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Legendary guitarist Steve Vai recently spoke to Cassius Morris on “The Cassius Morris Show” about his relationship with fellow axe hero, Zakk Wylde. Vai and Wylde teamed up for several tours in recent years as part of the “Generation Axe” package, also featuring Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt (EXTREME) and Tosin Abasi (ANIMALS AS LEADERS).

“Well, with Zakk, it’s like with the other [‘Generation Axe’] guys in that there’s a professional relationship where we knew each other through the years as we were both kind of in the same business and at the same levels and this kind of thing, and always nice to each other and maybe occasionally we’d get to play together,” Steve said. “It’s like that with all the guys. But you don’t really get to know somebody until you’re touring with them. And each one of the ‘Generation Axe’ guys are just amazing; I love them like brothers. And Zakk is just — oh my god. It’s hard to explain him. He’s so funny, so lovable, so intense. He is so much himself.

“People struggle to find their authentic personality, because most of the time they’re not themselves because they’re placating somebody else, or they’re acting differently around different people,” he continued. “Zakk doesn’t even know that. He’s like Zakk no matter where he is with anybody, and it is so funny, because he wears who he is on his sleeve. And he’s a smart guy, but he has an aversion to being serious. And that’s so refreshing. And he’s just funny.

“He’s so suited for what he does,” Vai added. “I mean, I’ve never in my life seen a musician with that kind of stamina. I’d watch that guy, I’d watch him, like, just playing, and he just rips [constantly] — he’s just ripping, ripping, ripping — and I’m, like, ‘This motherfucker just doesn’t let up.’ And I’m, like, ‘Okay, all right. That’s cool. I’ve gotta do it.’ Because that’s how you get inspired — you see somebody doing things that inspire you, and I’m, like, ‘All right. I’ve gotta do that.’ Not the way he does it — in my own way. And I can’t. I can do it in chunks, but to be that intense for a 12-minute guitar solo and not let up, that’s a big-boy game, man.”

In September 2019, Vai released a Blu-ray edition of his 2015 live DVD, “Stillness In Motion”, via his personal record label Light Without Heat, distributed by The Orchard. The release features Vai’s complete performance at Club Nokia in Los Angeles on October 12, 2012.

As a virtuoso guitarist, composer and producer, Vai has sold over 15 million albums and won three Grammy Awards. Vai has toured the world with Frank Zappa, ALCATRAZZ, David Lee Roth, WHITESNAKE and the “G3” tour. He appeared in the acclaimed movie “Crossroads”, and also established the Make A Noise foundation. Vai owns the Favored Nations Entertainment record label, and has created music for blockbuster films, best-selling video games, national sports franchises, and corporate brand initiatives.

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Iggy Pop has just released a music video for the song “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. The track is taken from his latest album, “Free”, which was originally made available in September 2019 by Loma Vista Recordings. Featuring collaborators Leron Thomas (trumpet/keys/songwriting/producer) and Noveller (guitar/vocals/producer), the album holds a singular place in Iggy’s canon — and has generated suitably unique praise: The New York Times called the title track “atmospheric and elusive’ and praised the song “Sonali” as “a rushing, fluttering, quasi-waltz that hurries toward an undisclosed destination, whimsical but driven.” Rolling Stone regaled Iggy’s performance on the new record, “Pop flexes his baritone, expressing himself more clearly than perhaps ever before.” And The Washington Post noted “Iggy haunts these new songs like a dignified spirit — which might make ‘Free’ an exposition on death, or transcendence, or both.”

This past December, Iggy released a COVID-19-inspired song called “Dirty Little Virus”. The vocals for the track were recorded at Safe And Sound Mobile Studio in Miami by Luis Gomez, while Chris Berry (drums) and Ari Teitel (guitar and bass) recorded their instruments at their respective home studios.

Pop’s songs have been covered by the likes of GUNS N’ ROSES, R.E.M., RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS and SEX PISTOLS, among others. His 1990 album “Brick By Brick” sold more than 500,000 copies, and his 2003 LP “Skull Ring” featured the likes of GREEN DAY, SUM 41 and PEACHES.

Although his solo records were more commercial than those of his 1960s/1970 band THE STOOGES, he never broke through into the mainstream.

A reformed STOOGES recorded the album “The Weirdness” in 2007.

