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The reunited expanded classic lineup of German power metallers HELLOWEEN will release its much-anticipated album in the summer of 2021. The disc’s first single, “Skyfall”, will arrive on April 2.

Behind-the-scenes video from the “Skyfall” photo shoot can be seen below.

The “Pumpkins United” lineup features returning singer Michael Kiske and guitarist/vocalist Kai Hansen alongside current singer Andi Deris, guitarists Michael Weikath and Sascha Gerstner, bassist Markus Grosskopf and drummer Daniel Löble.

Produced by Charlie Bauerfeind and Dennis Ward, the new HELLOWEEN LP was recorded in part at the H.O.M.E. Studios in Hamburg (where everything started in 1984). The same recording console used for such HELLOWEEN albums as “Master Of The Rings”, “Time Of The Oath” and “Better Than Raw” was utilized to record the band’s new material. The effort was mixed at the Valhalla Studios of Ronald Prent (IRON MAIDEN, DEF LEPPARD, RAMMSTEIN).

HELLOWEEN’s new album saw the legendary German power metallers going “back to the roots,” with the band recording fully analogue and Löble playing the drum kit previously used by HELLOWEEN’s original drummer, the late Ingo Schwichtenberg, on the legendary “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” recordings.

“Skyfall” will be available on CD, digitally and in two different vinyl versions.

Single 1: Vinyl, CD, digital:

“Skyfall” (single edit) + “Skyfall” (exclusive alternative vocals mix). Both are exclusive single versions and will not be on the album. Around 20 minutes playing time.

Single 2: Vinyl only

“Skyfall” (single edit) + “Indestructible” (exclusive album track). This is a strictly limited version of the new single with one exclusive album track.

The epic 12-minute track “Skyfall”, written by Hansen, has the long-yearned “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” vibe, but it isn’t musically telling the whole story of the album. Lyrically, “Skyfall” tells about an alien landing on earth, and the accompanying music video, produced by Martin Häusler, will be the most elaborate clip in the history of the band, featuring 3D animation and a cinematic look.

A new two-minute video in which Kiske, Hansen and Deris sit down and discuss the idea behind the “exclusive alternative vocals mix” and why there will be three versions of “Skyfall” can be seen below.

The “Pumpkins United” tour marked the first time Kiske had played live with HELLOWEEN since 1993. Hansen, who departed HELLOWEEN in 1988, had been joining the band onstage on various tours and festival appearances throughout the years. The set featured several duets with Kiske and his replacement, Deris, along with many rarely played songs, including “Kids Of The Century”, “Rise And Fall” and “Livin’ Ain’t No Crime”. Hansen — who fronted HELLOWEEN until late 1986 — sang a medley of several early HELLOWEEN classics, including “Ride The Sky”, “Judas”, “Starlight” and “Heavy Metal (Is The Law)”.

HELLOWEEN’s European “United Alive World Tour Part II”, which was originally scheduled to take place in September and October will now take place next year.

The “Pumpkins United” lineup of HELLOWEEN already released one new song — aptly titled “Pumpkins United” — in October 2017.

Steve Von Till has made a life’s work out of seeking the elemental. With a solo discography that stretches back more than two decades, he has toiled in a shadow realm, peeling back layers of reality in a never-ending search for true meaning and raw emotion. Due on April 30, “A Deep Voiceless Wilderness” strips back the veil even further. An achingly beautiful ambient work with neo-classical leanings, the album is a hallucinatory and elegant rumination on our disconnect from the natural world, each other, and ultimately ourselves.

For some listeners, the album may recall the work of modern composers like Jóhann Jóhannsson, Brian Eno or Gavin Bryars. For Von Till, it’s about surrendering to the spirit of place — and to the original intent behind his 2020 solo album, “No Wilderness Deep Enough”. That album marked a significant first for Von Till: It was his first solo record without a guitar in hand. Instead, Von Till intoned powerful and thought-provoking lyrics over piano, cello, mellotron and analog synthesizers. “A Deep Voiceless Wilderness” is that same album without Von Till’s words.

