Jackson today launches the Pro Series Signature Jeff Loomis Soloist SL7, the latest inception of their partnership with prolific veteran metal guitarist Jeff Loomis. Jackson and Loomis first collaborated in 2020 to create Loomis’s Pro Series Signature Kelly, an aggressive signature axe featuring a basswood body with a sandblasted ash top, finished in black with white binding giving a distressed and menacing look. This time around, the pair created a seven-string Soloist built to handle the prog metal giant’s furious, intricate playing that afforded him fame with NEVERMORE and ARCH ENEMY. The Soloist SL7 will captivate players who strive to emulate the heavy low-end sound and complex arrangements Loomis built his career on.

Jackson meets the demands of the guitarist who always wants more: faster picking, higher-powered leads and increasingly technical solos. Loomis’s loyal fanbase can vouch he has built his decades-long career with a similar philosophy in mind. The melodic-yet-aggressive style he has honed since his first release in 1995 has shaped prog, death and thrash metal. Fans have watched him push the genre forward over the decades as he expanded and refined his style, from his solo projects to his time as a member of ARCH ENEMY. The Soloist SL7 is the product of that same desire shared by both Jackson and Loomis: always exceeding expectations.

“Working with Jackson has been absolutely amazing,” said Loomis. “I couldn’t be happier. Being able to work one on one with the legendary Mike Shannon — Jackson’s principal master builder — on the overall shape and dimension of the neck was incredible. We were able to really hone in on every little fine detail, down to the glow-in-the dark fret markers for playing on dark stages. But this isn’t an overelaborate guitar: we stripped down the controls to make pickup changes dead easy. There’s only one volume knob and you’re going to leave that on 10 anyways. This is a beautiful, aggressive guitar that I love and I know Jackson fans will too.”

The signature model is built to reflect Loomis’s deep knowledge of what makes a guitar perfect for playing metal. His decades of experience taught him that the 26.5″ scale length he chose is ideal for perfect intonation across the fretboard of a seven-string. The through-body, graphite-reinforced neck with 12″-16″ compound radius bound ebony fingerboard makes for light and dextrous playing. The Seymour Duncan Jeff Loomis Signature Blackouts pickups will cut right through any mix and a Floyd Rose 1500 Series double-locking bridge system will handle even the most aggressive bar techniques. Luminlay side dots on the neck allow for playing in the darkest venues and the satin-black, sandblasted top of Loomis Signature Soloist gives it a look that leaps off the stage.

“We collectively conceptualized and then delivered for Jeff a guitar that matches who he is as a player: technical prowess meets brute force,” said Jon Romanowski, VP category management, Jackson. “After the success of his first Jackson Kelly, we knew we needed to work with Jeff on a seven-string to accommodate the full range of his work. We loved the process of working with Jeff to make a guitar that matches this ethos. Not every guitar can handle what Jeff and those inspired by him have in mind. Meeting his standards was a fantastic challenge. We can’t wait to hear what he and his fans will create with his Signature Soloist SL7.”

The Pro Series Signature Jeff Loomis Soloist SL7 originated in conjunction with Jackson’s world-class design and production teams to capture the iconic artist’s signature sounds. Watch as he breaks down the specs and shows off his new signature in a video below.

For technical specs, additional information on new Jackson products and to find a retail partner near you, visit www.jacksonguitars.com.

In a new interview with iHeartRadio’s Jess Jackson, HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale revealed that she recently met one of her “idols” for the first time, Ann Wilson from HEART. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “This happened — what? — two weeks ago, I think. She was recording a new album and I went to her studio and we did this joint interview together. And I was so happy to finally be able to thank her for not giving up. Because, look, we all have our roller-coaster-ride struggles that we go through just being born a woman, but I didn’t have it nearly as bad as she did. [Laughs] Because with every generation, you get to pass the torch to the next and have it be hopefully just a little less difficult because of what you fought to do. And so I got to thank her for not giving up because if that had been her narrative, then that probably would have been my narrative too. It’s, like, ‘Well, it got too hard. And she got sick of the music business and the struggles that go along with being a girl in the music business.’ So then I would be, like, ‘Well, wow. That actually seems impossible. Maybe I won’t go for that.'”

Lzzy continued: “I remember the first time I ever heard [Ann] really sing was in the ’90s. My mom bought me this live CD called ‘The Road Home’ by HEART and there’s this whole version of ‘Crazy On You’ that’s like semi-a cappella and she just wails so hard live. And I’m, like, ‘Wow! Girls can sing like that.’ And I know it sounds silly, but I was just, like, ‘I’m a girl, and she can do it, so I think I can do it too.’ It just made that bridge just a little shorter between me and the dream.”

Hale added that it was “exciting” to meet Wilson. “And it was neat to just talk to her like a normal person and really be just, like, ‘Hey, I want you to know how monumental that CD was,'” she said. “The funniest thing was that [Ann] was, like, ‘That live CD? We don’t even think of that live CD. They just happened to put it out.’

“You never know where those little keystones in your life are going to land. So that was a lot of fun.”

