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METALLICA has released lyric videos for its new single, “Lux Æterna”, in several different languages: English, Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Check them out below.
“Lux Æterna” is the first single from METALLICA’s upcoming 12th studio album, “72 Seasons”, which is due on April 14, 2023 v…

Earlier this week, QUEENSRŸCHE announced an early 2023 U.S. tour in support of its sixteenth studio album, “Digital Noise Alliance”. The band has just wrapped up a fall run in North America supporting JUDAS PRIEST on the “50 Heavy Metal Years” tour, and will now launch their first headlining campaig…

Legendary DOKKEN guitarist George Lynch has collaborated with Los Angeles art team SceneFour on the creation of fine artwork built from performance. Utilizing light-based technology, Lynch is able to create and capture his fretboard performance into extraordinary abstract images that are then laid t…

Doom metal bards Lord Mountain rattle the highest peaks with the crushing and catchy title-track from their debut LP, The Oath.
The post Track Premiere: Lord Mountain – “The Oath” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

According to Variety, Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin held the first-ever live edition of their “Hannukah Sessions” project Monday night (December 5) at the 250-capacity Largo in Los Angeles, California. This year’s event, which was presented by director Judd Apatow, with profits going towards the Anti-…

NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen has once again said the band’s upcoming follow-up to 2020’s “Human. :II: Nature.” will be the third part of a trilogy that began with 2015’s “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” album. He told Metal Hammer: “I immediately knew after getting that…

It’s fun to binge-watch YouTube videos, and for guitarists there are a plethora of them to behold. There are mashups of metal and funk, as well as never-before-seen footage of classic acts in every genre. Then, there are the how-to videos that have helped me and countless others learn new fretboard moves. My favorites are the ones that decode songs, unlocking finger positions and chord voicings that have eluded me for years. But next to that, I enjoy watching guitar-making videos. As a builder whose 50-year career has allowed me to tour and work in dozens of guitar factories and shops, you might wonder why on earth I would subject myself to this. The answer is that you can always learn something new if you know what to watch for. New and correct information is certainly what most of us are hoping for when we spool up a video.The first thing I look for is if a shop is organized and relatively clean. I say relatively, because woodworking is, by nature, somewhat messy. All that cutting and sanding creates shavings and dust that’s hard to control completely. Most decent shops have some sort of dust collection, so when you spy ankle-deep wood shavings, you might wonder where the priorities are. Wood dust is flammable at best and explosive at worst, so if you buy a guitar from a shop that’s a ticking time-bomb, you may not be able to count on any long-term customer service. I’ve written before about the benefits of being well-ordered, and I think that it speaks volumes about the builder’s attitude. Clutter slows things down as little interruptions in the workflow add up to mistakes or even bankruptcy. I’m not saying that great work can’t be done in a messy shop, but I’m not a gambling man either.“Wood dust is flammable at best and explosive at worst, so if you buy a guitar from a shop that’s a ticking time-bomb, you may not be able to count on any long-term customer service.”For a guy who hates hammers, I’ve got a lot of them. Sometimes it’s the only tool that will get the job done. One task that a hammer isn’t good at is fretting. Sure, that’s the way it used to be done back in the good old days—you know, when all those unplayable budget guitars were being sold at department stores. I cringe when I see builders smacking a neck with a hammer, and you should too. In a repair shop, there’s room for the hammer as an adjustment tool, but it takes hundreds of hours to get really good at it.The problem is that hammers aren’t very consistent, and seating frets properly demands uniformity. Hit the fret a little too hard and it’s buried, not hard enough and you get a high fret. That’s why the best shops use a mechanical press of some sort.This brings me to another chilling moment in guitar videos: the fret leveling. Fretwire manufacturing is a precise art with tight tolerances well within the range of good playability. That means if the fretboard is true and all the frets are seated properly, no fret leveling is needed at all. So, when a video is about doing a “fret job” on a brand-new build, you know that something was botched in an earlier step. Fret filing is reserved for compensating for uneven fret wear or impact damage. Of course, if the fretboard radius is sloppy, there’s no way the frets will be level regardless of how you put them in. I roll my eyes when I see a hand router on a plywood fixture used to crown a fretboard. It’s certainly faster than sanding with a radius block or swing fixture, but not nearly as accurate. To be clear, if a router is followed with a more precise shaping process, it’s perfectly acceptable. But you can see that if the first step isn’t right, it’s just kicking the can down the road as everything after that compounds the issue.Finishing is another area that separates the good from the bad and ugly. A good spray painter is amazing to watch, as they systematically layer smooth and consistent passes over an instrument. You don’t want to see the painter waving the gun around from side to side with a lot of wrist movement like they’re watering a garden. The trick is keeping the speed and distance consistent. When done correctly, clear coats lay out flat and shiny and barely need to be buffed. It takes a long time to learn, but when you get it right, it’s like magic.There are a lot of great ideas and unconventional yet effective methods to be seen in how-to videos. I’m always happy when I see something brilliant and noteworthy, but occasionally it’s the opposite. Just like the “lessons” that don’t quite get the chords right or ignore the fact that a song was recorded in an open tuning, home-guitar-building videos are not always insight into best practices. That’s doesn’t mean that they can’t be entertaining. So, get out the popcorn and settle in for some luthier jump scares.

Alternative rockers COLD will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their third album, 2003’s “Year Of The Spider”, by embarking on a U.S. tour next spring. The group will perform the LP in full at each stop, which will feature support from DIVIDE THE FALL, AWAKE FOR DAYS, SYGNAL TO NOISE and DEATH VALL…

PANTERA’s second live performance in over 20 years took place Tuesday night (December 6) at Monterrey Metal Fest at Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico. Surviving members Rex Brown (bass) and Philip Anselmo (vocals) are joined in PANTERA’s reformed lineup by guitarist Zakk Wylde (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLA…