FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH has finished recording its ninth studio album.

The Las Vegas-based metallers shared the news of the LP’s completion in a message accompanying the release of the lyric video for the song “Brighter Side Of Grey” from the band’s last album, 2020’s “F8”.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH said: “It’s hard to believe that our last record ‘F8’ came out over 2 years ago in the beginning of 2020, born into the whirlwind of events that dominated our lives and will echo into the rest of our history. Those of you intimately familiar with that album, now know how some of ‘F8”s dystopian lyrics became rather prophetic.

“‘Brighter Side Of Grey’ was an important song on that record, but especially personal to [singer] Ivan [Moody] (who’s the only parent in the band). It is a more than fitting commentary to what’s going on in the world that probably needs a good reminder right about now that we are here only for second, a tiny blip on the flow of time… not just as individuals but as an entire species… It took a trillion conditions to be just right for human life to exist in this Universe yet it takes just one to go terribly wrong and make it all disappear.

“This song also serves as the perfect bridge to our new album we just finished this week, which generally revolves around similar existential questions.

“It’s incredible how much we don’t understand about our own existence, yet everyone’s relationship with the concept of death permeates, even orients their entire lives. Can’t wait to share it…

“Enjoy this video, and stay tuned for new music and big tour announcements in the very near future!”

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH’s new album was once again recorded at the Hideout Recording Studio, the Las Vegas, Nevada facility owned and operated by Kevin Churko, the Canadian record producer/engineer and songwriter who has worked on all of FIVE FINGER’s albums beginning with the band’s sophomore release, 2009’s “War Is The Answer”.

In addition to recording an all-new album, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH recently commenced re-recording its debut LP, 2007’s “The Way Of The Fist”, for its 15th anniversary.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH’s upcoming album will be the group’s first with its latest addition, renowned British virtuoso Andy James, who replaced Jason Hook in 2020. James was previously featured on “Broken World”, a song that was included on the second installment of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH’s greatest-hits collection, “A Decade Of Destruction – Volume 2”, which came out in the fall of 2020.

Since FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH’s debut album, “The Way Of The Fist”, came out in 2007, the band has released six consecutive albums that were certified gold or platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as well as two chart-topping greatest-hits albums. In addition, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH has earned numerous national and international awards and honors over the last decade, such as the prestigious Soldier Appreciation Award by the Association Of The United States Army, an honor bestowed upon only one other recording artist before them: Elvis Presley.

“F8” debuted at No. 1 on rock charts around the world with Top 10 Mainstream chart debuts in the USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and more. “F8” features No. 1 hit singles “Inside Out”, “A Little Bit Off”, “Living The Dream” and “Darkness Settles In”.

