Fueling a tradition of cultural cross-pollination, modern progressive rock band and storytellers COHEED AND CAMBRIA have announced their own coffee brand, Coheed And Cambria Coffee Roasters.

As avowed coffee lovers, the band worked directly with the team at J Gursey Coffee Roasters to create custom blends that reflect the nuances of characters who make up “The Amory Wars”, the sprawling sci-fi concept arc which ties nearly every COHEED album together. Enlightened fans will recognize “The Knowledge And The Beast” as the classified code names of “The Amory Wars”‘ two most notable characters, Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon. “The Knowledge” (Cambria), is a smooth delicate blend of light and dark roasted coffees from the African/Ethiopian/South American regions. Its counterpart, “The Beast” (Coheed), is “coffee with a bite.” The robust medium/dark roast with a kick of espresso comes from the regions of African/Papa New Guinea/South America and Central America, and is cloud roasted at a 460 degrees Fahrenheit drop temp.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA’s Claudio Sanchez explained: “As an avid coffee drinker, I’ve been enjoying this experience of creating flavor profiles that embody the integral characters of our life’s work. They truly are what wake me up in the morning… and now, even more so.”

Both are available in whole bean or ground options. The new brand also unveiled attractive, sci-fi accented accessories, including matching matte finish mugs, an Asobu collaborated pour over coffee maker/carafe and matching travel orbs. The coffee and accessories are available now at www.coheedroasters.com, and the new company can be found on Instagram at @coheedroasters.

Renowned for the most precise and consistent roast possible, Las Vegas-based J Gursey Coffee Roasters has distinguished itself as the preeminent gourmet coffee artisan. Meanwhile, COHEED AND CAMBRIA consistently expand their world and ever-growing sphere of influence. Sanchez recently announced a partnership between his comic book brand Evil Ink and leading action figure manufacturer and collectible producer NECA to release an inaugural line of “The Amory Wars” action figures in December, which are now sold out. Their next release is in the works.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA have a handful of tour dates scheduled for 2021, including a currently scheduled gig with BLINK-182 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 2, Riot Fest in Chicago, Illinois on September 16, and their very own S.S. Neverender cruise setting sail from Miami, Florida on October 26. For tickets and more information on COHEED AND CAMBRIA’s tour dates please visit their official site.

Comprised of Claudio Sanchez (vocals / guitar), Travis Stever (guitar), Josh Eppard (drums) and Zach Cooper (bass), COHEED AND CAMBRIA has gripped listeners and press around the globe with its visionary compositions and conceptual mastery. In 2018, COHEED AND CAMBRIA made a stunning return with its new album “The Unheavenly Creatures”, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums chart, No. 6 current sales and Top 15 on the Billboard 200 chart. Boasting 15 songs over 78 minutes, “The Unheavenly Creatures” marked COHEED AND CAMBRIA’s furious return to concept albums, the ‘First Act’ in a brand-new story arc set within the backdrop of “The Amory Wars” universe. The acclaimed record is highlighted by standout tracks “The Gutter”, “Unheavenly Creatures”, “The Dark Sentencer” (premiered by Marvel Studios) and “Old Flames”, the latter of which features an official music video directed by Charles “Chas” Todd. The cinematic clip features striking choreography masterminded by Broadway luminary Jon Rua, who is known for his roles in the 12-time Tony-nominated “Spongebob Squarepants” and the Tony- and Grammy Award-winning hit musical “Hamilton”. More recently, COHEED AND CAMBRIA teamed up with Grammy Award-winning singer Rick Springfield for a sequel to one of the most iconic stories in rock ‘n’ roll history with “Jessie’s Girl 2”.

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Suzi Quatro, the 70-year-old pioneering female rocker who burst on to the scene in the 1970s, will release a new studio album, “The Devil In Me”, on March 26 through SPV/Steamhammer. The official music video for the disc’s first single, the title track, can be seen below. The artwork for the single was created by famous Brazilian neo-pop artist Romero Britto.

The reasons for Suzi’s remarkable creative explosion: on the one hand, the lockdown, which kept her from her usual touring life in spring 2020, and on the other another collaboration with her son Richard Tuckey, which had already worked out extremely well on her predecessor album “No Control”.

