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During an appearance on the latest episode of the “Sing For Science” podcast, LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe joined Georgia state social psychologist Dr. Tony Lemieux for a conversation about identity politics, intergroup conflict in America, pathways to radicalization, mob psychology and more.

Speaking about the fact that social media’s “alternative facts” are creating our alternative realities, Blythe said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Everyone’s interpretation of reality is subjective, but there is an objective reality. And that appears to have been thrown out the window. And I think when people are presented with facts that go against the system of beliefs they’ve constructed around this identity around their political beliefs, they don’t stop and go, ‘Hmm, maybe I’m wrong.’ I think they experience extreme cognitive dissonance. And the way that they deal with that is just to ignore the facts. And we’ve seen that a lot lately: ‘That didn’t happen’; ‘I never said that’; blah blah blah. It’s, like, yes, you did. These are easily provable things. Veracity is important. It does exist. But lately it seems to have been thrown out the window. And I certainly think social media has helped push that forward.”

Blythe also addressed the fact that there is a surge in science denial at a time when we need to follow science-based practices if we want to find our way out of this pandemic. He said: “I think one thing we’ve seen with the coronavirus pandemic that has been problematic is that because the science on this is new and it’s imperfect, and science is a process — it grows… When you get additional knowledge, additional data to analyze, you gain more understanding. Science doesn’t have all the answers at all the times; it’s a process. So that being said, I never thought I’d see the demonization of science that I’m seeing right now. But it’s a growing thing. So I think it’s hard for people to accept, when they look to people in positions of leadership, for them to say, people in positions of leadership saying, ‘I don’t know. We have to do more research.’ And I think that has led to a lot of the conspiracy theory stuff, because people just don’t wanna accept, ‘Hey, we don’t have all the answers right now. I know this sucks. But we have to hang in there and wait.'”

When asked what he thinks needs to be done to help deliver us from the current state of affairs, Blythe said: “I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s questions that aren’t being asked. And part of it, personally, on my part, I have to watch for my biases and my judgmental nature, as it were. But when people think very, very differently about reality than you do, in certain things, I think it’s important, if you have the chance, to ask these people, ‘What makes you think that way? Why do you feel this way?’ instead of just saying, ‘You’re a fucking idiot’ or writing them off. Because there’s a myriad of factors that have brought people to this system of belief. It’s not just like one day they woke up and decided, ‘I’m going to totally distrust science.’ Something has brought them to this point. So, for me, I think that is achievable on an individual level only.

“We were talking about crowd psychology or group psychology,” he continued. “My job is to be in front of large crowds, and also I’ve been in large crowds in some rather contentious situations where the group mentality has taken over. It’s impossible to change the mind of a mob. If there’s a riot going on, you can’t walk into the middle of a riot and say, ‘Hey, everybody, what are you rioting about? This isn’t right. You shouldn’t do this.’ You can’t change the mind of that mass organism which is what it becomes. But if you can talk to an individual and say, ‘Why are you angry? What are you upset about? What is causing you to express yourself in this manner?’ and have an open conversation and maybe present your viewpoint, an alternate view to what’s going on, maybe you can meet in the middle somewhere. And that can only really happen on an individual basis. I can get up and spew my ideas of reality in front of a crowd, and it will either be sort of people that already agree with the kind of things that I believe in, and thus I’ll be preaching to the converted, or it’s gonna be a bunch of people throwing bags of dogshit at me or whatever. It’s impossible to alter the mentality of a crowd, but you can engage with an individual. So I think it’s important for people to have individual conversations, one on one, and that gets harder and harder, I think, as people retreat more and more into their phones and their use of phones to communicate.”

LAMB OF GOD’s latest, self-titled album was released in June 2020 via Epic Records in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Records in Europe. The follow-up to “VII: Sturm Und Drang” marked LAMB OF GOD’s first recordings with Art Cruz, who joined the band in July 2019 as the replacement for the group’s founding drummer, Chris Adler.

“Lamb Of God” was recorded with longtime producer Josh Wilbur (KORN, MEGADETH, GOJIRA, TRIVIUM) and includes special guest appearances by Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED) and Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT).