The Electro-Harmonix Small Stone was my first weird pedal. Initially I gravitated to the Small Stone because it seemed so utterly immodest, but I soon came to treasure its more subdued settings and its ability to communicate a strange, mysterious melancholy.Strymon’s new Zelzah, with its ultra-flexible controls and combinable 4- and 6-stage phasing modes, can generate many nuanced variations on these extremes and thousands of colors in between. It also generates immersive chorus and flange tones that make this a very powerful little waveform manipulator.Purple Waves of PhaseStrymon has remained crafty about maximizing the utility and user-friendliness of their compact stompboxes. On the Zelzah, they use their now-familiar formula of six knobs, two footswitches, and two small toggle switches allocated to two primary functions. Much like Boss pedals, this uniformity in design inspires a certain confidence (at least among players that have previously used small Strymon pedals) that you can dive in and find your way through the forest without first spending a week with a manual. Because this is a Strymon, quality time with the manual is a good idea. There is deeper functionality to consider—particularly if you embrace its MIDI potential. But players keen to get on with creation can dive headlong into the Zelzah’s pleasures and get fast results.The Zelzah is divided into a 4- and a 6-stage phaser section. The 4-stage phaser side is ostensibly the more streamlined of the two, with knobs for speed, depth, and mix. But the toggle functions makes things interesting fast. The classic voice does nice approximations of old-school analog phasers. But the addition of a barber pole phaser, which gives the aural illusion of phase cycles unwinding endlessly, helix-like, into space, opens up cool compositional possibilities and rhythmic phase effects. The envelope mode is awesome too, not least because it can be set to sit subtly in a mix. The speed and depth knobs double as range and sensitivity controls, and the modest-to-quacky range of effects is impressive.The 6-stage side of the Zelzah is also simultaneously streamlined and full of surprises. The main attraction here, apart from the thick 6-stage phaser, is a voice switch that morphs between phase, flange, and chorus modes—all of which are excellent. There’s also a 3-position resonance switch that gives all three voices great mellow-to-extreme range.While Zelzah’s MIDI functionality technically enables hundreds of presets, and you can hook up an expression pedal to effectively move between two preset sounds, you cannot store and recall presets on the unit itself. You’ll either need to delve into MIDI or use an external footswitch with which you can save a single preset. You’ll also need an external switch if you rely on tap tempo. Personally, I find the Zelzah’s basic controls intuitive enough that I don’t need presets or tap tempo much. Some habitual deep divers will, no doubt, be bummed.Players keen to get on with creation can dive headlong into the Zelzah’s pleasures and get fast results.The USB jack that enables MIDI connectivity is situated on the crown of the pedal. But there are also true stereo outs as well as a switch that moves the pedal from mono to stereo. Stereo operation is another joy well worth exploring in the Strymon. Just be prepared to allocate a whole week for spelunking these modulation depths.Motion for Many MoodsThe Zelzah’s possible modulation textures start to feel pretty limitless once you get acquainted with the controls—particularly because you can combine the 4-stage phaser with the 6-stage phaser, chorus, and flange.The 4-stage classic mode is easy to navigate and awash with nice phase colors. The slow and mellow tones are great. So are the fast and intense ones. You hear a lot of detail in these modulations, too, thanks to the pedal’s super-low noise. The potential of the barber pole phaser piqued my interest most. Most barber settings have a frequency-narrowing effect that lends the phase a little more focus, which in turn makes the phase cycle feel more intense. I found a bunch of cool ways to use the tick-tock sway of some of these patterns as rhythmic underpinnings for riffs. And when using the barber pole in compound 4- and 6-stage phaser sounds, you can tune in cool whistling overtones on top. Phasers may be almost intrinsically psychedelic, but the barber pole effect genuinely tweaks your sense of space and time a little more intensely.The envelope mode, meanwhile, is a riff factory. It twists simple licks in the same way any envelope filter would. But here, the breadth of phase sounds, the ability to keep the effect subdued, and the contouring effect of the phase waveforms take the Zelzah’s version to more malleable and mellow places.Six-stage phase sounds are generally more intense than 4-stage tones. And with the variable resonance switch available to ramp up the weirdness, you’ll probably want to stop here for your most freakish phase experiences. Even with the resonance switch off, most 6-stage voices feature a detectable whooshiness. And, at mild and high resonances and deeper depth settings, things get ultra-chewy.The nice chorus and flange effects on the 6-stage side can be made very mellow with the resonance off, but can also assume weird and intense personalities at high resonance and depth settings. They are a fantastic addition to the killer phaser sounds that make Zelzah a practical one-stop modulation shop.The VerdictIf you’re on the fence between keeping your phase classy and subtle and indulging your wildest modulation urges, Zelzah can accommodate wild fluctuations between those extremes. The compound modulations are an endless well of unusual sounds. And the very rich chorus tones and flanger—and the ease with which you can summon and shape them—make the Zelzah a very fair deal, even if the $349 price initially gives pause.First Look: Strymon Zelzah Multidimensional Phaser

BASTARDANE, the new band featuring drummer Castor Hetfield, the son of METALLICA frontman James Hetfield, will kick off its 2022 tour in May. So far the following shows have been announced:

May 13 – Smith’s Olde Bar – Atlanta, GA
May 14 – The Basement – Nashville, TN
May 15 – The Nick – Birmingham, AL
May 17 – Vanguard – Tulsa, OK
May 18 – Replay Lounge – Lawrence, KS
May 21 – Vultures – Colorado Springs, CO

BASTARDANE will also appear at this year’s METALLICA co-headlined edition of the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival, which is scheduled for May 27-29 at the Napa Valley Expo in Northern California.

BASTARDANE recently released its debut album, “Is This Rage?”

