Canadian metal legends ANVIL will release their 19th album, “Impact Is Imminent”, on May 20 via AFM Records.

On “Impact Is Imminent”, ANVIL fires off merciless riff attacks, relentlessly driving drums and impressive bass grooves, complemented by vocal melodies and lyrics that inevitably drill themselves into the listener’s aural tract. As always, guitarist/vocalist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and founding drummer Robb Reiner are at the epicenter of this heavy metal extravaganza. For the past eight years, they have been supported by bassist Chris Robertson, who not only complements the ANVIL fold on a personal level, but also enhances the tracks with his powerful low frequency bass parts and backing vocals.

Today, ANVIL shared a first single alongside a music video for the full pedal-to-the-metal anthem “Ghost Shadow”. Lips states about the track: “‘Ghost Shadow’ is my sixth sense telling me I’m being watched. Could be Internet trolls or paranormal phenomenon. Either way, the song is heavy as fuck.”

Regarding “Impact Is Imminent”, Lips says: “None of our previous albums blends music and lyrics into as tight a unit as ‘Impact Is Imminent’. Everything comes together homogeneously. As a result, the new material sounds monolithic, right down to the very last details, both in terms of rhythm and harmonies. In the past, our studio sessions were sometimes like a little like jumping in at the deep end, with us having to improvise a lot and making decisions at short notice. Working on ‘Impact Is Imminent’, not only was there plenty of time for the songwriting process in the run-up to the recordings, but I also had the leisure to put all my ideas to the acid test and work on them until they were perfect.”

Like its three predecessors, “Anvil Is Anvil” (2016), “Pounding The Pavement” (2018) and “Legal At Last” (2019), “Impact Is Imminent” was produced by Martin “Mattes” Pfeiffer and Jörg Uken at Uken’s Soundlodge studios.

“Impact Is Imminent” track listing:

01. Take A Lesson
02. Ghost Shadow
03. Another Gun Fight
04. Fire Rain
05. Teabag
06. Don’t Look Back
07. Someone To Hate
08. Bad Side Of Town
09. Wizard’s Wand
10. Lockdown
11. Explosive Energy
12. The Rabbit Hole
13. Shockwave
14. Gomez

Last month, Lips told Canada’s The Metal Voice: “The whole thing is a bit weird and odd because we put out an album and then never got to tour for it,” referencing the aforementioned “Legal At Last”. “So it’s, like, where is the tour for the last album already? So, what is the last album, just spinning our wheels? What was that? What happened? Now I’m in a position where I’m putting out another album, and I’m gonna have to actually try to push both albums. It’s, like, I don’t know. I’ve never been in a position like that.”

Lips added: “And then at the same time, while all this is going on, I got back from [recording in] Germany, of course, in October and have been writing songs since I got back. Because, of course, the last song I wrote was before I left — months before — so I had months of time off, not doing anything. So we started back in on it. We’re at [song] number 10 already — for the next album.”

ANVIL, a Toronto-based group, was formed in 1978 by childhood friends Kudlow and Reiner. Both came from Jewish families and had been playing music together since their teens. ANVIL is considered to have been an influence on many metal bands, including METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX.

Though initially a four-piece band, ANVIL’s current lineup includes Kudlow, Reiner and Robertson.

ANVIL gained popularity and new fans since the 2008 theatrical documentary, “Anvil: The Story Of Anvil”, which is currently available on Netflix. Made by former ANVIL roadie, filmmaker Sacha Gervasi, it became a cult hit, described by the Chicago Tribune as “a sort of real-life version of ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ with more appealing characters and real emotions.”

In a 2015 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Lips stated about ANVIL’s longevity: “We learned a very early and very brutal lesson in our younger years — you don’t let up, ever. You keep the tank full and you keep driving it. You don’t stop. ‘Cause stopping means that you’re gonna slip. So we’ve been on this survival-terror mode to keep it going.”

MOTIONLESS IN WHITE will release its new album, “Scoring The End Of The World”, on June 10 via Roadrunner Records. It is available to pre-save on all streaming platforms today with exclusive merch bundles available for pre-order in the band’s official store.

To herald the LP’s arrival, the Scranton, Pennsylvania quintet has also shared the first single “Cyberhex” which is available on all streaming platforms and joined by an official music video directed by the band’s guitarist Ricky Olson and Logan Beaver.

MOTIONLESS IN WHITE frontman Chris “Motionless” Cerulli commented on the ambitious new project, stating: “‘Cyberhex’ is my love letter to you, our fans, for everything you have done for me over the course of some of the most mentally taxing few years I’ve had to go through. At times where I felt like my world was ending, as well as the world around us, it was always in my mind that I was able to turn to the special relationship we have created together for help, and I cannot thank you enough for that. Outside of my own personal experiences, it has been equally as fulfilling to me to see that in the face of tireless forces that continue to try and perpetuate hatred and negativity towards so many of us coexisting on this planet, we have all stood together to resist and fight back knowing that love and compassion will always prevail. We ARE the resistance. We ARE Cyberhex. I love you. Thank you.”

