Dave Grohl has told Rolling Stone that he recently recorded an entire metal album as the fictional band DREAM WIDOW in the FOO FIGHTERS’ horror-comedy film “Studio 666”.

In “Studio 666”, FOO FIGHTERS move into an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history to record their much-anticipated tenth album. Once in the house, Grohl finds himself grappling with supernatural forces related to related to the studio’s former residents — the aforementioned fictional act DREAM WINDOW — that threaten both the completion of the album and the lives of the FOO FIGHTERS.

“I wind up finding this creepy basement. And I go into the basement, I find this tape by a band [DREAM WIDOW] from 25 years ago that recorded there,” Grohl told Howard Stern. “And there’s this song that, if recorded and completed, the fucking demon in the house is unleashed, and then, whatever, all hell breaks loose.”

Grohl also revealed a bit about DREAM WINDOW, saying: “The singer went crazy and murdered his whole band because of creative differences… We come in 25 years later to record, having no idea what happened 25 years ago, and I start becoming possessed by the spirit of the guy from 25 years ago and the spirit of the house. But this song, ‘March Of The Insane’, this is their lost record. This is the record they were making before their singer murdered [them].”

Dave told Rolling Stone that a full DREAM WIDOW album will hopefully arrive in time for the film’s February 25 premiere. “It will be the lost album,” Grohl said. “It’ll be the album they were making before he fucking killed the entire band.” According to Grohl, “some of it sounds like [doom-metal pioneers] TROUBLE; some of it sounds like CORROSION OF CONFORMITY; some of it has a KYUSS vibe.”

“Studio 666” stars Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee.

Open Road Films acquired worldwide rights to the film, directed by BJ McDonnell, which is set for a wide domestic theatrical release in more than 2,000 theatres on February 25. The all-star cast also includes Whitney Cummings, Leslie Grossman, Will Forte, Jenna Ortega and Jeff Garlin. The announcement was made by Open Road’s Tom Ortenberg and FOO FIGHTERS.

Based on a story by Grohl and screenplay by Jeff Buhler and Rebecca Hughes, “Studio 666” is produced by Roswell Films’ and Therapy Studios’ John Ramsay and James A. Rota. Executive producers are John Silva, Kristen Welsh, John Cutcliffe, Gaby Skolnek, Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, Rami Jaffee, James Masciello, Matthew Sidari, Mitchell Zhang and Tom Ortenberg.

The deal was negotiated by Tom Ortenberg and Matthew Sidari on behalf of Open Road Films and by WME Independent on behalf of the filmmakers.

In 2004, Dave’s then-metal side-project PROBOT released its self-titled album. The LP featured Grohl, ex-ZWAN guitarist Matt Sweeney and FOO FIGHTERS producer Adam Kasper accompanying some of metal’s most celebrated and respected frontmen, including Lemmy (MOTÖRHEAD), Scott “Wino” Weinrich (THE OBSESSED), Denis “Snake” Bélanger (VOIVOD), Conrad “Cronos” Lant (VENOM), Max Cavalera (SOULFLY, ex-SEPULTURA), Tom G. Warrior (CELTIC FROST), Eric Wagner (TROUBLE), King Diamond (MERCYFUL FATE, KING DIAMOND), Lee Dorrian (CATHEDRAL, ex-NAPALM DEATH), Mike Dean (CORROSION OF CONFORMITY) and Kurt Brecht (D.R.I.).

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German/American metallers ACCEPT have inked a worldwide deal with Napalm Records.

ACCEPT guitarist and founding member Wolf Hoffmann comments on the signing: “I am really looking forward to working with a renowned, independent and strong label like Napalm Records. There are hard-working metallers at work here; that suits us. We are convinced that together we will reach the next level.”

Napalm Records CEO Thomas Caser states: “We are extremely proud and excited to welcome ACCEPT — an absolute heavy metal heavyweight to the Napalm Records family! Together we will drive this steel machine with full power and are very much looking forward to further musical milestones.”