In addition to the 21-year-old Castor, the Savannah, Georgia-based hard rock trio includes Jake Dallas on vocals/bass and Ethan Sirotzki on guitar. The group formed in 2019 from a collection of college students who met through jamming in basements, backyards, and anywhere that was available. Their brand of entertainment fuses fast high-gain riffs and power chord grooves with heavy feedback and clean, dissonant chord progressions.

In a 2021 interview with The Hum, the trio said: “We are BASTARDANE and we are not some average chump white male band looking to get laid. There is a time in every generation when music is the guiding light out of hard times. We just want to make emotionally empowering music that isn’t trying to cater to a certain audience. Our career is about making people happy and fulfilling the emotional needs of those who can’t tolerate words alone.”

“Is This Rage?” track listing:

01. Above All
02. Praise No Bliss
03. Gaslight
04. Chum
05. Revolt
06. Let The Wasted Die
07. Imposter
08. The Cavalier
09. Ad Infinitum
10. Faint-Hearted Soul

James Hetfield isn’t the only member of METALLICA whose offspring has followed in his footsteps. Two of drummer Lars Ulrich’s sons play together in TAIPEI HOUSTON, while bassist Robert Trujillo’s son Tye plays bass for OTTTO.

Last December, BASTARDANE, TAIPEI HOUSTON and OTTTO performed as part of METALLICA’s “San Francisco Takeover”, a four-day citywide celebration of the band’s 40th anniversary that also included a film festival, photo exhibit and curated lineup of smaller venue shows featuring other acts.

Castor’s mother is James’s wife Francesca, whom he married in 1997. She is from Argentina and used to do wardrobe for METALLICA.

James and Francesca have two other kids: Cali, born in 1998; and Marcella, born in 2002.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bastardane (@_bastardane_)

Is This Rage? by Bastardane

Fan-filmed video of ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell’s April 3 solo performance at Theatre Of Living Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania can be seen below.

Cantrell kicked off his “Brighten” solo tour on March 24 at the Palace Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Jerry’s band for the tour consists of Tyler Bates (guitar), Greg Puciato (backing vocals), Gil Sharone (drums), George Adrian (bass), Michael Rozon (pedal steel) and Jason Achilles (keyboards). The set includes songs from Cantrell’s latest solo album, “Brighten”, along with favorite hits from Jerry’s catalog.

To make this tour even more attractive for fans, Jerry recently announced special VIP event packages at each show that offer fans tiered selections of exclusive experiences. These experiences include a meet-and-greet and photo opp with Jerry, personal autographed items of your choice, premium merch items, and at the top tier, a signed official “Atone” Gibson JC Signature Acoustic guitar. The guitar includes a letter of authenticity. Packages start at $100 all the way to $5,500, which includes the Gibson guitar.

“Brighten” came out last October. The LP has received praise from critics, including Kerrang!, which called it a “vivid, contemporary self-portrait of one of the most distinctive voices in hard rock. A long-overdue show of individual brilliance.” Classic Rock proclaimed it “his best yet. The work of a songwriter who is happy within his life, it spans a broad arc of styles.” The Sun commented: “A rich, organic album… ‘Brighten’ is brilliant.”

“Brighten” is Jerry’s first project without ALICE IN CHAINS in 19 years. Co-produced with film composer Tyler Bates and Paul Fig (longtime engineer), the LP got its beginnings just before the pandemic hit. They welcomed a dynamic cast of supporting players, including Duff McKagan (GUNS N’ ROSES) on select bass tracks, Puciato contributing to backing vocals and drummers Sharone and Abe Laboriel, Jr. (Paul McCartney). Joe Barresi (TOOL, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE) handled the mixing of “Brighten”.

Jerry’s new effort marks his first full-length release since “Degradation Trip”, the epic solo album he made in 2002 with future METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo and FAITH NO MORE drummer Mike Bordin.

Jerry’s career outside of ALICE IN CHAINS has consisted of two previous solo albums and contributions to major film soundtracks. Cantrell’s first solo album, “Boggy Depot”, was released in 1998, followed by his second album, the aforementioned “Degradation Trip”. In addition to his solo artist work, Jerry has released music on soundtracks for several films, including “Spider-Man”, “The Cable Guy”, “John Wick 2”, “Last Action Hero” and “The Punisher”.