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TOMMY’S ROCKTRIP, the newly formed hard rock outfit led by renowned drummer Tommy Clufetos (BLACK SABBATH, OZZY OSBOURNE, ROB ZOMBIE, TED NUGENT, ALICE COOPER), will release its debut album, “Beat Up By Rock N’ Roll”, on May 7 via Frontiers Srl. The first single and video will arrive on March 11

“Beat Up By Rock N’ Roll” track listing:

01. Heavy Load
02. Welcome To The Show
03. You Got The Cash, I Got The Flash
04. Make Me Smile
05. Do It Again
06. Kid Blood
07. Don’t Be Afraid
08. Beat Up By Rock N’ Roll
09. Got To Play Some Rock N’ Roll
10. The Longevity
11. Power Of Three

Clufetos worked with such rock icons as Nugent, Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie before joining Ozzy Osbourne in 2010. That led to a spot as the drummer on BLACK SABBATH’s last two world tours.

Earlier this month during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” show, Clufetos was asked why he did not record the drum tracks on BLACK SABBATH’s final album, 2013’s “13”, on which the drums were played by Brad Wilk of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. “That’s show business,” he said. “That’s all you can say. Not everything works out, but in the end, it works out. I’m glad I got to do the tours, and I think I made a good dent, and I was very proud of what I did on stage with those guys. I can’t think about what I didn’t do. They made a great record, they had a Number One record, and you can’t argue with that either. So there you go.”

Asked if ever had any pinch-me, “holy shit” moments while performing with BLACK SABBATH during “The End” tour, Tommy said: “Yes and no. Meaning, the best thing about playing with those guys, it’s not that it was BLACK SABBATH, it’s that all three of those guys, they may have their differences, but when they go on stage, they are a hundred and ten percent into being a group together, more so than anybody I’ve ever played with. It’s a unit up there — that’s what makes them so great. Tony [Iommi, guitar] may lead a certain part of the set somewhere, or a song, Geezer [Butler, bass] may lead a part, and this guy may step back, and that guy may step forward. And they’re backstage getting ready for the show. They’re not worried about Instagram or meeting people. Everybody on that stage, myself included, was a hundred and ten percent. That’s what made it so great. On top of that, playing amazing, legendary, iconic music with the guys who wrote it and created it was undeniably awesome, and it was a privilege, and it made me a better musician playing with those three guys together. And that was an honor — more so than it being BLACK SABBATH, if that makes sense, because that’s a special thing, that’s a rarity, and that’s what makes them BLACK SABBATH.”

He added: “You can’t have a career that all of these guys have had — it’s no mistake for any of them, why they’re still successful and people wanna hear their music. It’s no mistake why Ozzy [Osbourne, vocals] is still successful. It’s ’cause he’s awesome. Tony is awesome, [and] Geezer is awesome.”

Back in 2013, Ozzy told Billboard that the way Clufetos’s exclusion from the “13” album was dealt with “wasn’t very fair on Tommy. [Producer] Rick Rubin just didn’t want to work with him for reasons I don’t know,” Osbourne said. “He’s a great drummer, and he’s been with me for awhile now and I just felt that nobody discussed the decision about Brad to me, and it’s not fair to Tommy. Tommy was promised the album… It’s not because he was my drummer and my ego wanted him. It was just the fact the way it was dealt with. It just got me a bit, it got me pissed off about it. It’s all right now. He’s a great drummer. I don’t know what the problem was.”

As for Wilk, Osbourne said he “did a good job. I don’t have anything bad to say. He’s a very nice guy.”

In an e-mail to Billboard, Rubin explained that “Brad is a muscular drummer with great feel and understands the groovy nature of their music — RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE is a groovy rock band, not a metal band — so it was worth a try. When they played together the first time, it was obvious he would do a great job in the seat [original SABBATH drummer] Bill [Ward] left vacated. Bill’s a great drummer and I’m sure it would have been an amazing album with him. We all wanted him to participate.”

Asked what happened with Bill Ward, who was announced as part of the band’s reunion in late 2011 but bowed out a few months later, Ozzy told Spin, “To be absolutely truthful with you, I can’t really remember. It was such a long time ago. There was the business side of it and the money side of it. We just didn’t have the time to keep the people waiting another fucking ten years . . . We would have loved Bill Ward to step up to the plate, but it never worked out.”