ACCEPT’s latest album, “Too Mean To Die”, came out in January 2021 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was the group’s first without bassist Peter Baltes, who exited ACCEPT in November 2018. He has since been replaced by Martin Motnik. ACCEPT’s lineup has also been expanded with the addition of a third guitarist, Philip Shouse, who originally filled in for Uwe Lulis during 2019’s “Symphonic Terror” tour, before being asked to join the band permanently.

“Too Mean To Die” was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with British producer Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, MEGADETH), who has been responsible for the studio sound of ACCEPT since 2010.

Hoffmann told France’s Loud TV about the “Too Mean To Die” album title: “It’s more or less our answer to the whole corona vibe in the land, in the world. Of course, it’s not meant serious — we said, ‘We’re too mean to die. We can’t be bothered by any little virus that’s out there.’ Of course, it’s not meant to be totally serious. But it sounded like a metal album, it sounded like a metal title, and we liked it. So we decided to go that route and give the metal fans a fresh and in-your-face sort of statement and a metal album that doesn’t really deal with anything corona-related. ‘Cause I think people had enough of all the corona stuff by now. It’s time to move on.”

Regarding ACCEPT’s decision to release “Too Mean To Die” during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wolf said: “It’s gonna be a while until we can do a proper headlining tour. But we decided to go ahead and release it, because maybe fans will enjoy it now that they’re in lockdown, and maybe it’s gonna take their mind off everything. And it’s better than waiting until who knows when — until we can tour again. So let’s have the album out now. Fans can enjoy it and listen to it, and then one day we’ll be on tour and we’ll meet each other again.”

Mark Tornillo joined ACCEPT in 2009 as the replacement for the band’s original lead singer, Udo Dirkscheider. He can be heard on ACCEPT’s last five studio albums, “Blood Of The Nations” (2010), “Stalingrad” (2012), “Blind Rage” (2014), “The Rise Of Chaos” (2017) and “Too Mean To Die”.

Asked about ACCEPT’s overall approach since he came into the group, Tornillo told “That Jamieson Show”: “Basically, [we went] back to what we did in the ’80s — what everybody did back in the day. The whole thing was, when I joined the band, Wolf did not want the band to rest on its laurels and only go out and play the classics. He wanted a real band. So we’ve been album-tour, album-tour — like it always was.”

Mark also talked about his musical personal chemistry with Hoffmann, who is the sole remaining member from ACCEPT’s classic lineup.

“It’s grown quite a bit, actually,” he said. “We’ve got a great mutual respect for each other and for our talents. This album [‘Too Mean To Die’] was a total collaboration. This is the first ACCEPT album without Peter, so that was a big gap to fill. But everybody stepped up. Our [new] bass player Martin Motnik contributed quite a bit to this album.”

“The Rise Of Chaos” marked ACCEPT’s first release with Lulis and drummer Christopher Williams, replacing Herman Frank and Stefan Schwarzmann, respectively.

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HEALTH has announced “Disco4 :: Part II”, the follow-up to 2020’s “Disco4 :: Part I”, will be released on April 8 via Loma Vista Recordings. The 12-song LP includes the band’s recent collaborations with NINE INCH NAILS and POPPY alongside new tracks with LAMB OF GOD, THE BODY, BACKXWASH, PERTURBATOR, and others, and closes with a new original HEALTH single, “These Days 2.0.2.1.”.

“Cold Blood”, HEALTH’s thunderous first collaboration with metal titans LAMB OF GOD, proves the band — composed of Jacob Duzsik, John Famiglietti and Benjamin Miller — can devote themselves to a genre and detonate it all in the same track. Watch its accompanying animated video by Łukasz Rusinek below.

HEALTH will play an album-release show at Los Angeles’s 1720 on April 6. A European tour will take place this spring with PETURBATOR, YOUTH CODE and MAENAD VEYL on select dates.

The last two years changed music for everyone. They might have changed HEALTH for the better. Three years after “Vol.4 :: Slaves Of Fear”, the L.A. trio’s ferocious entry into the world of heavy music, HEALTH return with the second half of their “Disco4” series. A whole lot went to hell in the world in the meantime, forcing the band to re-invent how they wrote music together. For “Disco4 :: Part II”, they cut it fast and mean, recruiting both legends and nascent contenders of heavy music and its many peripheral genres.

