Author: planetsixstring

VIXEN guitarist Brittany Denaro (a.k.a. Britt Lightning) spoke to Talking Metal about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band’s next studio album. “Well, it’s going a little bit slower than we had anticipated,” she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “Before COVID, we had a bunch of writing sessions — in person — scheduled, where we all just get together and hang out and work on stuff.

“We all live in different states across the country, actually — from L.A. to Michigan to Florida — we’re very spread out,” she explained. “So it’s not easy to travel. And honestly, nobody is super jazzed about sending tracks back and forth, trying to record it separately and everything like that. So we got a little bit slowed down. But we’ve got some great ideas. We’re gonna be seeing each other in a couple of weeks, so we’re really looking forward to getting back on track and just finishing the writing so we can get in the studio and bang this thing out. I’m very anxious to have it done. I know we’ve been talking about it for a while.”

Asked about the musical direction of the new VIXEN material, Britt, who has been in the band since 2017, said: “Definitely it will be traditional VIXEN. When you hear it, I think you’re gonna know it’s VIXEN. We’re gonna keep with the big three-part harmonies, the big, catchy choruses, cool, rocking riffs and solos and that thumpin’ bass and, of course, Roxy’s [Petrucci, drums] awesome sound. I think it’ll be a slightly modern twist maybe — I think maybe I bring that a little bit, but I’ve been so influenced by VIXEN and other bands from that era that I think it’s gonna stay consistent. And we want that — we don’t want fans to be, like, ‘What the heck is this? This isn’t the band that I love.’ But I think it’s gonna be a good mix.”

Britt’s comments echo those made by VIXEN singer Lorraine Lewis, who told Metal-Net last November that the band’s new material is “always going to sound like VIXEN as far as harmonies — [which is] really important to us — but really fresh. Lots of messages, lots of what our journey has been as individual women. And we’re all just kind of putting our horses together, and I’m really excited. I’m just stoked to be in the studio again.

“We don’t have it a hundred percent mapped out,” Lorraine admitted. “Right now, we’re still in writing process, we’re still working on stuff — lots of lyrics and just kind of sharing them with all of us. Sharing choruses with [producer] Fred [Coury from CINDERELLA]. He says, ‘Yes, this is a great chorus. Let’s work on this.’ So we’re really, really happy and proud to be working with him. He believes in us, and he believes in me, which I really, really love. We’ve had a really great couple of talks in the studio and otherwise, like with Britt there, and him just saying, ‘You guys have everything going for you. You have an amazing band. You’re a legacy band. And you’ve got Lorraine doing vocals for you.’ And I’m so appreciative that he believes in me and he thinks I can sing anything. When Fred tells you that you can do anything, you believe it. So I’m really excited to go into the studio and work with him. And I’m really honored that he has said some of the things that he said to me. So the sky’s the limit here.’

Lewis added: “I wanna release a really powerful, amazing record. And let’s get a couple of singles out there, and let’s revise the VIXEN legacy and keep on rocking.”

In January 2019, VIXEN recruited Lewis as its new lead singer following the departure of Janet Gardner.

Lewis had already performed with VIXEN in March 2018 in Durant, Oklahoma while Gardner was recovering from surgery.

Prior to Lewis’s addition to VIXEN, Petrucci, Ross and Denaro vowed to “expand upon the VIXEN legacy while remaining true to our musical roots.”

Gardner, who released her debut self-titled solo album in 2017, broke the news of her exit from the group on January 16, 2019.

Gardner, Petrucci and Ross are considered to be part of VIXEN’s classic lineup, along with founding guitarist Jan Kuehnemund, who died of cancer in October 2013.

Gardner contributed lead vocals to VIXEN’s most commercially successful studio albums — “Vixen” (1988), “Rev It Up” (1990) and “Tangerine” (1998) — as well as the group’s latest release, 2018’s live album “Live Fire”.

There is something magical and deliciously nasty about that blood-spattered sweet spot where death and thrash metal meet. DESASTER have been mining that viscous seam since the late ’80s and have, in true German tradition, made a noble virtue of their refusal to deviate from the left-hand path. Frankly, few bands do this stuff better than DESASTER and “Churches Without Saints” is the kind of instantly satisfying avalanche of hateful, muscular extremity that almost defies analysis. If you’re in this metal thing for the long haul, this will make you want to bang your head. It’s that simple.

