LIONS AT THE GATE, the new band featuring former ILL NIÑO members Cristian Machado (vocals), Ahrue “Luster” Ilustre (guitar) and Diego Verduzco (guitar), alongside bassist Stephen Brewer (WESTFIELD MASSACRE) and drummer Fern Lemus, has released its latest single and music video, “Bed Of Nails”. The track strikes a fine balance between otherworldly vocals, relentless rhythm, and massively heavy riffs.

Speaking about “Bed Of Nails”, Machado commented: “‘Bed Of Nails’ is a song that was brought in by Diego, a string of riffs that told a story. [Producer] Kile [Odellpushed the dynamics of the song into extremes by surrounding Diego’s riffs with ghostly verses. Ahrue and Steve rounded off some of the parts and the bridge of the song. When I heard the demo, I fell in love with the heavy riff and the double bass, especially followed by those intimate and creepy verses. That caught my attention instantly. When we got the final mixes back from Kile, I realized how strong the song was.”

He continued: “The message of the song is not hidden in the lyric; it is blatantly about deep inner struggle to accept the things you cannot change. I think, especially to embrace those things which blossom growth, even when they involve intense struggle. It’s a theme stitched well into the album. Laying out a maze, attempting to discover an exit path, trying to cut through the uncertainty of life and the chaos of the world. Really, though, aren’t we all?”

“Bed Of Nails” and previously released singles “Scapegoat” and “Not Even Human” are expected to appear on LIONS AT THE GATE’s upcoming debut album, which was produced by the aforementioned Kile Odell, who has previously worked with FOZZY and MOTIONLESS IN WHITE.

LIONS AT THE GATE released its debut single, “Not Even Human”, back in June 2021 to huge excitement from fans old and new.

When LIONS AT THE GATE’s formation was first announced, Machado said: “I feel so blessed to be in LIONS AT THE GATE. We’ve all been making albums for a long time but I think it was time for us to make something special and memorable again. This album is exactly that. Take away our musical history, take away our long hair, take away our personal feelings, just make believe we were never there. This LIONS AT THE GATE album is amazing. We finally made a modern metal album that metalheads will enjoy beginning to end. It’s deep, it’s memorable, I can’t wait for everyone to hear it, I can’t wait for everyone to hear the featured female artist on one of the songs.”

Verduzco added: “I’m beyond proud and excited to announce our new band LIONS AT THE GATE. Life is all about change and I feel that this music is the most dynamic and honest that we’ve ever written. I feel a sense of freedom and am completely reinvigorated and even anxious (in a good way) to be a part of something that pulls influence from so many directions . Each member brings a unique set of talent and tools. It’s quite frankly some of the best music we’ve ever written. Organic, honest, and true.”

Luster stated: “I’m more excited about LIONS AT THE GATE than anything that I’ve been a part of since I started my musical career.”

Luster discussed his renewed collaboration with Machado and Verduzco in an interview with Pierre Gutierrez of Rock Talks. He said: “I can’t even explain how happy I am with how this came out. It sounds, in my opinion, better than anything that Cristian and I have ever done together, and that includes all the ILL NIÑO records that we’ve done together.”

Asked about the musical direction of LIONS AT THE GATE, Ahrue said: “It’s a very polished sound, similar to… I don’t wanna say it sounds like [ILL NIÑO’s 2003 album] ‘Confession’, but there’s a lot of singing on it, there’s a lot of production. But at the same time, there’s heaviness to it. But the songs are better than anything we’ve written. And the crazy thing was the process of writing ’em was way easier than it has ever been for us. Usually an ILL NIÑO record would take us three to six months to finish. We finished this record in 20 days, and we believe it sounds better than anything we’ve ever done in the past.”

Speaking about LIONS AT THE GATE’s collaboration with Odell, Ahrue said: “He’s worked with BAD WOLVES. I think he may have co-wrote with them. But he has a huge resume, and he’s had, like, five Number One hits last year. And he was amazing to work with. I’ve worked with Ross Robinson, I’ve worked with Johnny K, I’ve worked with Terry Date, as a mixer, and I’ve worked with some other big names in the industry that have all had platinum records, and I’ll say, hands down, Kile Odell is amazing. I would say, second to [MACHINE HEAD’s] ‘The Burning Red’, it was an amazing experience. It was a different way. As far as Ross Robinson was really into the emotion and getting the emotion out of the players and the music, Odell is very musical and he’s really able to help with the songs, and he has a great ear and a great vision.”

LIONS AT THE GATE will make its live debut on April 28 at the legendary Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California. Support at the show will come from THROWN INTO EXILE and BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE. Tickets go on sale on Friday, March 4 at 10 a.m. PT.