Says Suzi: “Starting spring 2020, almost one hundred of my shows were canceled, and Richard would also have been on tour with his band had not all concerts been canceled or postponed. So I said to him, ‘We should make the most of our free time, write new material and allow ourselves to be inspired by the things that are currently going on in the world.’

“I already knew that Richard and I make a brilliant team; after all, ‘No Control’ had been a major success and a very special recording for us. Although I would never have thought that we’d be able to surpass it. But everybody who’s heard ‘The Devil In Me’ and all the people who had worked on the previous album have told us, ‘This album is even stronger.'”

“The Devil In Me” presents Suzi’s full range of musical diversity plus a number of surprises. From rock tracks such as “The Devil In Me”, “Get Outta Jail”, “Motorcity Riders” and “Hey Queenie” to fairly unusual numbers such as the pub atmosphere-inspired “Loves Gone Bad”, with its intimate mood, or “In The Dark”, which is accompanied by elegant piano and provocative saxophone sounds, Suzi presents herself from a whole range of different aspects.

Suzi says: “Richard wanted this album to have a through line, so that you could put any track on, and it just fit… He also said he wanted this album to be as important and groundbreaking as my first one. So that is how we approached this project, and that is what we accomplished.”

Track listing:

CD Version

01. The Devil In Me
02. Hey Queenie
03. Betty Who?
04. You Can‘t Dream It
05. My Heart And Soul (long version)
06. Get Outta Jail
07. Do Ya Dance
08. Isolation Blues
09. I Sold My Soul Today
10. Love‘s Gone Bad
11. In The Dark
12. Motor City Riders

2 LP Version:

Side A:

01. The Devil In Me
02. Hey Queenie
03. Betty Who?
04. You Can‘t Dream It

Side B:

01. My Heart And Soul (long version)
02. Get Outta Jail
03. Do Ya Dance
04. Isolation Blues

Side C:

01. I Sold My Soul Today
02. Love‘s Gone Bad
03. In The Dark
04. Motor City Riders

Side D:

01. Can I Be Your Girl (bonus track)
02. Desperado (bonus track)

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PAPA ROACH has shared a brand new, remastered version of its 2015 song “Broken As Me”, inviting vocalist Danny Worsnop from British rock group ASKING ALEXANDRIA to feature on the track.

“He’s been on our list for a while,” said PAPA ROACH lead singer Jacoby Shaddix, “and having just toured together, we thought of Danny first when listening to some of the deeper cuts on the album. With the pandemic in full swing, Danny was down right away. He’s one of the best vocalists in rock music, so we’re happy he said yes.”

Worsnop added: “Making music with my friends is something I always love and enjoy, so when Jacoby called me about doing something together, I was in right away. The PAPA ROACH guys have been close friends for a long time now and I’m glad they were able to see that the only thing holding them back from stardom all these years was not having me sing on a new version of one of their songs. I think this is really going to put them on the map, and from the bottom of my heart, they’re welcome!”

The track, with such emotionally charged lyrics and raw, powerful vocals from both artists is set to be included on PAPA ROACH’s second greatest-hits collection, “Greatest Hits Vol. 2: The Better Noise Years”, out March 19 on Better Noise Music.

“Greatest Hits Vol. 2 – The Better Noise Years” includes 12 of the band’s top 10 hits released between 2010 to 2019 as well as three previously unreleased remixes and two unreleased acoustic recordings recorded live at the YouTube Studios in New York City.

The band noted: “We wanted to commemorate the last 10 years of our journey with this special collection of the music that got us here.”

PAPA ROACH has continued to stretch its boundaries throughout the years, including features with artists outside their genre — such as their 2017 track “Periscope” with pop artist Skylar Grey (which is included on the new release) — and most recently collaborating with TikTok star/up-and-coming artist Jeris Johnson on a new version of their iconic hit “Last Resort”.

To date, PAPA ROACH has led the path for contemporary rock artists in the digital streaming era with over two billion streams globally and nine million monthly listeners on Spotify. This set encompasses their career history of over 20 Top 5 Active Rock singles, 13 of which occurred in the past decade including four No. 1 singles — “Face Everything And Rise” (2014), “Help” and “Born For Greatness” (both 2017) and “Come Around” (2019).