Five years on from the infernal assault of “The Oath of an Iron Ritual”, DESASTER have noticeably loosened up a little. The result is that their ninth full-length album has a real swing and swagger to it: the ragged fury of the old school, whipped into shape by three decades of active service. “Learn to Love the Void” rattles in on waves of VENOM and DISCHARGE debris, with frontman Sataniac barking and gargling existential threats like a cracked mirror LEMMY on a mission to deafen and terrify the world. The core of the band’s sound continues to favor a grubby thrash attack, but swathes of blackened discord and a mounting sense of drama are integral, too. For straight-ahead thrash moments, both “Failing Trinity” and “Hellputa” fit the bill, eschewing atmosphere in favor of grotesque, unstoppable force. But DESASTER have more than myopic devotion to the past to draw from: “Exile Is Imminent” weaves some arcane, doomy textures into an otherwise pummeling fight-to-the-finish; “Churches Without Saints” plunges into menacing, scabby-knuckled doom and black metal pomp; “Primordial Obscurity” begins as a vicious, dissonant whirlwind before morphing into a gleaming monument to old-school metal, with shades of MAIDEN, SABBATH and CELTIC FROST emanating from the mesmerizing melee. Best of all, preview single “Endless Awakening” showcases DESASTER’s adventurous streak across seven minutes of old-school bravado, taking in everything from epic, mutant SABBATH riffs to tooth-shattering blackened blasts along the way.

The band’s authenticity and purity of intent is glaringly obvious throughout, but the melancholy post-punk pulse of the closing “Aus Asche” hints at a deeper well of inspiration than the rest of this utterly ripping album may suggest. Either way, “Churches Without Saints” is a deafening reminder that the dark side of heavy metal is still the best place to be.

Japas Cervejaria’s Black Miso is a high-octane Russian Imperial Stout that incorporates a totally different type of fermentation: red miso paste.
The post No Corporate Beer Reviews: Black Miso appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Actor Sebastian Stan has shared a new image related to his upcoming part in Hulu’s limited series “Pam And Tommy”. In the picture, Stan, who plays MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee opposite Lily James’s Pamela Anderson, poses in character wearing just shorts, shoes and an apron emblazoned with the words “Kiss Da Cook”.

Stan posted the photo on Instagram and included the hashtag “#sunday”.

“Pam And Tommy” is based on Lee and Anderson’s infamous leaked sex tape. Seth Rogen will also appear in the series as the man who stole the tape, and will produce with his partner Evan Goldberg. The series also stars Nick Offerman, Taylor Schilling, Andrew Dice Clay, Pepi Sonuga, Spencer Granese and Mozhan Marnò.

The eight-episode series will focus on series the duo’s salacious relationship in the 1990s, including the leak of the private honeymoon video and the legal battle that ensued.

Lee and Anderson are reportedly not involved with the series, which is written by Robert Siegel and DV DeVincentis and produced by Annapurna.

Anderson and Lee got married on a beach in Mexico in 1995 after dating for just four days. The couple, who divorced in 1998, share two sons, Brandon, 24, and Dylan, 22.

The sex tape Lee made with Anderson during their 1998 honeymoon ended up finding its way online after being stolen from their home by an electrician. Pamela later sued the distribution company, but ended up settling, and the tape continued to be available online as a result. The tape reportedly made $77 million in less than 12 months.

“I’ve never seen it,” Anderson said on “Watch What Happens Live” in 2015. “I made not one dollar. It was stolen property. We made a deal to stop all the shenanigans. I was seven months pregnant with Dylan and thinking it was affecting the pregnancy with the stress and said, ‘I’m not going to court anymore. I’m not being deposed anymore by these horny, weird lawyer men. I don’t want to talk about my vagina anymore or my public sex — anything.”

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A post shared by Sebastian Stan (@imsebastianstan)

Sebastian Bach trolled Chris Jericho on Twitter, less than a year after the former SKID ROW singer blasted the FOZZY frontman over allegations that Jericho uses pre-recorded vocal tracks during live performances.

Earlier today, Chris tweeted out a new photo of himself and captioned it “#NewProfilePic”. A couple of hours later, Bach responded to Jericho’s tweet, writing: “#OldProfilePic” and including a winky-kissy face-throwing-a-kiss emoji.

Bach initially accused Jericho of “miming to a tape” at FOZZY concerts in a social media post last July. In response, the wrestler-turned-rocker insisted that he had “never mimed anything ever” and challenged Bach to a “singoff” with “no effects, no tuning, no bullshit”, saying “Bas is a great singer…but I’m better”.

