Author: planetsixstring

Playing VEIN.FM’s “This World Is Going to Ruin You” is like turning a dial and tuning your brain to a new frequency, somewhere between one channel and the next. It’s the brief white noise that blares in your ears; the one that some people say hides traces and whispers of the paranormal. The band’s second full-length record is hellish, disorienting and haunting in ways that pick at the unconscious mind, and, by the end, have the listener asking of the feeling: “What was that?”

The record opens with a muffled, shaking female voice saying, “I can’t sleep now.” So begins a barrage of the chaotic hardcore that first appealed to fans on the band’s debut album, “errorzone”. The single “The Killing Womb” is the brash, ferocious headbanger that will no doubt fuel all of their mosh pits in the near future, with the lyrical inflection point: “Take cover/ There is a killer inside this place!” The songs that follow, from “Versus Wyoming” to “Lights Out” to “Hellnight” (featuring Jeff Smith of JEROMES DREAM) all rely on a similar splattering of relentlessly changing time signatures, ravenous unclean vocals, dissonant chords and eerie sound clips. Of course, “Fear in Non Fiction” will be a cult favorite for the fact that it features THURSDAY vocalist Geoff Rickly. “Magazine Beach” offers a slightly more traditional, even catchy song structure; a welcome flagpole in the sand.

But as much fun as the extreme hardcore is to wild out to, the depth of the record shows itself in more experimental, off-kilter moments such as the strangely jazzy piano and percussion-based “Wherever You Are”, and the distorted, warbling end of “Orgy in The Morgue” featuring BONES. Dissonant, slow, low and disorienting sounds like these that interrupt the otherwise feverish record make the listener feel as though they are beginning to lose their grip on reality.

There is a ruminating darkness throughout “This World Is Going to Ruin You” that lends itself to horror movie soundtrack material. It builds significantly in the slow burn of a song that is “Wavery”, and ultimately culminates in the mysterious and highly artistic final track, “Funeral Sound”. There is so much contained in this fascinating 7-minute song — from solemn, icy piano to voicemail to deafening static to a bludgeoning, full-band return — that it could easily be its own EP.

With VEIN.FM, it is very possible to listen to the same songs one hundred times and hear something new on each pass. Their intentionally lo-fi, noisy recordings and deliberately schizophrenic style can be rather dizzying, but that’s precisely the point. Giving their records more structural anchors like “Magazine Beach” and “Wavery”, though, would make future releases slightly more digestible, and all the more successful.



VENOM INC., the band featuring original VENOM guitarist Jeff “Mantas” Dunn (guitar) and ex-VENOM bassist/vocalist Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan, will commemorate the 40th anniversary of VENOM’s “Black Metal” album by performing it in its entirety on October 2 at the Keep It True festival at Posthalle in Würzburg, Germany.

Back in 2018, VENOM INC. recruited drummer Jeramie Kling to fill in for Anthony “Abaddon” Bray on a European tour while Abaddon stayed home to spend time with his newborn daughter. VENOM INC. has since completed several tours with Kling without ever making any official announcements about Bray’s possible return to the group.

Dunn, Bray and Dolan released three albums as VENOM between 1989 and 1992 — “Prime Evil” (1989), “Temples Of Ice” (1991) and “The Waste Lands” (1992).

VOIVOD’s Michel “Away” Langevin said: “To me, VENOM represent the start of a very important movement that has split into many more important movements. It was a revolution. After that moment, death metal, thrash metal, black metal and all these genres exploded and they all owe something to VENOM.”

MAYHEM’s Jørn “Necrobutcher” Stubberud stated: “I didn’t know it back then because everything was fresh. We didn’t know what we were looking for, but when I heard VENOM, that was it.”

VENOM INC. is not to be confused with the Conrad “Cronos” Lant-fronted version of VENOM, which is continuing to tour and make albums under the VENOM moniker. Joining Cronos in that group are Rage (a.k.a. Stuart Dixon) on guitar and Danté (a.k.a. Danny Needham) on drums.

VENOM INC. has spent most of the last year working on its new album. The follow-up to 2017’s “Avé” will once again be released on Nuclear Blast Records. The recording is being done between England, Portugal and America and it will have Dunn at the helm as producer once again.