“This is how I originally heard this piece of music,” he says. “Without the voice as an anchor or earthbound narrative, these pieces have a broader wingspan. They become something else entirely and unfold in a more expansive way. The depth of the synths, juxtaposed with the strings and French horn, have space to develop and allow the listener to imagine their own story.”

“A Deep Voiceless Wilderness” track listing:

01. Called From The Wind
02. We’ll Always Have The Sea
03. The Emptiness Swallows Us All
04. Shelter In Surrender
05. Nightshade High Country
06. The Spiraling Away

Also a first for Von Till was “Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems And Collected Lyrics”, his first book of poetry. Published by the University of South Dakota’s AstrophilPress, the book established Von Till as a formidable and thoughtful author of verse — a fact that NEUROSIS fans knew all along, but the wider world was only just becoming aware of.

“There is a depth of hope, acceptance and loss that permeates these poems,” Joseph Haeger said in his review for The Inlander. “Like any great piece of art, ‘Harvestman’ contains multitudes, and that’s exactly what I was hoping for when I cracked it open. Von Till has already established himself as a great musician, and he’s about to put his stake into the ground proving himself to be a damn good writer.”

For 2021, Von Till has reimagined “Harvestman” in a new format, delivering an intimate and captivating reading of the collection with sound enhancements.

“Being a constant sound-seeker, I thought it would be more interesting to have some textures and treatments to break up the intimate voice recordings,” Von Till says of his decision to add some atmosphere to the spoken-word version of “Harvestman”. “The background sounds used on some of the tracks were pieces related to ‘No Wilderness Deep Enough’ that were either not used or repurposed to interweave further connections between my artistic output at this time of my life.”

Photo by James Rexroad

Dutch symphonic metallers EPICA have released the official music video for the song “Skeleton Key”. The track is taken from the band’s new album, “Omega”, which is being released today (Friday, 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.

Singer Simone Simons comments: “Welcome to the ‘Skeleton Key’ multi-layered dreamworld. Don’t forget to bring your Skeleton Key to unlock all the secrets within yourself! I hope this song will haunt you until we can see each other again.”

Guitarist/vocalist Mark Jansen previously stated about “Omega”: “I am very proud of this album, as I am convinced we have written a very refreshing and well-balanced album even after so many years of existence.

“Our strength is that we have many great songwriters in one band. We have managed to combine each other’s strongest qualities and select the best songs. It was a fruitful period of spending time together to work as one team on those tracks. I think this has made the biggest difference compared to our previous albums. Still using the advantages of comfortably sending files by the Internet to each other but combining that with coming physically together again to work on all the tracks.”

“Omega” track listing:

01. Alpha – Anteludium
02. Abyss Of Time – Countdown To Singularity
03. The Skeleton Key
04. Seal of Solomon
05. Gaia
06. Code Of Life
07. Freedom – The Wolves Within
08. Kingdom Of Heaven, Part 3 – The Antediluvian Universe
09. Rivers
10. Synergize – Manic Manifest
11. Twilight Reverie – The Hypnagogic State
12. Omega – Sovereign Of The Sun Spheres

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.”

The music video for the single “Cold Sacrifice” by the late Ken Hensley can be seen below. Taken from his upcoming album “My Book Of Answers”, “Cold Sacrifice” is the third track to be released from Hensley’s collaboration with Russian fan Vladimir Emelin whose poems have been turned into an album’s worth of songs, a series of videos, a concert and an illustrated lyric book (available later this year). “My Book Of Answers” will be released on March 5 as a CD/DVD and vinyl album through Cherry Red Records.

For half a century, Hensley was a major influence in the rock world. An original member of URIAH HEEP, Hensley was keyboard player, guitarist, vocalist and principal song writer with URIAH HEEP for ten years. His subsequent solo career saw Hensley work with leading artists across the globe and he became known as an inspiration for encouraging other talented artists.

