Author: planetsixstring

ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian was joined by his 10-year-old son Revel Young Ian on drums as they performed a rendition of the HELMET classic “In The Meantime” for an Instagram video which Scott shared on Saturday (February 26).

Scott captioned the clip: “IN THE MEANTIME. For your weekend. PEACE. UA #helmet #pagehamilton”.

Scott previously shared videos of him and Revel performing the SEPULTURA songs “Roots Bloody Roots” and “Territory”, as well as SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s “Bounce” and KORN’s “Here To Stay”.

Revel is apparently a gifted multi-instrumentalist who joined the FOO FIGHTERS on stage in September 2019 at the Bourbon & Beyond festival in Louisville, Kentucky to perform “Everlong” on guitar when he was just eight years old.

Back in 2014, Ian told Horns Up Rocks that his then-three-old son was a big fan of METALLICA, THE BEATLES and AC/DC and that he could already tell the difference between Bon Scott’s voice and that of Brian Johnson.

“He knows a lot of the stuff that he hears or sees in the house,” Scott said at the time. “But what’s really cool is that he actually recognizes and knows the difference between Bon Scott and Brian Johnson, which is pretty cool, I think, for an almost three-year-old. Anytime AC/DC is on, he’ll go, ‘That’s Bon singing.’ And then when it’s not Bon, he’ll say, ‘That’s not Bon singing.’ He knows. That’s pretty cool, I think.”

Asked whether metal musicians should be parents, Ian said it was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He added: “I think you have to take that on a case-by-case basis. I couldn’t say enough about having a child; I think it’s the greatest thing ever in the whole world. But I do think that there are a lot of people on this planet, not necessarily metal musicians, that shouldn’t be parents.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Scott Ian (@scottianthrax)

Read more »

In a brand new interview with Herald-Whig, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner once again spoke about the band’s recent announcement that it would embark on the next leg of its 50th-anniversary tour as a quartet. Asked if this was just a way for the rest of the band to get to pick on him as the new guy again, Richie said: “Yeah, about a week later, we readdressed that announcement and we’ve gone back to a five-piece. But I did get that impression initially. It’s was, like, well, I’ve just had this issue; maybe they’re just test in my mettle, so to speak. But the fans voiced their opinion on that and we listened. We would have been crazy not to take that on board, really. So we addressed it and we’re coming back as a five-piece. We will go back to normal, basically. It’s going to be that five-piece, that twin-guitar attack PRIEST is known and loved for. So all’s well there.”

He continued: “PRIEST have been such a part of our culture, really. I don’t really remember a world, as far as my kind of heavy metal music consciousness is concerned, when I didn’t know who JUDAS PRIEST was. I knew the songs, ‘Another Thing Coming’ and ‘Breaking The Law’. It would be interesting for sure, as a four-piece, like [BLACK] SABBATH or OZZY [OSBOURNE], or a few bands out there. But I think the fans’ voices are important, as I said, and we listened. You’ve got to pay attention to the fans. They’re the lifeblood of this band, and any band, really that does gigs and puts out music. They’re part of what enables the life of any band. So I think that’s what you’ve got to respect and acknowledge.”

PRIEST’s initial announcement that it would perform as a four-piece when it returns to the road came on January 10. A few hours later, the band’s touring guitarist Andy Sneap, who co-produced the group’s 2018 album “Firepower”, released a statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET in which he said that he was “incredibly disappointed” by PRIEST’s decision to carry on as a quartet and thanked the Halford-fronted outfit for the “mind-blowing” opportunity to share the stage with one of his favorite bands. Meanwhile, PRIEST fans were understandably upset about the band’s decision to forgo its classic twin-guitar attack sound and made their feelings known on social media. Some even called for the return of guitarist K.K. Downing, who joined PRIEST in 1970 and remained in the group until 2011.

On January 15, JUDAS PRIEST released a statement announcing that it was reversing its decision to tour as a four-piece, explaining that the bandmembers “decided unanimously” to continue their live shows “unchanged” with Rob, Faulkner, Ian Hill (bass), Scott Travis (drums) and Andy.