Photo credit: Andre Giovani

The fact that small amps excel—and can sound really big—in studio situations isn’t news as much as it’s audio engineering gospel. But while little amps like the Fender Champ, Gibson Skylark, and Danelectro DM10 have been pulling feats of trompe-l’oeil on records for decades, some small combos still sound bigger and badder than others. And I feel pretty good about making the case for Magnatone’s new 5-watt Starlite as one of the biggest sounding—and most flexible—little amps that’s ever joined this club of overachievers.Maggie MélangeThe Starlite is something of an early-’60s Magnatone mashup. The name is borrowed from a series of Maggies from the mid ’60s best known for their arresting “squiggle” grill cloth. But the cabinet design and circuit are more closely related to the Custom 210, a 5-watt, single-6V6GT-powered rival to the Fender Champ and other small amps of the time, distinguished by the inclusion of Magnatone’s rather legendary vibrato circuit.Sadly, there’s no vibrato on the new Starlite. The inclusion of the effect would have likely made the amp exceedingly expensive for its size. But the flexibility of the Starlite’s circuit is still extra impressive thanks to a clever tone control and a negative feedback switch that, as we will see, can profoundly transform the sound and tactile experience of playing the Starlite.Just like every new Magnatone we’ve seen since the company’s 2014 resurrection, the Starlite is both sturdy and exceedingly handsome. I can’t think of an amp that’s less likely to disrupt the design of a well put-together living room. And its compact 17″ x 8″ x 12″ dimensions might make it look—to less guitar-savvy interior-design-enthusiast friends—like a beautifully restored vintage radio or hi-fi speaker.The Starlite’s construction is robust. Its smallest components, like caps and resistors—which number fewer than 30, by my count—are neatly arrayed on a glass epoxy PCB. The power transformer is from Hammond, and the power and preamp tubes are Apex-matched JJs—a 6V6S and 12AX7 respectively.Tiny, Toneful, and BrutishThough the benefits of using a small amp in a recording situation are well documented, there are limitations to such setups. Sometimes an 8-inch speaker won’t offer the bass response necessary for inciting a certain kind of performance. Lower wattage and smaller speakers can also change the way pedals like fuzz and high-gain overdrive respond to your playing in adverse ways. But if ever there were a 5-watt, 8-inch-speaker-equipped amp with the flexibility to help bridge those gaps, it’s the Starlite.Much of the Starlite’s versatility is derived from its very flexible tone control. Magnatone suggests that it helps bridge tweed and black-panel Fender Champ sounds. And to some extent that is very true. Counter-clockwise from noon, the control scoops out progressively more midrange, which is a hallmark of black-panel Champs, resulting in exceptionally crisp, sparkling high-end output and honking, modest bass response with low to moderate amp distortion. Cranked to the gills, as any black-panel or early silver-panel Champ fan knows, this tone profile can sound pretty brash and splatty—particularly with single-coils. That’s where the midrange-boosted clockwise half of the tone control becomes invaluable.Warmly saturated overtones can give you the confidence to lean hard on the amp at full volume without fear of being too piercing.Clockwise from noon, the added midrange starts to massage and round off harsher transients while increasing saturation to the lows and low-mids, adding flattering contours to 5th- and 6th-string output and a satisfyingly distorted edge to high strings. Because of the Starlite’s class-A single-ended circuitry, there isn’t any of the tweed sag you associate with amps like the Deluxe—at least in the clinical sense. But these warmly saturated overtones can give you the confidence to lean hard on the amp at full volume without fear of being too piercing.The beauty of both of these tone settings, and the many cool in-between shades available through the control’s ample range, is that the Starlite is super responsive to guitar-volume attenuation. You can very easily set the amp up at wide-open volume and move from aggressive crunchy tones to clean ones with a slight adjustment of your instrument’s controls.The amp’s response and distortion makeup can also be completely reshaped by the negative feedback switch. With the switch on (a configuration that sets the amp up as Fender designers of old would have intended), the Starlite’s distortion tends to be warmer, and clean tones tend to be less spiky. In general, the negative feedback “on” settings were more satisfying and versatile to my ear. But in the moments I hankered for extra Mike Bloomfield-style sting, taking the negative feedback out of the mix was an enticing and thrilling option.The VerdictAt $1,299, the Starlite is 100 bucks more than Fender’s excellent ’57 Custom Champ. And I suspect that for many potential customers, the more expansive and flexible tone control, negative feedback switch, output for an 8-ohm external, and the dashing, less-common styling will be worth the extra cash. Even if you find the head-to-head tweed-style comparisons a toss-up (and the Starlite is not, strictly speaking, a tweed Champ equivalent), the Maggie arguably has an edge in versatility. In its most black-panel-like settings, I still found the Starlite throatier, more massive, and even a little more sparkly on top than my otherwise sweetly ringing early-’70s silver-panel Champ (which is identical to a black-panel in most respects). The same qualities also make it a little more conducive to use of boost, overdrive, and fuzz, which, by the way, all sound fantastic-to-fantastically-trashy in tandem with the Maggie.Such margins of advantage may be slim to modest in each comparison. But when using a small amp in the studio, where creating the illusion of a bigger amplifier is often the aim, the Starlite’s knack for lending a little extra illusion of mass and muscle is no small consideration.Magnatone Starlite Demo | First Look