“Cold Blood”‘s blistering heaviness juxtaposed against album cuts like the raucous “Pagan-Iconz” (with noise-rap banshee Backxwash and the virtuosically scabrous trio HO99O9) or the contemplative “Still Breathing” (co-piloted with teenage post-punk experimentalist Ekkstacy), demonstrates the breadth of HEALTH’s sonic palette and ability to incorporate what heavy music looks like today and going forward.

“Disco4 :: Part II” track listing:

01. HEALTH x POPPY – “Dead Flowers”
02. HEALTH x NINE INCH NAILS – “Isn’t Everyone”
03. HEALTH x ADA ROOK X PLAYTHATBOIZAY – “Murder Death Kill”
04. HEALTH x MAENAD VEYL – “Identity”
05. HEALTH x LAMB OF GOD – “Cold Blood”
06. HEALTH x THE BODY – “AD 1000”
07. HEALTH x BACKXWASH x HO99O9 – “Pagan-Iconz”
08. HEALTH x STREET SECTS – “The Joy Of Sect”
09. HEALTH x EKKSTACY – “Still Breathing”
10. HEALTH x THE NEIGHBOURHOOD – “No Escape”
11. HEALTH x PERTURBATOR – “Excess”
12. HEALTH – “These Days 2.0.2.1.”

Photo credit: Daniel Roland Tierney

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Five dates have been added to MÖTLEY CRÜE’s long-delayed North American tour this summer with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS. The trek, dubbed “The Stadium Tour”, will now include stops in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Indianapolis, Indiana; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tickets for the new dates go on sale to the general public on Friday, February 25 at 10 a.m. local time via Live Nation.

“On behalf of the band, we’re beyond thrilled that the stadium tour is finally happening this summer,” DEF LEPPARD’s Joe Elliott said in a statement. “It’s been a while coming and we can’t wait to get back on stage again and we can’t wait to see you in one of the many stadiums soon!”

MÖTLEY CRÜE added: “It’s on! We don’t think we’ve ever looked forward more to kicking off a tour than this one. We can’t wait to finally see all the fans across North America again. Get ready for a wild ride this summer!”

POISON’s Bret Michaels said: “There are not enough words to thank the three generations of fans for making this such an exciting, record-breaking, historical tour with the fastest sellouts in history at these stadiums.”

JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS stated: “We are so excited to be back out on the road! We missed doing what we love most and can’t wait to see the fans out there again!”

“The Stadium Tour”, which was originally planned for 2020 and later moved to 2021, will now kick off on June 16 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Emerging rock band CLASSLESS ACT, signed to Better Noise Music, is set to open the tour. MÖTLEY CRÜE’s Tommy Lee was an early follower of the band and is excited to have them join him and his bandmates on the road, saying: “I remember when we went out with Ozzy [Osbourne] in 1984 and how it was an insane game changer!! We literally blew up after having that opportunity to play live in front of 20,000 people every fucking night! Since then, we’ve always felt it was important to help new bands; whether it was GUNS N’ ROSES, SKID ROW or so many others. This summer we’re gonna help out CLASSLESS ACT.”

