sickening, crusty riffing, dense with extraneous, amorphous noise and the omnipresent threat of violence. Admittedly, a song title like “Beige Sabbath” does confirm that the Brits are not entirely incapable of having a giggle, but the song itself is no joke: two minutes of bloody-eyed belligerence and hell-for-leather grind, delivered with so much venom that you can almost hear vocalist Jim Hodge’s eyeballs bursting. Heaviest of all, the suffocated slither of doomy closer “Lung Rust” eradicates any final pleas for clemency, MASTIFF’s scabbiest riffs conspiring to make the descent into Hell as excruciating as possible.

If you need cheering up, this may not be the best place to start. Unless, of course, the sound of the world consuming itself from the inside out and spitting in the face of humanity is your idea of a good time. And it might as well be. Being crushed has never felt better.