Earlier in the month, Halford told Billboard about PRIEST’s short-lived plan to embark on its 50th-anniversary tour as a quartet: “That all came from me, it didn’t come from the band. Of course, that blew up in my face, didn’t it? To have done something like a four-piece now would’ve been just not right, ridiculous, insane, crazy, off my rocker, have a cup of tea and relax. It’s kind of water under the bridge now. I think my heart was in the right place, but I’m not the first musician to have a crazy idea.”

Sneap, who is also known for his work in NWOBHM revivalists HELL and cult thrash outfit SABBAT, began touring with PRIEST four years ago after Glenn Tipton — who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago after being stricken by the condition at least half a decade earlier — announced in early 2018 he was going to sit out touring activities in support of “Firepower”.

Hill is the sole remaining original member of PRIEST, which formed in 1969. Halford joined the group in 1973 and Tipton signed on in 1974. Rob left PRIEST in the early 1990s to form his own band, then came back to PRIEST in 2003. Downing parted ways with the band more than a decade ago and was replaced by Faulkner.

Last month, Downing said in an interview that it was “very, very strange” for PRIEST “to even think about” the possibility of going out as a quartet. “I’m like everybody else. I’m totally bemused,” he told the “Rock Of Nations With Dave Kinchen” classic rock show. “It was just so extreme and insulting in a way, I guess, and insulting to Glenn as well. It was kind of a slap in the face, saying, ‘Okay, you two guys did it, but we think just one guy could do what…’ It kind of made us and everything that we’ve done and created, saying it was all superfluous, really, and didn’t really have the value that… I’m sure Glenn will agree with me that it does have a value.”

Last November, JUDAS PRIEST announced the rescheduled “50 Heavy Metal Years” North American tour dates for March-April 2022. Support on the trek will come from QUEENSRŸCHE.

Read more »

Russian metallers SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL have denounced their country’s invasion of Ukraine and have called for “this nightmare” to end “as soon as possible.”

Earlier today, the extreme metal group, which is based in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest city in Russia, shared the following message via social media: “No to war! Our band has nothing to do with politics, we do not take sides. We are for all peaceful inhabitants of this world and for world peace. We do not accept ANY military action. We wish all of you and your loved ones, relatives and friends to stay safe and hope this nightmare ends as soon as possible.”

Just hours earlier, hundreds of anti-war protesters took to the streets of the Yekaterinburg — which is the largest city in the Ural Federal District, and one of Russia’s main cultural and industrial centers — to condemn their country’s military invasion of Ukraine. Chanting, “No to war,” many of the protesters said they were ashamed of their nation and several were detained by police.

On Thursday (February 24), Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” in the east of Ukraine. A short time later, explosions were reported in the outskirts of Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and Mariupol, as well as the capital Kyiv.

Putin made the announcement during a televised early morning speech, peddling accusations of Nazi elements within Ukraine to justify the attack on his western neighbor, a move that experts slammed as slanderous and false. (Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost three family members in the Holocaust.)

The Russian leader called for Ukraine’s “demilitarization and denazification” and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen.”

Putin’s military aggression — which has been described by U.S. president Joe Biden as an “unprovoked and unjustified attack” on Ukraine — has resulted in nearly 200 deaths so far, including civilians, three of whom were children, according to Ukraine’s health minister.

SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL’s latest album, “Kostolom”, was released last August via Sumerian Records.

The brainchild of Russian vocalist Alex Terrible, who has amassed over 750,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel through extreme vocal covers, SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL released their debut EP, “Chapters Of Misery”, in 2016 and followed it up with its debut full-length album, “Misery Sermon”, in 2017.

Following the release of the two first singles from the latest album, “Agony” and “Demolisher”, the band became one of the most popular and heavily featured bands within the YouTube “reacts” community, who were blown away by Alex’s insane vocal abilities.

