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During a recent appearance on the “Metal Blade Live Series”, CANNIBAL CORPSE frontman George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher spoke about the possibility of a second album from SERPENTINE DOMINION, his collaboration with KILLSWITCH ENGAGE guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz and ex-THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER drummer Shannon Lucas. He said (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I text with Adam D. here and there, and we always talk about it. He did say to me that he had a little intro thing written, but who knows? He might have used that for something else. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him about it. But when I do talk to him, I try not to bug him; there’s so much other shit going on in life and whatnot. We have had conversations about it, especially before all this [pandemic] stuff that happened. And somewhere down the line, it would be great to do another one. And I would love to actually do one and tour for it — get to do some shows for it.

“It’s crazy — we put [the first album] out [in 2016], and it had a really good response, but I think it maybe went over people’s heads. It’s kind of like the PATHS OF POSSESSION records I did — I think it kind of went over people’s heads when we put those two records out, because we didn’t tour for ’em. Listen, you can put a record out and it can go just go largely unnoticed, no matter how famous the people who put it out are…

“A lot of people initially were into it, and then it might have waned a little bit, because we didn’t get to tour for it. [Adam is] busy, I’m busy. He’s in some band called KILLSWITCH ENGAGE; maybe you’ve heard of ’em — I mean, one of the biggest fucking metal bands there is. They were touring, and then we were…

“The first time that this whole thing was brought up was in 2009 when [CANNIBAL CORPSE] did Mayhem fest with [KILLSWITCH ENGAGE], and SLAYER and all the other bands. He brought it up to me about writing a record and doing a record with me. So, it took us, like, five years to get it done. Right now, as far as we know, Shannon, we haven’t really talked to him, so nobody knows if he’s been drumming or not, so it’s possible we’d have to get somebody else [to play drums]. So there’s some obstacles, but definitely it’s on the radar, I would say. I would love to do it. And who knows? Knowing D., he’ll probably message me if he sees this, and he’ll be, like, ‘I’ve got 10 songs. What are you fucking doing?’ You never know.”

The self-titled debut album from SERPENTINE DOMINION was made available in October 2016 via Metal Blade.

On the 2009 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, Lucas, who performed with THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER through 2012, was tapped to record drums on the LP. Between 2009 and 2016, CANNIBAL CORPSE and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE released three albums each, so scheduling time to work on SERPENTINE DOMINION was no easy feat — but when their rigorous schedules allowed, SERPENTINE DOMINION began to come together, with KILLSWITCH ENGAGE vocalist Jesse Leach penning the lyrics, which touch on corruption within the government, religion, big business, and other timely issues.

In a new interiview with “The Metal Hammer Podcast”, EPICA singer Simone Simons was asked what she misses the most about touring. She responded (hear audio below): “What I miss is definitely being on stage, singing, traveling. Ever since I was 17, I’ve been traveling a lot, and that was my lifestyle, not just my job, and it was normal to me. Being home a lot is not normal for me. [Laughs] And I miss the variation — the traveling, meeting the fans. There’s nothing compared to being on a stage, singing live, creating the music at that moment — nothing compares to that; nothing can replace that. So that’s definitely missing, and I feel a little bit as if I’m on standby. And besides that, what I miss as well is that other people are cooking for me [laughs], and cleaning. I mean, I feel like I’m a kitchen slave nowadays. In the morning, making breakfast, [then] lunch, dinner… I feel a little bit [like] a hamster stuck in a loop — the mess never ends; I always keep on cleaning, cooking, buying food, sleeping and then repeat.”

Simone and her husband, KAMELOT keyboardist Oliver Palotai, share a seven-year-old son, Vincent G. Palotai. They live in Germany.

EPICA’s new album, “Omega”, was released on February 26 via Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2016’s “The Holographic Principle” was once again produced by Joost Van Den Broek (POWERWOLF, AYREON) in part at Sandlane Recording Facilities in Rijen, Netherlands.

In a recent interview with Australia’s AMNplify, Simons stated about her inspirations and influences for “Omega”: “Life in general. I mean, the years going up to ‘Omega’, I was struggling with a lot of burnout but also having a very hectic lifestyle. Combining touring life with family life was not always easy. So my battery, I would say that I was extremely exhausted from touring and also the emotional stress of being away from my son. That drained me big time. But I guess you go through phases in your life as well.