“Greatest Hits Vol. 2 – The Better Noise Years” track listing:

01. Born For Greatness (Remastered 2020)
02. Help (Remastered 2020)
03. Elevate (Remastered 2020)
04. Come Around (Remastered 2020)
05. Broken As Me (feat. Danny Worsnop of Asking Alexandria)*
06. Falling Apart (Remastered 2020)
07. Who Do You Trust? (Remastered 2020)
08. Gravity (feat. Maria Brink) (Remastered 2020)
09. American Dreams (Remastered 2020)
10. Face Everything And Rise (Remastered 2020)
11. Periscope (feat. Skylar Grey) (Remastered 2020)
12. Still Swingin’ (Remastered 2020)
13. The Ending (Remastered 2020)
14. Burn (Remastered 2020)
15. Kick In The Teeth (Remastered 2020)
16. Elevate (Aelonia Remix)*
17. Help (Aelonia Remix)*
18. Born For Greatness (Cymek Remix) *
19. Top Of The World (Aelonia Remix)*
20. Face Everything And Rise (Live Acoustic) *
21. Leader Of The Broken Hearts (Live Acoustic)*

* previously unreleased

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The Las Vegas collective Purity offer anything but in their hybrid of late ’90s sounds.
The post Video Premiere: Purity – “Serpentine” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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Glenn Hughes spoke to Kiki Classic Rock about meeting then-nine-year-old future METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich prior to a DEEP PURPLE concert in Denmark. He said (hear audio below): “My first show with DEEP PURPLE in December [1973] was in Copenhagen. And I remember very clearly, at that hotel before the show, there was about 50 fans outside the hotel. And I saw a young boy — he must have been 12 or 13 years old — with his father, and he had his eyes against the window. And I went outside to speak to him, and it was Lars Ulrich. [Laughs] He remembers it. He wrote the foreword to my book. So, Lars is a friend of mine, and we speak about this incident where he was a little boy. And it was a moment I’ll never forget, because I do remember that — I do remember — and it’s a thing that is remarkable.”

Ulrich supplied the foreword to Hughes’s book, titled “Deep Purple And Beyond: Scenes From The Life Of A Rock Star”, which came out in 2011. He also inducted DEEP PURPLE into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April 2016 after championing the band’s inclusion for years.

At the Rock Hall, Ulrich gave a passionate speech in which he praised the British hard rock legends for achieving fame “the old-fashioned way: They worked hard; constant touring, making an album a year, sometimes two — never giving a shit about image or critical acclaim. And in the golden age of rock and roll debauchery, they were known primarily for their music and in the sex-and-drug sense, they were reportedly gentleman through and through. In fact, if you must dig, the main dirt on DEEP PURPLE was the revolving door on personnel. Ten different band members in the first seven years, fourteen in total.”

The drummer went on to single out DEEP PURPLE’s musicianship as one of the main reasons for the band’s success. He said: “These guys could play. They could improvise. They were in constant and curious cutthroat competition with each other to take the music some place new, some place unknown and never ever the same place twice.”

The Danish-born Ulrich also credited DEEP PURPLE for being an early influence on METALLICA while chiding the Rock Hall for taking so long to induct the group. He explained: “With almost no exceptions, every hard rock band in the last 40 years, including mine, traces its lineage directly back to BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN and DEEP PURPLE. And as far as I’m concerned, these three bands should always be considered equals for their songwriting, their recordings and their accomplishments. Where I grew up, and in the rest of the world outside of North America, all were equal in status, stature and influence. So in my heart — and I know I speak for many of my fellow musicians and millions of PURPLE fans when I confess that — I am somewhat bewildered that they are so late in getting in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.”

Lars ended his speech by admitting he owns a picture DEEP PURPLE with his own face Photoshopped on top of Ian Paice and saying: “That’s how much DEEP PURPLE still means to me, to the fans here tonight and to the millions of followers. That’s right. That’s right. To the fans here tonight and to the millions of followers around the world, who look upon DEEP PURPLE as epic, unpredictable, energetic, cool, intense, brilliant, impulsive, spontaneous, mesmerizing, jaw-dropping, otherworldly, relentless, pioneering and ultimately timeless. Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Rod Evans, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, they should have been here a long time ago. They are now here where they belong. I always wanted to say this, please welcome to the stage and to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, give it up for DEEP PURPLE.”

