Finnish cello rockers APOCALYPTICA have released a performance video of their collaboration with Ismo Alanko on a reworked version of the song “Peltirumpu”, a track originally written and recorded by Alanko’s former band SIELUN VELJET.

In a statement accompanying the release of the song, APOCALYPTICA said: “This is a big one for us! By being part of Laulu Rakkaudelle (Secret Song Suomi) on MTV, we were recently able to collaborate with the Finnish rock legend Ismo Alanko on a recreation of his legendary track ‘Peltirumpu’.

“It was really an honor to get to work on this with a guy who has spearheaded Finnish rock since the 70s! The track itself has a slow build before turning into a bonafide Finnish rocker!”

In May 2018, Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett played a cover version of the song “Rappiolla”, originally written and recorded by Alanko’s ’80s band HASSISEN KONE, during METALLICA’s concert at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland.

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.

World-renowned guitarist Joe Satriani will release his 19th studio album, “The Elephants Of Mars”, on April 8 via earMUSIC, the international rock label of entertainment group Edel. The official visualizer for the LP’s second single, “Faceless”, can be seen below.

Pre-orders are available now and include a special limited digipack CD release featuring seven double-sided cards of original artwork by Satriani representing each song from the album. In addition, several colored vinyl options will be available as well to pre-order including an orange, pink (D2C only) and purple version.

“The Elephants Of Mars” crackles with an exciting new energy, briskly traveling through stylistic roads that feel freshly updated, viewed through new eyes.

“Faceless” shows a melodic and poignant side of the album. Satriani describes “Faceless” as a composition that deals with loneliness. “It’s about when the person you want to see you for who you really are doesn’t seem to recognize you.” He continues: “It’s also a comment on a society where people are truly knowing each other less and less, being separated by their differences rather than being united for their shared hopes and dreams. The solo section represents one’s true self finally breaking free.”

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.

In 2020 with all time constraints removed, “The Elephants Of Mars” truly represents the album that Satriani himself hoped he could deliver with his band.

“We did everything,” he says. “We tried the craziest ideas. And we entertained every notion we had about turning something backwards, upside down, seeing what could happen.”

With this new album, Satriani joins the eclectic and exciting roster of earMUSIC. General manager Max Vaccaro remarks: “Some years ago, we were lucky to be the label chosen by Joe Satriani for the extremely fortunate CHICKENFOOT project. It was impossible not to notice and admire the dedication, the work ethic, and the monstrous talent in the recording studio and on stage. We knew, though, that he had the same ‘home’ for his solo music for decades and that for him, being signed to a record company meant loyalty and belonging. It is with great joy and sense of responsibility that now, some years later, we welcome Joe for his first solo work with earMUSIC. We thank him for having written and recorded very special music that will make a lot of fans happy, and we like to think this will be the first of many great albums to come.”

“The Elephants Of Mars” track listing:

01. Sahara
02. The Elephants Of Mars
03. Faceless
04. Blue Foot Groovy
05. Tension And Release
06. Sailing The Seas Of Ganymede
07. Doors of Perception
08. E 104th St NYC
09. Pumpin’
10. Dance Of The Spores
11. Night Scene
12. Through A Mother’s Day Darkly
13. 22 Memory Lane
14. Desolation

For over three decades, the guitar virtuoso has travelled the world, playing to sold-out crowds as both a headliner and as founder of the all-star “G3” guitar extravaganza. Satriani’s studio and live recordings have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide to date and of his many solo albums, two have gone platinum and four others went gold, with 15 Grammy nominations between them. His side project CHICKENFOOT, featuring former VAN HALEN frontman Sammy Hagar, former VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony and RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith, saw their debut album certified gold and their second studio album debuted at No. 9.

SCORPIONS have shared another new song, “Shining Of Your Soul”. The track is taken from the band’s 19th studio album, “Rock Believer”, which will be released on February 25.

Three months ago, SCORPIONS released the official music video for “Rock Believer”‘s first single, “Peacemaker”. The track features music courtesy of guitarist Rudolf Schenker and bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and lyrics by singer Klaus Meine.

Asked in a recent interview with Chile’s Radio Futuro what fans can expect to hear on “Rock Believer”, Meine said: “Well, you can expect an album that is dedicated to all the rock believers in the world. And we’re very excited after all these years. We thought, when you think about all the touring we did the last 10 years, after the release of ‘Return To Forever’ in 2015, the time was right to go back into the studio, to write new material, to write new songs and check out if the creativity is still working. The big aim was, the goal was to make a rock album — to make an album with lots of attitude, power and focus on the good old times and really enjoy the music and have some fun with the music. And that feels really good.”