“Whatever is happening in society, we, as musicians, as artists, are a little bit of a mirror of what is happening, of course, within ourselves, people close to us and what’s happening around in the world,” she continued. “Global warming is a big topic in one of my lyrics. Genome editing. What’s happening worldwide is a topic. But most of all, this album is a very spiritual album. It’s the most profound, mature album in EPICA’s history.

“The name ‘Omega’ is actually referring to the Omega Point, where you have the Big Bang, the creation of universe. Omega is the end, where basically everything comes together, spiritually and science. Everything in the universe is fated towards a final point of unification. It’s the end of our ‘Kingdom Of Heaven’ series. So this is the third and final ‘Kingdom Of Heaven’ song. It’s our eighth studio album. The number eight is also very spiritual because if you put it on the side, it’s the infinity symbol. ‘Kingdom Of Heaven’ is about life after death, and it’s also number eight on the album. So there is a lot of hidden symbolism on the album and in the artwork. The big life question, ‘What is the true meaning of life?’ How do we navigate through life within ourselves? We are all ‘yin and yang.’ We are all made out of light and dark. We all have this labyrinth within ourselves in which we have to navigate ourselves. We hopefully find our way out of the labyrinth and don’t get lost within the labyrinth of ourselves.”

Tommy Shaw received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday (March 3). The 67-year-old STYX guitarist/vocalist took to his Instagram to share a photo of him getting the shot, and he wrote in an accompanying message: “In honor of what would have been my mother’s 93rd birthday, I asked the nurse to give me my first vaccine by her name on my shoulder! Happy Birthday Mom!”

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed almost a third of U.S. adults are undecided on whether they’ll get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The poll, released last month, found that 31 percent of adults are going to “wait until it has been available for a while to see how it is working for other people” before receiving the coronavirus vaccine.

America’s two main vaccines have shown 95% efficacy against the coronavirus.

As of late January, the CDC discovered that only 11 per 1 million people experienced severe reactions from the Pfizer vaccine, and only 2.5 per 1 million people who received the Moderna dose.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which became available in the United States this week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it emergency use authorization last Saturday, was tested with new variants of COVID-19, and has shown to be effective against them; Pfizer and Moderna were tested prior to the emergence of these variants.

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SAXON singer Biff Byford is collaborating with his son Seb (NAKED SIX) on a new album, to be released before the end of the year. Speaking to Sweden’s RockSverige, Biff stated about the effort: “The record company wants to call it ‘BIFF AND SEB’ or ‘SEB AND BIFF,’ but we would like to do it with a band name and we’ve got the name HEAVY WATER. I quite like that name. We have a working title called ‘Red Brick City’. We’ll call it ‘Heavy Water’ or… I don’t know. The working title might change. As we speak at this moment, we’re doing bass guitars. I’m playing some and Seb’s playing some. When I finish talking to you, I’m going back into the studio.

Asked if he is singing on the album, Biff said: “Me and Seb. He’ll sing a song, I’ll sing a song and we’ll sing a song together. He plays guitar and I play bass and a friend of ours is playing drums, so it’s a three-piece band at the moment. We might add some stuff, but I don’t know. Again, we’re recording it pretty quick and live, just like [SAXON’s upcoming covers album] ‘Inspirations’, really. Very similar to my solo album, a very similar production.”

Biff went on to say that his collaboration with his son is musically similar to that of Byford’s first solo album, “School Of Hard Knocks”, which came out in February 2020. “The songs are also, stylistically, very similar to the ‘Inspirations’ album,” he explained. “There’s some laid-back stuff and there’s some heavy stuff. I wouldn’t say there’s any prog rock on there, but there are definitely two or three metal tracks on there. Seb’s a great songwriter, and he likes to play heavy guitar riffs, so I’m sure people will be interested.”

Asked what it’s like working with his son, Biff said: “It’s pretty cool. We’re both pretty set in our ways, so it’s working really well. It’s great for me and for him, really. I’m getting off on his excitement and his first time doing things, and he gets off on my that wisdom that I’ve learned over the years.”

“Inspirations” will be released on March 19 via Silver Lining Music. The 11-track effort contains some of the classic rock songs that influenced Biff and the rest of SAXON.

“Inspirations” was recorded at Brockfield Hall, near York in the U.K., which was built in 1804 and holds the largest collection of paintings by Yorkshire’s impressionist artists — the Staithes Group.

“Inspirations” will be made available on vinyl, CD, digital formats and limited-edition D2C products.

Dee Snider has set “Leave A Scar” as the title of his upcoming solo album, tentatively due in July via Napalm Records.