VENOM INC to commemorate ‘Black Metal’ album 40th anniversary at Keep It True festival
– Return To Hammersmith –

On…

Posted by Jeff Mantas Dunn on Monday, February 28, 2022

Frontiers Music Srl will release of “Different Worlds”, the debut album from SKILLS, on May 13. Skills features the eye-popping lineup of guitarist Brad Gillis (NIGHT RANGER, OZZY OSBOURNE), bassist Billy Sheehan (MR. BIG, THE WINERY DOGS, SONS OF APOLLO) drummer David Huff (GIANT) and vocalist Renan Zonta (ELECTRIC MOB). Today, fans can get their first taste of music from the band with the release of the single and video “Stop The World”.

Skill is defined as “an ability to do an activity or job well, especially because you have practiced it.” In the perfect extension of the meaning of the word, SKILLS is an amazing new band put together from the vision of Frontiers president and A&R director Serafino Perugino. Cocky name for a band? Sure, but when said band features Gillis, Sheehan, Huff and Zonta, a little bravado is probably in order. SKILLS brings together the worlds of old and new in hard rock for a stunning debut album.

As is everyone who has heard him sing, Perugino was blown away by the abilities of Brazilian singer Renan Zonta upon first hearing him. Knowing how much Renan loves classic ’80s hard rock, Perugino thought it would be cool to pair him with some monster players from that era. After sharing clips and music of Renan with some of the most outstanding musicians from the era, all of whom agreed that Renan’s talent is undeniable, a new musical beast was born with Gillis, Sheehan and Huff joining the fold.

In SKILLS, you have a singer whose vocal range is stunning and can mix the extension and the power of the likes of Glenn Hughes and Sammy Hagar with the expression of Steven Tyler and some David Coverdale thrown in. Along with one of the world’s most renowned, prolific bass players, a hugely respected, talented, and stunning guitar player, and an absolutely killer drummer, SKILLS is a force to be reckoned with. “Different Worlds” is an album which will appeal to the discerning ears of fans of classic ’80s hard rock/melodic rock.

“Different Worlds” track listing:

01. Escape Machine
02. Blame It On The Night
03. Different Worlds
04. Losing The Track
05. Writings On The Wall
06. Show Me The Way
07. Just When I Needed You
08. Need To Fall
09. Stop The World
10. Hearts Of Stone
11. Don’t Break My Heart

Lineup:

Renan Zonta – Vocals
Brad Gillis – Guitars
Billy Sheehan – Bass
David Huff – Drums

Alessandro Del Vecchio – Keyboards, Backing Vocals

FILTER’s Richard Patrick and QUEENSRŸCHE’s Todd La Torre have blasted SYSTEM OF A DOWN drummer John Dolmayan for saying that the COVID-19 pandemic “has always been about money.”

On Sunday (February 27), Dolmayan, who was previously critical of vaccine mandates, saying they were akin to “self-imposed tyranny and mental slavery,” took to his Instagram to share a Pokémon COVID-19 meme, and he included the following message: “And just like that covid will slowly go away. This is and has always been about money , covid was about money , Ukraine is about money. Resources equal wealth , stability , and power. Theres a game of chess being played by those in the real positions of power and we’d like to think we’re the pawns but the truth is we’re not even on the board.”

When one of John’s followers countered that “if it was about money then shops would have stayed open. Small business went bankrupt because of covid, it was never about money it was about saving lives”, John fired back: “do you have any idea how much money Amazon made during Covid? Not to mention pharmaceutical companies ? Of course it’s about money”.

After BLABBERMOUTH.NET reported on Dolmayan’s comments on Sunday, both Patrick and La Torre weighed in via Facebook, with Todd dismissing John’s assessment as “moronic” and Patrick writing simply, “Not a very bright man…”

Patrick has been a vocal critic of former U.S. president Donald Trump and the Republican party for the last few years. Back in November 2020, he released a new FILTER video, “Murica”, in which the main character was “a Trump-supporting, gun-loving, unmedicated, super-freak ‘merican unhinged and at his wits’ end,” Patrick told Alternative Press at the time. “And he’s trying to take control of something that is not out of control. And he’s afraid. He’s the super-afraid white male. The Trump-supporting nutbag that I hope I can reach.