Ward claimed that he sat out the reunion because of unfair contractual terms, although the members of SABBATH have hinted in other interviews that he wasn’t physically up to the task.

“13” was the first album in 35 years to feature Osbourne, Iommi and Butler all playing together.

In February 2017, SABBATH finished “The End” tour in Birmingham, closing out the quartet’s groundbreaking 49-year career.

“The End” was SABBATH’s last tour because Iommi, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and is currently in remission, can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

In a 2018 interview with The Oakland Press, Clufetos stated about playing with SABBATH: “All four of those original SABBATH guys have a very unique way of playing, four unique individuals creating a sound. You can’t copy them. You’ve just got to get into the heartbeat of the music and do it justice. Hopefully I did it justice. I tried my best.”

As for Osbourne, Tommy said: “He’s a special guy. He has a special talent and a unique charisma unto himself that I’ve never seen before. He’s just entertainment, all the way around. He’s a master at what he does, and he knows how to entertain a crowd and give them what they want. He sets the tone, and you want to go to war with him. It’s a great feeling being behind him.”

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Former IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dennis Stratton, who was a member of the band for less than a year, spoke to Robert Cavuoto of Sonic Perspectives about his involvement with MAIDEN’s classic debut album and the British heavy metal legends’ nomination for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Asked if he was aware, while MAIDEN was recording its first LP, of just how revolutionary it would be to heavy metal, Dennis responded: “No, not at all. In 1979, when [IRON MAIDEN] signed the deal with EMI in London, basically, they transformed from a pub band to a big band overnight. When I first went down to meet them, there was only three of ’em — there was only Steve [Harris] and Dave [Murray] and [Paul Di’Anno]. They never had a [steady] drummer and they never had a second guitarist.

“Going into the band, I was given the ‘Soundhouse Tapes’,” he contined. “I had always been involved with harmony guitar bands, with LIONHEART and PRAYING MANTIS, so joining MAIDEN and taking that harmony guitar style of playing seemed to transform the sound of the band quite dramatically. Dave sat down with me, and we’d run through a few things. I was left alone to put down my stamp on the early songs from the ‘Soundhouse Tapes’ leading up to recording the first album. So I was basically given a free rein to put the harmonies where I thought it would make the songs more interesting or bigger, wider. So that’s what I did. And it seemed to work. And it still works now with three guitarists doing all the harmonies. But doing the album, recording the album, we were in the middle of the ‘Metal For Muthas’ tour with PRAYING MANTIS supporting in ’79, and it was just a big rush. So knowing what the album was gonna do — no, it was nowhere near what we were thinking. It was just ‘get the album done.’ We needed to finish the tour, and then we were going on to tour with JUDAS PRIEST. So everything was rushed for EMI to get this album out.”

Stratton also elaborated on how the intricate harmony guitar parts he introduced to IRON MAIDEN became an integral part of the MAIDEN sound in the later years, particularly as the band incorporated more progressive elements into its music.

“I’m very proud to be able say that it was me that took that style of playing into MAIDEN, and they’ve kept it,” Dennis said. “Because I did all the pre-production for [MAIDEN’s second album] ‘Killers’, you will notice when Adrian Smith came in [to record the album], you will hear a lot of my style of playing in the harmonies that Adrian had to learn. So then he recorded the album. It was only after that that I listened to other [MAIDEN] albums as they ventured on through their career, and when they had three guitarists, they kept the harmony guitar style. So it was quite nice for them to still keep that harmony guitar style. And they’ve kept it all the way through till now. So, yeah, it’s a big plus for me to say that it was my idea, it was me that started the harmony guitar [sound] with the band.

“I remember in London in the mid-70s, with [my pre-IRON MAIDEN band] RDB, REMUS DOWN BOULEVARD, me and Dave Edwards would always be doing the harmony guitars. And it was the start of THIN LIZZY in the early ’70s. And I remember Scott Gorham sitting and watching us play, me and Dave, on the harmony guitars. ‘Cause basically, all that harmony guitar style was coming from [an obscure band in] the late ’60s, early ’70s. And then it was the love of WISHBONE ASH. So, we had the harmony guitar style [down] to a tee from the beginning. And then other bands started using ’em. But, yeah, it’s a big plus for me to know that MAIDEN still use that style, which is nice.”

