God Is An Astronaut Sends You “Adrift” In New Video
Ghost Tapes #10 is everything you’d want from this instrumental post-rock, packed with oceans of power and energy.
The post God Is An Astronaut Sends You “Adrift” In New Video appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
Kiesel Guitars and Andy James Release New Signature Model
New updates include a bolt-on neck, Polarity active Kiesel pickups, and a more affordable price point.
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AEROSMITH's JOEY KRAMER Has No Interest In Making Solo Album
On February 10, AEROSMITH drummer Joey Kramer spoke with Darren Paltrowitz, host of the “Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz”, about his upcoming Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp masterclass, his memoir “Hit Hard: A Story Of Hitting Rock Bottom At The Top”, life during COVID-19, living in Texas, proud accomplishments, his coffee company and more.
Asked if fans can ever expect to see a Joey Kramer solo album, the drummer replied: “This might really surprise you, but I haven’t really questioned it seriously at this point. But I don’t know that I really have a desire in me to do a solo album. There’s too many other things that I would like to get involved with, in terms of helping people and just being a positive influence on Lord knows what we need today. The way the world is, I feel for us all, and it’s tragic. I can’t even watch the news anymore. We won’t even go there, ’cause that’s another conversation.”
He continued: “There are too many other things, I think, that I would rather involved in than more music. I don’t feel as though I have anything to prove to anyone other than myself. And as far as doing things, I just really enjoy being involved with people and helping out and doing what I can do and bringing to the table what I can. I don’t know, really, specifically, what that may be, but when you say ‘one day at a time,’ that’s how I try and live my life — one day at a time. I have been in recovery for many, many years, and that’s how I like to live my life. And that’s enough of a challenge in itself to keep me going.”
A year ago, Kramer rejoined his AEROSMITH bandmates on stage during the group’s residency in Las Vegas. A month earlier, he sued the rest of AEROSMITH in a bid to perform with them at two Grammy-related events. But a Massachusetts judge eventually ruled against him and the group played without Kramer.
After Kramer injured his shoulder in 2019, his drum tech filled in for a few gigs during AEROSMITH’s residency. Kramer did, however, perform with the rest of AEROSMITH in July of that year at the Twin Cities Summer Jam in Shakopee.
In his January 2020 16-page complaint filed in Massachusetts state court, Kramer said the disability he suffered two years ago was minor, and insisted he was ready to return to the group’s “lucrative” Las Vegas residency at the MGM Resorts a few months later, as well as its slate of “50th anniversary activities.”
Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford later responded to Kramer’s suit in a statement to People, saying Joey “has not been emotionally and physically able to perform with the band, by his own admission, for the last 6 months. We have missed him and have encouraged him to rejoin us to play many times but apparently he has not felt ready to do so. Joey has now waited until the last moment to accept our invitation, when we unfortunately have no time for necessary rehearsals during Grammys week. We would be doing a disservice to him, to ourselves and to our fans to have him play without adequate time to prepare and rehearse.”
In a statement at the time, Kramer said he was “extremely disappointed” with the judge’s ruling.
“I knew filing a lawsuit was a bit of an uphill battle,” the drummer said. “I can hold my head high knowing that I did the right thing — to fight for my right to celebrate the band’s success that I have dedicated the better part of my life to helping build.”
Read more » Video Premiere: Machinist! – ‘Bask in the White Light’
Machinist! debut the first video from their upcoming split with Dead Hand.
The post Video Premiere: Machinist! – ‘Bask in the White Light’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
SEETHER Releases 'Fan Version' Of 'Dangerous' Video
SEETHER has shared a special fan version video of its hit single “Dangerous” that features an array of at-home performances submitted by a collection of its most ardent and talented admirers. The video premiered on SEETHER’s official YouTube channel this morning along with the band’s heartfelt message of appreciation for their fans’ unwavering support of their latest album, “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” (If You Want Peace, Prepare For War). Released last summer, the album debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hard Rock chart while “Dangerous” hit No. 1 at rock radio for three consecutive weeks last fall.