“These guys that are so far right that they think CNN, NBC, ABC, MSNBC [and] BBC are all out to get our President Trump,” he continued. “Like they’re all in a conspiracy to be super-left-wing, crazy liars. I’m trying to make an attempt to show them what they look like. These are the guys that can only listen to Fox News and Breitbart and that type of news outlet. They believe every fucking thing that the Rush Limbaughs, the Alex Joneses [say] and listen to only the right wing, ‘the truth, man.’ They do their ‘own research’ and believe 9/11 was an inside job, President Obama wasn’t a real citizen and the lunar landings were faked. Hillary Clinton personally went out and killed people in Benghazi and it’s her fault, she’s [a] criminal and ‘lock her up.’ It’s those people that I’m portraying in the video.

“Who is the character aiming at at the end of the video? He’s aiming at anyone from the left and at anyone from the normal middle. The regular folks who make up the country that are pretty much normal and just want to raise their kids and stay COVID-19-free and try and make a living.”

Asked if he thought “Murica” was going to piss people off or it’s going to be a rallying point, Patrick said: “I just wanted to show this surreal, crazy side of what America looks like. I literally am doing it just so the record shows that someone was willing to fuckin’ say something about the right. Something about how crazy they are.

“A lot of my fans are from the right, and they’re, like, ‘Man, I like ‘Hey Man, Nice Shot’. Why are you fucking talking about politics?’ Because it has to be done. Someone has to say it. I’m not hearing a lot of hip-hop guys sayin’ it. Country music represents the right. I’m not hearing anyone from the left say anything. Let the public record show that I tried something during this time period that at least maybe 100,000 fans are going to see on YouTube. At least I know that I said something, and I tried, and that’s it.”

A year ago, La Torre slammed COVID-19 science deniers and anti-maskers, telling Greece’s “TV War”: “Science is important. Skepticism is important. But in America, people, they don’t believe what’s happened over the last several years. People have gone from skepticism to just complete disbelief of anything and everything they hear or see. So you can have an epidemiologist that spent their life as an expert in this field, and then you have other people that just think it’s B.S. — they don’t believe it. So you have this weird thing where, as a matter of public safety, [some people say] ‘You are infringing on my rights. This is America,’ and that kind of mentality. And you say, ‘Wait a minute. Your rights stop when you are in a public place, and now public health and safety is the concern.’

Asked if he thought things would change in the U.S. now that a new administration had moved into the White House, Todd said: “I think so. I mean, let’s be honest: it’s a very divided country; this country is very polarized. And you have to be careful. I mean, people have been mad at me: ‘Oh, he’s a liberal,’ and blah blah blah, and, ‘I don’t wanna support the band he’s in anymore,’ or, ‘I don’t wanna buy his record because he’s against Donald Trump,’ for example, or whatever.

“Look, the facts are the facts,” he continued. “And the world — you’re in Europe; I’ve traveled all over — wasn’t so favorable. And trying to work with our allies and get back into things that we can agree on that are bad for the environment. And civil rights. You don’t ban countries because of their religion from flying into our country. So there are things that are just what I consider right and wrong. But I think that this administration will get things back to zero, in my opinion. But one of the things that I always think is important should be some type of socialized health care system.

“I don’t think that Joe Biden is gonna quite go where I want it to go, but I think that it will start to give us some semblance of normalcy again, let things calm down without tweets every five seconds and all this divisiveness. I don’t think it’s good for any of us.”

In the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Dolmayan repeatedly defended Donald Trump, saying that the opponents of America’s 45th president “perpetuated and instigated a total shutdown of the economy” in the hopes that it would crash and that he would be blamed. Dolmayan also praised Trump and accused Democrats of “demonizing” the former president and “blaming him for everything under the sun.” In addition, John called Democrats “the true bigots” who “fought to maintain slavery” and were “directly responsible for 70 plus million abortions, a large majority of whom were black.” Dolmayan also supported Trump’s claim that his administration had done more for the African-American community “than any president since Abraham Lincoln.”

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DOWN guitarist Kirk Windstein has confirmed to Ghost Cult that the band is still planning to release a six-song EP of “obscure” cover songs. “A lot of people have been asking about that yet; that’s true,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “We just need to get our butts in a room together and pick the shit out and DOWN it up a little bit, so to speak. But that’s the only thing in the future as of now. But it’s something.”

As for the possibility of DOWN staging the previously announced anniversary tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band’s 1995-released classic debut album, “NOLA”, after the trek was sidelined due to the global pandemic, Kirk said: “I sure hope so. I mean, we have [shows booked in] Dallas and I believe we have one in Atlanta, and we have [Welcome To] Rockville, we have a festival in Florida — as far as I know.