ENVY OF NONE, the new band from Alex Lifeson (RUSH), Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH), Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne, will release its self-titled debut album on April 8 via Kscope. The LP’s second single, “Look Inside”, can be streamed below.

Lifeson is no stranger to the concept of evolution. As a founding member of RUSH, he’s been able to explore more musical ground than just about any other guitar player out there — taking rock to new progressive heights throughout the decades and always in the most wildly inventive of ways. His influence can be heard on countless bands around the world, from indie shoegaze and math rock to heavy metal and beyond. Over the last few years, Lifeson has been focusing on a new project that, no matter how well-acquainted you are with his discography, will undoubtedly shatter all seeds of expectation and blow the mind. That project is ENVY OF NONE.

“Envy Of None”‘s 11 tracks — which ricochet between various shades of alternative, experimental and synth rock — throw surprises at every turn, twisting dark melodies against contemporary pop hooks. Lifeson himself is proudly aware of how little of it crosses over with the band that made him famous.

However, it was only when Wynne became involved that this truly started to feel like a band destined to go somewhere. Her haunting melodies and soul-baring intensity is — by the admission of her own bandmates — what truly brought this music to life. All things considered; she is a star in the making.

“I sent over an early version of the song ‘Shadow’,” explains Curran. “When I played what she’d done back to the others they were like, ‘Who is this crazy talented person?!'”

The album’s first single, “Liar”, was released in January. Its industrial beats, driving fuzz bass and atmospheric guitars concoct a seductive swirl indeed — thrilling in ways closer to the darker art rock of DEPECHE MODE, NINE INCH NAILS and A PERFECT CIRCLE than anything these musicians have been known for prior.

“Maiah became my muse,” says Lifeson. “She was able to bring this whole new ethereal thing through her sense of melody on tracks like ‘Liar’ and ‘Look Inside’. After hearing her vocals on ‘Never Said I Love You’, I felt so excited. I’ve never had that kind of inspiration working with another musician. When we say she’s special, it’s because she’s really fucking special.”

“One of my favorite things about these songs is the intimacy of them,” reveals Wynne. “It makes them feel different and more honest. There are some heavier songs too, like ‘Enemy’, and then tracks like ‘Kabul Blues’, that sound completely different to anything else.”

The album closer, “Western Sunset”, which was penned by Lifeson in tribute to his dear friend Neil Peart. It’s a highly emotive piece of music to honor a man deeply missed by the rock community at large, and even more so by those who were lucky enough to know him.

“I visited Neil when he was ill,” says Lifeson. “I was on his balcony watching the sunset and found inspiration. There’s a finality about a sunset that kinda stayed with me throughout the whole process. It had meaning. It was the perfect mood to decompress after all these different textures… a nice way to close the book.”

ENVY OF NONE is:

* Alf Annibalini – Guitar, Keyboards, Programming
* Andy Curran – Bass Guitar, Synthesized Bass, Programming, Guitar, Background Vocals, Stylophone
* Alex Lifeson – Guitar, Mandola, Banjo, Programming
* Maiah Wynne – Lead Vocals, Background Vocals, Keyboards

“Envy Of None” track listing:

01. Never Said I Love You [04:06]
02. Shadow [03:21]
03. Look Inside [04:44]
04. Liar [03:13]
05. Spy House [02:23]
06. Dog’s Life [04:36]
07. Kabul Blues [03:12]
08. Old Strings [05:15]
09. Dumb [04:19]
10. Enemy [04:16]
11. Western Sunset [02:25]

You might call it impeccable timing. SABATON have long been the metal world’s great guardians of military history, and the underlying message behind the Swedish band’s many tales of armed conflict has always been abundantly clear. As they said themselves online this week: “There has been more than enough bloodshed through history. No need for more.” Current events are impossible to ignore, and so “The War To End All Wars” feels even more poignant than it would have without an insane despot’s murderous campaign unfolding before our eyes. Sadly, we are where we are. But as SABATON have proved repeatedly, there is great inspiration and succor to be drawn from these tales of human derring-do and strength in the face of horror. As with 2019’s “The Great War”, their tenth studio record delves into the First World War’s complex web of narrative strands and heroic deeds and comes up with a bunch of bombastic and instantly memorable anthems that seldom fail to hit the emotional mark.