Part one of a new documentary celebrating the 15th anniversary of ALL THAT REMAINS’ breakthrough album “The Fall Of Ideals” is available below.

ALL THAT REMAINS will embark on “The Fall Of Ideals” 15th-anniversary trek this spring, kicking off on March 12 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and running through May 20 in Hartford, Connecticut. MISS MAY I, VARIALS and TALLAH will serve as support. ALL THAT REMAINS will perform “The Fall Of Ideals” in full on this run.

“The Fall Of Ideals” was reissued last November. The best-selling title features such fan favorites as “This Calling”, “Six” and “The Air That I Breathe”. In addition to the wide release, the band has exclusive colored vinyl variants with deluxe packaging available only at the band’s webstore.

Originally released in 2006, “The Fall Of Ideals” launched a new era for ALL THAT REMAINS — finding the band moving away from the death metal of their first two albums (2002’s “Behind Silence And Solitude” and 2004’s “This Darkened Heart”) and settling into the melodic metalcore that defined their career. “The Fall Of Ideals” also introduced fans to the band’s longtime bassist Jeanne Sagan and marked their only album to feature drummer Shannon Lucas. The newcomers joined founding members Phil Labonte (vocals) and Oli Herbert (lead guitars), as well as rhythm guitarist Mike Martin.

In the studio, the Massachusetts quintet partnered with two prominent metal artists: KILLSWITCH ENGAGE’s Adam Dutkiewicz, who served as producer, and SOILWORK’s Peter Wichers, who engineered the sessions. The dynamic, 11-song set found the musicians pushing their sonic boundaries, while Labonte showcased his broad vocal range — from epic, extended screams and in-your-face growls to emotive choruses. The album spawned a variety of enduring favorites, including the hard-driving “This Calling”, which featured in the soundtracks to “Saw III” and “Masters Of Horror II”, as well as singles “The Air That I Breathe” and “Not Alone”. Other highlights included the guitar-forward “Whispers (I Hear You)” and the dramatic “Six”, which appeared in “Guitar Hero II”.

Upon its release in the summer of 2006, “The Fall Of Ideals” was embraced by fans, becoming the band’s first album to break the Billboard 200 (peaking at No. 75) and eventually selling more than 450,000 units. The album also caught the attention of critics. Pop Matters hailed, “ALL THAT REMAINS has made the kind of stylistic leap that most bands can only wish they could pull off… ‘The Fall Of Ideals’ [is] invigorating from start to finish, and could very well be the metalcore album of the year.” BLABBERMOUTH.NET praised, “ALL THAT REMAINS effortlessly blends thrashy twin guitar fireworks and Phil Labonte’s raging vocals with soaring clean vocals and overall tunefulness…There is no denying that those guys play their asses off here and the result is immensely gratifying.” Lambgoat simply declared, “The entire band executes the songs perfectly,” adding that “the production…is full and crisp.”

“We’re so thankful to everyone who has kept this disc in their hearts for the past 15 years,” said Labonte. “We are proud to celebrate the reissue and can’t wait to tell you about all the other cool things we have in store.”

In the 15 years since “The Fall Of Ideals”, ALL THAT REMAINS have built an undeniable legacy as one of this century’s most consistent purveyors of heavy music with a bulletproof canon of arena-worthy anthems. Currently consisting of Labonte and Martin, as well as drummer Jason Costa, and lead guitarist Jason Richardson, the band continues to defy the odds of its genre. To date, they have sold more than a million albums worldwide, earning five consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart, and boasting more than 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify — an unprecedented feat for any metal band. In 2018, ALL THAT REMAINS released their widely acclaimed ninth studio album, “Victim Of The New Disease”.