On “Cyberhex”, an ominous synth melody snaps like the click of a trigger into a pummeling glitchy guitar riff as Chris warns, “There’s no tomorrow.” His apocalyptic verses give way to a robotic sample, “Initiate Cyberhex,” before the cataclysmically catchy chorus takes hold. Strings pierce the militaristic bridge, and screams cut through the chaos. In what may be their most cinematic visual yet, the story of the song comes to life on-screen under Olson’s deft direction.

“Scoring The End Of The World” fully encompasses the expanse of MOTIONLESS IN WHITE’s dynamic, deep, and dark vision, and marks the band’s first full-length body of work in three years since 2019’s “Disguise”. The latter has quietly made a major impact on rock music and culture. The single “Another Life” stands out as their most-streamed song ever with over 23 million YouTube views on the music video. The record claimed a spot on Loudwire’s “50 Best Metal Albums of 2019,” plus it ignited the creative renaissance that would set the stage for the statement-making “Scoring The End Of The World”.

Later this month, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE will kick off a massive triple co-headline North American tour. Dubbed the “Trinity Of Terror” tour, the run will feature the unholy triumvirate of MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, BLACK VEIL BRIDES and ICE NINE KILLS and will be the first time ever that fans get to see all three bands on the same stage each night. The coast-to-coast outing, which will see the three bands alternating closing sets each night, is set to kick off on March 17 in Mesa, Arizona and make stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, and more, before wrapping up with a performance at Norfolk’s Chartway Arena on April 27.

Last year, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE unleashed the standalone single “Timebomb”. It has gathered 5.7 million Spotify streams and 1.6 million YouTube views on the music video. Earning critical acclaim, Loudwire hailed it as “dark but uplifting — and heavy,” and Kerrang! urged, “prepare your neck.”

“Scoring The End Of The World” track listing:

01. Meltdown
02. Sign Of Life
03. Werewolf
04. Porcelain
05. Slaughterhouse (feat. Bryan Garris)
06. Masterpiece
07. Cause Of Death
08. We Become The Night
09. Burned At Both Ends 2
10. Broadcasting From Beyond The Grave: Corpse Nation
11. Cyberhex
12. Red, White & Boom (feat. Caleb Shomo)
13. Scoring The End Of The World (feat. Mick Gordon)

Photo credit: Rockcandyphoto

SLIPKNOT’s Corey Taylor makes an appearance in “Bite My Face”, the new music video from HO99O9 (pronounced “horror”). The track is taken from HO99O9’s new album “Skin”, which is being released today (Friday, March 11). The follow-up to 2017’s “United States Of Horror” was produced entirely by BLINK-182 drummer Travis Barker and is being made available via Barker’s DTA Records.

When the duo of Yeti Bones and theOGM kicked in the doors of the music industry in 2014 with an iconically off-the-rails set at the Afropunk festival, they set a noisy new standard for industrial-grade, punk-influenced hip-hop, colliding the DMX and BONE THUGS they grew up listening to in Jersey headfirst with bands like BAD BRAINS and the NINJASONIK that they absorbed after discovering the NYC DIY scene. With a steady stream of mixtapes, EPs, singles, and their debut LP “United States Of Horror”, they’ve continued to raise the bar for sonic chaos, drawing critical raves, building a cultishly devoted following, and earning the respect of iconic audio anarchists like Mike Patton (who invited them to open for MR. BUNGLE and DEAD CROSS) and THE PRODIGY (who featured them on the 2018 single “Fight Fire With Fire”).

In 2019, a mutual friend introduced them to Travis Barker, and a get-to-know-you studio session quickly resulted in the pummelling track “Nuge Snight”. Soon after, the pandemic hit and the world turned upside down, but the trio kept working off and on over the course of 2020 and 2021, with Barker on drums and production duties. As the situation outside the studio got more tumultuous, Yeti Bones and theOGM got rawer, finding new ways to channel the rage that’s always animated their music — rage that the rest of the world was feeling more and more every day — and peeling back what little pretense they had to reveal their most unapologetically honest selves. Eventually, they realized that they had an album on their hands. Taking inspiration from an Ice Cube B-side, they named it “Skin”.