In the months that ensued, Bach brought up Jericho’s alleged lip syncing on several occasions, most recently in January in an interview with The Aquarian Weekly. Asked specifically about his feud with Chris, Sebastian said: “I have an open mind about everyone. If I read on Blabbermouth.com [sic] that some band says, ‘We’re the future of rock ‘n’ roll and we are the next thing after THE ROLLING STONES,’ I think, this must be incredible! What have I been missing out on? So, I checked out one video during which the singer was 100% miming to a tape on stage at The Rockpile in Toronto. I thought to myself, ‘That’s weird, that’s not the next ROLLING STONES.’ So, I watch another video where he was opening up for NICKELBACK in an arena and, again, he’s miming to a tape. You can go watch it for yourself. Then someone said, ‘Here’s a clip of him singing live. Legit, bro.’ And it’s him miming to a tape again. It’s crazy obvious. It is not my opinion, it’s fact. It is not me starting a fight. But don’t tell me what singing live is, ’cause I have never used tape. I don’t even know how to do that.”

Bach also addressed the fact that Jericho accused him of having a less-than-original stage name after Sebastian slammed Jericho for copying the name of a SKID ROW tour for FOZZY.

“I switched a couple of letters of my legal last name [Bierk]. Who’s Mongoose McQueen?” Bach asked, referring to Jericho’s original FOZZY stage name. “What kind of a stage name is that?

“How about this: professional wrestling sucks,” he added. “Everyone wishes they were a rock star. It hilarious. Evidently, all you have to do is [record] a tape, go on stage, and jump around. You can jump off the drum riser and do jumping jacks. It doesn’t matter if you are miming to tape.”

Jericho’s most public reaction to Bach’s criticism came in a January tweet. At the time, he wrote: “I’ve been told that @sebastianbach continues to go out of his way to bury me. My response is this…be my guest! You are entitled to ur opinion & it doesn’t affect me either way. I still dig ur work on the first 3 @OfficialSkidRow albums & look forward to ur new record.”

When Bach first went public with his Jericho accusation, FOZZY guitarist Rich Ward called Sebastian “universally disliked” and said that seeing Bach “publicly go after the only guy that I have ever witness utter a nice word about him is sad.”

Sebastian, who has been outspoken about rock bands using pre-recorded backing tracks during live shows, later tried to explain his outburst, writing: “I’m not trying to beat anybody at anything. I’m actually trying to say hey Chris maybe you’re right maybe I’ll stop singing live and prance around while the tape is playing just like you do Chris. I’m tired of trying so hard it’s like beating my head against the wall.”

After a self-proclaimed Bach fan called Sebastian “an asshat” on Twitter for firing “the first shots” in his war of words with Jericho, Bach came back with: “Hey man f*** you. I have spent my life learning how to sing live on stage. When someone comes along and mimes to a tape it sucks for all of the rest of us that don’t. You want to go see a wrestling match good. Don’t call it rock and roll”.

#OldProfilePic ?
— Sebastian Bach (@sebastianbach) June 4, 2021

STYX will release its new studio album, “Crash Of The Crown”, on June 18 via the band’s label, Alpha Dog 2T/UMe. The LP’s second single, “Reveries”, can be streamed below.

The legendary rockers — James “JY” Young (lead vocals, guitars), Tommy Shaw (lead vocals, guitars), Chuck Panozzo (bass, vocals), Todd Sucherman (drums, percussion), Lawrence Gowan (lead vocals, keyboards) and Ricky Phillips (bass, guitar, vocals — wrote “Crash Of The Crown” pre-pandemic and recorded it during the trying times of the coronavirus crisis.

The “Crash Of The Crown” song breaks some brave new world ground for STYX. Actually, it’s the first cut in the band’s storied canon to feature three lead vocalists, seeing how it has Young unleashed at the starting gate, Shaw heading up the heroic stacked-vocal middle section, and Gowan leading the vocal charge for the final verse.

“I’m always looking for the one different thing we can do and still have it be STYX,” the ever-ebullient Gowan notes, “and that’s the song I’m most proud of. The beauty of it is that it’s the culmination of all our talents crammed together into one song, ‘Abbey Road’-style. I also got to use some gear I never thought I’d have the chance to play on a STYX record like Tommy’s Hammond B3 organ, my Minimoog, and my Mellotron.”