“The Stadium Tour” dates

Thursday, June 16 – Atlanta, GA @ Truist Park
Saturday, June 18 – Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium
Sunday, June 19 – Orlando, FL @ Camping World Stadium
Wednesday, June 22 – Washington, DC @ Nationals Park
Friday, June 24 – Queens, NY @ Citi Field
Saturday, June 25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park
Tuesday, June 28 – Charlotte, NC @ Bank of America Stadium
Thursday, June 30 – Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium
Saturday, July 2 – Jacksonville, FL @ TIAA Bank Field
Tuesday, July 5 – St. Louis, MO @ Busch Stadium
Friday, July 8 – Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field
Sunday, July 10 – Detroit, MI @ Comerica Park
Tuesday July 12 – Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium
Thursday, July 14 – Cleveland, OH @ FirstEnergy Stadium
Friday, July 15 – Cincinnati, OH @ Great American Ball Park
Sunday, July 17 – Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Field
Tuesday, July 19 – Kansas City, MO @ Kauffman Stadium
Thursday, July 21 – Denver, CO @ Coors Field
Friday, August 5 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
Saturday, August 6 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
Monday, August 8 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre (new date)
Wednesday, August 10 – Orchard Park, NY @ Highmark Stadium
Friday, August 12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PNC Park
Sunday, August 14 – Minneapolis, MN @ U.S. Bank Stadium
Tuesday, August 16 – Indianapolis, IN @ Lucas Oil Stadium (new date)
Friday, August 19 – Houston, TX @ Minute Maid Park
Sunday, August 21 – San Antonio, TX @ Alamodome
Monday, August 22 – Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field
Thursday, August 25 – Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium
Saturday, August 27 – Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium
Sunday, August 28 – San Diego, CA @ Petco Park
Wednesday, August 31 – Seattle, WA @ T-Mobile Park
Friday, September 2 – Vancouver, BC @ BC Place (new date)
Sunday, September 4 – Edmonton, AB @ Commonwealth Stadium (new date)
Wednesday, September 7 – San Francisco, CA @ Oracle Park
Friday, September 9 – Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium (new date)

Last October, bassist Nikki Sixx told Germany’s Radio Bob! that he and his CRÜE bandmates will “start rehearsals in May” for “The Stadium Tour”. “I start training in December,” he said. “Now it’s down to hard work, getting ready, getting the band into rehearsal.

“We rehearse really hard because we will take a song like ‘Dr. Feelgood’ and while we’re building the show — let’s just say the show is… all the lights are moving, they’re green and they’re slowly moving — we’ll build a whole intro in and design the lights and the lasers around that,” he explained. “So it’s a long process and tedious. So we go to rehearsal and we might need to build in those 32 bars. And then we’ve gotta work with the lighting and the laser company. And then we’ve gotta make sure everything is organized so we get our count-ins for where we need to be onstage. So there’s so much going on.”

When it happens, “The Stadium Tour” will mark the CRÜE’s first live dates since wrapping its 2014/2015 farewell tour. CRÜE toured with POISON back in 2011 and DEF LEPPARD teamed up with POISON for a string of road dates in 2017, but the upcoming jaunt marks the first time all four acts have hit the road together for an extended tour.

As of January 30, 2020, “The Stadium Tour” had already grossed $130 million from one million tickets sold, plus another $5 million worth of VIP seats, according to Billboard.

Tickets ranged from $150 to $400, not counting some varied pricing that reflected demand as part of “dynamic pricing.”

CRÜE fans who shelled out for the band’s 2014/2015 “farewell” tour were led to believe that the group would never return after playing its final show on December 2015 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The band touted the signing of a pre-tour “cessation of touring” agreement as cementing the fact it truly was the end of CRÜE’s life on the road.

On November 18, 2019 — three years and 11 months after the band played its last show — CRÜE posted a video with Machine Gun Kelly, who portrayed Tommy Lee in the band’s biopic “The Dirt”, explaining that due to the band “becoming more popular than ever” and “gaining an entirely new legion of fans” in the four years they’d been off the road, the band felt the need to blow up their previous contract in order to come out of retirement.

At a press conference in Hollywood announcing the CRÜE’s stadium tour, Sixx explained the band’s decision to return, saying: “Honestly, I don’t think any of us thought, when we were on ‘The Final Tour’, we would ever get back together. We weren’t really getting along at that point. We had been together 35 years, and it had been a lot of years on the road. I don’t think we took a lot of time for ourselves off; we were just constantly touring for all that time. And when it came to the end, we broke the band up and everybody went their own ways.”

Sixx continued: “It was during the making of ‘The Dirt’ movie, we started working on the script, started being on the set, we started hanging out again together. And I think we really started to realize — without even talking about the music — how much we missed each other. And then that got us to go in the recording studio, which is where the whole thing always starts for all of us.”