“Skin” is the sound of HO99O9 finding new levels to their talents, then crashing through them to go even higher. It’s somehow even noisier and more aggressive than their earlier work — mosh pit music for the end of the world that keeps the needle buried deep in the red — but there’s also a fresh focus to the chaos. If listening to early HO99O9 was like getting jumped by a mutant street gang, “Skin” is like facing off against a couple of martial arts masters who know precisely where to land each blow to cause maximum impact. Lead single “Battery Not Included” pivots effortlessly from breakbeat industrial mayhem to hardcore breakdown to a completely unexpected soothing interlude — before going right back to beatdown mode. The slow-grind “Speak Of The Devil” spotlights the newfound emphasis on melody that the pair bring to the table. The album also brings together Yeti Bones and theOGM with some of their biggest influences and most illustrious supporters: “Slo Bread” sends Houston rap into a nightmarish new dimension with help from H-Town trailblazer Bun B; “Skinhead” brings together street punk and poet Saul Williams; and the merciless “Bite My Face” gets a brutal vocal assist from Taylor.

HO99O9’s spring U.S. tour will kick off April 15 in Los Angeles and runs through May 14 in Houston. Following the headlining run, HO99O9 will link up with SLIPKNOT and CYPRESS HILL for the second leg of the “Knotfest Roadshow” tour beginning on May 18.

World-renowned guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani has made the very tough decision to once again reschedule his European tour. Originally scheduled to take place in 2020, it had been rescheduled to begin in April 2022. However, with the current COVID-19 restrictions and quarantine mandates not yet standardized throughout the world, it has been decided that the best path forward is to reschedule once again. The new tour dates will now be moving to 2023.

These newly rescheduled shows are now set to begin on April 1, 2023, in Oslo, Norway and wind up on June 4, 2021 in Bordeaux, France.

Fans who are holding tickets for these shows, originally planned to take place in April, May and June 2022, will be honored for the rescheduled dates.

Satriani will release his new album, “The Elephants Of Mars”, worldwide on April 8 via earMUSIC. His current band features celebrated drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Fogerty) bassist Bryan Beller (ARISTOCRATS) and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte (THIRSTY MERC), with Satriani on guitar.

Satriani had an admirably productive workingman’s holiday, with pandemic forced time away from the road, that ultimately gave him and his touring band, all recording remotely in separate areas of the world during lockdown, the ability to deliver an album length journey that never dulls.

The guitarist challenged himself to create a “new standard” for instrumental guitar albums to be measured against, one which would work from “a new platform of his own design,” as he terms it. “I want to show people that an instrumental guitar album can contain far more creative and entertaining elements than I think people are using right now.”

From the gripping, sci-fi madness of “Through A Mother’s Day Darkly” to the isolation felt in a decaying urban landscape, as depicted in first single “Sahara” to the general endorphin levels that peak as the elephants finally roar in the title track, “The Elephants Of Mars” will stampede across your mind, leaving a sonic imprint that doesn’t fade.

Joe Satriani 2023 tour dates:

April 01 – Oslo, Norway @ Sentrum Scene
April 02 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Fryshuset Arenan
April 03 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Amager Bio
April 04 – Odense, Denmark @ Posten
April 05 – Aarhus, Denmark @ Train
April 07 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Prague Congress Centre
April 08 – Vienna, Austria @ Wiener Stadhalle
April 10 – Budapest, Hungary @ Barba Negra Track
April 11 – Warsaw, Poland @ Stodola Club
April 13 – Enschede, Netherlands @ Muziekcentrum Enschede
April 14 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg the Max
April 15 – Heerlen, Netherlands @ RABOzaal Heerlen
April 16 – Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma
April 17 – Oberhausen, Germany @ Turbinenhalle Oberhausen
April 18 – Nürnberg, Germany @ Löwensaal
April 20 – Berlin, Germany @ Huxley’s Neue Welt
April 22 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Volkshaus Zurich
April 24 – Milano, Italy @ Teatro dal Verme
April 26 – Napoli, Italy @ Teatro Augusteo
April 28 – Lecce, Italy @ Teatro Politeama Greco
April 29 – Roma, Italy @ Auditorium Conciliazione
April 30 – Firenze, Italy @ Teatro Verdi
May 02 – Bologna, Italy @ Europaditorium
May 04 – Lyon, France @ Transbordeur
May 05 – Nantes, France @ Cité des Congrès
May 06 – Clermont-Ferrand, France @ Coopérative de Mai
May 07 – Tours, France @ Le Vinci
May 09 – Rennes, France @ Le Liberté
May 10 – Saint-Malo, France @ La Nouvelle Vague
May 12 – Birmingham, UK @ Birmingham Symphony Hall
May 13 – Gateshead, UK @ Gateshead Sage 1
May 14 – Manchester, UK @ Bridgewater Hall
May 15 – Glasgow, Scotland @ O2 Academy Glasgow
May 16 – Bexhill, UK @ Bexhill De La Warr
May 17 – London, UK @ Palladium
May 19 – Reims, France @ La Cartonnerie
May 20 – Paris, France @ L’Olympia
May 22 – Metz, France @ Bam
May 23 – Besançon, France @ La Rodia
May 24 – Strasbourg, France @ La Laiterie
May 26 – Karlsruhe, Germany @ Kulturzentrum Tollhaus Karlsruhe
May 27 – Winterbach, Germany @ Salierhalle Winterbach
May 30 – Toulouse, France @ Théâtre du Casino Barrière
May 31 – Perpignan, France @ @ Le Médiator
June 01 – Barcelona, Spain @ Sala Barts
June 02 – Madrid, Spain @ Sala la Riviera
June 03 – Bilbao, Spain @ Santana 27
June 04 – Bordeaux, France @ Théâtre Femina