As always, part of the joy of a new SABATON record is the chance to learn something substantial about the past and mankind’s many violent follies. The Swedes have made attention to detail a great virtue over the last few years, producing the kind of elucidatory online content that gently belies metal’s image as a genre for non-readers and generally approaching the illumination of their creative efforts as a noble endeavor in itself. Impressively, SABATON have not let their musical evolution plateau as a result. “The Great War” was easily identifiable as a career peak, more than equal to the much revered “Carolus Rex”. “The War To End All Wars” is very much in the same high-quality ballpark. More diverse than any previous SABATON album (although don’t expect any detours into free jazz or Afrobeat) and even more cohesive and self-contained than its excellent predecessor, it’s a supremely confident and coherent statement from a band with world domination in their sights.

The opening “Sarajevo” says it all: it’s classic SABATON, but noticeably more imaginative, and with an evocative, cinematic edge. “Stormtroopers” is an instant sing-along classic, delivered at speed and rich with theatrical flair; “The Unkillable Soldier” is an irrepressible paean to human resilience married to a weirdly danceable hard rock pulse; “Hellfighters” is a rugged, speed metal rampage and one of the gnarliest songs SABATON have ever recorded. In contrast, the closing “Versailles” is a grand and dignified march towards a lasting ceasefire.

We may know what to expect when SABATON make a new album, but the Swedes are getting sharper and more creative with every passing year. “The War To End All Wars” may not tell us anything we don’t already know about humanity’s unrelenting idiocy, but those stories have seldom been told with such passion, energy and heart.

GWAR will return to the road in North America this spring. The first leg of “The Black Death Rager World Tour” kicks off May 19 in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and runs through June 17 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Support on the trek will come from CROWBAR, THE NATIVE HOWL and NEKROGOBLIKON. Tickets go on sale to fan club members this Thursday, March 3 and to the general public this Friday, March 4.

GWAR frontman Blothar The Berserker comments on the upcoming tour: “Ah, the cruel spring, when life bursts forth and humans are reminded how dead they are inside! The horrific majesty of GWAR will blow through your town like painted ladies working the block for that rock.”

GWAR with CROWBAR, THE NATIVE HOWL, NEKROGOBLIKON:

May 19 – Ft. Wayne, IN @ Piere’s*
May 20 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant* (PointFest PreParty)
May 21 – Wichita, KS @ TempleLive*
May 23 – Colorado Springs, CO @ The Black Sheep
May 24 – Grand Junction, CO @ Mesa Theater
May 26 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
May 27 – Chico, CA @ Senator Theatre
May 28 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
May 29 – Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee
May 31 – San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Event Center
Jun. 02 – Destin, FL @ Club LA
Jun. 03 – Chattanooga, TN @ The Signal
Jun. 04 – Charleston, SC @ Music Farm
Jun. 05 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
Jun. 07 – Joliet, IL @ The Forge
Jun. 08 – Green Bay, WI @ EPIC Event Center
Jun. 10 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Jun. 11 – Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
Jun. 12 – Albany, NY @ Empire Live
Jun. 14 – Hampton Beach, NH @ Wally’s
Jun. 15 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Jun. 16 – Providence, RI @ The Strand
Jun. 17 – Reading, PA @ Reverb

* No CROWBAR

GWAR’s new album, “The New Dark Ages”, will be released June 3 on CD and digital, and on September 16 on vinyl and cassette via GWAR’s own label Pit Records. The art was created by Alex Horley.

“The New Dark Ages” album concept is tied to a companion graphic novel, “GWAR In The Duoverse Of Absurdity”, which will be released by Z2 Comics on June 3. In the graphic novel, the bandmembers are sucked off into an alternate universe to do battle with their evil twins and the specter of rogue technology. On “The New Dark Ages”, our heroes floorboard it through a kaleidoscope of hard-driving heavy metal, and rock and fucking roll, building on their hilarious mythos, introducing cool new characters, and cataloging mankind’s hapless abandonment of their passions, rituals, and beliefs.

“GWAR In The Duoverse Of Absurdity” chronicles the epic battle between GWAR and their doppelgangers from an alternate universe the band discovers behind their treasured Magic Mirror. The book uses an innovative storytelling technique that combines words and pictures printed on paper (made from real trees!) in a seamless format we are calling a “graphic novel.” The tale is illustrated by the masterful talents of Andy MacDonald (“Wolverine”, “Dr Strange”, “Wonder Woman”), Shane White (“Things Undone”, “Braun”, “Endless Summer”), Matt Maguire (GWAR) and Bob Gorman (GWAR).