In a new interview with IndiePower.com, Steve Vai spoke about his years as the guitarist in David Lee Roth’s post-VAN HALEN solo band, alongside former TALAS bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Gregg Bissonette. Asked what his favorite memories are of that period, Steve said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, there were so many. Touring, becoming a ‘rock star’ basically overnight by joining David Lee Roth’s solo band when he left VAN HALEN was just a shocker. Every night on tour was just… Oh my God, it was something that I’m really glad I experienced. And there was a lot of other things. The camaraderie between me and Billy and Gregg was, and still is, very strong, and those are life relationships that you can’t put a value on them. So that I got out of that. And one of the things I really enjoyed doing was learning things from Dave. I mean, he was an intense guy. We hung out a lot and would do things like go climbing — he was really into climbing mountains at the time. So we’d hire these fantastic guides and we’d go and do stuff like that. He got me into working out because I looked like a noodle when I joined the band. [Laughs] And I really enjoyed all of that. I really had a good time there.”

Vai played with Roth on his 1986 album “Eat ‘Em And Smile” as well as its 1988 follow-up, “Skyscraper”.

A few years ago, Vai explained to the Examiner.com that he didn’t expect the “Eat ‘Em And Smile” band to come together when they first hooked up more than three and a half decades ago. He said: “Dave got the best musicians he could, who he thought was the best. And I thought it was a hell of a band… It was one of my favorite times in my whole musical career, because we were rock stars, you know? And touring with somebody like Dave, you can’t even imagine what it was like. It was just glorious, man. And I knew it was fleeting, and I knew it was something that I wasn’t going to be doing my whole life, because my brand of music in my own head is very different.”

“Eat ‘Em And Smile” was the first of two Roth albums to feature the duo of Vai and Billy Sheehan on guitar and bass. Throughout the LP, the two would often sync complicated bass lines together with the lead guitar parts, as on tracks such as “Shyboy” and “Elephant Gun”.

John Cooper, the frontman and bassist for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock group SKILLET, recently spoke to blogger and podcaster Alisa Childers about the criticism he and his bandmates have faced for at times sharing the stage with “horrifically un-Christian” artists at various rock festival around the country. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There are people that criticize, and, honestly, I don’t even mind it. It’s never even crossed my mind to bother me, just because I’m, like, ‘Hey, they don’t get it and they don’t need to.’ … So I don’t really mind it.

“My vision is this — part of what [the new SKILLET album] ‘Dominion’ is about, to me, the culture mandate, part of that, to me, and I know not all Christians agree with this, by the way, but this is just my thing, I believe that every area of life, every box, every nook and cranny belongs to Christ. I believe that rock and roll and the arts does not belong to the devil. The devil may have used it, he may have twisted it, he may have stolen something — which is what the devil does, of course; he comes in and he tries to do something kind of like what God does, right? But he wants to steal the glory and he twists it and he perverts it. I believe that the arts belong to God. Music belongs to God. It is for his glory. And so when I create art and I go and I play music, I believe that it is taking back something, bringing it back under the subjection to Lord Jesus Christ. It all belongs to him. It is for his glory. That world does not belong to the devil. Not everybody necessarily agrees with that.

“In terms of the bands, I have great friendships with so many atheist rock and roll singers who have shown me a ton of friendship and a ton of respect,” he continued. “I’ve been very respected by people who, some of them are atheists and don’t know that they hate the gospel. Some of them are atheists and they are what I would call ‘angry atheists.’ They know they hate the gospel and they are actively at war. Some of them, they just are atheists and they don’t wanna fight. Even the angry atheists that I’ve met, we get along and they’ve always been respectful to me and they’ve always kind of said, ‘John, I like your music because you sing about what you believe in, and that’s what makes good art.’ And I would say to them, likewise — some Christians get offended by this — but even if there’s a song that offends me, when it’s authentic, I recognize that is good art; it’s provocative [and] it makes you think. It doesn’t mean I wanna listen to it; it doesn’t mean I want my kids listening to it; it’s just an acknowledgement that they’re making good art. A deeper subject would be that in the end, one way or the other, God is going to get the glory for that. Even for people who hate him, God will find — in his mysterious will, he finds a way to bring people to their knees, and he takes the glory… So that’s kind of my take on it. I’ve got great friends in that world and 99 percent of them have shown me an incredible amount of respect and friendship.”