Efforts to record “Crash Of The Crown” began in earnest at Shaw’s home studio in Nashville during the fall of 2019, with Gowan — STYX’s criminally minded showman extraordinaire and keyboardist/vocalist since 1999 — in the room together with Shaw and the album’s producer, Will Evankovich, as he conjured up the album’s first song to be recorded, with cosmetic flourishes that reign over the insistent, yearning call for togetherness, “Common Ground”. But the global pandemic that inevitably transformed the way we all wound up living in 2020 changed the course for how many of the band’s home-and-away recording sessions ultimately had to set socially distanced sail. Safety precautions took precedent for all involved STYX bandmembers and production compatriots with much diligent quarantining and testing required before any one of them could travel to Shaw’s tranquility homebase to spread the uniquely ingrained STYX stardust that’s been duly sprinkled across the album’s cosmically chosen 15 tracks.

Of all those who made the trek to Nashville, original STYX bassist Chuck Panozzo — who, along with his late twin brother, drummer John Panozzo, formed the initial nucleus of STYX when they began jamming together in their basement on the south side of Chicago in 1961 — is hands down the most effusive about the experience.

“I’m constantly amazed at how Tommy’s songwriting continues to connect with the social consciousness that spans across generations,” marvels Chuck, who plays on “Our Wonderful Lives” and “Lost At Sea”. Lawrence’s all-too-brief aquatic fever dream. “Both he and Will have been able to tap into the core elements of the human condition, which is something that’s not going to change that much in 50 years — or even 500 years. That’s why STYX remains relevant after all this time, because we’re part of the human condition.”

Whether it’s the heady rush of the groundwork-laying opening track “The Fight of Our Lives”, the wistfully observational treatise of “Reveries”, the cautionary extended hand of comfort and redemption that frames “Hold Back The Darkness”, the undeniable uplift of “Our Wonderful Lives” (a beautiful sentiment further embellished by a most welcome, first-ever appearance by a banjo on a STYX album!), or the elegiac clarion call for shared grace in “To Those”, “Crash Of The Crown” is music that is both concurrently of its time and truly timeless all at once. Although the official release date for this landmark album may be time-stamped as 2021, the omnisciently observational content of “Crash Of The Crown” readily brings to mind an amalgamation of historical events that occurred in 1066, 1455, 1775, 1861, 1941, and even 2001 without citing any of them by name — Winston Churchill’s prescient wartime observations that permeate the pervasive pleas of “Save Us From Ourselves” notwithstanding. In essence, “Crash Of The Crown” is a modern-day sonic chronograph of the endless regenerative cycle of the rise and fall — and rise again — of our shared human experience.

“We’ve never been a protest band. We’re more like a gospel caravan trying to send out positive messages wherever we go,” observes Shaw, who joined STYX in December 1975 as a guitarist/vocalist and instantly became one of the band’s most important songwriters. “In order to share those positive messages, you have to look at what the problems are first to figure out all the ways you can help make sure everything’s going to be alright. That’s a very important part of how we do what we do.”

Though “Crash Of The Crown” takes a hard look at some inherently dark subjects, the prevalent light at the end of the tunnel eventually becomes each song’s focal point — a persistent fervor to keep moving forward and achieve the greater good.

STYX’s holy mission for cutting “Crash Of The Crown” was crystal-clear to its co-creator from the get-go. “Absolutely no obstacles were going to get in the way of how we approached creating this album,” Shaw concludes about the herculean recording efforts of his fellow “Crash Of The Crown” makers. “And everything came out exactly the way we wanted to hear it.”

“Crash Of The Crown” is the follow-up to STYX’s 16th studio album, “The Mission” (their first in 14 years at the time, which critics called “a masterpiece”) which was released June 16, 2017 on the band’s label, Alpha Dog 2T/UMe. The highly anticipated two-disc reissue of “The Mission” was released on July 27, 2018 via Alpha Dog 2T/UMe, which includes a CD of the original album, as well as a Blu-ray of the album mixed in 5.1 surround sound accompanied by stunning visualizations for each of the album’s 14 songs based on the album artwork. It originally debuted on various Billboard charts, including: #6 Top Rock Albums, #11 Physical Albums, #11 Vinyl Albums, #13 Current Albums, #14 Billboard Top Albums, #16 Retail, #17 Mass Merch/Non-Traditional, #29 Digital Albums, and #45 Billboard 200 (includes catalog and streaming).

