Carl Martin announces Ampster tube guitar amp and speaker sim/DI pedal

The Danish effects brand introduces a fully analog, tube-driven floor unit

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Watch Spoon play their swaggering, guitar-driven rocker The Hardest Cut on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Hear one of the highlights from Lucifer on the Sofa, the band’s guitar-focused new album

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SABATON Singer Says LEMMY Taught Him A 'Lesson' About Being An Artist

During a recent interview with Germany’s Metal Hammer magazine, SABATON singer Joakim Brodén was shown covers of several old issues of Metal Hammer and was asked to comment on each one. When he saw a cover featuring iconic MOTÖRHEAD frontman Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, Joakim said: “I met him the first time [in] 2005 or ’03 at the Sweden Rock Festival. I saw him coming. I was standing in the backstage bar. He was coming up and about to order a drink. And I knew he liked the Maker’s Mark whisky. I mean, he likes Jack Daniel’s, and that’s what he usually drinks, but he also liked the Maker’s Mark. So I ordered him a double from the other bar, and when he got it, the bartender sort of showed [to Lemmy], ‘It’s from him.’ So he came up and we talked for a while. And he taught me a lesson about being an artist. That was being very nice and polite even though you don’t know the person. And we spent the time drinking. I was telling him, ‘You don’t have to stand here and hang out with me all the time.’ And he was, like, ‘I think it’s a nice thing. You bought me a nice whisky. And I’m having a good time.’ So I asked him, sort of, ‘What do you mean?’ [He said], ‘Yeah, I can spend the time to drink the whisky that you bought me with you. Or I can say no.’ It was a pretty gentleman kind of thing to say. Then I asked, ‘What would happen if I would have been an asshole?’ And he was, like, ‘I can drink whisky really fast.’ [Laughs]”

SABATON’s tenth studio album, “The War To End All Wars”, will be released on March 4 via Nuclear Blast Records. Written and recorded during the COVID-19 global pandemic, the concept album of 11 brand-new songs once again dives deep into the atrocities, miracles, and events tied to the early 20th century’s World War I. The tenth album of the Falun-based five-piece will be available in an impressive variety of exclusive formats, including CD, vinyl, and cassette, with most available in limited editions.

SABATON is considered to be one the most important bands to emerge from the Swedish modern metal scene, having been honored with five Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards (including “Best Live Band” three different years) and nominated several times for the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards, the Grammis. In 2016, SABATON’s “The Last Stand” album debuted at No. 1 in three different European countries and cracked the Top 3 in four others. Joakim Brodén (vocals), Pär Sundström (bass), Chris Rörland (guitar), Hannes Van Dahl (drums) and Tommy Johansson (guitar) curate a festival of their own, Sabaton Open Air, that started back in 2008, as well as their own forward-thinking Sabaton Cruise which has been held since 2009.

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Tone chasers rejoice, with up to 60% off AmpliTube Signature Collections from IK Multimedia

Turn your laptop into the legendary rigs of Dimebag Darrell, Brian May, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Satriani or Slash, all while saving money!

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Sweetwater unveils Fender Player Stratocaster, Telecaster in exclusive Seafoam Green, Sienna Sunburst finishes

The Sweetwater-exclusive beauties are priced the same as their stock Player series counterparts

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Logan Mader: “I was super-lucky to play in Machine Head… it was a one-in-a-million chance, like winning the lottery!”

Mader on his reunion with Machine Head’s original lineup, love of amp modelers, and recruiting Robb Flynn for a guest spot on Once Human’s new album, Scar Weaver

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Online guitar lessons vs face to face: which is right for you?

From cost and convenience to community and progress tracking, we weight up the pros and cons of both approaches to learning the guitar

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Recollections Of The Insane – SCHIZOPHRENIA

The furious midpoint between primitive death metal and caustic thrash has always been one of the most exciting places to bang your head. The full-length follow-up to 2020’s utterly murderous “Voices” EP, “Recollections of the Insane” confirms that Belgium’s SCHIZOPHRENIA are flying the death / thrash flag with venomous pride, and doing it with more ferocity and conviction than most.

This is well-trodden territory, of course. Anyone who grew up with the sound of SLAYER, KREATOR, POSSESSED or early SEPULTURA ringing in their ears will feel immediately at home here, but SCHIZOPHRENIA are several degrees more intense than anything those bands were capable of back in the day. A couple of decades of spiteful extremity have given them a sense of compositional depth that belies the notion that this is a purely nostalgic exercise, and thus everything from grandiloquent opener “Divine Immolation” to bombastic finale “Stratified Realities” delivers equal amounts of red meat and sinister surprise. Nimbly morphing from all-out attack to a haunting, melancholy mid-pace, culminating in a grotesque, cacophonous crescendo, “Sea of Sorrow” is a particularly stunning act of subversion. “Onwards to Fire” is even more ambitious: from its “South of Heaven”-like intro and slow-burning sense of dread to its climactic razor-slash descent into hate-thrash hell, it’s defiant old-school metal forced through a spinning, infernal kaleidoscope.