“My Book Of Answers” is a wonderful tribute to this rock legend. The album is the intriguing result of a collaboration with one of Hensley’s fans, following a chance meeting at an airport, as he turns dreams into a reality. Over a two-year period, the collaboration with Russian fan Vladimir Emelin has seen Hensley turn Emelin’s poems into an album’s worth of songs, a series of videos, a concert and an illustrated lyric book charting the progress of each piece from Russian poem to English rock song. And all of this has been produced in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

Hensley was clearly excited when speaking shortly before his death. “It’s been fascinating since day one,” he said. “It’s somewhat miraculous how it all came together and how it’s continued to grow and develop, even through the crisis, to where it’s at today and where it’s going tomorrow.”

This unique project came about following Hensley’s chance meeting with Emelin at Alicante airport in early 2018, as he explained. “Vladimir has a home up on the Costa Blanca and he’s here as often as visas will permit,” Hensley said. “I was flying to Moscow, he was on his way home and he saw me at the airport. I guess I’m his idol and he’s been a fan since he was a kid. Well, he asked me for an autograph and a picture, which I was happy to give him, and for an e-mail address.”

At a meeting in Alicante later in the year, Emelin asked if Hensley could turn a couple of his poems into songs. “I tried a couple of songs, although I didn’t know if I could do it because I’ve never done it before,” Hensley recalled. “He loved it and he wanted me to do more and more until we finally ended up with an album’s worth of songs.

“I made most of the album under lockdown, coronavirus restrictions, which was easy because it was just file-sharing over the Internet with the musicians, the singers and my engineer and it was relatively easy. What we had to do was make sure we didn’t compromise any quality. I popped it over to my manager Steve Weltman and typically, before I know it, he’s got the guys at Cherry Red interested in it! The whole thing takes on another dimension.”

Emelin also suggested a video and they would, eventually, make a video for each track together with a concert of all of the songs which was filmed, with social distancing, close to Hensley’s home in Spain.

“I’ve never done anything like this before and, to the best of my knowledge, I don’t recall anybody else who has,” Hensley added. “I’m also developing a lyric book which will be a beautiful piece. Each song features the original Russian lyric, the translation by Vladimir’s friend in Siberia and my notated stuff where I changed the words of the poem into a song and created verses, bridges and choruses. The fans can see all the changes I made, and understand why I made them, and then there’s the final lyric that appears on the album. Alisia Vaselieva, a wonderful illustrator and friend of Vladimir’s, has done an illustration for each song, so five pages for each song and it will be a deluxe hard-back package — a collectors’ item.

“To begin with, it was hard to find the time to really concentrate on the project because 2019 was one of the busiest years of my career, but, as it happens, the coronavirus actually solved the problem for me, at the same time as it created terrible problems for so many others. I was forced to stay home and spend all my time on this project with Vladimir, the restrictions of the virus meant I was able to do that.

“I’m really happy with it and I have a huge yardstick to measure it by! It seems as though it was meant to happen.”

Track listing:

01. Lost (My Guardian)
02. Right Here, Right Now
03. Cold Sacrifice
04. The Silent Scream
05. Cover Girl
06. Light The Fire (In My Heart)
07. Stand (Chase The Beast Away)
08. The Darkest Hour
09. Suddenly
10. The Darkest Hour (Acoustic)

Hensley was URIAH HEEP’s keyboard player and principal songwriter, responsible for such classics as “Lady In Black”, “Easy Livin'” and “Look At Yourself”, and providing them with much of their musical direction. Leaving the band in 1980 to pursue a solo career, he also collaborated with Florida-based hard rock band BLACKFOOT, L.A. heavy metal band W.A.S.P. and CINDERELLA. “Ken Hensley wrote the rule book for heavy metal keyboards as far as I’m concerned,” W.A.S.P.’s frontman Blackie Lawless is quoted as saying.

