ALBUM REVIEW: Twilight Insurgency – Lunar Blood

Devotees of the HM-2 assemble! New Jersey death metallers LUNAR BLOOD are here to make a bludgeoning entrance with their debut full-length Twilight Insurgency. Following on from their 2020 demo,…

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Watch Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators perform new album 4 in its entirety during recent Live at Studios 60 livestream concert

The show – which included performances of The River Is Rising, Fill My World and Call Off the Dogs – took place on Friday

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Ibanez commemorates US distributor Hoshino's 50th anniversary with dazzling Custom Shop Collection

50 one-of-a-kind instruments have been unveiled as part of the Japanese brand’s largest-ever single run line of custom shop guitars

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Rage Against the Machine announce rescheduled dates for their upcoming Public Service Announcement tour

The shows – which were originally scheduled to take place between March 31 and May 23 – will now be held in early 2023

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Watch GHOST's Entire Concert In Camden, New Jersey

Fan-filmed video footage of GHOST’s entire February 12 concert at Waterfront Music Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey can be seen below.

Featured songs:

0:00 Intro
0:06 Kaisarion
5:00 Rats
9:30 From The Pinnacle To The Pit
13:39 Papa IV talks about “Mary On A Cross”
14:48 Mary On A Cross
19:27 Devil Church
20:41 Shine On You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd – Ghouls
22:15 Cirice – BatPapa
28:20 Papa IV Talks before “Hunter’s Moon”
29:35 “Hunter’s Moon” – Single Version
33:00 Faith
37:03 Helvetesfönster – abridged
38:25 Year Zero
43:21 Papa IV Talks Before “Ritual”
44:04 Ritual
48:24 Funny Ending for “Ritual”
50:25 Papa IV Talks Before “Mummy Dust”
51:44 Mummy Dust
56:00 Papa IV Joking

Encore:

59:12 Enter Sandman – “The Metallica Blacklist” 2021 Version
1:03:05 Dance Macabre
1:08:30 Square Hammer

GHOST kicked off its co-headlining tour with VOLBEAT on January 25 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada. During its 16-song set, GHOST performed the recently released single “Hunter’s Moon”, a cover of METALLICA’s “Enter Sandman” and debuted another song from its upcoming “Impera” album, called “Kaisarion”.

GHOST’s 26-date co-headlining U.S. arena tour with VOLBEAT and special guests TWIN TEMPLE will conclude on March 3 in Anaheim, California.

GHOST will release its fifth album, “Impera”, on March 11 via Loma Vista/Concord. The official music video for the LP’s latest single, “Call Me Little Sunshine”, was lensed by iconic director Matt Mahurin and stars Ruby Modine.

According to a press release, “Impera” “finds GHOST transported literally hundreds of years forward from the 14th century Europe Black Plague era” of its previous album, 2018’s “Prequelle”. “The result is the most ambitious and lyrically incisive entry in the GHOST canon: Over the course of ‘Impera”s 12-song cycle, empires rise and fall, would-be messiahs ply their hype (financial and spiritual alike), prophecies are foretold as the skies fill with celestial bodies divine and man-made… All in all, the most current and topical GHOST subject matter to date is set against a hypnotic and darkly colorful melodic backdrop making ‘Impera’ a listen like no other — yet unmistakably, quintessentially GHOST.”

In March 2020, at final show of GHOST’s “Prequelle” tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the new character who will front the act for its next LP phase.

GHOST leader Tobias Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of “Prequelle”.

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How using the wrong pentatonic scale can actually sound great

We all know the rules… But what if we break them a little? Some less obvious intervals will add intrigue to your solos, like Jimmy Page did on Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll

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PUSCIFER Announces Spring/Summer 2022 U.S. Tour

PUSCIFER will bring its unique theater-meets-concert experience to stages nationwide this summer as the Arizona-born outfit featuring Maynard James Keenan, Mat Mitchell and Carina Round tours in support of its highly regarded 2020 album “Existential Reckoning” (Alchemy Recordings/Puscifer Entertainment/BMG).