Photo credit: David Pickles

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In a new interview with Lyndsey Parker of Yahoo Entertainment, JANE’S ADDICTON frontman Perry Farrell said that he is unlikely to ever write a tell-all autiobiography. “I’m a little reserved to tell you everything about my life,” he explained (see video below). “Some of it’s downright embarrassing. And I’ve got kids now. Even though I’m not exactly ashamed, but I don’t wanna set my children on a wrong course, because they think, ‘Well, you did it…’ They don’t need to know it all about me. They can go out and live their life. My son already ran away from home twice. He just got back. And I was mad at him a little bit, but then I’d think to myself, ‘Damn, I ran away from home too.’ I understand why he did it, but I just don’t need to encourage him by telling him some of the wild shit I did.”

He continued: “It’s scary out there. I don’t want my kid getting into the wrong situation, hanging out with the wrong people, but at the same time… I don’t know how to say this. I do want him to go out there and experience a wild life, because he’s a musician. And musicians — I think that there’s different boundaries. Musicians have to have the right to experience wild things like absinthe or LSD or mushrooms. I think that for a musician, it is more permissible to experience those kinds of things — mind expansive. The best songs are written about the wild times and living through the wild times. Again, I say, as musicians, you have a different license. In fact, I truly believe that there oughta be a license that you get that, if you are a musician, you have to take a certain course. That gives you a license to experience things. I mean, think what the art world would be without absinthe. What would Salvador Dali — what would his paintings look like? What would music sound like if THE GRATEFUL DEAD hadn’t dropped acid?”

Perry went on to say that his sons are “really good kids” who “really love music. And, like I said, I am the last guy in line to tell ’em that they can’t do something,” he added. “But I find that the most screwed up people aren’t the guys that are experimenting; it’s the ones that are told by their parents that they can’t experiment and are held back from experiencing life. Those are the kids that usually end up the most screwed up, I think.”

Farrell is currently promoting Perry Farrell’s “The Glitz; The Glamour”, a 35-year retrospective of his life, music and art that looks into his world outside the works of JANE’S ADDICTION and PORNO FOR PYROS — focusing on 68 tracks worth of Perry’s alt rock rarities and innovative artistic explorations. The retrospective is served up in the form of a vinyl and collectible box-set and is an art piece in its own right — in collaboration with fine artist Zoltar, this offering firmly puts Farrell’s stake in the ground as the “godfather of alternative rock.”

In addition to the deep groove vinyl recordings, the box-set includes a Blu-ray featuring 12 uncompressed Dolby Atmos mixes from “Kind Heaven” and three previously unreleased Atmos mixes, a photographic memoir hardcover book, a bandana, plus two exclusive Zoltar prints. “The Glitz; The Glamour” is out now via Last Man Music. Visit www.perryfarrell.com for more information.

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On February 17, BUTCHER BABIES vocalists Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey spoke with Darren Paltrowitz — host of the “Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz” — about their new “Yorktown” music video, regularly churning out high-quality video content, future recording plans, television and more.

Asked if the BUTCHER BABIES are planning to continue to put out new singles going forward after the release of three songs — “Bottom Of A Bottle”, “Sleeping With The Enemy” and the aforementioned “Yorktown” — over the course of a four-month period, Carla said (see video below): “I think that we’re still kind of navigating that territory of what to do in a situation like this when we don’t know how long this is gonna last, we don’t know how long it’s going to be before we actually get back out on the road. So I think we’re gonna really sink our teeth into our new stuff, but kind of leave it up to destiny — how we’re gonna release it, whether it’s gonna be singles. I personally really love this whole single thing — I think it gives us something to look forward to. It’s kind of like watching your new favorite TV show. You can watch ’em all back to back, or you can wait for the new episode to come out every Friday, which I’ve been doing that with [the Disney+ American television series] ‘WandaVision’, and it’s been nice not to binge something; it’s been nice to have something to look forward to. So I kind of like this right now, especially [since] I think that everyone in the world needs something to look forward to.”