Following his departure from URIAH HEEP, Hensley lived in America where he met his wife-to-be Monica. Speaking just days before his death, Hensley said: “I lived in America for 20 years after I left URIAH HEEP and I really needed time to rediscover myself, get rid of my drug habit and see if there was anything left of a human being in there after my life had been buried in URIAH HEEP for ten and a half years. It took a long time to get there but I got there in the end. I met Monica and we lived together for a couple of years. I wanted to move back to Europe to be closer to my family.”

The Hensleys settled on a farm near Alicante, Spain, and married in 2004. A very spiritual person, Hensley became an inspiration to many and known for encouraging talented artists and enjoyed the love and respect of fans the world over. “It’s enduring and I’m happy that most of them are still alive,” he said. “I love to meet them when I go out on the road but at the moment that’s not possible.”

Reflecting on 50-plus years in the music business, he added: “It’s been a great career. I can’t look through the (URIAH HEEP) box set without having a huge smile on my face! To be celebrating my music 50 years on is quite something. We weren’t a hit with the critics but we listened to the people who bought tickets and albums and, unfortunately, the critics ignored them. It just went on and on and on. We pulled together and achieved everything we set out to do. It was a wonderful life and career. My life has been fantastic, but it’s not been easy. It was a lot of hard work, but when you do what you love best it doesn’t seem like hard work.”

Legendary producer and Hall Of Fame songwriter Linda Perry is set to curate and perform at the upcoming two-day “Rock ‘N’ Relief: Live Stream” series. Founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee, CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) is a non-profit organization dedicated to crisis response.

CORE has been working tirelessly on the frontlines with partners to provide equitable access to free testing and vaccines across Los Angeles for the past year. This two-day live stream will benefit CORE’s life-saving programs. In addition, the concert will also benefit CORE’s work supporting the City of L.A.’s mobile vaccination program, which brings access to the vaccine directly to communities who need it most across L.A. The mobile vaccination program targets low-income communities of color that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. By providing direct access within the community and offering on-site registration, CORE is helping to eliminate the disparities in health equity as it relates to vaccine distribution and COVID-19 testing.

Additionally, CORE helps operate the City of L.A.’s mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium, which is currently serving as the largest vaccination site in the U.S., providing an average of 8,000 vaccines daily, with the capacity to administer more than 12,000 vaccines per day, pending vaccine supply. Linda Perry’s “Rock ‘N’ Relief” concert aims to be a magnet to bring awareness to CORE as well as raise money in support of CORE’s daily outreach to broaden its impact in the community during this pandemic.

“Our critical mission within this moment of the pandemic is to provide equitable relief services to our local community, and we rely on donations to continue our efforts,” said CORE’s co-founder and CEO Ann Lee. “We are thrilled that Linda Perry has curated such an amazing group of artists to support our cause and bring comfort and joy to people in this time of hardship.”

“As a mother and fellow member of this community, I wanted to do something to lift spirits and send a positive message of hope and humanity to all the healthcare workers and those on the front lines, as well as raise awareness and funds to support CORE and their relief efforts,” said Perry. “When I first put the word out, many jumped on board to contribute; we had over 150 bands submit to play. We are pleased to announce that California Love Drop and Monty’s Good Burger will provide food and beverages to all the digital workers that will be working hard to bring this powerful content to the viewers of this impactful concert series. Our goal is to do everything we can to thank CORE and the self-sacrificing people who keep us safe during this unprecedented crisis.”

The current lineup for this two-day concert series, hosted by DJ Kat Corbett of SiriusXM and KROQ. will feature artists like FOO FIGHTERS, Perry Farrell, Gavin Rossdale, Sammy Hagar, Donita Sparks of L7 and friends, Linda Perry, SILVERSUN PICKUPS and more. Perry and CORE are working with Amazon Music to stream the concert live on the Amazon Music mobile app, and through the Amazon Music Twitch channel. Rolling Stone and YouTube will also further the reach of this timeless event.