“The Dirt”, a film adaptation of the CRÜE’s 2001 memoir, featured four new songs recorded by the band expressly for the soundtrack.

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British hard rock veterans THUNDER will release a new album, “Dopamine”, on April 29. The official music video for the LP’s first single, “The Western Sky”, can be viewed below.

“Dopamine” is THUNDER’s first ever double-album, and consists of 16 tracks — something that is resonant with the album’s themes.

Guitarist, songwriter and THUNDER co-founder Luke Morley says: “‘We didn’t set out to make a double album but as the writing and recording process went on, we wandered into some interesting areas and then it became a case of ‘can we afford to leave any of this off?’ In the end, we did reduce it from 20 tunes to 16, but it wasn’t an easy choice.”

Satirical and urgent but never downcast, “Dopamine” was inspired by the world’s mass retreat to social media during the pandemic lockdowns, endlessly hunting for the next hit of happy hormones.

“I read a fascinating article by an American psychologist,” says Luke, “who said that social media forces us to become dopamine addicts. We’re validated and liked on social media, which releases the dopamine — and so we get addicted to it. We take more and more selfies in the hope of more and more validation, and the album cover reflects this. People are surrounded by amazing things that they’re missing because they’re so self-obsessed. Of course, you’ll have to get your hands on the physical album to see all of the amazing things I’m referring to.”

The new single and first taste of the album, “The Western Sky”, shows that despite the rallying against instant gratification, sound-wise THUNDER is as immediate as ever.

The razor-sharp, riff-driven track celebrates the band’s annual trans-American charity motorbike trip.

The new album comes at the perfect time for THUNDER, whose lineup for the last quarter-century and more has been Luke and Danny Bowes (vocals), plus Ben Matthews (guitar and keyboards), Chris Childs (bass) and Harry James (drums).

They’ve been riding a wave of success since their 2015 comeback album “Wonder Days”, releasing the acclaimed “All The Right Noises” last year, with Classic Rock speculating that it could be the band’s best album yet. The record went Top 3 in the U.K. albums chart, a quite incredible feat for a British hard rock band into its fourth decade.

And make no mistake — the last 30 years have been a rollercoaster ride. THUNDER had a start in life like few other bands, delivering a killer debut LP with 1990’s “Backstreet Symphony” and scoring a U.S. record deal with the help of a keen fan, Axl Rose of GUNS N’ ROSES. Songs like “Dirty Love” and “Low Life In High Places” — according to the late radio legend Tommy Vance, “the greatest ever single released by a rock band” — have gone on to enter the British rock canon.

Despite these early triumphs, rewarded with gold awards and one of the most enduring fanbases on the planet, changes in musical fashions and two breakups made THUNDER’s progress a rocky road indeed. All that changed with the current sequence of albums that kicked off seven years ago with “Wonder Days”.

“Dopamine” will be available in CD and double LP vinyl, with exclusive lenticular cover versions available only from the THUNDER online store.

THUNDER will embark on a U.K. arena tour in May 2022, including a date at London’s OVO Arena Wembley.

“Dopamine” track listing:

CD1 / LP1

01. The Western Sky
02. One Day We’ll Be Free Again
03. Even If It Takes A Lifetime
04. Black
05. Unraveling
06. The Dead City
07. Last Orders
08. All The Way

CD2 / LP2

01. Dancing In The Sunshine
02. Big Pink Supermoon
03. Across The Nation
04. Just A Grifter
05. I Don’t Believe The World
06. Disconnected
07. Is Anybody Out There?
08. No Smoke Without Fire

Photo credit: Jason Joyce

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Groundbreaking, genre-defying instrumental trio ANIMALS AS LEADERS has dropped the third new single from its upcoming album “Parrhesia”. The track titled “Gordian Naught” comes accompanied by a visualizer which can be viewed below.

“Parrhesia”, ANIMALS AS LEADERS’ first new album in six years, will be released on March 25 via Sumerian Records. The LP has been highlighted so far by the release of singles “Monomyth” and “The Problem Of Other Minds” which, combined, have clocked up 1.45 million YouTube views and over 2.4 million streams on Spotify alone since release.