In various interviews over the years, John has said that he “always had faith in God” and that his mother was a “Jesus fanatic.” He also claimed that he was willing to put his career on the line to take a stand for Christ.

“Dominion” was released on January 14 via Atlantic. Produced by Kevin Churko (PAPA ROACH, DISTURBED, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) with songs written by John Cooper, Korey Cooper, Kevin Churko and Kane Churko, the LP was created 100% remotely between the band’s tour dates, home studio in Wisconsin, and the Churkos’ studio in Las Vegas.

Greek trio VICIOUS KNIGHTS rest firmly on the thrash end of the metal spectrum. Whereas the majority of newer bands walking along those paths are content with recycling riffs from EXODUS’s “Bonded By Blood” era, “Alteration Through Possession”, the act’s debut full-length, takes its inspiration from the darker and more sinister cornerstones of thrash metal’s yesteryear. The record is at times evocative of seminal acts such as KREATOR and scratches up against the layers of death metal piled onto the thrash blueprint by POSSESSED, with touches of the early days of black metal that other modern acts such as MIDNIGHT use to bolster their sound.

There honestly is not much here that you likely have not heard before. VICIOUS KNIGHTS do manage to overcome that sense of familiarity and déjà vu with “Alteration Through Possession”. The energy level remains high and infectious from start to finish. The individual approaches of the trio’s members to their duties emphasize raw power and speed over technique. There are, admittedly, moments here and there where the proceedings get a little sloppy. The raw energy of the band members individually go a long way in powering through those moments to keep everything moving in a positive direction. Liakos’s drumming performance does not show much in way of flash or technique. He instead seems solely focused on simply hitting his drums as loud and hard as possible, with brute force being his sole directive. Panos’s bass lines and Harvester’s rhythm guitar riffs and solos are also administered with similar preference for power over pizzazz.

Another factor giving the record an inviting energy is the band’s lyrical and thematic focus which steps away from the nihilism favored by many similar modern acts. They instead trade in beloved old-school horror movie and literature tropes that made so many records from the past, present and very likely future so much fun. Bits of spoken-word dialogue usher in the thrash assaults of “The Boneghoul King (The Miserly)” and “It Was In My House”, as if the song titles themselves didn’t already give you a sense of the band’s direction here. The furiously ripping album-closing “Disenchanting The Matter (The Statue Is Alive)” is peppered by a flourish of spectral monsters lending their ghoulish sound effects to add to the ghastly aura. The guttural, gruff and gravelly vocal shouts by Harvester also lend a helping hand in playing to that sense of atmosphere.

“Alteration Through Possession”, which follows up their 2018 EP “Malevolent Spirits” isn’t a statement from a band destined to become future legends. It is still a very welcome diversion for those that like their thrash delivered with raw energy, power and speed.

Trivium frontman teams up with Emperor legend in Ibaraki.
The post Watch: Trivium’s Matt Heafy Features Emperor’s Ihsahn on New Black Metal Song appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Progressive rock and roll legend Ian Anderson, founding member of JETHRO TULL, spoke to Canada’s “The Rockman Power Hour” about the inspiration for the title track of the British band’s first studio album of new material in over 18 years, “The Zealot Gene”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It would be easy to say, ‘Oh, he’s talking about Donald Trump here.’ I mean, too easy. In fact, it’s a compendium of characters. I can easily name at least six or eight people in the world today — political leaders or national leaders whose populist policies are frighteningly dangerous. It’s all about dividing people.

“In a democracy — in a true democracy, like in your country or mine, or a pseudo-democracy, like in some other countries — winning by a small margin is the reality of today, and so dividing people is way of winning affiliation. So you’ll find in those countries led by populist leaders, people love them or hate them in pretty much equal measure, but it usually tilts towards right-wing, traditional, conservative values. Even those who perhaps think, ‘This guy is really not a good leader, but he’s all we’ve got.’ There are the ardent Trump supporters, and then there are those who are dyed-in-the-wool ideological Republicans. They wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable voting for Donald Trump but they want to maintain their Republican origins and so in the USA, that would be the case. Canada is a much more liberal country altogether, and there are many countries in Europe where coalition governments are the norm. But in my country and in the USA, it tends to be pretty much divided.”

