Greg Koch – The string bending mastery of Albert King

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SKID ROW Taps Producer NICK RASKULINECZ For New Album Sessions

SKID ROW guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo has told the “Behind The Vinyl” podcast that he and his bandmates will regroup in less than two weeks in Nashville, Tennessee to begin pre-production on some of its new material. Asked if they will once again work with producer Michael Wagener, who also helmed the group’s 1989 self-titled debut and 1991’s “Slave To The Grind”, Sabo said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We went in and did a bunch of stuff [with Michael]. This is a whole new batch of stuff we’re doing. Michael is kind of taking a break, I think, from the music business. We did a bunch of great work with him. And so we’re working with [Grammy Award-winning producer] Nick Raskulinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, DEFTONES, MASTODON, RUSH).

“We wrote a bunch of new songs, and, like I said, Michael’s taking a breather,” he continued. “Nick had expressed an interest to work with us. Rachel’s [Bolan, SKID ROW bassist] become really good friends with him, living down there in Nashville. And he’s, like, ‘Let’s do some stuff together.’ So we figured it out where he’s got some space and we can get our asses down there and do some work for a couple of weeks and see what happens… I’m looking forward to it. Obviously, his reputation precedes him; he’s made some great records. And he has a great excitement about working on some of our new music. So I look forward to the experience.”

SKID ROW’s new LP will mark its first release with South African-born, British-based vocalist ZP Theart (DRAGONFORCE, TANK, I AM I), who joined the band in 2016 following the departure of Tony Harnell (TNT, STARBREAKER).

Unlike 2014’s “Rise Of The Damnation Army – United World Rebellion: Chapter Two” and 2013’s “United World Rebellion: Chapter One”, SKID ROW’s forthcoming release will be a full-length record.

SKID ROW previously collaborated with several outside songwriters on its new material, including Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR) and Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger of HALESTORM, a group that covered the title track of “Slave To The Grind” on its “ReAniMate: The CoVeRs eP” in 2011. SKID ROW also worked with songwriter-for-hire Marti Frederiksen, who has previously collaborated with AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, Jonny Lang and Sheryl Crow.

SKID ROW’s 2020 “The Big Rock Summer Tour”, also featuring RATT, CINDERELLA’s Tom Keifer and SLAUGHTER, was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the globe.

Photo by: Chuck Arland

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PETE LOEFFLER Says CHEVELLE Hasn't Made Any Money Off Record Sales Despite Selling More Than Six Million Albums

CHEVELLE vocalist/guitarist Pete Loeffler has revealed to “The KiddChris Show” on Cincinnati’s WEBN radio station that his band is a free agent after fulfilling its contractual agreement with longtime label Epic. “We just finished our record contract,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “How many bands can say that? We just handed in our last one for Sony/Epic, and we’re stitting here wondering what’s next. Where do we go now? Do we go back to being an indie band? I mean, that’s kind of cool. That sounds exciting. I don’t know. I don’t know where we’re gonna go now. Do we start a label? Do we do it ourselves? We’re not a TikTok band necessarily; we don’t have that platform.”

He continued: “We’re trying to change, but not change too much to lose your core fanbase, and yet you do wanna grow, and yet you don’t wanna be stuck in the same archaic music-business model.”

Asked if he and his brother, CHEVELLE drummer Sam Loeffler, still don’t know if they will re-sign with Epic, Pete said: “Contracts are a bitch, and we’ve signed some raw ones. And we need to start trying to make some money off of our catalog, which is 10 albums deep, plus all the side stuff. We haven’t made any money off of record sales, album sales. It’s all gone to the major labels. A lot of people make money off of us; we just don’t make money the way the deals are structured. We just aren’t excited to get back into any kind of contract. So if we find a new home at a new label, wherever it is, it’s gotta be a special deal where you get something for your hard work.’

He continued: “It would be nice to do something different and actually make a buck off of an album for once; it just hasn’t happened for us. We’ve sold six million albums for Epic Records, and they’ve made 50 million dollars. It’s lopsided. And the artist — just like [American stand-up comedian] Dave Chappelle said, he knows he signed a deal with for the Chappelle show [‘Chappelle’s Show’] long ago, and it’s a raw deal. It went to someone else, and they can put it on any platform they want, whether it’s Netflix or HBO or whatever, and he went to them and said, ‘Look, I know I did that, but it’s wrong — it’s still wrong. You need to compensate the artist.’ And that’s kind of where we’re ending up too. It’s a bad business model for the artist.”

