Author: planetsixstring

OVERKILL frontman Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth has confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that guitarist Dave Linsk will sit out the band’s March 2022 U.S. tour due to “personal reasons” and will be temporarily replaced by former MACHINE HEAD and current VIO-LENCE guitarist Phil Demmel.

“We’ve used Phil in the past when we’ve had issues,” Bobby said. “We’re prepared. We’re ready. It’s not about the strength of the individual but about the strength of the unit. We found that out with Phil when he stepped in.

“It’s just nice to be able to do what you do whether you’re the concertgoer or whether you’re the concert performer,” he added. “Let’s get back to normal. Let’s do what we do best. Let’s have a little bit of fun.”

Demmel previously filled in for Linsk at OVERKILL’s November 13, 2021 concert at The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey. The gig marked OVERKILL’s first pandemic-era performance — “609 f!!kin’ days” after they were supposed to play the same venue before the coronavirus crisis forced everything to shut down.

Ellsworth and Demmel are bandmates in BPMD which released its debut album, “American Made”, in June 2020 via Napalm Records. Also featuring drummer Mike Portnoy (THE WINERY DOGS, SONS OF APOLLO) and bassist Mark Menghi (METAL ALLEGIANCE), the LP was previously described as a “10-track homage to some of rock music’s greatest treasures.”

OVERKILL’s U.S. tour with PRONG will kick off on March 3 in Poughkeepsie, New York and conclude on March 19 in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

In addition to the U.S. tour, OVERKILL has several international dates throughout the rest of the year, including a festival in the United Kingdom and concerts in Ireland in May; the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany plus other festival appearances in Romania and Germany in August; and a festival in Mexico in September.

OVERKILL has spent the last few months recording its new studio album for a tentative 2022 release.

In November 2020, OVERKILL bassist D.D. Verni told MetalAsylum.net that the band’s new LP would be mixed by Colin Richardson. “He did a couple of records for us, and he’s great,” Verni said.

Richardson previously worked with OVERKILL on 1997’s “From The Underground And Below”, 2000’s “Bloodletting” and 2003’s “Killbox 13”.

In June 2020, Ellsworth told A&P Reacts that the band’s new songs were “a natural progression from ‘The Grinding Wheel’ [2017] and ‘The Wings Of War’ [2019]. I think when we had done the ‘Ironbound’ record [2010], it almost became like a trilogy in there — it was kind of like ‘Ironbound’, ‘The Electric Age’ [2012] and ‘White Devil Armory’ [2014], and they seemed to be the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost kind of a thing,” he said. “I think we kind of broke the mold a little bit with ‘The Grinding Wheel’, and then I think a little bit more with ‘The Wings Of War’. And on this one, I see it way more. And what I mean by that is that we’ve used other tools from our toolshed in the past, and that’s the slow grind that is coupled with that fast gallop. So it feels like a natural progression, but maybe two records ahead of what ‘The Wings Of War’ is. And that’s probably as objective as I can be.”

“The Wings Of War” marked OVERKILL’s recording debut with drummer Jason Bittner (SHADOWS FALL, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM), who joined the band in 2017.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN drummer John Dolmayan says that the COVID-19 pandemic “has always been about money.”

Earlier today (Sunday, February 27), the 48-year-old musician, 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”.

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.”

SYSTEM OF A DOWN singer Serj Tankian discussed his relationship with Dolmayan, who is also his brother-in-law, during an interview with Consequence Of Sound. He said: “We’re very good friends, we’re family, and he’s my drummer in my band, so, of course, we’ve talked about many, many different things, including political views. When you don’t agree with someone after a while about a certain topic … look, it doesn’t mean that we don’t agree about other stuff. We agree a lot about Armenian stuff, for example, a lot about family stuff, a lot of other things, a lot of personal stuff. But when it comes to American politics, we happen to be on the polar opposite ends of it, and we’re both very passionate and vehement about our views, which is fine.”

Serj continued: “I love and respect John very much, but I don’t love and respect his American political views. And that’s fine. And I can live with that and he can live with that because we respect and care for each other. And it’s really just that. Have we talked about it? Yeah. But do we talk about it often? No, because there comes a point where when you don’t see eye to eye on something, you just rather talk about something else.”