“We are extremely overwhelmed by the level of support we are getting from these rebel artists who are generously donating their time and so grateful for the backing from the biggest players in the media space. Can’t wait to get the word out and provide much needed funding for CORE while entertaining and lifting the spirits of the nation,” says Perry.

CORE is a nonprofit organization co-founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee that is dedicated to saving lives and strengthening communities affected by or vulnerable to crisis. Within hours of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Penn mobilized a powerful network to take immediate action. More than 10 years later, CORE continues to lead sustainable programs focused on four pillars: emergency relief, disaster preparedness, environmental resiliency and community building. The organization has expanded beyond Haiti to support communities in The Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the United States. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, CORE has been operating free testing sites across the country alongside local partners, providing essential resources and contact tracing services as well as part of its integrated “CORE 8” approach to combat the pandemic. In 2021, CORE is working with its partners nationwide to ensure safe and equitable distribution of vaccines as they become available to the communities the organization serves.

Swedish heavy metal titans SABATON have released the official music video for their new single, “Livgardet”. The band’s first new music since 2019’s “The Great War” is a Swedish-language song which honors the Swedish Royal Guards first established in the year 1521.

“Since 2012 and ‘Carolus Rex’, we have been looking forward to writing more songs in Swedish, and we felt that we were not done with the history of our fatherland,” bassist Pär Sundström explained. “Over the past years, we have been discussing around topics until something obvious came up. One of the oldest military regiments in the world, the Swedish Royal Guard (Livgardet), was formed in the SABATON home region in Sweden, Dalecarlia, in 1521 by the legendary Swedish king Gustav Vasa. For the past 500 years, they have evolved with the times and served under various kings and queens around the world and are still active today. We felt that such an anniversary would be worth a song, and we aimed at writing a respectful tribute, an anthem for this Swedish regiment and its legacy. The rich 500 years of history is, needless to say, extremely hard to fit into one song, and that is why we mainly focused on the parts and battles that happened during the age of the Swedish Empire. We aimed to write a respectful tribute, a powerful anthem, for this Swedish regiment and its remarkable legacy.”

An English-language version of the song, titled “The Royal Guard”, will be released on April 9. It will be made available on in various shades of colored vinyl, with an etched B-side. A limited-edition version comes with gunpowder pressed into the vinyl.

The Nuclear Blast relationship with SABATON dates back to 2010’s World War II-themed “Coat Of Arms”. Its follow-up, 2012’s “Carolus Rex”, was released in both English and Swedish language editions. “Livgardet” marks a return to the band’s native language. As SABATON’s frontman, co-founder, and principal songwriter Joakim Brodén declared: “Damn, it feels good to be singing in Swedish again!”

As proclaimed by Kerrang! magazine, SABATON put the “(fire)power back into metal” and deliver bombastic, anthems of sacrifice, heroism, and determination, across nine studio albums and two decades of unforgettable performances. The songs “To Hell and Back”, “The Last Stand” and “Primo Victoria” have been streamed more than 200 million times on Spotify alone, where SABATON boasts more than two million monthly listeners. Over a million YouTube subscribers share in the band’s dual passions for hard rock and history. This precision combination propelled them to the top of the bills at the world’s largest metal festivals, like Wacken Open Air (Germany) and Bloodstock Open Air (U.K.).

SABATON is arguably one of the most important bands to emerge from the modern metal scene, journeying forth with confidence on a steady ascendence that’s rewarded them with five Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards (including “Best Live Band” three different years) and multiple nominations for the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards, the Grammis. In 2016, “The Last Stand” debuted at No. 1 in three different European countries and cracked the Top 3 in four others. Brodén, Sundström, Chris Rörland (guitars), Hannes Van Dahl (drums) and Tommy Johansson (guitars) curate a festival of their own, Sabaton Open Air, that started back in 2008, as well as their own forward-thinking Sabaton Cruise, that is being held since 2009.