Pete went on to say that Epic still retains the rights to CHEVELLE’s entire catalog. “The fact of the matter is when you sign a record deal with a major, they own it for, like, 20-something years,” he explained. “We said, ‘We’d re-sign with you if you just sent some of it through the pipeline to us.’ All the profits, they’re keeping everything. ‘And if you just send a little bit through, maybe we can talk about this, [about] continuing on.’ I mean, there’s some good people at Epic. And then, in a lot of ways, we feel burned.”

CHEVELLE’s latest album, “Niratias” (Nothing Is Real And This Is A Simulation), was released on March 5. The follow-up to 2016’s “The North Corridor” was recorded throughout 2019 and 2020 with longtime producer Joe Barresi (TOOL, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE), CHEVELLE.

“Niratias” bowed in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. It debuted at No. 9, and was the first new release to chart within the Top 10 in over three weeks. In addition, “Niratias” achieved several other accolades. This week, the LP impressively debuted at No. 1 on several Billboard charts, including Rock Album, Alternative Album, Hard Music, Overall Album, Digital Album and Internet Album. “Self Destructor”, the album’s acclaimed lead single, also reached the summit of the Active Rock radio chart this week, marking CHEVELLE’s 12th No. 1 single at the format.

“The North Corridor” debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 album chart and produced a No. 1 Mainstream Rock single, “Joyride (Omen)”.

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Full Album Stream: Olde – “Pilgrimage”

Stream the moving new album from sludge purveyors Olde.
The post Full Album Stream: Olde – “Pilgrimage” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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Watch LINDEMANN Perform 'Allesfresser' From 'Live In Moscow' Blu-Ray

LINDEMANN, the project featuring vocalist Till Lindemann of German industrial metallers RAMMSTEIN and Swedish producer and multi-instrumentalist Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN), will release a concert film, “Live In Moscow”, on May 21 on Blu-ray. The set will include professionally filmed video footage of LINDEMANN’s March 15, 2020 performance at Moscow, Russia’s VTB Arena.

A performance clip of the song “Allesfresser”, taken from “Live In Moscow”, can be seen below.

“Live In Moscow” track listing:

01. Skills In Pills
02. Lady Boy
03. Fat
04. Frau & Mann
05. Ich Weiss Es Nicht
06. Allesfresser
07. Knebel
08. Home Sweet Home
09. Cowboy
10. Golden Shower
11. Blut
12. Platz Eins
13. Praise Abort
14. Fish On
15. Ach So Gern
16. Gummi
17. Steh Auf

Last November, Lindemann and Tägtgren confirmed that they were ending their collaboration on the LINDEMANN project.

LINDEMANN’s second album, “F & M”, was released in November 2019. The follow-up to 2015’s “Skills In Pills” was once again produced and mixed by Tägtgren.

“Skills In Pills” reached gold status in Germany and was entirely in English. On the second opus, Lindemann went back to singing exclusively in German.

In 2019, Till told Kerrang! that “F & M” was originally intended for the stage. “We were writing for the theater originally, writing three songs for the director of a production of ‘Hansel And Gretel’, by the Brothers Grimm,” he said. “It was a perfect topic [for us] — morbid and brutal but very romantic. We were writing music on demand to fit with the piece, and so, of course, the lyrics were in German, because the theater company was based in Hamburg. It was fun.”

Tägtgren told Australia’s Heavy that there was no shortage of ideas for LINDEMANN’s second album. “We are constantly writing,” he explained. “The Internet is a really big help. Till will have an idea and send it to me on SMS or whatever, and I kind of trigger off that and start writing a song off that. Or sometimes it is the other way — I have an idea and send it to him and he triggers Till. Today that is easy. Then we catch up and do the vocals in my studio, so there was a few trips to do this album. He flies in from Berlin — that’s like one hour on the plane and then two hours on the train — and he is at my place. There are always gaps here and there though… when you have to take a break to have a shower or brush your teeth… but we come back.”

LINDEMANN had received some criticism due to its use of pornography during its second album cycle, with the music video for “Platz Eins” described by one site as “full-on art porn — slick and stylish, weird and experimental, and definitely X-rated.”