In September 2020, Dolmayan defended his reasons for voicing his political views that are ideologically opposed to those of Tankian, telling the “Deviant Gentlemen” podcast: “SYSTEM OF A DOWN has a legacy of being left-leaning, which isn’t always the case. Serj, of course, is responsible for the lyrics, but they didn’t always represent the band in the way that we maybe wanted [them] to. There’s four individuals in the band. I don’t speak for any of the individuals except for myself, and neither does Serj. But because he had that platform of writing lyrics, the perception was out there that that’s how the band felt at all times, where I don’t even think Serj necessarily felt those ways at all times. You’re supposed to have diversity of opinion even within your own mind, and you should judge things based on information that’s presented to you.

“If you’re a SYSTEM fan and you gravitate towards the music, you enjoy the music, but you don’t necessarily agree with the perceived message, well, where do you go?” he continued. “If you think that Serj is the mouthpiece of the band, which he is, as far as vocally, but not necessarily for ideology, then you have nowhere to go. So I wanted to present a different view and to give kids out there who think differently and who are critical thinkers, not necessarily following the norm, that there is a different option, you can think differently, it’s okay to have diversity of opinion, as long as it’s done peaceably.”

Asked if he has been approached by anybody in the music industry and told to tone down his political rhetoric on social media, John said: “No. My manager, he was just, like, ‘Look, maybe you guys are going a little too far’ — for both Serj and I. And we did have a private text conversation between me, [our manager] and Serj. And again, I think Serj views himself in a way where he’s really doing the right thing. And he really does care about people. And he does a lot for individuals and our nation as well. He’s really trying to help people, Serj. I believe he’s a good person, inherently. But again, it’s that moral high ground that they think they’re on — that perceived moral high ground. It kind of blinds them to being open about ideas they might be wrong on.”

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In a new interview with the “Breaking Absolutes With Peter Orullian” podcast, SYMPHONY X guitarist Michael Romeo has confirmed that the band has commenced work on the material for the follow-up to 2015’s “Underworld” album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It just feels slower than normal. It feels a little weird because we haven’t played [together in so long]. The last time we were on tour was the end of 2019. So it’s like you’re trying to think about that stuff, and just doing band stuff, and we haven’t for so long. So that whole process is going slow. I mean, it’s going. But I think as more normal things start happening, things will feel more normal. It will be easier for me.

“I come down here [to my home studio] every day. I’m trying to write something,” he continued. “I was talking to Russ [vocalist Russell Allen] and [bassist Michael] LePond the other day. I’m, like, ‘I’ve got a couple of things. I haven’t found that thing yet that’s totally inspiring.’ And then God forbid I put the freakin’ TV on for a minute with the news or something, I’m, like, ‘Oh my God. What the hell is going on?’ And talking to guys in Europe and friends over there, it’s, like, they’re not sure; maybe some places are opening up and some aren’t. So there’s this uncertainty. And you just wanna come down here and do band stuff and be a band and write songs. But then, in the back of your mind, it’s fucking with you. It’s, like, well, yeah, but you don’t know what’s gonna happen. Who knows? So there’s that thing. And it really sucks.”

Romeo added: “I know a lot of musician friends of mine [say] the same thing. They’re, like, ”Yeah, man, it’s hard to get inspired. I’m not feeling motivated. And I’m not sure this tour’s gonna happen or this festival [and] these festivals.’ So, yeah, there’s some of that shit going on. But I think for us, once we start touring again, I think everything will start to… You’ll have that fire again. Right now, it’s just, like, ‘Oh, man. What the hell are we doing?’

“There’s been times that we’re working on a song and it’s, like, ‘Oh, when we do that one live, this thing happens, and it’s such a great crowd moment.’ And working on new stuff, maybe some of that comes into your mind. It’s, like, ‘Oh, yeah, this would be cool,’ and, ‘I could see this happening.’ But since it’s been so long [since we played live], the fucking time warp thing, it’s, like, ‘What are you talking about? Oh, yeah. I kind of remember.’ It feels so distant. And just us not being around each other. It’s a slow process. I mean, it’s always a slow process ’cause I think we all care about what we do — we always try to make it really good — but now you throw this on top of it, and it’s, like, I’m digging deep, man, to try to get some fire.”

SYMPHONY X will kick off its “25th Anniversary North American tour 2022” on May 10 at Irving Plaza in New York City. The 27-date trek will make stops in Montreal, Chicago, and Portland before concluding on June 12 in Montclair, New Jersey. Support on the tour will come from HAKEN and TROPE.