SABATON’s ninth album centered on World War I, often referred to as “The Great War.” “The Last Stand” delved into various “last stands” throughout history. “Livgardet” strengthens the band’s well-known reputation as experts, aficionados, and storytellers regarding the triumph and tragedy of battle.

SABATON headlined London’s Wembley Arena in February 2020. JUDAS PRIEST chose them as main support on their “50 Heavy Metal Years” tour of North America, scheduled for September and October 2021. The group will kick off 2022 with an unprecedented 29-city tour of their home country.

LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, the instrumental progressive rock/metal project featuring DREAM THEATER keyboardist Jordan Rudess and guitarist John Petrucci, alongside ex-DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy and progressive rock icon Tony Levin (bass) of KING CRIMSON and PETER GABRIEL fame, will release its third album, “LTE3”, on March 26 via InsideOut Music. The effort will arrive 22 years after the release of 1999’s “Liquid Tension Experiment 2”. The official Christian Rios-created music video for the album’s second single, “Beating The Odds”, can be seen below.

Petrucci said: “This was a riff that I brought into the sessions that I thought was interesting because it’s in an odd time and phrased in a way that is hard to wrap your head around at first until you understand where the groove is. When I first presented it to the guys, their initial reaction was ‘how are you feeling that?’ When the band enters after the opening riff, it probably sounds a little ‘odd’ because the time signature is a bit unclear until the song gets going. If LTE ever had a ‘prog pop hit’ this would be it.”

Added Rudess: “I remember the look of confusion on ALL our faces when JP started playing that opening riff! It’s was seemingly so straight ahead but with a bizarre rhythmic twist! Took a while to internalize that, but then we all loved it! One of the great things about LTE is the fact that we just let ourselves loose and have FUN!”

Said Portnoy: “‘Beating The Odds’ is the second song we wrote in the LTE3 sessions. I jokingly referred to it as ‘the feel-good song of the pandemic’ in the studio as it has a very upbeat happy feel to it…but also takes a few cool musical twists and turns ranging from the glorious melodic chorus and end vamp to the dark driving solo sections.”

Stated Levin: “Starts with an off-step riff, kind of like walking upstairs backward, but at the repeat you get it. Then it opens up into ‘anthem land.’ Later there are unison bass lines where both Jordan and John got flangy sounds that work well with the bass. Mike’s unstoppable energy is evident here, and we’ve got more fantastic J&J solos. At only five and a half minutes, we start fading out… a short song by our standards. But we’re just getting warmed up.”

“LTE3” track listing:

01. Hypersonic (8:22)
02. Beating The Odds (6:09)
03. Liquid Evolution (3:23)
04. The Passage Of Time (7:32)
05. Chris & Kevin’s Amazing Odyssey (5:04)
06. Rhapsody In Blue (13:16)
07. Shades Of Hope (4:42)
08. Key To The Imagination (13:14)

The bonus disc includes almost an hour of improvised jams.

The album will be available as:

* Limited deluxe hot pink 3LP+2CD+Blu-ray Box Set (including a poster and 4 artcards, Blu-ray includes a 5.1 surround mix with visuals, and full band interview from the studio)
* Limited 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook
* Limited 2CD Digipak
* Gatefold black 2LP+CD
*Digital album (2CD)

Speaking about why now was the right time to resurrect LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, Portnoy told Revolver: “The main reason is the insanity of 2020. The pandemic and the lockdown is pretty much what allowed it. But we’ve been talking about it for many, many years. It’s been 10 years since I left DREAM THEATER, and it didn’t make sense to do LTE while I was still in DREAM THEATER. Because it was three members of the same band. Then after I left, it took many years of healing and all the drama to pass and the dust to settle before the relationships with John and Jordan got real good again. And musically, Jordan and I played together a few years ago on the Cruise To The Edge, and then obviously John Petrucci and I played together last year for his solo album [‘Terminal Velocity’]. So it seemed like the time was right to finally do it. And the pandemic, for better or worse, gave us a window of opportunity where none of us were on tour and we could actually align the schedules and do it.”