During a recent interview with LifeMinute, SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil commented on the possibility of sharing the stage again with his fellow surviving SOUNDGARDEN members Ben Shepherd (bass) and Matt Cameron (drums). He said: “I think it’s very likely that Matt and Ben and I will play together. I think we know that the songs that we love, that we did for decades with SOUNDGARDEN, if we’re gonna play those songs again or hear those songs when we wanna hear them, at best it’ll be with at least the three of us; that’s the closest we’re gonna get at this point. So I think we’d wanna re-explore that and do that at some time in the future. And I think the three of us have an interest in doing new things. We certainly like working together.”

Last August, Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd joined Brandi Carlile onstage during her concert on at the Gorge Amphitheatre in in George, Washington to play SOUNDGARDEN’s “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” and “Black Hole Sun”.

In June 2021, SOUNDGARDEN and Vicky Cornell, the widow and personal representative of the estate of the band’s lead singer Chris Cornell, announced that they had come to a temporary agreement that would transfer the SOUNDGARDEN social media accounts and web site to Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd and their managers, Red Light Management. This included SOUNDGARDEN’s web site, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

A year ago, Thayil, Cameron, Shepherd and their business manager Rit Venerus filed papers in Washington state U.S. District Court claiming that Vicky Cornell had locked them out of their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, Top Spin and Pinterest accounts, as well as SOUNDGARDEN’s official web site, and changing all the passwords.

Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd claimed their socials were previously managed by their then-management company Patriot Management. They said they later learned that Patriot had handed over all the login information to Vicky after Patriot was terminated in October 2019.

Chris Cornell was found hanged in his room at the MGM Grand Detroit hotel in May 2017, following a SOUNDGARDEN show at the city’s Fox Theatre. His body was found soon after he had spoken with a “slurred” voice to his wife by phone. The death was ruled a suicide.

In December 2019, Vicky filed a lawsuit against the surviving SOUNDGARDEN members, alleging the group owed Cornell’s estate hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties and the rights to seven unreleased recordings made before the singer’s death in May of 2017.

Responding to Vicky’s lawsuit, Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron claimed that they “don’t have possession” of their “own creative work,” and alleged that “Vicky Cornell has possession of the only existing multi-track recordings of the last SOUNDGARDEN tracks that include Chris Cornell’s instrumental parts and vocals. All of the band members jointly worked on these final tracks, Vicky now claims ownership of the final SOUNDGARDEN album.”

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne appear in the new video from British singer Yungblud. The clip for the track “The Funeral” begins with a scene featuring Ozzy standing behind a raised coffin in which Yungblud is lying, and we see the Prince Of Darkness looking around and saying: “Hang on, is this a fucking funeral? Where the fuck is everybody?”

“The Funeral” marks the 24-year-old’s first new music since last year’s “Fleabag” single.

Yungblud, otherwise known as Dominic Harrison, began teasing the new song last Saturday (March 5), when he shared an image of a handwritten message “To whom this may concern. For those I let down I’m sorry, for those who let me down, fuck you but I forgive you. You are cordially and graciously invited to my funeral.”

As an artist and songwriter, Yungblud lives to stir up the raw energy of rebellion. With his frenetic take on alt-pop equally inspired by punk, hip-hop, and U.K. garage, Yungblud makes brilliant use of his breakneck flow and tongue-in-cheek attitude, delivering pointed lyrics without ever getting heavy-handed.

Born in Yorkshire, Harrison first picked up a guitar at age two and began writing his own songs when he was ten. At 16 he moved to London, then spent the next few years struggling to define his musical vision. But after reconnecting with the firebrand artists that first compelled him to make music — THE CLASH, ARCTIC MONKEYS, N.W.A. — he felt unstoppably inspired. That inspiration lead to the eventual release of his 2017 debut, “King Charles”.

Since then, Yungblud has created his own blend of alternative rock: poetry, guitar-hooks and break-beats with a fierce determination to make a dent in pop-culture. Startlingly bold yet emotionally grounded, he drops a grenade on listeners and imprints himself in their minds.