Last month, SEETHER shared the official music video for the LP’s second single, “Bruised And Bloodied”. Previously the band released videos for fan-favorite album tracks “Beg” and “Wasteland” while also highlighting songs from its multi-platinum-selling catalog with a series of virtual acoustic performance videos.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, SEETHER released three of its classic albums — “Disclaimer II”, “Karma And Effect” and “Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces” — on vinyl for the very first time in November via Craft Recordings. Released early in the band’s remarkable run, these three albums exemplify the distinctive musicianship and songcraft for which SEETHER is best known and helped solidify them as one of the most successful hard rock bands in the world.
Since forming in Pretoria, South Africa in 1999, SEETHER has amassed a global fan base that has grown organically with the quartet’s sense of purpose and commitment spreading outwards, offering their fans around the world camaraderie, comfort and a sense of personal power. While others of their ilk faded away, SEETHER maintains a strong sense of self, ignoring trends and critics in favor of a consummate devotion to their craft. Their impressive sales and chart history includes three platinum and two gold albums, 16 No. 1 singles (including 2017’s “Let You Down”, 2014’s “Words As Weapons” and 2011’s “Tonight”); 20 Top 5 multi-format hits, with U.S. singles sales topping 17 million and over 1.5 billion streams worldwide across all platforms.
They are also creators of the Rise Above Fest, founded in 2012 to raise awareness for suicide prevention and mental illness. Past headliners of the annual gathering include Slash, GODSMACK, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, PAPA ROACH and many more. Since conception, the Rise Above Fest has turned into a broader movement, expanding its presence at additional music festivals around the globe. All SEETHER shows donate $1 of ticket sales to benefit the SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices Of Education) organization.
Photo credit: Laura E. Partain
Read more » DEF LEPPARD's PHIL COLLEN And JOE ELLIOTT Are Writing 'Some Really Killer Stuff'
DEF LEPPARD’s Phil Collen was recently interviewed by Sweetwater’s Nick Bowcott. During the 70-minute chat, which can be seen below, Collen offered his insights on songwriting and arranging, the art of layering guitars and vocals, working with producer Robert “Mutt” Lange, using heavy-gauge strings and metal pickups, Jackson guitars, his pre-DEF LEPPARD years and DEF LEPPARD’s multi-million-selling “Hysteria” album.
Asked about his current and upcoming projects, Phil said: “We’ve [DEF LEPPARD] got some dates booked this year, but it all depends on the vaccine — if they even open the places up; that’s what we’re waiting on. So we’re booked. We’re good to go. We’re ready to go. I’m at fighting weight. Everything is really cool.
“I’m doing a bunch of other stuff,” he continued. “I’m writing with different people, writing with Joe [Elliott, DEF LEPPARD singer]. We’ve been doing some really killer stuff. And the band is always forward-moving.
“Actually, I’ve just done an instrumental with Forest Robinson and Craig Martini,” Collen added. ‘We’re waiting to do the video for it. Everyone is having to do their own part for the video. Remember ‘Quadrant Four’ by Billy Cobham? We’ve done a metal, drum-bass — a hard rock/punk/jazz fusion [version]… We’re just waiting to get the video edited together.”
DEF LEPPARD’s “The Stadium Tour” with MÖTLEY CRÜE, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS was originally scheduled to take place last summer but has been pushed back to this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“The Stadium Tour” is now scheduled to kick off on June 19, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee and conclude on September 12, 2021 in San Diego, California.
The last DEF LEPPARD studio album, a self-titled affair, came out in 2015.
DEF LEPPARD released a box set, “The Early Years 79-81”, in March 2020 via UMC/Virgin. “The Early Years 79-81” box set represents the band’s first two albums, “On Through The Night” (1980) and “High ‘N’ Dry” (1981), and was prepared in conjunction with Elliott who acted as executive producer on the set. The mastering was done by the band’s long-serving sound engineer Ronan McHugh.
Eagle Rock Entertainment released DEF LEPPARD’s “London To Vegas” in May 2020. This limited edition 2Blu-ray+4CD, 2DVD+4CD, DVD/Blu-ray+2CD and digital format release features two concert films: “Hysteria At The O2” and “Hits Vegas, Live At Planet Hollywood”.
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Demo:listen: Lords of Quarmall
Introducing Lords of Quarmall, Olympia, Washington’s new one-man epic heavy metal band.
The post Demo:listen: Lords of Quarmall appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
Low-Quantity Alert on Multiple Decibel Book Titles!