The TWISTED SISTER singer revealed the name of his new solo record in an interview with New York’s Q104.3 radio station. Speaking about the LP’s musical direction, he said (see video below): “It is very heavy, but there are some surprises on there that I think people are gonna really be excited about.”

Snider’s next solo album will be the follow-up to “For The Love Of Metal”, which was released in July 2018 via Napalm Records. That effort, which was produced by HATEBREED vocalist Jamey Jasta, featured contributions from Howard Jones (ex-KILLSWITCH ENGAGE), Mark Morton (LAMB OF GOD), Alissa White-Gluz (ARCH ENEMY), Joel Grind and Nick Bellmore (TOXIC HOLOCAUST), and Charlie Bellmore (KINGDOM OF SORROW).

Snider previously spoke about his upcoming solo LP during an October 2020 interview with Full Metal Jackie’s nationally syndicated radio show. At the time, he said: “[I’m] working with the same amazing team — the Bellmore brothers, Charlie [on guitar] and Nickey. Nickey plays drums, but also is the engineer and mixer — an amazing, talented guy. And Jamey Jasta is the producer and curator. He is the gatekeeper, the master. As all ideas are brought in, they’re filtered through Jamey, his ears, and have to get a thumbs-up from him before it makes it to the record. But now we no longer have to do that ‘Is this gonna work?’ thing. And for me, it’s, ‘Do I trust these guys?’ I mean, I trusted them in the sense that they were friends, but when Jamey challenged me to do the metal record, I had my doubts. I don’t wanna say it’s doubts, but [I thought], ‘How is this gonna work?’ So there was an initial thing where we were all feeling each other out. Now, after two years of working together, touring with the Bellmore brothers, locking in a band with Nick ‘Taz’ Petrino on guitar and Russ Pizzuto on bass guitar, we come in and we don’t have to waste any time with that. There is trust, we do know our direction, we do know what works for Dee Snider and for this project, and we just go full steam ahead.”

Snider’s latest release was “For The Love Of Metal Live!”, which came out in July 2020 via Napalm Records. The DVD/Blu-ray and accompanying live album (available in various formats) features audio captured from several Snider festival performances worldwide — from the United States to Europe, Australia and beyond. In addition to tracks from Snider’s solo catalog, like “I Am The Hurricane” and “For The Love Of Metal”, TWISTED SISTER favorites such as “I Wanna Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, and even a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell”, the audio portion of “For The Love Of Metal Live!” also features a brand new original studio track, “Prove Me Wrong”.

TWISTED SISTER called it quits in 2016 after completing a farewell 40th-anniversary tour.

PRETTY MAIDS singer Ronnie Atkins, who is battling stage four cancer, offered an update on his condition during a recent interview with Jeff Gaudiosi of MisplacedStraws.com. He said (see video below): “My health is really good. Well, the diagnosis is what it is, but I’m feeling good at the time. I’ve just actually been through some troubled weeks, because there was another cancer scare, but [it’s a] long story; I went through a lot of biopsies and stuff. Well, that was no cancer cells in the biopsy, and I was told that on Friday, so I’m super happy.

“I’m going to need these scans every third month, and every time is very nerve-racking for me and my wife and kids,” he continued. “You never know what you’ll get told, ’cause last time when I had that serious stage four diagnosis when it spread, I didn’t actually feel any pain. You never know what awaits you.

“Dealing with this disease is like a mental thing — it’s there in the subconscious 24/7. But it’s something you’ve gotta learn to live with. I can’t change what it is — it is what it is. So let’s get the best out of it.”

The 56-year-old Atkins was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2019 and underwent at least 33 radiation and four chemotherapy treatments in the fall of that year before being declared cancer-free. In October 2020, he announced that his cancer had returned.

Atkins’s new solo album, “One Shot”, will be released on March 12 via Frontiers Music Srl. Ronnie put the songs together with good friend and PRETTY MAIDS bandmate and producer Chris Laney. Chris oversaw production, Jacob Hansen mixed, and musicians/singers appearing on the album include, in addition to Laney, Allan Sørensen, Morten Sandager, Pontus Egberg, Pontus Norgren, Kee Marcello, Olliver Hartmann, John Berg, Anders Ringman, Linnea Vikström Egg and Björn Strid.

In a 2013 interview with Myglobalmind, Atkins joked that the secret to keeping his voice in shape was “twenty cigarettes a day and little drink now and then.”