SYMPHONY X completed an extensive tour behind “Underworld” in 2016, including a U.S. run of shows with OVERKILL and a pair of headlining performances in Australia.

In July 2017, SYMPHONY X vocalist Russell Allen and his ADRENALINE MOB bandmates were involved in a crash that killed the group’s bassist, David Zablidowsky.

In 2019, Allen — who has toured with TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA since 2013 — was injured during the rehearsals for TSO’s annual winter trek and was unable to make the tour.

Romeo will release his new solo album, “War Of The Worlds Pt. 2”, on March 25 via InsideOut Music. The record features guest vocals by Dino Jelusick (WHITESNAKE, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA).

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Video footage of IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson belting out an a cappella version of the song “Road To Hell” during his February 23 spoken-word show at Stafford Centre in Houston, Texas can be seen below.

“Road To Hell” originally appeared on Bruce’s fourth solo album, “Accident Of Birth”, which was released in 1997, through Castle Communications sublabel Raw Power in the U.K. and CMC International in the U.S. In addition to being Dickinson’s second collaboration with guitarist/producer Roy Z, the LP marked a reunion between Dickinson and then-ex-IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith; both Dickinson and Smith would later return to their former band in early 1999.

Dickinson’s two-month North American spoken-word tour kicked off on January 17 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and will run through the end of March.

Bruce’s spoken-word show is split into two parts. The first section sees him take a humorous and often satirical look at the world from his own very personal perspective, treating the audience to private insights into his drive and ambition, peppered with plenty of MAIDEN anecdotes, and a myriad of other experiences encompassing not just the giddy heights but also the extreme lows, as told first-hand in his inimitable anarchic style, punctuated with photographs, videos and sometimes even erupting into song a cappella, to illustrate a point. The final section of the evening is devoted entirely to the aforementioned question-and-answer session, with the opportunity to pose questions on any subject whatsoever. As Bruce’s answers are all completely improvised — the more left-field and quirky the question, the more interesting and compelling the response is likely to be.

Dickinson is considered one of the world’s most storied musicians. Aside from decades spent delivering high-octane performances with his larger-than-life persona in IRON MAIDEN, Bruce has lived an extraordinary off-stage existence too. A true polymath, his accomplishments include: pilot and airline captain, aviation entrepreneur, beer brewer, motivational speaker, film scriptwriter, twice-published novelist and Sunday Times best-selling author, radio presenter, TV actor, sports commentator and international fencer — to name but a few.

Dickinson, who had a golf gall-size tumor on his tongue and another in the lymph node on the right side of his neck, got the all-clear in May 2015 after radiation and nine weeks of chemotherapy.

In a new interview with Kylie Olsson’s YouTube show “Life In Six Strings”, former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing discussed his role with one of the oldest and most famous bands synonymous with the creation of heavy metal, along with BLACK SABBATH. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Bear in mind, I’m this young kid, just a young teenager, wanting to hear more of this music that I heard little bits of, but I was very hungry and frustrated that I didn’t have enough of it, that I was compelled to create it. Because it didn’t exist. Because I wanted more of it. I figured, ‘Okay, I’ll sit down and write the music that I would wanna listen to and hope there’s lots more people out there like me that will [relate] to this music that will do for us — white working-class kids — it’ll do for us what the blues music did for the people that were suffering, and it helped them through their working-class [struggle] and their oppression; maybe this music can do the same for us. And that’s what heavy metal is, to me, around the world. And it brought us all together because we can all relate to it. So it’s a very, very interesting subject. And it’s why it’s being created, because if you don’t have the creators, you’re not gonna have the audience that are gonna decide, ‘I like that.’ So you have to create it first. So, to me, we had, outside of the great progressive blues bands, we had… The next step of JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH, SCORPIONS, UFO, ACCEPT… So you have all of these bands, and eventually, the new wave of them, whoever that might be, starts to come in as well, and obviously, you had IRON MAIDEN, SAXON and you had the next level of so-called New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands. So this is the interesting concept. This is why I’m glad and feel so blessed to be born in ’51. The beginning of heavy metal had to happen just around about the time that I was, like, 16, 17, let’s say, 18, to wanna be able to create this for other people to wanna be able to listen to it.”