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SEVENDUST Announces 'Seasons' And 'Home' Livestream Events

SEVENDUST has announced two special back-to-back livestream events for next month. The Atlanta-based band will perform its fourth studio album, 2003’s “Seasons”, in its entirety on April 10 and its 1999 sophomore effort, “Home”, from front to back on April 11.

For more information, including tickets, go to this location.

This past January, SEVENDUST performed its entire “Animosity” album during a livestream event from Opav in Orlando, Florida.

Last October, SEVENDUST played its first-ever livestream and its only show of 2020: “Sevendust: Live In Your Living Room”. The event took place on October 23 — the release date of SEVENDUST’s 13th studio album, “Blood & Stone”, via Rise Records. The follow-up to 2018’s “All I See Is War” was once again tracked at Studio Barbarosa in Gotha, Florida with producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette, who has previously worked with ALTER BRIDGE and SLASH, among others.

SEVENDUST singer Lajon Witherspoon told Audio Ink Radio about the recording process for “Blood & Stone”: “I feel like we’ve grown as not just artists but men, personally. I feel like we’re seasoned, if that makes sense. Maybe we’re just like an old wine. We’ve had time to really know each other. We’re brothers. It’s easy for us when we’re in the studio. It’s like a well-oiled machine, once we get back in there. That’s where the magic happens, is when we’re looking at each other. It always reminds me of when we first got together, whenever we get together, as long as we’ve been together. It’s just because there’s a certain light that comes on. It’s always been great to have that.”

Witherspoon also talked about SEVENDUST’s longevity, saying: “You can’t just call yourself a band just because you’ve got a group of people together. I think it’s a group. I feel like you have to have a band when you’ve gone through a lot of things together, not only the good times, but the bad times. You’ve seen life together. You’ve seen death together with each other. You’ve helped each other. You’ve done all those types of things over the last 25 years, and that’s the reason why I can say I’m very proud to be in SEVENDUST the band, not SEVENDUST the group.”

He continued: “There are some bands out there — there’s a lot of bands out there — and there are a lot of groups. I think it takes heart. I think it takes compassion. I think it takes some respect. To treat each other equally, like what we’re trying to do in the world today, I feel like that’s something that’s kept us together. It’s not one guy with a Ferrari and another guy with a Hyundai, which those are nice cars, too. I’m just saying in the scheme of things. So, I think that’s something that’s kept us together, too, is that not one guy’s better or feeling better. When we get in a room sometimes, it feels like even though we’re older men, I still feel like we’re those kids that were in the recording room, wondering, how are we going to pay rent for the month? What show are we going to play? And it’s a good feeling to feel happy after all these years.”

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ROB HALFORD Is 'So Happy' And 'So Proud' Of Songs That Have Been Written For Next JUDAS PRIEST Album

During an appearance on the latest episode of the “In The Trenches With Ryan Roxie” podcast, JUDAS PRIEST singer spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to 2018’s “Firepower” album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m old school. We had one great big writing session last March for this new record that we’re still working on. And what I mean by that is Glenn [Tipton, guitar] and Richie [Faulkner, guitar] and myself at Glenn’s beautiful studio. And that’s the way I personally write. I’m very spontaneous in my writing. Even before the lyrics and the melodies start, I’m there with Glenn and Richie, and I’m inspired and motivated by what they’re doing…. What I’m saying is as far as the place that all musicians enjoy — being creative, being in a room with your bandmates and making a song and going, ‘Oh, man. I can’t wait for the fans to hear this.’

“‘Firepower’ was a beautiful achievement for us; I’m very, very proud of that record,” he continued. “And, of course, when you set a bar, you always kind of go, ‘Oh, now we’ve gotta try to knock one out of the park with the follow-up to ‘Firepower’.’ That can be a danger. I think you can get very easily misdirected by focusing too much on expectation. We’ve been making so long, we never second-guessed the final outcome; we’ve always played from the heart, from the gut.

“These [new PRIEST] songs that I’ve got with me, they’re so good. I’m so happy and so proud of what we’ve got so far, and there’s so much more to come.”

Halford also confirmed that PRIEST will reunite with the “Firepower” production team consisting of British producer Andy Sneap, the band’s longtime collaborator Tom Allom and engineer Mike Exeter (BLACK SABBATH).