Speaking about the “Rock Believer” album title, SCORPIONS guitarist Rudolf Schenker said: “Look, we are around the world since 50 years or more. And when somebody can say he’s a rock believer, then this is us. And of course, we meet our rock believers in front of us, our audience.

“So many people said rock is dead. It’s not dead,” he continued. “It’s always coming back — sometimes, okay, more stronger [or] less strong — but in the end, it’s great to play around the world in over 80 countries we’ve played so far, and all rock believers. It was always great to share the music with them together and be in connection with them. I mean, that’s so amazing and so fantastic, that we are very happy to come out with a new album. And yeah, let’s see what’s happening.”

Added Meine: “Over the years, we’ve heard people say lots of times that rock is dead. But there are still millions of rock believers out there all over the world that prove them wrong. Our fans are the best in the world. We’ll see you someday somewhere out there, because we’re rock believers, just like you.”

Asked if “Peacemaker” is representative of “Rock Believer” as a whole, Klaus said: “It is an uptempo rock song, and this album really rocks. There are some heavy songs on the album, like when you think about ‘China White’ and ‘Animal Magnetism’, there’s a track on the record that is really in the best way of those songs. There are many uptempo songs and, believe it or not, there are even faster songs than ‘Peacemaker’. [Laughs] There’s also a very beautiful ballad on the album, and I’m sure there are fans out there especially love the SCORPIONS ballads, and they will enjoy this record as well very much. ‘Peacemaker’ is the appetizer for what the album is all about. It rocks.”

“Rock Believer” was recorded primarily at Peppermint Park Studios in Hannover, Germany and was mixed at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany with engineer Michael Ilbert, who has earned multiple Grammy nominations for his mix work with producer Max Martin on albums by Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.

“The album was written and recorded in the SCORPIONS DNA with core Schenker/Meine compositions,” said Klaus. “We recorded the album as a band live in one room, like we did in the ’80s.”

SCORPIONS’ new album will mark their first release since 2017’s “Born To Touch Your Feelings – Best Of Rock Ballads”, which was an anthology of new and classic material.

SCORPIONS originally intended to record the new album in Los Angeles with producer Greg Fidelman, whose previous credits include SLIPKNOT and METALLICA. However, because of the pandemic, some of the initial work was done with Greg remotely, after which SCORPIONS opted to helm the recordings themselves with the help of their engineer Hans-Martin Buff.

Meine previously told Talking Metal that the goal with using Fidelman to produce “Rock Believer” was to bring “the old vibe from albums like ‘Blackout’, ‘Love At First Sting’ or even ‘Lovedrive’. We try to focus on those albums and this attitude,” he said. “If we get there, who knows — it’s so many years later. But it’s the spirit and it’s the whole vibe around this album. This time, the focus is on the harder songs.”

“Rock Believer” track listing:

01. Gas In The Tank
02. Roots In My Boots
03. Knock ‘Em Dead
04. Rock Believer
05. Shining Of Your Soul
06. Seventh Sun
07. Hot And Cold
08. When I Lay My Bones To Rest
09. Peacemaker
10. Call Of The Wild
11. When You Know (Where You Come From)
12. Shoot For Your Heart
13. When Tomorrow Comes
14. Unleash The Beast
15. Crossing Borders

SCORPIONS will kick off their “Rock Believer” world tour in March in Las Vegas where the band will play nine shows as part of their residency at Planet Hollywood Hotel. Afterwards they will cross the Atlantic to Europe where they will play six concerts in France and six shows In Germany supported by Wolfgang Van Halen’s new band MAMMOTH WVH.

SCORPIONS’ last full-length collection of new recordings was the aforementioned “Return To Forever”, partially comprising songs the band had in the vault from the ’80s. It was the final recorded appearance of SCORPIONS’ longtime drummer James Kottak, who was dismissed from the band in September 2016. He has since been replaced by Mikkey Dee, formerly of MOTÖRHEAD.

BMG will mark the 40th anniversary of IRON MAIDEN’s third album, “The Number Of The Beast”, with a commemorative cassette release that will be available in the U.S. as an independent record store exclusive on March 25, 2022.

For more info on stores and availability, go to this location.

This seminal recording, first released in the U.K. on March 22, 1982 catapulted IRON MAIDEN to international stardom and set them on course for the spectacular trajectory of success which the band continues to enjoy and develop to this day.

The cassette is comprised of the 2015 remastered recordings of the original eight songs on the album as listed below, with front cover color art based on the 1982 C-60 cassette release plus a redesigned and updated inlay. Ultimately, it’s a tribute to a watershed album that sold in its millions in record stores all around the world; a celebration of those bygone times and a fitting souvenir for the fans who have loyally followed the band ever since.

