Author: planetsixstring

Former SEPULTURA members Max Cavalera and Igor “Iggor” Cavalera will perform select tracks from the band’s seminal “Beneath The Remains” and “Arise” albums on a U.S. tour this spring/summer. Joining Max and Igor on the trek will be Mike Leon of SOULFLY and Daniel Gonzalez of POSSESSED.

Says Max: “‘Beneath The Remains’/’Arise’ tour is coming! Introducing on bass guitar, thrashing and blasting bass beast Mike Leon (SOULFLY) and on lead guitar, state-of-the-art death/thrash expert Daniel Gonzalez (POSSESSED/GRUESOME). We’re gonna take these songs to the metal world in the most brutal way ever! Under a pale gray sky, we shall arise.”

Adds Igor: “We can only count with the illest players to step on stage with me and Max to play ‘Beneath’/’Arise’. So getting Dan Gonzalez from POSSESSED/GRUESOME and Mike Leon from SOULFLY was an amazing choice!… Can’t wait to hit the road!”

Says Leon: “I am super excited to be a part of the revival of these classic albums with the brothers that created them. It is a great honor! These shows are gonna CRUSH, and I’m sure that we are gonna deliver these songs better than they have ever been played before to everyone who joins us! See you on the road!”

States Gonzalez: “It would be an understatement to say that I am incredibly stoked and honored to be able to play with Max and Iggor, and the fact that we’ll be playing material from ‘Beneath The Remains’ and ‘Arise’ is beyond surreal to me since I grew up worshiping those albums. Max and Iggor helped change the standards of extreme metal and those albums are still living proof of that. It’s insane to me as a fan and as a musician to be able to play these songs live, and I can’t wait to do them justice!!!”

Max and Igor kicked off a tour celebrating “Beneath The Remains” and “Arise” back in 2018. In early 2020, Max revealed plans to bring the trek to the U.S., but no dates had been announced prior to the pandemic.

In a 2018 interview with Wall Of Sound, Max stated about revisiting the “Beneath The Remains” and “Arise” material on the most recent run of shows: “I had to learn those riffs again for the tour, and I had to rediscover the albums again. It was a really fun process, learning the lyrics again. I kind of fell in love with the albums again. I don’t have a favorite — I like both together, and I think they’re meant to be together. For some reason, they just feel right when you play them together. I was very young when I made them, so it made me very aware of my state of mind at the time. I feel like I’m pretty much the same guy. I’m [52] now, but I’m still a metalhead in the heart. I still have the teenage spirit. I’m a huge metal fan, [a] huge supporter of metal. That’s just how it was when those albums were done. It’s a blessing that I get to do that with my brother, especially after all we went through together and we didn’t speak for 10 years. Now, it’s good — we are in a good place, and our brotherhood is really good, and we’re just having fun with this music… There’s an energy and a real anger and real passion in those songs that translates into people losing their minds when they hear it. I don’t even have to tell them, ‘Circle pit’ — they will do it themselves. It’s just the power of music.”

In 1996, Max exited SEPULTURA after the rest of the band split with Max’s wife Gloria as their manager.

Igor left SEPULTURA in June 2006 due to “artistic differences.” His departure from the band came five months after he announced that he was taking a break from SEPULTURA’s touring activities to spend time with his second wife and their son (who was born in January 2006).

The current SEPULTURA lineup — featuring guitarist Andreas Kisser and bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. alongside Derrick Green on vocals and Eloy Casagrande on drums — released its latest studio album, “Quadra”, in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast.

Max and Igor photo credit: Jim Louvau

HYPOCRISY has announced the departure of longtime drummer Reidar “Horgh” Horghagen.

The Swedish metallers shared the news of the Norwegian musician’s exit in a social media post earlier today. They wrote: “Hey there! There’s a thing you must know. Horgh is no longer part of HYPOCRISY. We hope you respect and accept this decision.

“It’s not easy for us. We’ve played together for 18 crazy years filled with music, tours and friendship. So many countries, so many songs, and so many gigs with Horgh on stage with us. It’s the end of a long interesting chapter, and the beginning of a new one.

“We are grateful to Horgh, this great musician and great man, for all we have achieved together. Also, we’d like to pass the message from him: ‘I want to take this opportunity to thank the fans for the great support over the years, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to meet so many of you as we toured around the world. Thanks to the band and crew for the time we spent together. I wish you all the best for the future.'”

A member of the Norwegian black metal band IMMORTAL since 1996, Horgh joined HYPOCRISY in January 2004 as the replacement for Lars Szöke.

HYPOCRISY will embark on the “Worship” tour this spring. The 28-date trek will kick off at Warsaw in Brooklyn, New York on April 29 and will make stops in Toronto, Los Angeles, and Austin before concluding in Baltimore at the Maryland Deathfest on May 29. Support on the trek will come from CARACH ANGREN, THE AGONIST and HIDEOUS DIVINITY.