Formed in early 1982 by Atkins and guitarist Ken Hammer, PRETTY MAIDS quickly established itself as a band to be taken seriously. In April 1987, “Future World”, the band’s third album recorded in the USA, was released to great acclaim and is still today regarded as a “classic.”

After the release of the follow-up album “Jump The Gun” (produced by DEEP PURPLE’s Roger Glover), PRETTY MAIDS in 1991 were on the verge of a breakup. However, Hammer and Atkins found a new rhythm section and in 1992 released the “Sin – Decade”, a record that would reveal that PRETTY MAIDS was still a force to be reckoned with, despite the fact that the metal scene now was overrun by the grunge movement. “Sin – Decade” became a huge success in Japan and gave the band a big radio hit with the single “Please Don’t Leave Me”, laying the foundation for the band in the East that would last for the next decade.

During the ensuing years, PRETTY MAIDS continued to release albums usually followed by European and Japanese tours.

PRETTY MAIDS’ latest album, “Undress Your Madness”, was released in November 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.

Petulant religious folk aside, most of us enjoy a bit of flagrant blasphemy woven into the fabric of our heavy music. What we generally don’t expect is to find the stench of malevolence and infernal intent emanating from a band with strong roots in the deathcore scene. BONECARVER were previously known as CANNIBAL GRANDPA, and were well-established as Spain’s premiere purveyors of lobotomized breakdowns and pig squeals. What the band are peddling on “Evil” is something else entirely, and it’s so twisted and unsavory that you can almost feel Satan’s breath on the back of your neck (if Satan was an actual thing, of course) as the riffs erupt.

This is a wholesale reset for this band. Forget the past, “Evil” says very forcefully, and embrace the disgusting, bone-shattering reality of the here and now. With every hackneyed deathcore trope stripped away, and a laudable quantity of much more extreme elements thrown in, BONECARVER are reborn here as aspiring masters of ultra-modern brutality. There are still plenty of swivel-eyed, ‘core-friendly slam moments to be enjoyed, but songs like the multi-tempo “Overtorture” and the genuinely berserk “Moon Maniac” demonstrate a much more sophisticated array of inspirations, with everything from melodic black metal to ultra-demented guttural death-grind being hurled enthusiastically into the Spaniards’ hissing cauldron. And once again, this is an album that somehow lives up to its title, with an omnipresent sense of nauseating tension and waves of nihilistic spite conspiring to lift even the most thuggish moments high above the ordinary.

Lyrically, “Evil” continues BONECARVER’s oft-stated obsession with serial killers, and the gruesome endeavors of Albert Fish in particular. This is fairly standard conceptual fare in extreme metal, but there’s something about the sheer ferocity of BONECARVER’s attack that makes their thematic preoccupations far more convincing than most. Echoing the unstoppable nature of a deranged killer’s urges, the violent battery that drives the likes of “Nest of Traitors” and “The Blacksmith’s Massacre” seems to suggest that the musicians responsible may be a little bit psychotic themselves. The bloody, two-minute ambush of “Hound Pound” will certainly take some beating in 2021 for sheer, mad-as-fuck intensity.

The final proof of BONECARVER’s evolution from deathcore diehards to murderous maverick, is the closing title track, which is simply magnificent: a master class in grandiloquent, despicable death metal, oozing imperious disdain and smashed out with maximum force. It’s the sound of a good band becoming great, as they harness the power of the dark and bring death’s hammer crashing down.

Thirty years and now ten full-length albums in, Greek blackhearts NIGHTFALL deserve great credit for persistence and determination. Although never quite achieving the impact of fellow countrymen like ROTTING CHRIST and SEPTICFLESH, the Athens quartet have been on an interesting journey, starting with feet planted firmly in the black and doom metal realms, before mutating into a more overtly gothic and alternative beast (with variable results, it has to be said) and back again to a ferocious and sinister ethos in more recent times. A cynic might argue that other, more notable bands have done much the same with more memorable results, but the good news about “At Night We Prey” is that NIGHTFALL’s dogged pursuit of the macabre has reached an unexpected peak of potency here.