On the topic of his musical chemistry with Petrucci, Portnoy said: “Well, John and I were writing partners and producing partners for 25 years. And when we reconvened last year for his solo album, I guess I will say the difference was that the roles were redefined, because it was his album. It wasn’t like DREAM THEATER where we wrote together and produced together. When I got together with him for ‘Terminal Velocity’, I was coming in and playing a much different role, as was he. John had written it all and I was there to do a service for him. And I’m very comfortable playing that role, being a session guy or a hired gun. But then when we got together to do LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT a few months later, that was more of the natural chemistry of us writing together, working together, making decisions together. Once we got to that relationship, it was exactly as it had been when I left DREAM THEATER. It was just so immediately comfortable.”

In November 2017, Mike told Loud that he left DREAM THEATER because he wanted to expand his musical horizons. “[I didn’t] want to go to my grave and just be the drummer from DREAM THEATER,” he said. “I knew there was way more to what I had to offer.”

Photo credit: Tony Levin

According to Metal Sludge, RATT singer Stephen Pearcy will film a virtual concert with his solo band over February 26 and February 27, to be released via a streaming platform at a later date. The event will reportedly be shot at the world-famous Whisky A Go Go on the famed Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California and could feature a special guest appearance on “a few tunes” by former RATT drummer Bobby Blotzer.

On Thursday night (February 25), Stephen shared the Metal Sludge article about a possible Pearcy-Blotzer reunion on his Instagram, and he included the following message: “Hmmm, we’ll have to wait and see”.

The rumors of Blotzer playing with Pearcy again come a month after Stephen confirmed to SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that he was back on speaking terms with the drummer, who led his own version of RATT for a couple of years beginning in late 2015 before becoming embroiled in a legal battle with the singer, guitarist Warren DeMartini and bassist Juan Croucier over the rights to the band’s name.

“I do talk to Bobby,” Pearcy told “Trunk Nation”. “Bobby and I are — it’s love-hate, brother kind of a gig. We keep in touch and talk about positive things. He still has interest, so there are some things to talk about. And Warren is the same.”

“Look, life goes on,” he explained. “Life’s short. Hate’s not a good thing. There’s communication. But I can’t say anything.”

During the same chat, Pearcy said that he was open to the idea of making a new RATT album with all the surviving members of the band’s classic lineup.

“I wouldn’t wanna put a RATT record out there without the original guys,” he said. “I mean, it just wouldn’t make sense. We’ve tried it.

“Look, I accepted it a long time ago when Robbin [Crosby, late RATT guitarist] left the band, we lost a big element of direction. He was my right-hand man creating this monster. And I knew it — I knew once he was out, we would be going through motions. It’s all cool, and it’s great, but how many replacements can you have in a band and still consider it legit? So if we’re gonna have something on plastic, so to speak, forever, I’d rather have the original band do a record and just not do a RATT record until that day comes — if it ever happens.”

Stephen also stressed the importance of not letting personal differences get in the way of making music and touring while he and his bandmates are still physically able to perfom the classic RATT songs live.

“Look, we’re not the most dysfunctional band on the planet,” he said. “I’ve said it before, there are bands much more dysfunctional — MÖTLEY [CRÜE], GN’R [GUNS N’ ROSES], you name ’em — but the smart ones make an effort to take care of business. MÖTLEY — I don’t know if they even talk to each other, but they’re getting the business done. And that’s where I’m at. What are you — punishing somebody? You’re getting back at somebody? You’re holding a grudge, vendetta… It’s all bullshit. We’re all gonna die anyway. Go figure it out.”

Pearcy and Croucier are the sole remaining original members in RATT’s current lineup, which made its live debut in July 2018 in Mulvane, Kansas. Joining them in the band are drummer Pete Holmes (BLACK ‘N BLUE, RATT’S JUAN CROUCIER) and guitarist Jordan Ziff (RAZER).

RATT hasn’t released any new music since 2010’s “Infestation” album.

RATT — featuring Pearcy, Croucier and DeMartini — played a number of shows in 2017 after reforming a year earlier in the midst of a highly publicized legal battle with Blotzer over the rights to the RATT name. They were joined at the gigs by ex-QUIET RIOT guitarist Carlos Cavazo, who played on “Infestation”, and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso, who previously played with Y&T, WHITE LION and MEGADETH, among others.

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BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE (a.k.a. BIAS), the hard rock band featuring former KORN drummer David Silveria, was recently interviewed by Portugal’s Underground’s Voice. You can watch the chat below.

Asked how it feels to be credited with having originated the “nu metal” sound with KORN, Silveria said: “Supposedly [KORN] invented nu metal, the genre. I think if you Google ‘nu metal,’ KORN comes up as the inventors and all that shit. But we had our influences too before KORN came out.

“It’s never hit me that we invented a whole new genre of music, ’cause, to me, we were just making songs, and we were just writing what we wanted to write, and what felt good,” he continued. “Not one time when we were in the studio did we go, ‘Hey, we’re making a new genre right now. Let’s do it.’ That never happened. So when people say that we invented the whole nu metal thing, I don’t really know how to act. It’s definitely a great thing to hear — it makes you feel good — but I really don’t know how to react to that, just because I felt it was five guys making music, not inventing a whole genre of music.”

KORN’s self-titled debut, which came out in 1994, went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide and featured the band’s first classic, “Blind”. The LP is credited with launching the nu metal movement, setting the template for albums from bands like DEFTONES, LIMP BIZKIT, COAL CHAMBER and others.

Essentially a fusion of rap and alternative rock (arguably born out of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE), nu metal inexplicably swept the airwaves and peaked for a brief period in the late ’90s and early 2000s, with Gregory Heaney of AllMusic describing the genre as “one of metal’s more unfortunate pushes into the mainstream.” Along the way, several bands associated with nu metal, including KORN, DEFTONES and SLIPKNOT, took a somewhat defensive stance against being labeled as such. Even those less apologetic nu metal groups eventually changed their sound, effectively disowning the genre that they helped pioneer.

In a 2012 interview with Gibson Guitar, KORN guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer said that he and his bandmates “never considered ourselves ‘nu metal,’ or any particular genre for that matter. When we came out, certain media outlets coined that phrase to group all these bands together, but we’ve always tried to do our own thing,” he said. “We love metal, but also incorporate hip-hop, funk, electronic music, and try to keep challenging ourselves to be different and push our own boundaries with our music. I think that’s kept us in a good creative space that our amazing fans have been so supportive of, thankfully.”

Last August, Silveria told the “Talk Toomey” podcast that countless people have credited KORN with creating nu metal. “I do agree that we changed the music scene and put the course of heavy music on a different route,” he said. “I just feel like me — I don’t feel, like, ‘Oh, I did something. I changed the whole entire scene.’ It’s not a feeling that I have. I’ve heard it so many times, I don’t really understand it. But I guess we did — for all intents and purposes, I guess we did kind of change the scene and created this new genre called nu metal.”

In a 2017 interview Italy’s Linea Rock, Silveria’s replacement, Ray Luzier, said that he doesn’t consider KORN to be a “nu metal” band. “To me, I don’t know what that is,” he said. “Anyone could make a style up. I don’t know… all of these emo [bands], I don’t get it. To me, KORN is KORN. It’s its own thing. It’s hard rock, it’s metal, it’s hip-hop, it’s funk…all of this stuff wrapped into one. It’s not just aggressive metal music. I can’t call it metal, but hard rock doesn’t fit either. It’s KORN. It’s the style. [Laughs]”

Last month, BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE released its debut EP “Acronym”. The effort features a cover of FAITH NO MORE’s “Midlife Crisis”, as well as BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE’s debut single “Pity”, which reached No. 23 on the Billboard Indicator chart and No. 9 on the Foundations chart upon its initial release.