“That was a great experiment,” Rob said about the “Firepower” recording experience. “We didn’t even know it was gonna work. Tom’s classic old-school metal. Andy is from more recent times. And Mike, of course, just came [from doing] the ’13’ album with [BLACK] SABBATH; he had done a lot of work with SABBATH. So there’s three heads working together. And we thought, ‘This is either gonna be a trainwreck or something glorious,’ and it turned out to be something glorious. So we’re gonna at least recreate those same production moments. But having said that, it is all about the songs, and right now, the songs feel really, really strong.”

Last September, Faulkner told SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that the creative process for PRIEST’s next LP was halted by the coronavirus outbreak, which disrupted global travel.

Halford resides in Phoenix, Faulkner in Nashville and Tipton still calls his native United Kingdom his home.

“Firepower” entered the Billboard 200 chart at position No. 5, making it PRIEST’s highest-charting album ever. “Redeemer Of Souls” debuted and peaked at No. 6, while 2008’s “Nostradamus” landed at No. 11 and 2005’s “Angel Of Retribution” came in at No. 13.

“Firepower” moved 49,000 equivalent album units in first week of release. Of that sum, 48,000 were in traditional album sales, just shy of the 54,000 copies sold by “Angel Of Retribution” in that album’s first week. The “Firepower” chart position was bolstered by sales generated from a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer in association with the band’s spring 2018 North American tour.

Across the pond, “Firepower” landed at position No. 5 on the U.K. album chart. It marked the band’s highest ranking, and first time in the Top 10, since “British Steel” reached No. 4 in 1980. Elsewhere, “Firepower” also became PRIEST’s first-ever No. 1 in Sweden.

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Q&A: Laurie Sue Shanaman (Ails) on a Year of Essential Work During the Pandemic

Ails’ vocalist works as a case manager in San Francisco where she assists homeless citizens transitioning to supportive housing. Shanaman discusses putting her health on the line to ensure that the most vulnerable among us continue to have a lifeline.
The post Q&A: Laurie Sue Shanaman (Ails) on a Year of Essential Work During the Pandemic appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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PAPA ROACH's JACOBY SHADDIX 'Fell Off The Wagon' During Pandemic

During an appearance on the latest episode of the “Hardcore Humanism With Dr. Mike” podcast, PAPA ROACH’s Jacoby Shaddix, who stopped drinking alcohol in 2012, revealed that he recently had a slip-up on his path to sobriety. “Just to be straight with you, during the pandemic, I fell off the wagon and I was smoking pot,” the singer said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “And I just got caught up and depressed and just stuck in this space. And I wasn’t working an active program of recovery, and I found myself with a joint in my mouth, you know? And yeah, it’s legal in California, and yes, it is medicine to some people, but it’s not to me. Anytime I put any kind of mind-altering substance in my body, there’s this veil that gets dropped on me and just kind of isolates me from the world, isolates me from the potential of who I can become and puts me in a space of inaction. And that’s not a good place for me to be.

“So I got honest with my brothers in recovery,” he continued. “I was, like, ‘Hey, man, this what I’ve been up to. I need help, dude. I need help getting myself back out of this.’ Because I knew I was getting closer. I told my guys, ‘Well, at least I didn’t drink.’ And they were, like, ‘Well, yeah, that’s good. That is good, Cobe. But you were headed straight towards it, homey. That’s where you were going.’ And that was a really hard realization but a good realization for me to have, is to really understand I was feeding the bad wolf. I was just doing the wrong things.”

Shaddix went on to say that February 19 marked nine years since he last drank alcohol. “That’s not my sobriety date that I hold, but it’s nine years for me, and I’m fucking proud of that,” he said. “It’s given me an opportunity to just try to become fully human, because I was straight subhuman as an alcoholic, as a drinker, and it was real messy. So just to be straight with you, I’ve got a new sobriety date, and I’m okay with that.”

In a 2019 interview with Kerrang! magazine, Shaddix revealed that the struggle with alcohol had been in his family for generations, continually destroying lives and relationships.