No to war! Our band has nothing to do with politics, we do not take sides. We are for all peaceful inhabitants of this…

Posted by Slaughter To Prevail on Saturday, February 26, 2022

Read more »

Former NIGHTRAGE singer Antony Hämäläinen, who recently unsuccessfully auditioned for the vocalist slot in FEAR FACTORY, claims that he knows the identity of the person who has been chosen to replace original FF frontman Burton C. Bell. “I know who it’s gonna be,” he says in a interview with Pierre Gutiérrez of Rock Talks (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “So I already know it’s gonna be. But it’s not me. So that’s the thing — I know it’s not me. That’s the unfortunate part. I know it’s not me.”

Pressed about the identity of the new FEAR FACTORY singer, Antony said: “I’ll say this: it’s a person from Italy. And there was a girl involved [who auditioned as well, but didn’t get the gig]. That rumor is true. People will know who that is. She’s in a band with somebody who’s a well-known producer/musician. I won’t say who it is because it’s not fair to do.

“But I feel — here’s what I feel: the Italian person who got the job, I believe that there’s better people than both of us out there, personally,” he continued. “That’s what I think. But I believe that there’s people that were better than that, and me, that I heard. And I think maybe because they don’t have the touring experience, and they’re just YouTube people, maybe that’s the reason why [they weren’t chosen]. But there were some really good fucking people out there — better than what I did.

“Hopefully people like what I did — that’s cool if they do — but there were some really good fucking choices out there. If the dude from Italy ends up being the dude, then all right; that’s cool.”

Hämäläinen went on to say that he was a “huge” FEAR FACTORY fan before he auditioned for the band. “So if I would have got the job, I’d go up there and fucking windmill every night. You know what I mean?” he said. “It would have been incredible. But I know I’m not the guy. And it’s okay. But I wouldn’t say who the dude is because I don’t wanna fuck the shit up.

“People can judge from themselves,” he continued. “I think there’ll be people who will like that guy and not like Burton. There’ll be people who like what I did and not like that guy. There’s always somebody with a fucking opinion.”

After Gutiérrez expressed his surprise that a female singer actually tried out for FEAR FACTORY, Antony said: “Yeah, there was a girl [that auditioned]. And this person, I’ve never heard them sing clean, I don’t think, ever, so I don’t know how that would sound; I think that would be weird. I don’t know. I just know their names and the players in the game. I’m just here, and I tried my best. I know some people liked it and I know some people didn’t.”

Hämäläinen repeated again that he didn’t want to spoil the surprise and name the Italian vocalist that supposedly landed the FEAR FACTORY gig.

“They’ll announce it eventually,” he said. “There’s 20 million fucking Italian people on the planet. Good luck figuring out who that is.”

Hämäläinen’s vocal rendition of FEAR FACTORY’s “Self Bias Resistor”, which he recorded as part of his audition, can be streamed below.

FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares, who has yet to publicly reveal the identity of the band’s replacement for Bell, spoke about the singer change in a recent interview with El Lado Oscuro. He said: “The future is gonna be definitely very challenging for sure. Everything is — life is. Every day we wake up can be a new challenge. But it’s how we take on those challenges. And for me, it’s been very positive.

“I’ve had a lot of people around the world contact me regarding the position of singing for FEAR FACTORY, and I look forward to it,” he continued. “I look forward to where this new person can take us — to a different chapter of FEAR FACTORY.”

Regarding what he was looking for in Bell’s replacement, Cazares said: “I don’t want to get somebody who can’t necessarily represent the past; I want somebody who can do that. But I also want this person to have his own identity moving forward in the future — just as when we have to step into the past that he’s able to handle that as well as what we create moving forward.”

FEAR FACTORY is expected to release the first song featuring the band’s new lead singer later this year.

Cazares told This Day In Metal about his decision to showcase FF’s new frontman with a new song: “I really want people to hear it and judge it by when they hear it. Because if I announce who it is right now, then it’s gonna be, like, everybody is gonna give their opinion before they even hear anything. So I’d rather people give their opinion of when they hear it than before they hear it.”