IRON MAIDEN is nominated for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s class of 2021. The top vote-getters will be announced in May and inducted in a Cleveland, Ohio, ceremony in the fall.

According to the Hall Of Fame, the IRON MAIDEN members that would get inducted include the current lineup of singer Bruce Dickinson, bassist Steve Harris, drummer Nicko McBrain, and guitarists Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers, along with Stratton, former singer Paul Di’Anno and former drummer Clive Burr.

To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each nominee’s first single or album had to have been released in 1995 or earlier.

A voter pool of more than 1,000 artists, historians, journalists, and members of the music industry will select the new class. Fans also have a chance to take part in the process by voting at Rockhall.com or at an interactive kiosk at the museum in Cleveland. Their selections will count as a single “fan ballot” that gets tabulated along with the others.

Even though artists are eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single, iconic hard rock and metal groups like MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST and MOTÖRHEAD have yet to be recognized by the institution, which inducted GUNS N’ ROSES in that band’s first year of eligibility.

Having been eligible for induction for more than a decade and a half, IRON MAIDEN is one of the biggest bands on the planet. Since the release of their self-titled debut album, the British heavy metal legends have released a further 15 full-length studio records, and sold over 100 million copies.

Rock Hall rules state that artists become eligible a quarter century after their first records were released, but the Hall also claims that other “criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock ‘n’ roll,” which is, of course, open to interpretation.

Eligible for induction since 1999, KISS didn’t get its first nomination until 2009, and was finally inducted in 2014.

DEEP PURPLE was eligible for the Rock Hall since 1993 but didn’t get inducted until 2016.

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San Jose trio Socioclast unleash an early contender for grindcore album of the year on Carbonized.
The post Blast Worship: Socioclast appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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Gibson has officially announce a new partnership with Dave Mustaine, the legendary guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and Grammy-winning founder and leader of MEGADETH, who joins Gibson as a Brand Ambassador. The new Dave Mustaine Collection will span acoustic and electric guitars across Gibson, Epiphone and Kramer.

Dave will join the Gibson Artist Alliance — a forum which includes legendary musicians, innovative movers and shakers, and new talent — to share in thought leadership, research & development, mentorship of the next generation of players, as well as philanthropic endeavors. In addition to the Dave Mustaine Collection, Dave will be featured in original content and special projects across Gibson, Epiphone and Kramer.

“One of first albums I ever bought was ‘KISS Alive’. On the back of that LP was the Gibson logo, followed by ‘KISS uses Gibson guitars because they want the best.’ Period,” says Dave Mustaine. “Years later, I’m still that same fan, but now I’ve been playing, touring, writing, and performing around the world myself, and I can say that I could not agree more with that statement. As I was looking for a change in my guitars, I met with Cesar and got his perspective on the vision and direction Gibson is taking. I saw passion, respect for the instruments, a focus on quality and a company that is led by guitar players. I feel I am finally at home with Gibson and I am proud of what we’re building together. I can’t wait for the world to get their hands on the new Gibson, Epiphone and Kramer Dave Mustaine Collection guitars. This is a dream come true for me, don’t #@!# wake me up.”

“It’s an honor to welcome icon, pioneer and visionary musician Dave Mustaine to the Gibson family as our brand ambassador”, said Cesar Gueikian of Gibson Brands. “Dave is one of the most influential metal icons and riff lords of all time, having paved the way for multiple generations of players to carry the flag for hard rock and heavy metal, from riff writers to shredders and everyone in between. Working with Dave is especially gratifying because he is a guitar nerd like me, who gets involved in every aspect of the development of the concepts and ideas we have been designing with him at the Gibson Lab. When I was as kid learning how to play guitar, I aspired to play Dave’s riffs and I was one of the fortunate fans who attended their ‘Youthanasia’ tour concert at Estadio Obras Sanitarias in 1994, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the ‘Aguante Megadeth’ chant was born over the song ‘Symphony Of Destruction’. That was an epic night that I will never forget. I look forward to bringing this partnership to life and unveiling the first stages of the Dave Mustaine Collection to the world.”

In November 2019, Mustaine sold off much of his gear, including several Dean prototype signature models that he had used over the years. Two months ago, he confirmed that he was going separate ways with Dean after spending 13 years with the company.

