HELMET has canceled its previously announced European tour which was scheduled to take place between April 3 and May 21.

Earlier today (Monday, March 14), HELMET frontman Page Hamilton released the following statement regarding the matter: “Hey everyone, we were so looking forward to returning to Europe and getting back out on the road this Spring. After the past 2 1/2 years of Covid crushing live music we’d started rehearsals and even played 2 shows in LA. Unfortunately we are forced to cancel our 2022 European Tour due to several circumstances beyond our control (the world is still not back to normal) and for a band member to deal with a serious but non life threatening health issue.

“We would like to sincerely apologize to all our fans who have reached out to us to make plans to hang, catch up and hear us play. For now it’s back to the drawing board and we hope to see you next year.”

Last December, Hamilton confirmed to the “Thunder Underground” podcast that he had begun working on material for HELMET’s first album in more than five years. “I have some scraps. That’s about all,” he said. “I’m writing a piece for this high school in Memphis called the Christian Brothers. It’s their 150th anniversary. It’s the oldest high school orchestra in the country. So I have to finish that. I have some time — [I have to complete it] by 2023; I have a year. But, yeah, the HELMET stuff, I’m gonna sit down and buckle down. So I’ll do my days where I try to divide it into the orchestral writing thing, this Christian Brothers piece, which is mostly brass and woodwinds and percussion, and then the HELMET stuff. ‘Cause if you’re just beating the pavement on one thing all day every day, I think it can get stale — for me anyway. First thing I do every day is play jazz guitar. So that keeps me excited and happy.”

HELMET’s first official live album, “Live And Rare”, was released last November via earMUSIC. It was made available on heavyweight black vinyl as well as a CD digipak edition and digital.

Although HELMET disbanded in 1997, Hamilton revived the band in 2004, and the group has continued to tour and record.

HELMET’s latest album, “Dead To The World”, was released in October 2016 via earMUSIC. The effort was produced by Hamilton and mixed by Jay Baumgardner.

Earlier last year, HELMET released a cover of GANG OF FOUR’s 1981 song “Into The Ditch”. The track was recorded for a tribute album to GANG OF FOUR’s guitarist Andy Gill, “The Problem Of Leisure: A Celebration Of Andy Gill And Gang Of Four”.

Having cut his teeth playing with avant-garde guitar icon Glenn Branca and indie stalwarts BAND OF SUSANS, Hamilton launched HELMET in 1989, and the band released its debut album, “Strap It On”, on the independent Amphetamine Reptile label the following year. HELMET soon became the subject of an unprecedented major-label bidding war, ultimately signing with Interscope and releasing “Meantime” in June 1992.

Even while the band was absent from the spotlight, HELMET continued to exercise considerable influence on multiple generations of bands. Their songs have been covered by the likes of CHEVELLE, DEFTONES, FAITH NO MORE, PIG DESTROYER and SOULFLY, and the band inspired a 2016 HELMET tribute album titled “Meantime Redux”. HELMET has also been cited as a key influence on such bands as GODSMACK, KORN, MARILYN MANSON, MASTODON, PANTERA, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, SEPULTURA, SLIPKNOT, STAIND, SYSTEM OF A DOWN and TOOL.

Hey everyone,

We were so looking forward to returning to Europe and getting back out on the road this Spring. After…

Posted by Helmet on Monday, March 14, 2022

New Jersey melodic thrash-metal warriors GOD FORBID will perform at this year’s Blue Ridge Rock Festival, set to take place September 8-11 at the Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia. The show will mark GOD FORBID’s first live appearance in over nine years.

GOD FORBID guitarist/vocalist Doc Coyle commented: “I wasn’t sure that this would ever happen, but I can’t tell you how psyched I am to announce that GOD FORBID is reuniting to play this year’s Blue Ridge Rock Festival. These are my brothers, and I can’t wait to share this with the fans who’ve been waiting.”

GOD FORBID officially called it quits in August 2013 following Doc’s departure.

Last December, Doc told “The Jasta Show” about the possibility of a GOD FORBID comeback: “I think [the reunion] will happen; it’s just a matter of when. Because Byron [Davis, vocals], he has a family, he’s married, he’s got a house, he’s kind of doing that thing, everyone’s kind of spread out. Same thing with John [Outcalt], our bass player; [he’s] got a kid, got a house, got a mortgage, wife and you know… everyone’s kind of moved to this different phase of their lives and it makes it really have to create space to do these things and it’s such a commitment of time and effort. And I’m super respectful of that, and I just don’t wanna force anything, or make [the reunion] about money, or make it about… too much business. I want it to be about our friendship and kind of doing something for the fans. ‘Cause we never did a last show, we never did a last tour, we never did a farewell. And so I think that that left just an empty kind of space there. And it’s unfortunate, because I’m of the mind that I always wanted to do things the right way.”