“But yeah, I’m optimistic [that we will be able to do a short ‘NOLA’ anniversary tour],” he continued. “I get it that maybe DOWN is not in a position to do a lot of touring anymore or anything, but for god’s sake, we can at least do mainly Southeast of the United States, a bit of the Midwest — not to dick you over on the West Coast, but without going thousands of miles away — do something. But we’ll see. Right now, of course, everyone’s concern is just doing what we have booked already and hoping that that goes smoothly.”

Joining Windstein in DOWN’s current lineup are vocalist Philip H. Anselmo, guitarist Pepper Keenan, drummer Jimmy Bower and bassist Pat Bruders.

Last August, DOWN took part in a very special in-person live and virtual experience. “NOLA Town Throwdown” was held at the Fillmore in New Orleans, Louisiana and featured fans attending the show in person as well as watching it in real time from the comfort of their living room.

In August 2020, DOWN celebrated the 25th anniversary of “NOLA” with a special livestreamed event. Dubbed “The Quarter Century Throwdown”, the high-production, multi-camera event took place using cutting-edge streaming technology to create a one-of-a-kind virtual concert experience.

A founding member of DOWN, Windstein left the band in 2013 in order to focus on CROWBAR and his family life. He was replaced by Bobby Landgraf, DOWN’s former guitar tech who was previously in GAHDZILLA MOTOR COMPANY, a 1990s outfit also featuring Jason McMaster (DANGEROUS TOYS, WATCHTOWER), and HONKY.

Windstein announced his return to DOWN in 2019, with the band confirming a number of festival appearances for 2020 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “NOLA”, all of which have since been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe.

Prior to the August 2020 livestream, DOWN’s last live appearance took place in August 2016 at the Psycho Las Vegas festival in Las Vegas.

Photo by Danin Drahos

THE RASMUS will represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin in May.

On Saturday night, THE RASMUS was crowned the winner of Finland’s Eurovision selection contest, “Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu” (UMK), after delivering a knockout performance which won over both the international jury and Finnish public, earning the band a landslide victory with 310 points.

“We did it! We are so happy. It was a super tough competition, all the other songs were very good,” says THE RASMUS vocalist Lauri Ylönen. “We were preparing so hard for this for six months. We are really taken and honored and we will be working like pigs to represent Finland in the best way in Turin.”

When the winner was announced in Finnish Yle’s live broadcast late Saturday night, the atmosphere in the Turku Logomo hall rose to the ceiling, and the winning band jumped into the air with joy.

“We sat at that table in the green room, and the band was about to collapse under that psychological pressure,” recalls bassist Eero Heinonen. “It was quite tense,” guitarist Emppu Suhonen adds.

“This is just amazing,” says Lars Tengroth, the band’s A&R at Playground Music. “We signed the band just when our label started in 1999, and now we have our first entry in the ESC together. I am so happy for the band, and I love them with all my heart. They totally deserve this win after long hard work, it’s not that they suddenly got lucky. It really shows that persistence plus talent equals luck!”

At a press conference, THE RASMUS were asked how they feel about participating in the competition, after Russia having invaded Ukraine and being banned from the Eurovision Song Contest.

“This is an important issue and we are constantly thinking about it. It’s really shocking and distressing, and it has been really emotional,” Eero comments.

“What is happening feels very wrong. I watched the news on TV in my hotel room and cried. It felt twisted and wrong to go to the ‘UMK’ rehearsals after that. It was like being on an emotional roller coaster,” Lauri shares emotionally.

THE RASMUS’s winning song “Jezebel” was co-written by frontman Lauri Ylönen and renowned producer-musician Desmond Child. Child has worked with rock legends including BON JOVI, ALICE COOPER and KISS, and also produced THE RASMUS’s 2008 “Black Roses” album. The Eurovision entry “Jezebel” was written in just a few hours based on Lauri’s demo.

Together for nearly 30 years now, THE RASMUS is one of Finland’s most internationally successful groups. THE RASMUS has released nine albums, won numerous music industry awards, and played gigs all over the world. Their biggest hit, “In The Shadows”, has broken the 100 million streaming mark on Spotify, despite being released many years before the streaming platform was even invented.

The Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Turin, Italy May 10-14, 2022. Finland competes in the second semifinal on May 12.

Photo credit: Venla Shalin