Asked about his previous comment that he was open to hiring a female vocalist for FEAR FACTORY, Dino told Bucketlist TV: “That was true. I auditioned a few women, yes. But it didn’t work out — not because they were female or anything like that. Because I wanted to pick whoever was best for the position, and it turned out to be a guy.”

Dino also addressed his statement from earlier this year that he wanted to give an “unknown guy a shot” at fronting FEAR FACTORY. He said: “Well, it wasn’t like I was only looking for somebody that nobody knew. I was looking for all different [types of singers]. Sure, if the guy turned out to be, or the girl turned out to be, someone that nobody knew and I gave ’em that shot, yeah, great. I was open to all of it, is what I’m saying. Male, female, whatever, known, unknown — I was open to all of that.”

In September 2020, Bell issued a statement officially announcing his departure from FEAR FACTORY, saying that he “cannot align” himself with someone whom he does not trust or respect.

Bell’s exit from FEAR FACTORY came more than two weeks after Cazares launched a GoFundMe campaign to assist him with the production costs associated with the release of FEAR FACTORY’s new LP.

Bell later told Kerrang! magazine that his split with FEAR FACTORY was a long time coming. “It’s been on my mind for a while,” he said. “These lawsuits [over the rights to the FEAR FACTORY name] just drained me. The egos. The greed. Not just from bandmembers, but from the attorneys involved. I just lost my love for it.

“With FEAR FACTORY, it’s just constantly been, like, ‘What?!’ You can only take so much. I felt like 30 years was a good run. Those albums I’ve done with FEAR FACTORY will always be out there. I’ll always be part of that. I just felt like it was time to move forward.”

In October 2020, Dino issued a statement in which he said that the door for Burton to come back to FEAR FACTORY wouldn’t “stay open forever.” The guitarist also revealed that Burton “lost his legal rights” to the FEAR FACTORY name “after a long court battle” with drummer Raymond Herrera and bassist Christian Olde Wolbers. “I had the opportunity to do something right, and I felt that obtaining the name in full was the right thing to do for the both of us, so after nearly four years we can continue as FEAR FACTORY, to make more records and to tour,” he said. “That is why it is sad to hear that he decided to quit and, in my opinion, for whatever issues he has it seems like it could’ve been worked out.”

FEAR FACTORY’s latest album, “Aggression Continuum”, was released in June 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP, which was recorded primarily in 2017, features Cazares and Bell alongside drummer Mike Heller.

Read more »

KING’S X guitarist Ty Tabor spoke to Chris Akin of The CMS Network about the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s follow-up to 2008’s “XV” album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[We recorded it] during 2019 and continued to work on it during COVID, just at individual studios. I added some additional vocals down here [at my studio] and actually another guitar part on a song. And we sent tapes around. Jerry [Gaskill, drums] added some more vocals. Doug [Pinnick, bass/vocals] added some more vocals. And we also had Wally Farkas [GALACTIC COWBOYS] singing on the record; he added some more [vocals].

“But other than that stuff being done after we left California, the record is done,” he explained. “And it’s already mastered and turned in, and there’s a release date. And it’s gonna come out this year; I just can’t say when. The record company, it’s up to them to announce all that stuff and do the promotion and all that.

“But, yeah, the plan is, there’s a new record coming out this year, and it’s the record that we worked harder on than anything we’ve done since we were very young and, to me, is the best thing we’ve done in a very long time,” Tabor added.

Last October, Pinnick told Talking Metal that KING’S X’s record company was “starting the campaign” for the new LP. “We’re taking it slow ’cause we’re trying to figure out with this whole COVID thing and all the things that are happening,” he said. “We wanna put the record out without a lot of distractions and getting sick on the road or just all the controversy. We just wanna wait a little bit longer and do this right.”