“The Zealot Gene” will see a January 28 release on InsideOut Music. A record that began to take shape as early as 2017, “The Zealot Gene”, in many ways, seeks to defy convention during a time when the business of being a touring and recording artist has never faced more uncertainties.

With more than 30 albums to their credit and sales totaling more than 50 million, JETHRO TULL is one of the most successful rock bands of all time with a catalog that contains classics that still resonate today.

The band currently consists of:

Ian Anderson – Flute, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Joe Parrish-James – Guitar
Florian Opahle – Guitar (album only)
Scott Hammond – Drums.
John O’Hara – Piano, Keyboards, Accordion
David Goodier – Bass

In a new Revolver “Fan First” interview, CANNIBAL CORPSE frontman George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher shares his personal journey as a fan, from discovering BLACK SABBATH to a seismic moment watching DEATH’s Chuck Schuldiner to his experiences in the early Florida death metal scene and his upcoming solo album.

Speaking about how Schuldiner inspired him to sing death metal, Fisher said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I saw DEATH play in Baltimore, Maryland, where I’m from, in 1987 or ’88. It might have even been a little bit later, but I’m not sure. I know that ‘Leprosy’ had not come out yet. We had ‘Scream Bloody Gore’. And ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ was great, but I did not really understand the power of Chuck Schuldiner’s voice until that show. And there was, like, 25 people there; there was barely anyone there. And they were supposed to play with this band called DEAD BRAIN CELLS — D.B.C. from Canada — and D.B.C. couldn’t play, so DEATH, I think, had a longer set. And I was literally standing right in front of Chuck Schuldiner; he was right there in front of me singing and playing. And when they played ‘Infernal Death’, ‘Die! Die!’, when he did the high [note], that changed my whole world; that changed my world like BLACK SABBATH did. I said to myself, ‘I wanna sing like that. That’s what I wanna do.’ And I was listening to all these bands. I was probably singing stuff in my room, trying to be Jeff Becerra [POSSESSED] and Tom Araya [SLAYER]. When I saw Chuck Schuldiner, and then, all of a sudden, all these other waves of death metal bands started coming along, I knew that I wasn’t ever gonna be singing or singing, like, thrash; I was gonna be singing growling and death metal.”

He continued: “Chuck is less of a growler than, say, what most modern death metal singers are, like Glen Benton [DEICIDE] or John Tardy [OBITUARY]. But those high screams, if you’ve ever listened to us, then definitely he has the biggest hand in me ever wanting to do those. Chuck Billy on [TESTAMENT’s] ‘The Legacy’ record, [the song] ‘First Strike Is Deadly’, the scream on that and some of the other higher screams he did on those records, it was amazing. Rob Urbinati from SACRIFICE [as well]. But Chuck Schuldiner was the one. When I saw it live, I was, like, ‘Holy…’ ‘Cause he just stood there. It looked so effortless. He was singing like he was some 250-pound guy that could bench press 700 pounds and throw you across the street with one hand. And he’s a little unassuming guy — a nice guy. But he sounded like Satan. It changed my world. It made me really go, ‘Okay, I’m not trying to do this anymore. I’m gonna be a death metal singer. I don’t have any reservations about which way I’m going. I’m going this way and this way only.'”

“Corpsegrinder” is due on February 25. The 10-song effort was co-produced by Nick Bellmore (DEE SNIDER, KINGDOM OF SORROW) and Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED) and will be made available through Jasta’s new label, Perseverance Music Group. A song from the LP, “Acid Vat”, features a guest appearance by Fisher’s CANNIBAL CORPSE bandmate Erik Rutan.

Newly formed Swedish/Canadian death metallers AngelBlast stream new EP “Throne of Ashes”. Death is just the beginning…
The post Full Album Premiere: AngelBlast ‘Throne of Ashes’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.