Mustaine’s Gibson announcement comes two months after a employee for the American guitar maker accidentally leaked an image of a guitar that some devoted guitar aficionados speculated could be Mustaine’s new signature model. The same prototype model was also spotted in an Instagram post by Gueikian.

When Mustaine’s deal with Dean was first announced back in January 2007, he said he chose Dean over other guitar companies “because they understand the value of Dave Mustaine and MEGADETH. And it’s mutual,” he explained. “I know that this is the right place for me to finish out my career, endorsing their products, and having my guitars made by Dean.”

Ranked No. 1 by Joel McIver in “The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists” book, Mustaine godfathered fast-heavy-metal guitar generations, first as the original lead guitarist for METALLICA, and then as the founder of legendary MEGADETH.

In 1983, Mustaine founded MEGADETH, and the band released its first album two years later, established Dave and his bandmates as pioneers in the thrash metal movement. The band has since sold 38 million albums worldwide, including five consecutive platinum or multi-platinum albums in the U.S., while garnering 12 Grammy nominations. MEGADETH also landed a 2017 Grammy for “Best Metal Performance” for “Dystopia”, the title track of the band’s 2016 album.

Prior to MEGADETH, Mustaine was an early member of METALLICA. Before leaving the band in 1983, he had co-written a half dozen songs that would appear on METALLICA’s first two albums.

In the video game arena, Mustaine composed the Grammy-nominated MEGADETH track “Sudden Death” for the 2010 release “Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock”. The game also featured two other Mustaine-composed MEGADETH songs: 1990’s “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due” and 2009’s “This Day We Fight!”

MEGADETH is currently working on its 16th studio album.

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CANNIBAL CORPSE’s official music video for the somg “Inhumane Harvest” will make its online debut on Wednesday, February 24 at 9:00 a.m. PST. A teaser for the clip is available below.

“Inhumane Harvest” is taken from CANNIBAL CORPSE’s 15th studio album, “Violence Unimagined”, which will be released on April 16 via Metal Blade Records.

Comprised of eleven tracks, “Violence Unimagined” is state-of-the-art death metal played with passion and breathless precision, making for another flawless addition to what is inarguably one of the premier catalogues the genre has thrown up. “It really follows the path we’ve been going down for a few years now,” states bassist and founding member Alex Webster. “I think we approach the writing in a similar way most every time: each of us try to write the heaviest, most memorable songs we can. We want each song to have its own identifiable character. Showing my age, I like to say you can ‘drop the needle’ on any point of one of our albums and quickly tell which song you’re listening to.”

While they continue to do what they do with aplomb, the one substantial change to CANNIBAL CORPSE is the addition of guitarist Erik Rutan to their ranks, joining Webster, founding drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, guitarist Rob Barrett and vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. Known for his roles in MORBID ANGEL, RIPPING CORPSE and most notably fronting the mighty HATE ETERNAL, Rutan has long established himself as one of the most dynamic forces in contemporary death metal. Simultaneously, he has built up a reputation as one of the most in-demand producers in metal, having previously produced four CANNIBAL CORPSE albums (in addition to “Violence Unimagined”), alongside the likes of GOATWHORE, SOILENT GREEN and BELPHEGOR. Filling in live on guitar since 2019, in 2020 he became a full member, contributing to the writing process.

“I think the most noticeable difference on this record will be the addition of Erik to the band. He wrote three full songs for the record, music and lyrics, and his song writing and guitar playing have added something new, and I think his musical style integrated into ours very well,” Webster enthuses. This is not all that he brings to the band. “He’s a great friend of ours, so on a personal level, he’s been a perfect fit, as we knew he would be. Beyond that, he’s one of the hardest-working people I know, in music or otherwise, and he maintains a high-energy, positive demeanor in challenging situations where other people might go in a negative direction. This energy and great attitude rubs off on the rest of us as well. That’s really a perfect situation to have when you add someone to a band, or any kind of team: someone who’s great at what they do, and also inspires the people around them.”

Already well known for the level of extreme technicality they bring to every record, on “Violence Unimagined”, CANNIBAL CORPSE has further upped their game, particularly in Mazurkiewicz’s drumming.