HYPOCRISY’s latest album, “Worship”, was released last November via Nuclear Blast Records. The 11-track effort was recorded and mixed at frontman Peter Tägtgren’s Abyss Studio AB in Sweden while mastering was completed by Svante Forsbäck at Chartmakers Audio Mastering. Designed by artist Blake Armstrong (KATAKLYSM, IN FLAMES, CARNIFEX), “Worship”‘s artwork speaks to the history of the relationship between humanity and extraterrestrials.

Hey there! There’s a thing you must know. Horgh is no longer part of Hypocrisy. We hope you respect and accept this…

Posted by Hypocrisy on Tuesday, April 5, 2022

PRIMUS will release a new three-song EP titled “Conspiranoid” on April 22 via ATO Records. The effort includes the 11-minute epic “Conspiranoia”, which can be heard below.

PRIMUS frontman Les Claypool told Consequence about the genesis for the single and its accompanying B-sides: “With our new studio in the works and some impending touring, we decided the world needed to be subjected to some new PRIMUS material. Not wanting, or even having the time for recording an entire album, the notion of a ‘single’ was tossed around. I’d been itching to record an opus — basically a long, winding, bastard of a song, reminiscent of some of the compositions I cut my teeth (or ears) on, in my music-hungry adolescence. I said to the fellas, ‘Let’s record a 20-minute song.’ The end result was an 11-and-a-half minute, progressive hunk of sound called ‘Conspiranoia’.

“‘Conspiranoia’ was sprouted from a seed I had planted in my notebook a year or so ago — a few lines commenting on the mental state of the contemporary world,” he explained. “I watched the distrust and divide grow between friends, colleagues, relatives, and the general population because of the consumption and digesting of disinformation, misinformation, warped information, and flat-out fairy tales being perpetuated by anyone with a slight hint of web design aptitude. I was compelled to shed light on the ridiculousness of many of these perspectives and the lack of rational thought that was being applied in the interpretation of many such entities and theories.

“Because the single ‘Conspiranoia’ is of such length, I realized that for a B-side of the vinyl, we would need at least two tunes to fill out the real estate of the actual 12-inch disc,” Les added. “I had the song ‘Follow The Fool’ in the chamber and we fleshed it out. [Guitarist] Larry Lalonde had the riff for the song that became ‘Erin On The Side Of Caution’, which I supplied the lyrics for by again pulling from my notebook of notions. Because all three songs were bred in an odd time of divide, confusion, angst, frustration, and social senility, the title ‘Conspiranoid’ seemed like an appropriate moniker for the EP.”

“Conspiranoid” EP track listing:

01. Conspiranoia
02. Follow The Fool
03. Erin On The Side Of Caution

Later this month, PRIMUS will embark on an extensive coast-to-coast extension of its wildly popular “A Tribute To Kings” tour, paying homage to prog-rock legends RUSH. “A Tribute To Kings” will find the Bay area trio performing RUSH’s 1977 album “A Farewell To Kings” in its entirety, following a set of their own music. As Claypool told Rolling Stone, the tour is about paying tribute to a band that has given him so much inspiration over the years.

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RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson, whose parents were Serbian immigrants from Yugoslavia, was asked in a new interview with Regina-Leader Post for his thoughts about what is happening in Ukraine right now. He responded: “When this all started happening a month ago, my mother said it was so shocking to her because she remembered when the Nazis came into her town in Serbia very early in the (Second World War) and how terrified they were and how brutal they were. It just seemed to go on and on and on. Then finally the Russians came and got rid of the Germans … and they were quite brutal in a different way. Any invading army is. We could say what the Americans did in Iraq was just as brutal as what we’re seeing. But this is so seemingly uncalled for, so medieval and so wrong in so many ways.

“It’s heartbreaking to see what happened and the frustrations of not being able to do something about it,” the 68-year-old Canadian guitarist continued. “The politics that goes on behind closed doors that we don’t know about between the major leaders of countries around the world — we have no idea. Everyone just says, ‘Thoughts and prayers,’ but what’s that? It never amounts to anything. It’s so hollow. But it’s hard to know. Do we react emotionally and get involved in a level where it could lead to the end of the planet? I don’t think it would ever get to that point. I don’t think [Russian president Vladimir] Putin is that dumb. I don’t think he’d destroy Russia for one thing — along with the rest of the world. Or do we just keep trying to figure out to stop it? I don’t know. It’s a difficult issue.”

Lifeson’s awards and recognition include induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013 with RUSH; ranking third in the Guitar World readers’ poll of 100 greatest guitarists and listing on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time; as well as being made an Officer Of The Order Of Canada on May 9, 1996, along with RUSH bandmates Geddy Lee and Neil Peart, and receiving the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards in 2012 — the highest artistic honor in Canada. Additionally, Lifeson is a painter, golfer and aircraft pilot.

In 2021, Lifeson released two new instrumental songs, “Kabul Blues” and “Spy House”, and recently made headlines with the news of his self-titled debut LP from new band ENVY OF NONE, featuring bassist Andy Curran, singer-songwriter Maiah Wynne, and producer Alfio Annibalini, to be released on April 18, featuring a song dedicated to late RUSH bandmate and drum legend Neil Peart.