Regarding the musical direction of the new KING’S X material, Pinnick said: “Every song is completely different than the other — mixed and sonically; everything. We took every song and tried to do like THE BEATLES ‘White’ album and just sit down with a song and go, ‘Let’s give it what it needs.’ I don’t have to have my Doug Pinnick gravelly tone if I need a Paul McCartney-type sound. Ty [Tabor], he would fix his guitars to make… ‘This is like a whatever song. Let’s make it what it is but still be KING’S X.’ So I think that it sounds like KING’S X but hopefully everyone will feel that we took another step forward. The whole point is just to try to push forward [while] still looking back. There’s a lot of things on this record that are reminiscent of KING’S X totally, but then there’s this new KING’S X, I think. Sonically, we’re really excited because it’s a complete analog record except with Pro Tools. It was laid down with analog — everything — and it was mastered on analog tape and even EQed with analog tube EQs to saturate the tape to get compression instead of digits. So there’s no digits on this record. So when you hear it, it’s gonna take you back a little bit. It sounds like you put a real record on in the ’70s, sonically. It’s, like, things jump out at you, and then they don’t. It’s, like, you go, ‘Wow, the bass is huge, but I can hear everything else,’ ’cause you can put your hands in it, almost. [Producer and engineer] Michael Parnin just did an amazing job — a painstaking job — to get it to sound like a record that you can put on and play forever.”

The new KING’S X LP was mastered in June 2021 at the Bernie Grundman Mastering facility in Hollywood, California,

Last April, Pinnick told Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic about the new KING’S X material: “I had some pretty crazy songs, time-change-wise, ’cause I’ve been listening to a lot of MESHUGGAH and shit like that. It’s not KING’S X, but that flavor comes in. Imagine John Bonham playing with MESHUGGAH… But Ty and Jerry [Gaskill, drums] are singing a lot too. I tell people, it’s like from [THE BEATLES’ classic song] ‘Penny Lane’ to the heaviest MESHUGGAH — it’s a blend of something in between there. And one song to another almost sounds different, almost to the point where they’re individual pieces themselves, like PINK FLOYD used to do. We’ve got violins and other things in it. I’ve got some keyboards and all kinds of things to enhance things — piano. Nothing overboard, but just like [Jimi] Hendrix did and people like that — big things coming in and out that gives it that longevity, I would say. Things that you hear and go, ‘Oh, wow. That’s cool.’ That little thing over there. So it’s taken Michael a long time to mix it, ’cause he’s got a lot of tracks.”

KING’S X was sidelined by several health scares in recent years, including Pinnick’s two hernia operations and two near-fatal heart attacks suffered by Gaskill.

In October 2019, KING’S X canceled all of its previously announced tour dates for the year so that Gaskill could undergo undisclosed heart “procedures.”

“XV” was KING’S X’s highest-charting album since 1996’s “Ear Candy”.

In 2005, VH1 included KING’S X in its list of “100 Greatest Artists In Hard Rock.”

Read more »

You could WIN a Ranger Overdrive from Maestro Pedals in today’s I Love Pedals giveaway! Ends Feb. 27, 2022.Maestro Pedals Ranger OverdriveInspired by the overdriven tones of some of the world’s most cherished vintage tube amps, the Ranger is a modern, all-analog overdrive pedal featuring a Mode toggle switch that provides two different tonalities; a warm, expressive, amp-like overdrive and a second tonality that’s slightly cleaner and exceptionally touch-sensitive; it blends in some of the clean signal and is a great choice for use as an “always on” effect that can be controlled with your pick attack and your guitar’s volume control. The Ranger’s classic 3-knob layout provides intuitive adjustment of Gain (amount of overdrive), Tone, and output Level, with plenty of volume on tap to go well beyond unity gain. You can easily use the Ranger Overdrive as a boost to hit the input of your tube amp harder for even more grit and dirt. The true bypass footswitch triggers the LED lights in the bugles in the Maestro logo when it’s on, so you’ll always know when the effect is active.I Love Pedals Day #26: Maestro

Read more »