“I remember my mom telling me when I was a kid that I had to be careful, as alcoholism runs deep in both sides of the family,” he said. “I should have heeded the warnings, but when you’re young and restless, you don’t give a fuck, so I went for it. And lo and behold, it started damaging relationships, and my health and drive. I tried for a long time to put the bottle down. I got kicked out of the house and it looked like my wife and I were going to split up. There came a point when I realized enough was enough, and now I haven’t picked up the bottle in seven years. It’s dramatically affected my life in so many positive ways, giving me the opportunity to be a good husband and father, as well as a kickass frontman. I watch all the fucking VH1 documentaries about musicians dying, and having friends die from this shit, I’m lucky that I got out alive. I can’t say I’ve been perfect — I’ve slipped up and smoked weed a few times, but haven’t had any alcohol, cocaine, pills or anything else.”

When asked if he ever feared that the need to stay sober might have meant he had to stop touring, Jacoby said: “I think that’s why I kept falling off the wagon. Before we put out ‘Getting Away With Murder’ [2004], that was the first time I tried to put the bottle down. But on the road, I was apart from my sober friends, and I’d be on the bus with everyone drinking. So I’d end up in the back lounge, secretly chugging vodka. That was tough for years. Now I’ve been relieved of the obsession — I look back like, ‘That’s a young man’s game.’ Plus, I want to stay pretty.”

Shaddix recently told Germany’s Rock Antenne that PAPA ROACH’s follow-up to 2019’s “Who Do You Trust?” album will not be released until the coronavirus pandemic has subsided.

In January, a snippet of a brand new PAPA ROACH song called “Stand Up” was included in commercial for Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) partnership with ESPN.

PAPA ROACH’s second greatest-hits collection, “Greatest Hits Vol. 2: The Better Noise Years”, is due on March 19 on Better Noise Music.

“Greatest Hits Vol. 2 – The Better Noise Years” includes 12 of the band’s top 10 hits released between 2010 to 2019 as well as three previously unreleased remixes and two unreleased acoustic recordings recorded live at the YouTube Studios in New York City.

“Who Do You Trust?” was released in January 2019. The disc was produced by Nick “RAS” Furlong and Colin Cunningham except for the song “Top Of The World”, which is helmed by Jason Evigan.

In December, PAPA ROACH released a five-song EP, “20/20”, featuring “new takes on old jams,” including “Last Resort” and “Scars”.

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HEART's ANN WILSON Talks To CHRIS CORNELL's Daughter About Struggles With Body Shaming (Video)

Iconic HEART singer and songwriter Ann Wilson was a guest on the latest episode of “Mind Wide Open”, the IGTV series and podcast hosted by Chris Cornell’s daughter Lily Cornell Silver.

“Mind Wide Open” aims to “help destigmatize the conversation around mental health,” according to a press release. Guests will include mental health professionals, public figures, peers, and others who will share their stories and struggles, as well as provide knowledge and insight.

Wilson and Silver talk about struggles with body shaming, specifically Ann’s experience as the singer of a band during the 1980s MTV era when most female artists felt pressure to not only be great singers but to look like models.

Ann discusses one of the moments that had a huge impact on her during those years: “We were in an airport and I read this review from the night before that really just landed on me. It didn’t even mention that I sang. I had to go find a restroom and get into a stall and just chill because I felt I was going to go crazy. I couldn’t take all that personal criticism on a huge public scale. When I chilled out and finally came out, I was okay, but that kind of thing started happening which led to me having stage fright. Like, ‘I don’t even want to go out there.”

Lily and Ann also delve into the differences between the 1980s and today, with Ann mentioning that although the world has changed a lot with regards to body shaming, there is still a long way to go. Ann also discusses changes she’s made in her life to improve her mental health, including therapy and meditation.

Speaking about her experience early in her career in music, Ann says: “In the 1980s, that may have been the lowest of the low in terms of female acceptance that I’ve ever lived through. It was when the lowest premium was put on female ‘naturalness’ ever. At first, it was pretty fun to get all dressed up and have big huge hair and the make-up because it was theater, but it became the expectation.”

Lily and Ann share their mutual upbringing in musical families in Seattle as well as talking about how music can be healing in the face of pain.

Lily is continuing on her mission to destigmatize the conversations around mental health and is quickly being recognized as a public mental health advocate. “Mind Wide Open” will continue as an IGTV series with new shows every other Tuesday at 12 noon ET and is now also available as a podcast on Spotify and Apple and on YouTube with subtitles available in Spanish and English.

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