No Celebration: The Official Story of Paradise Lost and Black Metal: The Cult Never Dies Vol. 1 are nearly sold out! Don’t wait on USBM or either of the Decibel Hall of Fame Anthologies!
The post Low-Quantity Alert on Multiple Decibel Book Titles! appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
Former IRON MAIDEN Guitarist DENNIS STRATTON Reacts To ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME Nomination: It's 'Very Exciting'
Former IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dennis Stratton has commented on the band’s nomination for for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s class of 2021. The top vote-getters will be announced in May and inducted in a Cleveland, Ohio, ceremony in the fall.
According to the Hall Of Fame, the IRON MAIDEN members that would get inducted include the current lineup of singer Bruce Dickinson, bassist Steve Harris, drummer Nicko McBrain, and guitarists Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers, along with Stratton, former singer Paul Di’Anno and former drummer Clive Burr.
Asked by the “Neil Jones Rock Show” on TotalRock what his first reaction was to being nominated for the Rock Hall, Dennis said: “The first reaction, I’ve gotta be honest with you, is that I thought, ‘It’s not gonna include me.’ Funny enough, I got a message on the LIONHEART group message from [the person] who does all our graphics, the artwork, and he said to me, ‘Have you looked online? You’ve been nominated with the band.'”
The current LIONHEART guitarist continued: “I’ve never had a lot of luck with MAIDEN and certain things that have gone on over the years, like the gold discs from the first album. I never actually got what I was due. I think I got two [or] three gold discs, and there should have been about 20. And I never actually get anything, you know. It was only down to Steve Harris texting me about the re-release [of the first album], which was the 40-year anniversary, that the office actually sent me a copy of the of the 40-year anniversary picture disc. So I was happy about that. But this was a bit of a shock, because to include me and the other two, Clive and Paul, it’s quite a nice gesture, from my point of view — very exciting, in my point of view.”
Stratton also talked about the fact that former IRON MAIDEN singer Blaze Bayley, who fronted the band from 1994 until 1999 and appeared on two albums, “The X Factor” and “Virtual XI”, was not included in the list of members who will enter the Rock Hall should MAIDEN get inducted.
“I noticed that afterwards,” he said. “Because I went on Facebook, and when I saw that, I thought, well, that’s gotta be down to the organizers of this event. But when I found out it involves certain years, they have to draw a line somewhere, don’t they? They make the rules, so I don’t know. I’d be surprised if we get involved with it, if we do get inducted, because after a couple of [disparaging] things that Bruce had said [about the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in the past], I’m a little bit thinking, well, are [the organizers] gonna look at them quotes, and are they gonna punish us [for what Bruce had said]? I don’t know. I’m just very excited to be actually nominated.”
Stratton was a member of MAIDEN for less than a year, but he nonetheless made a vital contribution to the band’s classic first album.
To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each nominee’s first single or album had to have been released in 1995 or earlier.
A voter pool of more than 1,000 artists, historians, journalists, and members of the music industry will select the new class. Fans also have a chance to take part in the process by voting at Rockhall.com or at an interactive kiosk at the museum in Cleveland. Their selections will count as a single “fan ballot” that gets tabulated along with the others.
Dickinson made headlines in 2018 when he referred to the Rock Hall as “an utter and complete load of bollocks” during a spoken-word gig in Australia, insisting that the Cleveland-based institution is “run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock and roll if it hit them in the face.”
Bruce later told The Jerusalem Post that he was “so annoyed with that coverage because they took my statement out of context to make it seem like I was upset that we weren’t in the Hall Of Fame.
“I’m really happy we’re not there and I would never want to be there,” he continued. “If we’re ever inducted, I will refuse — they won’t bloody be having my corpse in there.
“Rock and roll music does not belong in a mausoleum in Cleveland,” Bruce added. “It’s a living, breathing thing, and if you put it in a museum, then it’s dead. It’s worse than horrible, it’s vulgar.”
Two years ago, Harris said that he didn’t care that IRON MAIDEN has yet to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame despite the fact that it has been eligible since 2004.
“I don’t mind that we’re not in things like that,” he told Rolling Stone. “I don’t think about things like that. It’s very nice if people give you awards or accolades, but we didn’t get into the business for that sort of thing. I’m certainly not going to lose sleep if we don’t get any sort of award, not just that one, any award. I don’t think we deserve to have this or that necessarily. With what we do, whatever comes of it is great. Whatever doesn’t come of it is great, too.”