ALICE IN CHAINS regrouped in 2006 with William DuVall joining the band, and released its third LP with DuVall in the lineup, “Rainier Fog”, in August 2018.

Reposted from @lemmamoon Jerry Cantrell Brighten Tour
at Theater of the Living Arts
April 3, 2022
#jerrycantrell #brighten

Posted by Comunidad Alice in Chains Chile on Monday, April 4, 2022

Almost that time…. 3PM for sound check and meet and greet with Jerry Cantrell!!!!!

Posted by Ron Brubaker on Sunday, April 3, 2022

Fright worship speed, thrash and crust on their debut release.
The post Full Album Stream: Fright – “Fright” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Due to overwhelming demand from the Redheads, Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer Sammy Hagar is bringing the party back to Vegas this summer with two additional shows added on Friday, July 1 and Saturday, July 2, to his sold-out Las Vegas Strip residency, “Sammy Hagar & Friends”, at The STRAT Hotel, Casino & SkyPod. Hagar will be joined by his classic band THE WABOS — featuring guitar virtuoso Vic Johnson, drummer David Lauser and bassist Mona Gnader — and promises to lean heavy on the Red Rocker’s early catalog of hits.

Presented by his award-winning portfolio of spirits Santo Tequila, Beach Bar Rum and Sammy’s Beach Bar Cocktail Co., “Sammy Hagar & Friends” has sold out performances since the show debuted last fall. Hagar brings the party vibe of his legendary birthday bashes in Cabo San Lucas to the intimate 900-seat-capacity STRAT Theater. True to his residency’s name, Sammy’s concerts have featured an incredible ensemble of his friends joining him on stage for surprise performances. During his latest run of concerts, Sammy welcomed singer and songwriter Gavin DeGraw; the legendary Bob Weir of GRATEFUL DEAD; Grammy Award winner Rick Springfield; famed New Orleans trombonist Trombone Shorty; iconic guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Lita Ford; and Stephen Pearcy from the rock band RATT.

“Sammy Hagar & Friends” celebrates more than four decades of music spanning his solo career, MONTROSE, VAN HALEN, CHICKENFOOT and THE CIRCLE. The setlists will include some of Hagar’s most iconic rock anthems like “I Can’t Drive 55”, “There’s Only One Way To Rock”, “Right Now”, “Heavy Metal”, “Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy”, “Mas Tequila”, “Why Can’t This Be Love” and many more.

Tickets will go on sale to members of Sammy’s Redhead fan club at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 5 and to True Rewards members, Golden Entertainment, Inc.’s innovative guest loyalty rewards program, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 6. Tickets for the general public will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 7.

“Party Pit” general admission section ticket prices begin at $100, plus applicable tax and fees. All tickets and packages can be purchased online at this location. All shows begin at 9 p.m., with doors opening at 8 p.m. Purchases will be limited to six tickets per transaction. More information about the show is available at TheSTRAT.com and Sammy Hagar’s web site RedRocker.com.

“Sammy Hagar & Friends” is produced by industry leader SPI Entertainment, Golden Entertainment and Hagar’s manager, Tom Consolo of TC Management.

For more than four decades, Hagar has been recognized as one of the best and most accomplished lead singers and songwriters in rock music. From breaking into the industry with the seminal hard rock band MONTROSE to his multi-platinum solo career to his ride as the frontman of VAN HALEN, CHICKENFOOT and his latest best-selling supergroup THE CIRCLE, Hagar has amassed 25 platinum albums on sales surpassing 50 million worldwide. Along his journey, he has set the tone for some of the greatest rock anthems ever written and earned the highest respect of the music industry with a Grammy Award and induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Since launching his flagship Cabo Wabo Cantina, he’s turned a lifelong passion for great food, music and spirits into a thriving and iconic lifestyle brand. Hagar’s award-winning portfolio of spirits includes Santo Tequila and Mezquila, a partnership with Guy Fieri; Beach Bar Rum, a premium line of Puerto Rico-made rum with partner Rick Springfield; and Sammy’s Beach Bar Cocktail Co., his new top-shelf sparkling rum cocktails in a can.