Side 1

01. Invaders
02. Children Of The Damned
03. The Prisoner
04. 22 Acacia Avenue

Side 2

01. The Number Of The Beast
02. Run To The Hills
03. Gangland
04. Hallowed Be Thy Name

Two years ago, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris reflected on the pressure he and his bandmates felt while writing and recording “The Number Of The Beast”. He said during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”: “It was the fact that we’d used up the material, pretty much, from the times before that. Before the first album [1980’s ‘Iron Maiden’], it was a four-and-a-half-year period before we got signed and all that. And so we had a lot of material that we were doing that was already there, playing in the live set, so we recorded all that. And the second album [1981’s ‘Killers’] was only, I think, three new songs that were on that album, ’cause the rest of it was stuff we’d been playing [live] as well. So when you get to the third album, it’s, like, ‘What are we gonna do now?’ But that pressure was pretty fierce pressure, and we didn’t have a lot of time either. Back in those days, it was just album-tour, album-tour and whatever, and it just worked. So we thought, ‘You know what? That worked really well. We’ll do the same thing again.’ … It has to be done. And if you’ve got a tour coming after it, that’s it — it has to be done.”

Released in March 1982, “The Number Of The Beast” was IRON MAIDEN’s first LP to feature vocalist Bruce Dickinson and the songwriting contributions of guitarist Adrian Smith, who had joined the band two years earlier.

“Obviously, all those elements all thrown into one, it was a pretty scary time in a way, but it was also therapeutic in the sense that we actually went in and just had to come up with the goods,” Steve said. “It’s, like, ‘That’s it. It’s crunch time. You’ve gotta do it.'”

ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian was joined by his 10-year-old son Revel Young Ian on drums as they performed a rendition of the KORN classic “Here To Stay” for an Instagram video which Scott shared on Thursday (February 17).

Scott captioned the clip: “HERE TO STAY – you’re goddamned right! Another crusher of a RIFF to jam in the garage.”

Scott previously shared videos of him and Revel performing the SEPULTURA songs “Roots Bloody Roots” and “Territory”, as well as the SYSTEM OF A DOWN classic “Bounce”.

Revel is apparently a gifted multi-instrumentalist who joined the FOO FIGHTERS on stage in September 2019 at the Bourbon & Beyond festival in Louisville, Kentucky to perform “Everlong” on guitar when he was just eight years old.

Back in 2014, Ian told Horns Up Rocks that his then-three-old son was a big fan of METALLICA, THE BEATLES and AC/DC and that he could already tell the difference between Bon Scott’s voice and that of Brian Johnson.

“He knows a lot of the stuff that he hears or sees in the house,” Scott said at the time. “But what’s really cool is that he actually recognizes and knows the difference between Bon Scott and Brian Johnson, which is pretty cool, I think, for an almost three-year-old. Anytime AC/DC is on, he’ll go, ‘That’s Bon singing.’ And then when it’s not Bon, he’ll say, ‘That’s not Bon singing.’ He knows. That’s pretty cool, I think.”

Asked whether metal musicians should be parents, Ian said it was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He added: “I think you have to take that on a case-by-case basis. I couldn’t say enough about having a child; I think it’s the greatest thing ever in the whole world. But I do think that there are a lot of people on this planet, not necessarily metal musicians, that shouldn’t be parents.”

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Cult Never Dies and Crypt Publications will release the United Kingdom version of “No Celebration: The Official Story Of Paradise Lost” this March.

Created by American author David E. Gehlke (“Damn The Machine: The Story Of Noise Records”, “Turned Inside Out: The Official Story Of Obituary”), this mighty tome is built around in-depth interviews with the core members of this pioneering English group: Greg Mackintosh, Nick Holmes, Aaron Aedy and Steve Edmondson — as well as past members Matthew “Tuds” Archer, Lee Morris and Adrian Erlandsson.

The book includes illustrations and photos throughout, many exclusive, and features additional written contributions from those who have worked most closely with the band, including label insiders and members of such iconic bands as MY DYING BRIDE, ANATHEMA, KATATONIA, BLOODBATH, WITHIN TEMPTATION and SEPTICFLESH, not to mention a foreword from BOLT THROWER/MEMORIAM frontman Karl Willetts.

“No Celebration” was originally released in the United States in 2019, where it was available in a limited run of 1,000 copies. The book has been completely redesigned and expanded to include 60 pages of extra text, including a new chapter and period interviews from the 1990s, as well as a
new color/gloss photo gallery.

The hardback edition is available in both signed boxset and standalone format. The former includes a 12-piece 300gsm art print set, bookmark, large exclusive flag, deluxe box with metallic logo, and a certificate of authenticity signed by the band themselves.

The book can be ordered at this location.