GOD FORBID’s latest album, “Equilibrium”, was released on March 27, 2012 via Victory Records. The bulk of the CD was recorded by Mark Lewis (THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, WHITECHAPEL, DEVILDRIVER, TRIVIUM), with Jason Suecof (TRIVIUM, ALL THAT REMAINS, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, CHIMAIRA, DEVILDRIVER) stepping in during the the vocal-tracking stage. The effort was mixed by acclaimed Swedish producer Jens Bogren, who has previously worked with such acts as KATATONIA, OPETH, PARADISE LOST and AMON AMARTH.

“Equilibrium” sold 3,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 156 on The Billboard 200 chart. The effort landed at No. 7 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

ARTIST ANNOUNCEMENT #66: God Forbid
GOD FORBID is Reuniting for Blue Ridge Rock Festival 2022! Performing LIVE for the first time since their 2013 breakup, they toured Ozzfest, MTV’s Headbangers Ball, and have become one of the most in-demand Reunions in Heavy Metal recently. pic.twitter.com/qcnYaUx0pB

— Blue Ridge Rock Festival (@BlueRidgeRock) March 14, 2022

Decibel invites Belgium-based extreme heavy metallers Evil Invaders to reveal what went into new album Shattering Reflection.
The post Evil Invaders Frontman Joe Kept Up All Night On New Album appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

On March 9, 2020, PEARL JAM was the first major artist to pull the plug and postpone its spring 2020 tour dates due to COVID-19 concerns. A few weeks later, the band’s new album, “Gigaton”, was released to critical acclaim but empty venues. Nearly two years later, PEARL JAM can finally hit the road with their 2020 North American tour dates officially rescheduled for May and September 2022. The updated routing also includes four additional concert dates in Fresno, Sacramento, Las Vegas, and Camden. Josh Klinghoffer’s solo project, PLURALONE, will open for PEARL JAM on this tour. Klinghoffer will also join PEARL JAM as a touring member on these dates.

A special ticket pre-sale for all tour dates begins today for current eligible PEARL JAM Ten Club members (active as of Sunday, March 13).

There will be no general public sale. All public tickets will be available through Ticketmaster Verified Fan Registration. Verified Fan ticket registration is open now through Sunday, March 27 at 10 p.m. PT and the Verified Fan Onsale begins Tuesday, March 29 at 10 a.m. local time.

To register, go to this location.

As previously announced, PEARL JAM’s 2020 European tour dates are rescheduled for June and July of 2022.

In continuing their ongoing commitment to acknowledge and address the band’s carbon footprint, PEARL JAM will be paying $200 per ton for carbon dioxide mitigation from the “Gigaton” tour, a ten-fold increase from prior years. This pricing allows the band to pursue a multi-layered strategy of offsets and investments that combined, will allow for a more comprehensive mitigation plan.

PEARL JAM’s Stone Gossard explains: “We are proud of our prior efforts to mitigate our inevitable carbon footprint from touring over the past 20 years but the time to multiply that effort is clearly right now. By committing to this aggressive pricing, we hope to equally amplify our efforts and gather partners who share our urgency to make the investments and innovations required to move our world to a more conscious, carbon balanced economy.”

PEARL JAM’s full 2022 North American tour dates are as follows:

May 03 – San Diego, CA – Viejas Arena (postponed date)
May 06 – Los Angeles, CA – The Forum (postponed date)
May 07 – Los Angeles, CA – The Forum (postponed date)
May 09 – Glendale, AZ – Gila River Arena (postponed date)
May 12 – Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena (postponed date)
May 13 – Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena (postponed date)
May 16 – Fresno, CA – Save Mart Arena (new date)
May 18 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center (new date)
May 20 – Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena (new date)
Sep. 01 – Quebec City, QC – Videotron Centre (postponed date)
Sep. 03 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Tire Centre (postponed date)
Sep. 06 – Hamilton, ON – FirstOntario Centre (postponed date)
Sep. 08 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena (postponed date)
Sep. 11 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden (postponed date)
Sep. 14 – Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion (new date)
Sep. 16 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena (postponed date)
Sep. 18 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center (postponed date)
Sep. 20 – Oklahoma City, OK – Paycom Center (postponed date)
Sep. 22 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena (postponed date)

Finnish cello rockers APOCALYPTICA will release a new single, “I’ll Get Through It”, this coming Friday, March 18. The track will feature guest appearances by legendary BLACK SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler and singer Franky Perez, who had recorded and toured with APOCALYPTICA in the past.

2015’s “Shadowmaker” was APOCALYPTICA’s first album to feature just one singer — Perez — instead of guest collaborators. The disc was recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer Nick Raskulinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, DEFTONES, MASTODON).

Prior to enlisting Perez, who will accompany APOCALYPTICA on the band’s 2022 North American tour, the group released eight albums that melded the classically trained cello mastery of the three core bandmembers with the harder elements of the rock world, including drums and guest vocalists, such as Gavin Rossdale from BUSH, and Corey Taylor of SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR fame.