Added Heidi: “One thing I do love about releasing singles is we really put so much time and energy into every single one of these songs. There’s not a lyric in one song that wasn’t triple thought, and we worked really hard together on it. And I think that it has been beautiful to give each of these songs the life that they deserve. And I wish that we could have done that with ‘Lilith’. There’s some songs on our last album, and I’m, like, ‘Oh, that deserved a music video. That deserved a little bit more.’ But we’re doing it now. And we do have a ton of stuff recorded. We recorded, actually, in May of 2019, so these songs are old to us. And we are also going back in the studio and recording more. So we’ll see how it comes out. But, as Carla stated, we’re having fun kind of the way it is at the moment. These all will be on an album together, but we don’t have all that info just yet.”

“Yorktown” features a guest solo from guitarist Andy James (FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH). The track was produced and co-written by Matt Good (FROM FIRST TO LAST).

In July 2019, longtime BUTCHER BABIES bassist Jason Klein announced his departure from the band. He has since been replaced by Ricky Bonazza.

More than a year ago, BUTCHER BABIES parted ways with their longtime record label, Century Media, which released the band’s first three albums, including “Lilith”. That effort reached No. 11 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart and No. 15 on the Hard Rock Albums chart.

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Ranking the songs on Judas Priest’s recently Hall of Fame-inducted Painkiller from least awesome to most awesome.
The post Hall of Fame Countdown: Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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WITHIN TEMPTATION’s Sharon Den Adel spoke to Brazil’s Wikimetal about the band’s plans to release more new music as a follow-up to the songs “The Purge” and “Entertain You”, both of which came out last year.

“‘The Purge’ has just been released, and we’re just looking for the right time for maybe releasing another single or something else to do,” she said (see video below). “We’re working on that now. It’s still a bit undecided on dates and everything. So I can’t tell you when the next thing is coming up, but we’re working on it. So that’s good news.”

According to Sharon, she and the rest of WITHIN TEMPTATION have been trying to use the coronavirus downtime to stay creative. “We had just released, of course, the ‘Resist’ album only in 2019, so that’s not that long ago,” she said. “For us, normally, we take a few years between albums, but this time we had already the plan to release every time a single that we wanted to write in the moment and feel, like, okay, this is a song that matters now or that inspires us — the topic, and also the sounds that we like at the moment. And that’s really working for us. So there’s not a complete album yet. We’re writing while we speak. Like, today we have been working again on new stuff. So now we go along without an album planned yet, or recorded.”

Asked if she has had a chance to get together with the rest of WITHIN TEMPTATION in person to work on new music, Sharon said: “We had some moments during this whole pandemic that we were able to travel a little bit. And so we went to Sweden to record some stuff. And our producer also came here to be with us. So we could continue working. That’s how ‘The Purge’ came together — it was written during the pandemic, where ‘Entertain You’ was actually written just before everything started. We were even able to do a video. But it was very strange because I hadn’t seen the guys for such a long time — everybody did the recordings at home or in the studio with no one else around, because we were not allowed there, of course; we could only work one-on-one and with a lot of distance. So we didn’t really actually work together in one room while writing stuff or recording stuff. And then the video was the same. And I was helping also with the styling, together with the artist I work with, the stylist — together we did styling for the band. So we had bandmembers coming in separately. It was strange. I got to see everyone, but they didn’t get to see each other. So that was a bit strange.”

In December, WITHIN TEMPTATION released the official music video for “The Purge”. “Entertain You” kicked off of a series of digital single releases and exceeded all expectations. “Entertain You” was No. 1 most added on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Indicator chart, with airplay on at least 40 radio stations, including Music Choice, SiriusXM Octane, WZOR and KQXR, No. 5 in the Contraband Metal chart, and at No. 18 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Indicator chart in USA.

WITHIN TEMPTATION released the official music video for “Entertain You” last May. The song was a surprisingly quick follow-up to WITHIN TEMPTATION’s seventh studio album, “Resist”, which came out in February 2019.

“Resist” debuted in several Top 10 charts worldwide and was the first WITHIN TEMPTATION album to ever reach a No. 1 position on the official German chart.

“Entertain You” arrived one week after the last show of the “Worlds Collide” tour was supposed to happen. The co-headline trek with American rock band EVANESCENCE was originally planned for April 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has now been postponed to September 2021. The trek, for which an impressive 150,000 tickets were sold in eight countries, is slated to take place across venues such as the O2 Arena in London, AccorHotels Arena in Paris, Velodrom in Berlin, and Palais 12 in Brussels.

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