SCHIZOPHRENIA are equally effective when they rein in their creative urges and go directly for the throat. “Inside the Walls of Madness” is an untamed riot of feral blasting, leprous barks and heads-down, speed metal clatter, and one of the most straightforwardly exciting slabs of pure, black-hearted heavy metal since the last POSSESSED album. Likewise, “Cranial Disintegration” is the kind of jolting, overzealous dose of filthy thrash hostility that made this undervalued subgenre such a visceral thrill first time around; “Fall of the Damned”, which begins with a ghostly haze of schlock horror, rattles and smashes like classic ANGELCORPSE on a runaway train to the end of days. The closing “Stratified Realities” — strong KREATOR vibes, rich in blackened pomp — is an equally fine amalgam of arcane horrors and skilled invention. The only sane conclusion to draw is that SCHIZOPHRENIA are breathing new life into one of heavy music’s most righteous crossovers.

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SEPULTURA's DERRICK GREEN Names His Top 5 Tour Essentials

SEPULTURA frontman Derrick Green recently stopped by the “Talk Toomey” podcast to talk about his band’s upcoming tour with SACRED REICH and CROWBAR. In the clip below, Derrick and host Joshua Toomey discuss what Derrick must have on tour.

Green said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I think on this tour I definitely will bring a yoga mat for stretching out in crazy backstage dirty areas — to lay down and to be able to stretch out and to do some exercises before the show. So that’s essential. Let’s see… Definitely good headphones for listening to music other than metal [laughs], or heavy music — some soft listening. I would have to say the next thing would be some vitamins. You never know what you’re necessarily gonna get on the road but I try my best to eat a nice plant-based diet on the road. A good book — a few good books, ’cause there’s definitely downtime where I’m traveling which is extremely boring and it’s great for catching up on some really good reading. And a very efficient laptop. There’s times where I love to watch movies, and it’s very crucial. I’m a movie fanatic, so I definitely need a good laptop I can bring everything that I need to see.”

SEPULTURA’s “North American Quadra” 2022 tour will kick off on March 4 in Sacramento and will make stops in Toronto, Cleveland, and New York before concluding on April 8 in Berkeley, California.

SEPULTURA played its first show in two years last Saturday night (February 12) at Circo Voador in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The concert was also notable for the fact that Green wore a brace on his left leg after apparently breaking his foot.

SEPULTURA’s current lineup comprises Green, guitarist Andreas Kisser, bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. and drummer Eloy Casagrande.

Cleveland native Green went from fronting hardcore band OUTFACE in Ohio to relocating to New York and then living in São Paulo, Brazil for nearly two decades.

While the pandemic paralyzed the entire world and prevented bands from touring, the members of SEPULTURA refused to sit back and feel like animals trapped in a cage. Therefore, in early 2020, the legendary Brazilians, along with their American vocalist, seized the moment to start their own weekly “SepulQuarta” video podcast in which they invited other famous musicians from all over the world to not only discuss important topics but also perform a track from SEPULTURA’s massive catalog together with the band. The resulting full-length compilation was released last August, with the album containing 15 classics featuring internationally renowned guests and friends.

SEPULTURA’s latest studio album, “Quadra”, was released in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was created at Sweden’s Fascination Street Studios with renowned producer Jens Bogren.

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I LOVE Pedals Day #16: Empress Effects

Today’s I LOVE Pedals giveaway is from Empress Effects. Enter for your chance to win an Empress Heavy! Ends Feb. 17, 2022.Empress HeavyIn this aptly named box, you’ll find a huge range of killer high gain tones. From crisp, mid-driven 80’s metal, to scooped, modern down-tuned brutality, this little box of sonic mayhem does it all. The two independent channels can be voiced similarly so that one channel can be used as a solo boost, or they can be voiced entirely differently by using the mid-range control in conjunction with the 3 position mid-frequency select switch. Add in separate weight controls to shape the low-end response of each channel, and a global hi/low eq section that allows you to fine-tune your particular amp and cab combination, and you’ve got a serious tool to create a supremely heavy sounding rig.On top of all this, we’ve added an extremely responsive and hassle-free noise gate that will ensure dead silent operation with even the most obscene amounts of gain added.I Love Pedals Day #16: Empress Effects

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