“I think we all pushed ourselves a bit technically on this one, with Paul probably pushing the hardest,” Webster says. “This album is probably the most drum-intense album we’ve done yet. Part of that could be a result of Erik joining the band. His songwriting style often features technically challenging drumming, probably owing to his years of experience in high-speed death metal.” And with typically dark and warped lyrical content, Mazurkiewicz came up with the fitting title of the record, “summing up what the band is about in every facet, and taking violence to another level of extremity.”

With Rutan in the band, having him produce the record was a no-brainer at Mana Recording in St. Petersburg, Florida — his central base of operation. Using the studio for pre-production, rather than their rehearsal space as usual, was a great benefit early on, allowing them to come into the actual recording process better prepared than ever before. However, their plans to record the album entirely together were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Webster forced to record his bass tracks in his home studio.

“I live on the other side of the country now, and that hadn’t been an issue prior to the pandemic, I was still able to go to Florida whenever I needed to,” Webster says. “So, I was scheduled to fly down for the recording in early April 2020, and of course that was at the very beginning of all of the lockdowns and travel restrictions in the USA, so I didn’t go. Fortunately, I have a lot of experience recording bass tracks at home, so it didn’t affect the sound of the album at all. I stayed in close contact with Erik and the other guys throughout the process, and it actually wound up being quite smooth. Of course, I’m looking forward to tracking in the big studio with the guys for the next album, but I’m glad this option worked well for us.” And it would not be a CANNIBAL CORPSE album without striking artwork from Vince Locke, and “Violence Unimagined” is no different — this time, the cover featuring a mother eating her own baby, though Webster concedes that for censorship reasons, they have had Locke do a complementary piece that will be more widely released.

Now in CANNIBAL CORPSE’s thirty-second year of existence, Webster still has the same hunger to tour, and though unable to do so while the COVID-19 crisis continues, the bassist hopes that not too much more time passes before they are able to get back on the road. Regardless, he is looking ahead and not to the band’s past.

“We’re very excited to continue this new chapter of the band with Erik on board,” he says. “I think that a band should always be working to improve and trying to make whatever they’re currently doing the best thing they’ve done, so that’s what we’ll do.”

“Violence Unimagined” track listing

01. Murderous Rampage
02. Necrogenic Resurrection
03. Inhumane Harvest
04. Condemnation Contagion
05. Surround, Kill, Devour
06. Ritual Annihilation
07. Follow The Blood
08. Bound And Burned
09. Slowly Sawn
10. Overtorture
11. Cerements Of The Flayed

CANNIBAL CORPSE is:

Alex Webster – bass
Paul Mazurkiewicz – drums
George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher – vocals
Rob Barrett – guitar
Erik Rutan – guitar

Photo credit: Alex Morgan

#InhumaneHarvest • 2.24 • 9AM PT • #ViolenceUnimagined • @CorpseOfficial
Set a reminder below. #CannibalCorpse #metalblade

?: https://t.co/gblh3tl2cD pic.twitter.com/yN0xCsUN3U

— Metal Blade Records (@MetalBlade) February 22, 2021

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In a new interview with RadioactiveMike Z, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM radio program “Wired In The Empire”, OF MICE & MEN singer/bassist Aaron Pauley discussed his love of METALLICA. Speaking about his first introduction to the heavy metal giants, Aaron said: “I was a young kid. My neighbor used to listen to METALLICA, and that’s how I first discovered them. He had a big old METALLICA wall flag, and I was, like, ‘That’s cool. I wanna know what that is.’ That was in the ’90s — that was in the early ’90s.”

According to Pauley, OF MICE & MEN shared the stage with METALLICA at the Rock In Rio festival in Brazil in 2015 and at the Soundwave festival in Australia in 2013. “One of the first years that I did Soundwave with the band, we actually played with METALLICA,” he said. “And they threw a barbecue for everybody on the first night, and they were just out hanging around. [It was] very cool. [They’re] very cool guys.”

Asked to name his favorite METALLICA song, Pauley said: “Oh, man. I’m gonna have to say ‘Master Of Puppets’. I mean, you can’t go wrong with it, right? If somebody was, like, ‘Where should I start? What’s the first song I should listen to?’, that might be one of the first songs I’d show ’em.”

OF MICE & MEN’s new EP, “Timeless”, will be released on February 26 via the band’s new label home, SharpTone Records.

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