Even though artists are eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single, iconic hard rock and metal groups like MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST and MOTÖRHEAD have yet to be recognized by the institution, which inducted GUNS N’ ROSES in that band’s first year of eligibility.
Harris previously said that he wasn’t concerned about whether IRON MAIDEN will eventually be inducted into the Rock Hall. “I don’t really think about it, to be honest. I think awards are things that are nice to have when you get them, but it’s not something you’re really striving for — it’s not what it’s about it,” he said. “It’s never been about that. It’s aways been about just trying to make good music and go out and play good live shows, and that’s it, really. Hopefully people will appreciate it. It’s probably nice when people give you awards — don’t get me wrong; I think it’s great — but it’s not something that you would lose sleep over if you didn’t get any.
“It’s the way that I am,” Harris added. “I don’t know. Maybe the rest of the guys [in the band] might think differently to me, but that’s the way I think. It’s not that I don’t care about [awards]. It’s just… And it’s not that they’re not meaningful when you do get ’em — it’s nice. But I certainly don’t worry about it or anything like that. I think other people are the ones that make a bigger deal out of it than us, about whether we got one or not.”
Having been eligible for induction for more than a decade and a half, IRON MAIDEN is one of the biggest bands on the planet. Since the release of their self-titled debut album, the British heavy metal legends have released a further 15 full-length studio records, and sold over 100 million copies.
Rock Hall rules state that artists become eligible a quarter century after their first records were released, but the Hall also claims that other “criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock ‘n’ roll,” which is, of course, open to interpretation.
Eligible for induction since 1999, KISS didn’t get its first nomination until 2009, and was finally inducted in 2014.
DEEP PURPLE was eligible for the Rock Hall since 1993 but didn’t get inducted until 2016.
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Former FLYLEAF Singer LACEY STURM Collaborates With SKILLET On New Solo Single 'State Of Me'
Making history as the first female solo artist to top the Hard Rock Albums chart with her acclaimed “Life Screams” (2016), Lacey Sturm returns today (Friday, February 12) with her second single, “State Of Me”, from her highly anticipated sophomore project, due this summer. The platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated former frontwoman of FLYLEAF wrote the new song with SKILLET’s John and Korey Cooper. The single is available now at digital and streaming outlets everywhere from Followspot Records / The Fuel Music.
Marking a continued return to Lacey’s hard-rock roots, “State Of Me” extends an aggressive, musically violent lifeline to herself, and to those hanging over the precipice; those drowning under a crushing weight.
“Choosing life is violent in that we reject every subtle form of suicide, every eternal death choice that would try to disorient, distract and seduce us away,” says Lacey, who lost someone close to her in this season and has herself narrowly escaped suicide twice in her life. “Eternal life starts in our soul. So look at the state of it. And if you see eternal death, be violent against it, cut off every temporary thing that would bring that into your heart and reach out and cling to eternal life, even if it costs you this temporary one.”
Produced, recorded and mixed by Lacey’s husband Josh Sturm, “State Of Me” follows the release of “The Decree”, and remains uncommonly true to the artist’s experience.
“During times of loss, it’s obvious that what we see is temporary. We have to accept that. But what lingers after loss is what we can’t see. That is eternal,” continues Lacey. “What really matters is love, faith, the spirit. The soul. When I focus there, on the eternal things, I find a tremendous resolve to protect what matters most.”
Performing live with SKILLET before the pandemic shut down arena tours, Lacey has since been writing new music and finding creative ways to connect with fans. Singing on BREAKING BENJAMIN’s 2020 single “Dear Agony (Aurora Version)”, which peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 after 20 weeks on the chart while racking up well over 10 million views on YouTube alone, Lacey has also performed with SHINEDOWN and others on drive-in theater stages and has hit virtual stages along with METALLICA, THREE DAYS GRACE, SEETHER and others during the Recording Academy-sponsored Octane Home Invasion festival.
Sturm left FLYLEAF in October 2012. She was replaced by Kristen May, who recorded one album with the group, 2014’s “Between The Stars”, before exiting.
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