The problem with mid-period NIGHTFALL records like 1997’s highly questionable “Lesbian Show” is that the band’s tangential moves felt contrived and a little half baked. With renewed fire in their metal bellies, it’s obvious from the genuinely ripping “Killing Moon” that the Greeks have finally clicked into a higher gear and found their natural calling. Eschewing the arcane pomp of their aforementioned contemporaries, NIGHTFALL have struck gold with a fiery hybrid of feverish melodic death metal, gothic atmospherics and flat-out brutality. There are numerous riveting highlights, too: “Darkness Forever” begins as a straightforward deathly thrash song, but bites and scratches with real conviction, as it morphs into a haunting but fiendishly catchy chorus and a glowering, doomed-out coda; “Witches” dives into a maelstrom of thudding, mid-paced old-school death metal, propulsive detours and ghoulish melodrama; “Meteor Gods” is a pummeling, schizophrenic epic, with a simmering core of MY DYING BRIDE-style melodic doom but with multiple proggy touches and startling bursts of feral blasting to offset more traditional instincts. Similarly, the title track sees NIGHTFALL stretch out a little, allowing a greater sense of space and depth to creep into a sturdy barrage of rumbling post-punk, elegiac interludes and stately, theatrical horror.

None of it will start a revolution, but not every band needs to be constantly pushing boundaries or upsetting apple carts: sometimes, the simple pleasure of a balls-out, dark-hearted metal record is pleasure enough. For fans of face-ripping gloom, NIGHTFALL’s sizeable catalogue remains eminently worthy of exploration (I recommend 1993’s “Macabre Sunsets”, for what it’s worth!), but “At Night We Prey” is plainly the best of the lot.

Brent Hinds, songwriter, vocalist and lead guitarist for the Grammy Award-winning band MASTODON, is the latest guest to pay homage to AC/DC on the season two finale of the “AC/DC Beyond The Thunder” podcast.

Hinds discusses his early banjo-playing days growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, eventually inspiring him to learn to play guitar thanks to one, Angus Young, after sneaking a cassette of AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” around his parent’s strict Bible Belt household.

“You can’t listen to AC/DC,” scolded Brent’s parents, “You’ll go to hell!”. Instead of conjuring up the devil, the music made Hinds feel “alive” and was “electrifying.” “AC/DC’s like a religion,” confessed Hinds, calling them, “the quintessential rock ‘n’ roll band.”

During this candid season two finale, Hinds invites listeners on a wild journey — from getting lucky during his first AC/DC concert in high school… with his teacher, sharing producer Brendan O’Brien in the studio, desperately trying to not end up like Bon Scott one day, and pissing in Angus Young’s pocket?

“I was at this awards show. I just walked over to him and said, ‘Thank you for your guitar playing because you really influenced me as a guitar player.'” As the MASTODON guitarist went on to tell Young that he wouldn’t even be at the Golden Gods awards show without his influence, the AC/DC schoolboy-wearing founder pulled Hinds up short by saying, “Quit pissing in my pocket!”, which Hinds would later learn to be an Australian back-handed compliment.

Hinds formed MASTODON in Atlanta, Georgia in 2000. Their track, “Blood & Thunder”, was chosen as one of the most important recordings of the decade by National Public Radio. The band is currently in the studio working on new material.

“AC/DC Beyond The Thunder” features well known actors, authors, athletes, comedians, musicians, media hosts, and even members of the band, all paying homage to one of the greatest bands of all time. Guests have included Slash, Hall Of Fame MLB pitcher Trevor Hoffman, “SNL” comedian Jim Breuer, U.S. military war hero Mike Durant from the film “Black Hawk Down”, classically trained Croatian duo 2CELLOS, Dweezil Zappa and AC/DC drummer Chris Slade.

Created by duo Gregg Ferguson and Kurt Squiers, “AC/DC Beyond The Thunder” originally set out to be a feature-length documentary film. After shooting on the Highway To Hell for years, Ferguson and Squiers approached AC/DC’s management to seek partnership with the band for a worldwide commercial release. After countless attempts for a face-to-face, the duo sent a proof of concept edit for review, and while the band said they, “weren’t quite ready to make a historic film while still making history,” AC/DC liked what they saw. But with no partnership, and no music rights from the band, “AC/DC Beyond The Thunder” was, for all intents and purposes, shot down in flames.

Wondering if the film would ever catch lightning, Ferguson and Squiers decided to unearth these wonderful stories of extraordinary fans discussing their affinity for AC/DC and harness that energy into a vehicle that just might work…a podcast. After capturing over 50 interviews and with a newfound momentum to create all-new episodes with sound engineer Eric Kielb, “AC/DC Beyond The Thunder” is back, serving up inspirational stories about the fans, for the fans, by the fans.

“AC/DC Beyond The Thunder” can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any of your favorite podcast apps.