“Parrhesia” track listing:

01. Conflict Cartography
02. Monomyth
03. Red Miso
04. Gestaltzerfall
05. Asahi
06. The Problem Of Other Minds
07. Thoughts And Prayers
08. Micro-Aggressions
09. Gordian Naught

ANIMALS AS LEADERS has announced the “Parrhesia” tour that will be hitting 19 cities across the U.S. to accompany their upcoming album of the same name. This monumental tour, produced by Live Nation, will feature two special sets by the progressive metal outfit — one of which will feature the new album “Parrhesia” (out on March 25 via Sumerian Records) in its entirety.

Beginning at the end of March, the tour will kick off in Denver on March 30 and travel throughout 18 further cities, ending in Los Angeles, California at the notable Ace Theater on April 22.

It might sound strange to associate “storytelling” with instrumental music. But ANIMALS AS LEADERS jettisoned the rules, limitations, and boundaries of conventional rock music from the start. Armed with palette-expanding eight-string guitars, rich synths, and pummeling percussive grooves, the trio is beloved by metalheads, aspiring virtuosos, jazz fanatics, and casual listeners alike. As Pitchfork observed, “ANIMALS AS LEADERS have walked the tightrope between sheer technical virtuosity and actual emotional resonance.” Even without vocals, this is intimate, myth-making music.

ANIMALS AS LEADERS began as a solo outlet for Abasi, whose creative partnership with classically trained guitarist Javier Reyes and Berklee-educated drummer Matt Garstka is built on a shared love of everything from fusion to technical death metal. Garstka graced the cover of Modern Drummer in 2015. In one of his many appearances on their cover, Guitar World named Tosin among the Guitarists Of The Decade. Rolling Stone featured him as part of their “Young Guns” series. The Chicago Tribune declared him “the closest thing prog-metal has to an Eddie Van Halen.” Kerrang! included their album “Weightless” among its Best Albums of 2011. “The Joy Of Motion” entered the Billboard 200 at No. 24 in 2014, and “The Madness Of Many” cracked the Top 20 in 2016. Now more than a decade into their career, a quick look at the bands they’ve toured with demonstrates the consistently diverse appeal of ANIMALS AS LEADERS. It’s a list that includes KORN, DEFTONES, THRICE, MESHUGGAH, UNDEROATH, TESSERACT and CIRCA SURVIVE, as well as major festivals with the likes of LINKIN PARK, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and SLIPKNOT.

ANIMALS AS LEADERS offer more than clinic-ready musicianship and proficiency. A focus on mood, texture, and emotive power elevates the material past any preconceived notions, resulting in a fascinatingly unique phenomenon, with an unlikely and profound appeal across multiple sub-genres and over 200 million career streams to date.

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In May 2019, after hearing about the plight of the Heugh Battery Museum which was in danger of permanent closure due to a lack of funding, history-obsessed Swedish metal band SABATON instigated a charity initiative, raising over £4000 from the sales of a specially designed t-shirt and putting the museum’s crowdfunder well over their target.

Until now, the band has not had the opportunity to visit the museum in person, but is planning to finally make the trip on Thursday, March 3, on the eve of the release of its latest album, “The War To End All Wars”.

On hearing of the band’s plans to visit, Heugh Battery Museum manager Diane Stephens invited them to fire the Ordnance Quick Firing 25-pounder, an original British field gun from WWII which is kept at the museum. It is used on ceremonial occasions and at public events as a saluting gun and fired only on very special occasions such Remembrance Sunday, Armed Forces Day, Bombardment Commemoration Day, and to mark the Queen’s Jubilee.

“SABATON have been a huge support to us in our fundraising efforts and for that we hope to show our gratitude,” says Stephens. “We really believe that their music brings history to a wide audience who then become visitors to the museums of the world — so they support many museums, not just us.”

Diane continues: “This is a huge achievement and one which should be acknowledged and applauded. Being invited to fire our gun is a gesture of our appreciation of the band and their attitude to keeping history in the minds of those who may not otherwise engage with these momentous historic events and figures.”