HALESTORM will release its fifth studio album, “Back From The Dead”, on May 6. The follow-up to 2018’s “Vicious” was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, MASTODON, ALICE IN CHAINS) with co-production by Scott Stevens (SHINEDOWN, DAUGHTRY, NEW YEARS DAY). The band began writing the album pre-pandemic, but continued throughout lockdown, and the result “is the story of me carving myself out of that abyss,” said Lzzy. “It is a journey of navigating mental health, debauchery, survival, redemption, rediscovery, and still maintaining faith in humanity.”

A U.S. headline tour in support of the effort will take place this spring, HALESTORM’s first U.S. shows since the conclusion of their co-headline dates with EVANESCENCE in January. Kicking off May 10 in Billings, Montana, and running through May 30 in Missoula, the dates, which include festival stops at St. Louis’s Point Fest on May 21 and Daytona Beach’s Welcome To Rockville on May 22, will feature various openers, including rock icons STONE TEMPLE PILOTS; MAMMOTH WVH, the hard rock band fronted by Wolfgang Van Halen; and Southern rock staples BLACK STONE CHERRY.

Lzzy and her brother Arejay Hale (drums) formed the band in 1998 while in middle school. Guitarist Joe Hottinger joined the group in 2003, followed by bassist Josh Smith in 2004.

In December 2018, HALESTORM was nominated for a “Best Rock Performance” Grammy Award for its song “Uncomfortable”. Six years earlier, the band won its first Grammy in the category of “Best Hard Rock/ Metal Performance” for “Love Bites (So Do I)”.

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U.K. death metal antagonists As the World Dies premiere their new single, “Desolate.” Album out on March 25.
The post Track Premiere: As the World Dies – “Desolate” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Rock supergroup MOTOR SISTER — featuring Jim Wilson (MOTHER SUPERIOR), Scott Ian (ANTHRAX), Pearl Aday (Scott’s wife and daughter of late actor/musician Meat Loaf), Joey Vera (ARMORED SAINT, FATES WARNING) and John Tempesta (THE CULT) — will release its new album, “Get Off”, on May 6 via Metal Blade Records. The official music video for the LP’s first single, “Can’t Get High Enough”, can be seen below.

Wilson says: “We wanted to make a high-energy, kick-ass rock and roll record from top to bottom. All killer, no filler.”

Adds Vera: “Our first record ‘Ride’ was a collection of songs we re-recorded from the band MOTHER SUPERIOR which was great, but I’m stoked that we had this chance to actually get into a room together and write this batch of all new material. We keep in mind where this band originated from but we get to take it to totally different levels.”

About the new single, Ian says: “‘Can’t Get High Enough’ is a straight-up ripper from start to finish.”

“Get Off” will be available digitally as well as physically on digipak CD, 180-gram black vinyl, crimson red with blue smoke vinyl (U.S. exclusive) and pale blue gray marbled vinyl (EU exclusive — limited to 200 copies).

“Get Off” track listing:

01. Can’t Get High Enough
02. Coming For You
03. Right There, Just Like That
04. Sooner Or Later
05. Excuse Me, Your Life Is Exposed
06. Lion’s Den
07. 1,000,000 Miles
08. Pain
09. Bulletproof
10. Bruise It Or Lose It
11. Time’s Up
12. Rolling Boy Blues

MOTOR SISTER was originally formed as a MOTHER SUPERIOR covers band made up of diehard fans — and aided by sharing the same frontman — playing the songs for the love of doing so. Catching the attention of Metal Blade, the label offered to put out a record and the result was “Ride” (2015), a collection of live-in-the-studio takes cherry-picked from MOTHER SUPERIOR’s back catalog.

Now, they step beyond those parameters, returning with their second album, which is almost entirely brand new material. “The record of covers was already done, so there was no need to do it again,” says Aday. “We’re a bunch of songwriters with so much passion for the same kind of music, it just makes sense that we would make new music together, and it was easy as usual to follow Jim’s lead on this one. He was overflowing with songs and ideas so we all happily jumped right in.” Adds Wilson, “We definitely wanted to continue with the spirit of my old band and it’s not difficult really because everything MOTHER SUPERIOR did was done with heart and soul and I think soul is an important word. Not necessarily ‘soul music’ but the feeling that comes with it.”

The result is aptly described by Vera as “no-bullshit hard rock and roll”, the record containing eleven originals and rounded out with a cover of MOTHER SUPERIOR’s “Rolling Boy Blues”, which has been a live staple. Kicking off with the compulsive, high-octane “Can’t Get High Enough”, they immediately put the pedal to the metal, likewise on the pure rock ‘n’ soul of “Bulletproof” and the swaggering “Excuse Me, Your Life Is Exposed”. They slow things down a little on the singalong glory of “Sooner Or Later” and the more plaintive “Pain”.

As with “Ride”, the band entrusted Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER) with production, and this time headed into Dave Grohl’s Studio 606.

“It’s a great sounding room and we got to track on the Sound City Neve, which is perfect for our sound,” says Ian. “And some really cool people — who took great care of us — own it.” Also in common with its predecessor, “Get Off” was recorded live in the studio, with all five members in the same room, vocals and leads redone after the basic tracks were laid down, but tracking was interrupted mid-process by COVID-19. This put things on hold, resuming a year later as the band added the finishing touches to the record, but this interruption definitely did not harm the feelings of exuberance and spontaneity that bleed from the speakers. Now, the band is looking forward and excited to play these originals live alongside the covers they are known for.

Photo: Travis Shinn