Additionally, for Record Store Day on Saturday, June 12, STYX will release “The Same Stardust” EP on blue 180-gram 12-inch vinyl only, which will feature two brand-new songs on side one (“The Same Stardust” and “Age Of Entropia”), as well as five live performances on side two of some of STYX’s classic hits previously heard during their “Styx Fix” livestreams that have been keeping fans company during the pandemic on their official YouTube page, including “Mr. Roboto”, “Man In The Wilderness”, “Miss America”, “Radio Silence” and “Renegade”.

In touring news, STYX and COLLECTIVE SOUL are rested, healthy, and ready to hit the road for their first-ever multiple city tour together. STYX had previously announced their return to Las Vegas with a three-night sold-out engagement at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas on September 24, 25, and 26, which will include an exclusive set list and brand-new stage production. Tickets for various cities, as well as exclusive VIP packages from each band, are available now at StyxWorld.com and CollectiveSoul.com.

From now until Wednesday, June 9, double your vinyl value with a free copy of Decibel’s Completely Extreme Vol. 1!
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Founding JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing spoke to SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” about his decision to call his new band KK’S PRIEST, an obious nod to his former group.

“I felt that it was justified for me, because of my long legacy and, obviously, being there in the very beginning, that I was still entitled,” Downing said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

“Lots of things happened, and even though I [released my autobiography in 2018], I didn’t put everything in the book; there’s so much I could have put in that book.

“When things happened… For example, the year when I got angry and quit [JUDAS PRIEST], Rob [Halford, PRIEST singer] had released two solo albums — studio albums — that year, in 2010. And he did a tour with Ozzy [Osbourne], he went to Peru, he did all of those things. All these things were building up. We were getting pressured to do an EP. And I wasn’t enjoying the performances because Glenn [Tipton, PRIEST guitarist] just liked too many beers and stuff like that. But it was all kind of building up in me.

“Having said all that, what people don’t know, but it is true that I was gonna do [one final] tour [with PRIEST in 2011]. And I was speaking to Ian [Hill, bass] for a whole week about doing the tour. And I even had him send me over the setlist. But the day after Ian sent me the set list — ’cause I called him back and I said, ‘I really like it.’ ‘Cause I was gonna do the tour — I was gonna do it. But the press release got released the very next morning [announcing my exit from the band], and that’s when I got really angry and sent in my second [resignation] letter. And that was a real kind of sayonara. Which is a sad situation, because I was waiting for the guys. They would have known that I was anticipating doing the tour and having a change of mind. But nobody — even Ian, who I was talking to — was not really encouraging me. And I felt pretty deflated. But they made a press release.

“But anyway, without delving into that too much, it was all a sad state of affairs,” Downing added. “But at the end of the day, we all agreed to retire. We were all gonna do the ‘Epitaph’ final tour. I wasn’t the only one that was… We all agreed to finish the band. So all I was quitting on was doing the last tour, because I couldn’t bring myself to face doing it, to start with, but I did change my mind. I mean, I bought an Axe [guitar] effects unit from Germany — it was two thousand pounds — to do that tour. But it’s just the way it unraveled. But the second letter I sent it, Glenn and Jayne [Andrews from PRIEST’s management] obviously didn’t like what was said. [Laughs] And the rest is history. The door was closed, I guess. Because I have written to the guys on two or three separate occasions to let me back in, but the answer’s been no. So I’ve just moved on with KK’S PRIEST. And I feel justified that I should. And so I will.”

KK’S PRIEST, which features Downing alongside Tim “Ripper” Owens (vocals), guitarist A.J. Mills (HOSTILE), bassist Tony Newton (VOODOO SIX) and drummer Sean Elg (DEATHRIDERS, CAGE), will release its debut album, “Sermons Of The Sinner”, on August 20 via Explorer1 Music Group/EX1 Records. The LP’s first single, “Hellfire Thunderbolt”, was released last month.

KK’S PRIEST will play select shows to mark the 50th anniversary of PRIEST and Downing’s career as a founding member. KK’S PRIEST’s setlist will consist of PRIEST classics and new songs.

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

Downing later said that he believed his second resignation letter — which was “angrier, laying out all of his frustrations with specific parties” — was “a key reason” he wasn’t invited to rejoin PRIEST after Tipton’s decision to retire from touring.

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

We’re back with a roundup of new releases that includes the latest from Desaster, Perturbator, Ghastly and more!
The post Five For Friday: June 4, 2021 appeared first on Decibel Magazine.