APOCALYPTICA’s “The Cell-0 Tour” of North America was set to begin in May 2020 before being moved back to early 2021 and to late summer 2021 and then finally to April/May 2022. The trek will feature support from LACUNA COIL.

Last April, APOCALYPTICA released the official music video for its collaboration with PAPA ROACH singer Jacoby Shaddix on a cover version of the CREAM classic “White Room”. The track was produced by Howard Benson at West Valley Recording Studios in Woodland Hills, California and mixed by Chris Lorde-Alge.

“White Room” was the first release from APOCALYPTICA since “Talk To Me”, which arrived in August 2020. That song was a collaboration with HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale.

APOCALYPTICA’s latest studio album, “Cell-0”, came out in January 2020. The effort was the band’s first fully instrumental record in 17 years.

Back in 2018, APOCALYPTICA’s Eicca Toppinen stated about the band’s decision to make an all-instrumental album at this point in the group’s career: “On the previous ones, we always combined the instrumental songs with the vocal songs, and it was great to have the featuring artists, it was great to work with Frank Perez for the ‘Shadowmaker’ album. But then, on the other hand, it became a bigger interest for us, like, okay, it would be interesting to make a full instrumental album, so there’s no compromise with anything.”

In your guitar pedal dealings, you may have heard the phrase “component tolerances.” Nearly every component in a pedal is marked with a value, and ideally every component in your pedal would be that exact value, not one bit more and not one bit less. So, every 1k-ohm resistor would be exactly 1.0000000000000k ohm and every 10 µF capacitor would be exactly 10.0000000000000 µF. In this supernatural circuit situation, every pedal would sound identical. There would be no deviations from each component’s intended value, and there would be no deviations from the effect’s intended sound (all other things being equal). Unfortunately, we cannot hope to achieve this sort of metric perfection in the real world. While perfection may not ever be attained, it is also not often required, and all the circuits we interact with day in and day out can tolerate some sort of variation in their components’ value.Your pedal’s designer specifies every component value in a design to result in a particular timbre or function and needs to know how much each component employed might vary from that specified value. When manufacturers make parts, they specify the nominal value and a particular tolerance value. Often, this tolerance is specified as a percentage of the nominal value. So, a 10-percent tolerance in a 1k-ohm resistor could be anywhere from 900 ohms and 1100 ohms. The higher the tolerance figure, the more variation you can expect in the value of a given component.While more variation may seem like strictly bad news at first blush, it does have some benefits—principally, cost. The machines and processes required to make a one-percent resistor are cheaper and faster than those required to make a resistor of arbitrarily higher precision. Consequently, a run-of-the-mill one-percent tolerance resistor may cost five cents while its 0.005-percent laser-trimmed counterpart costs $12. If vintage pedal prices are starting to make you queasy, know that it could be much worse. Demand plays a major role in cost as well, as it is pretty rare that you need a 0.005-percent resistor.So, what difference does tolerance make and how do we know when we need to splurge for the caviar components? Without getting too far into the mathematical weeds, here’s a couple examples. Take Fig. 1, where a very simple resistor/capacitor low-pass filter is shown. This filter’s corner frequency [Fig. 2] is determined by the value of the resistor and capacitor, and that frequency has a certain sensitivity to variations of those values. [Note: The corner frequency is also known as the cut-off frequency—frequencies above this point will be attenuated by the low-pass filter.] In this particular circuit, if we wiggle the capacitance value by 10 percent, the corner frequency will move by approximately 10 percent.The corner frequency of the inductor/capacitor low-pass filter in Fig. 3 has a different sensitivity to changes in the value of the capacitor. If we increase the value of the capacitor by 10 percent, the corner frequency of the filter moves by approximately five percent. So, we can say that the corner frequency of the Fig. 3 circuit is less sensitive to changes in the capacitance than the Fig. 1 circuit. If you want to build circuits that are more forgiving of changes in component values, you can make some design decisions that will help!You can also quantify what difference component variation will make in the context of your particular application. Let’s assume we’re employing the circuit in Fig. 1 as a pedal power supply filter. Let’s set resistance at 470 ohms and capacitance at 220 µF. We know we’re primarily wanting to filter 60 Hz hum from our power line, and at this nominal value of R (resistance) and C (capacitance), we can attenuate 60 Hz by approximately 32 dB. If we choose a 20-percent capacitor, in the worst case, our C drops 20 percent to 176 µF and we only reduce that 60 Hz noise by 30 dB. In practice, that difference of 2 dB probably won’t result in a dramatic difference in performance. This tolerance to higher tolerance parts is one of the reasons why we see 20-percent capacitors in big power supplies. When bigger is better, some amount of overkill can make variations in value a non-issue, practically.Whether you’re bending your own circuits or just trying to figure out why you can’t find a backup that’s quite as good as your No. 1 dirtbox, you might consider how the imperfections in those little devices inside our devices add up to make something special.