Last summer, Downing, who has spent the last few months promoting the debut album from his new band KK’S PRIEST, discussed his five-decade relationship with the heavy metal genre in an interview with El Cuartel Del Metal. He said: “I owe everything — my whole life and my whole being — to metal. Because I was there at the very beginning when it didn’t exist, and heavy rock didn’t exist. Even rock didn’t exist, really. We had rock and roll in the early ’60s, but that was different; that was kind of Bill Haley and Elvis [Presley] and Chuck Berry. But we didn’t have rock. We had blues, which turned into progressive blues, and that was great. There were so many great progressive blues bands. But we didn’t seem to have the music that I really wanted more and more of. And so I set on the journey to try to be a part and create and assist as much as I could.”

Downing is joined in KK’S PRIEST by former JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim “Ripper” Owens (vocals), along with guitarist A.J. Mills (HOSTILE), bassist Tony Newton (VOODOO SIX) and drummer Sean Elg (DEATHRIDERS, CAGE).

KK’S PRIEST released its debut album, “Sermons Of The Sinner”, last October via Explorer1 Music Group/EX1 Records.

KROKUS singer Marc Storace says that he has no regrets about turning down a chance to audition for AC/DC more than four decades ago.

The 70-year-old Maltese-born vocalist — whose band had opened for AC/DC in the past — passed on the opportunity to try out to replace the late Bon Scott in 1980.

In February of that year, Scott died of acute alcohol poisoning after a night of heavy drinking at a club in London, just days after attending a session with Malcolm and Angus Young where they began working on music for what became the “Back In Black” album.

“Back In Black” was the first album AC/DC released after singer Brian Johnson replaced Scott, and it went on to become the third-biggest-selling LP of all time.

Asked in a new interview with Barbara Caserta of Italy’s Linea Rock if he ever wonders what could have been had he gotten the AC/DC job, Storace responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “That’s a hypothetical question. It’s all open to fantasy and dreams, but reality can take a different direction. And at that moment, I thought, ‘Well, I’m sitting on my high horse, enjoying success with KROKUS.’ My debut album [with KROKUS], ‘Metal Rendez-Vous’, went like a rocket. We did ‘Hardware’ and we had, actually, a brand new light show, which arrived from Birmingham. And the CEO of that company in Birmingham — the whole hard rock scene, the center was Birmingham; LED ZEPPELIN and everyone else, and AC/DC, they were all doing their production stuff there. And the guy took me to the side, the CEO, because he drove down to show us this new light show computer, which we’d never seen one like that [before]. And then he took me on the side and he said, ‘Would you like to audition for AC/DC?’ And I said, ‘Steve, I’m so happy here. Things are happening, and we’re gonna go places. And these are my new mates.’ I had a kind of loyalty. I was really thankful that I joined KROKUS because it suddenly happened. And I had been trying in many different ways. And even with [Swiss progressive rockers] TEA, though we had enjoyed an amount of success, it was nothing like what we achieved later on with KROKUS. So, looking back at this little guy in Malta, where there’s no record companies, no big rock and roll life and no tours the way I dreamed of and everything, and looking at Switzerland, where actually it’s more known for the banks and the chocolates and the watches than hard rock bands, and seeing how far that KROKUS got to, I think we should be thankful. And that’s the way I feel; I feel thankful for what I’ve achieved with these guys.”

He continued: “The thing about AC/DC is it’s not realistic to think that way, when you think why I decided that way. And I wouldn’t change a minute. I’m happy. I have a loving wife. I have two beautiful children. They’re intelligent. They’re doing their own thing. I have my own house. I’m an ambassador for [the French car company] Peugeot. It’s great to be alive. And that’s why I’m doing my solo album. And I don’t wanna stop.”

Six years ago, Storace said that he would “certainly” accept an invitation to step in for Johnson after the AC/DC frontman was advised by doctors to stop touring or risk total hearing loss.

Marc admitted in a previous interview that he initially had some understandable reservations about being repeatedly compared to Scott, feeling he was being “branded as a copy of somebody who, at the time, I didn’t even know that well.” But he eventually started seeing things differently. “Today, I look at is as a big compliment. I think he probably had many of the same idols I had, and we were both gifted with the same vocal tonalities.”

Back in 2000, Storace released an album with a project called DC WORLD in which he sang Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs. Audio samples from that effort can be heard in a YouTube clip below.

Storace’s first-ever solo album, “Live And Let Live”, was made available in Switzerland in December and was released in North America earlier this month.