The honors of firing the gun will fall to guitarist Chris Rörland, himself a veteran of the Swedish army, having served in the A9 Artillery Regiment in Boden Garrison. He will be the first non-British army veteran to fire the gun.

The museum stands on the site of the only First World War Battlefield in the U.K. It is designated an official battlefield as the guns there were engaged in shore to ship combat on the morning of December 16, 1914, when three ships from the German fleet opened fire and bombarded the towns of Hartlepool and West Hartlepool. The site was decommissioned by the Ministry of Defence in 1957, and slowly fell into disrepair. A small group of volunteers recognized the significance of the site and acquired it from the local authority in 1999. With support from the national lottery, other funders and local businesses the museum opened in 2008. The site is now protected with scheduled monument status. The museum is dependent on the money it earns from admissions and the café on site, and kind donations from businesses, the public and Swedish heavy metal bands.

“The War To End All Wars” will be released on March 4 via Nuclear Blast.

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It is a certified Heavy Metal Fact that Matt Pike is a badass. From inciting a doom metal revolution that resounds to this day with SLEEP or taking people’s scalps off at a more destructive pace with HIGH ON FIRE, the Californian’s mastery of The Riff and utmost dedication to rocking out harder than everybody else amount to a powerful legacy. Combined, they amount to more than enough to make most sensible people want to hear his first solo album, and “Pike vs. The Automaton” is practically guaranteed to make all of those people exceptionally happy.

Pike has described this as “a psychedelic rock record that fans of SLEEP and HIGH ON FIRE will enjoy” and he is, as you might hope, entirely correct. For a start, there is plenty here to sate the needs of anyone craving a fix from either of those bands. An opening brace of “Abusive” and “Throat Cobra” makes it plain that part of Pike’s motivation for making this record was to scratch a few musical itches denied by onerous pandemic restrictions. In particular, “Throat Cobra” is as belligerent and unstoppable as anything in the HIGH ON FIRE catalogue. It rattles along on a deranged, speed metal D-beat, avowedly punk as fuck but firmly rooted in Pike’s acknowledged sonic domain of thunderous, rabid and scruffily epic heavy metal. Meanwhile, those pining for the languorous, sledgehammer psych of SLEEP will find “Trapped In A Midcave” to be a potent substitute. Driven by a princely Pike riff and a wickedly funky, slow-motion strut, it reeks of souped-up mega-bongs and sunstroke.

The real revelations begin with “Land”, a meandering, shambolic, acoustic campfire hymn elevated to magical levels by a cameo from MASTODON’s Brent Hinds and the syrupy undertow of a Hammond organ, it chimes perfectly with everything we know about Matt Pike, but stripped down to a captivating, mescaline-fueled reverie. To slap listeners awake, recent single “Alien Slut Mum” serves up a scabrous squall of prime Pike riffing with a drugged-out and nightmarish mid-section and bursts of VOIVOD-like dissonance, before the shape-shifting doom-jam sprawl of “Apollyon” steers proceedings into more expansive territory. Another neck-snapping about-face, “Acid Test Zone”, is the ugliest thing here; a violent, crusty reminder that psychedelic rock isn’t always about posi-vibes and good times. It segues into the astonishing “Latin American Geological Formation” which, despite its knowingly clunky title, ebbs, flows and mutates with lava-like momentum — a tornado of overdriven psycho-doom with the pernicious, post-high blues coursing through its veins.

For all its turbocharged highs, “Pike vs. The Automaton” is undoubtedly a looser and more laidback record than most its instigator’s past works. The closing “Leaving the Wars of Woe” is a case in point: 11 towering and turbulent minutes of trippy doom, its glacial gait and hypnotic circularity tap into the same sense of weed-ravaged wonderment that can be found in both of Pike’s noted bands, but somehow with even more red-eyed swagger and off-the-rails abandon than either.

For an album that was created in lockdown, “Pike vs. The Automaton” sounds joyously liberated and compromise-free. It also sounds like an unexpected one-off, crying out to be repeated.

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