The dates, which kick off June 9 at The Smith Center in Las Vegas, include the group’s largest scale performances to date with shows slated for Los Angeles’s venerable Greek Theatre (site of Keenan’s one-time-only Cinquanta mini festival), Brooklyn’s movie palace-turned-concert-hall Kings Theater and the state-of-the-art Mission Ballroom in Denver.

Over the years, PUSCIFER tours has traversed the Arizona desert, explored the barn dances of the American South, and tapped into the technicolor world of the Lucha libre. With “Existential Reckoning”, the Pusciverse expanded into the cosmos. A taste of the live outing was hinted at with the ground-breaking and bedazzling “Existential Reckoning: Live At Arcosanti” livestream event. An on-demand/VOD version of the concert film and its accompanying soundtrack were released in November 2021, with physical versions of the soundtrack and film (vinyl and VHS) available via retailers on February 25. Puscifer TV is the online repository for all things PUSCIFER including the aforementioned “Existential Reckoning: Live At Arcosanti”, as well as “Billy D And The Hall Of Feathered Serpents Featuring Money $hot By Puscifer”, “What Is… Puscifer” and “A Curmudgeon’s Guide To Divine Collisions And Pythagorean Oenology”.

Pusciforce agents Merkin, Round and Mitchell have intercepted a coded message, which appears to be extraterrestrial in nature, emanating from the mysterious and elusive Briefcase, that translates as follows: “An Existential Reckoning is imminent.”

Agent Dick Merkin went on to say: “Utilizing a hybridized form of highly classified 1st Order Triangulation and Uber Eats delivery tracking software, we have been able to construct a predictive model mapping out specific coordinates for future sightings/appearances of this afore mentioned Briefcase. We will be there. We will be ready. Let the probing Begin.”

“Existential Reckoning” tour dates:

June 09 – Las Vegas, NV The Smith Center – Reynolds Hall
June 11 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Federal Theatre
June 12 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre
June 14 – Albuquerque, NM – Kiva Auditorium
June 15 – Austin, TX – Bass Concert Hall
June 16 – Dallas, TX – McFarlin Memorial Auditorium
June 19 – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
June 21 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre
June 22 – Durham, NC – Durham Performing Arts Center
June 24 – Philadelphia, PA – The Metropolitan Opera House
June 25 – Brooklyn, NY – Kings Theatre
June 26 – Wallingford, CT – Toyota Oakdale Theatre
June 28 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
June 29 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
July 01 – Rochester Hills, MI – Meadow Brook Amphitheatre (Pavilion)
July 02 – Chicago, IL – The Chicago Theatre
July 03 – St. Paul, MN – Palace Theatre
July 05 – Omaha, NE – The Admiral
July 06 – Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom
July 07 – Salt Lake City, UT – Eccles Theater – Delta Performance Hall
July 09 – Portland, OR – The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
July 10 – Seattle, WA – McCaw Hall

Tickets are on sale this Friday, February 18 at 10 a.m. local time, with VIP package details to be made available in the coming days. MOODIE BLACK will open on all headlining dates.

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Meet Tim Staffell, John Deacon's bass-playing predecessor in Smile, the band that became Queen

Staffell looks back on the days of forming an unconventional rhythm section with Roger Taylor and allowing Brian May’s nascent talents to shine

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Electro-Harmonix Nano Deluxe Memory Man review

EHX shrinks the iconic analog delay pedal – with spectacular results

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SEAN KILLIAN Believes ROBB FLYNN Would Play With VIO-LENCE Again 'If The Moment Was Right'

Sean Killian says that he believes Robb Flynn would play with VIO-LENCE again “if the moment was right.”

Although Flynn was part of VIO-LENCE’s classic incarnation and played on the band’s debut album, “Eternal Nightmare”, the longtime MACHINE HEAD frontman wasn’t approached about taking part in VIO-LENCE’s 2018 reunion.

VIO-LENCE released three studio albums between 1988 and 1993. The group reformed soon after guitarist Phil Demmel acrimoniously left MACHINE HEAD more than three years ago.

Killian, who initiated VIO-LENCE’s reunion several months after undergoing a successful liver transplant surgery, discussed the possibility of Flynn playing with VIO-LENCE again in a new interview with El Cuartel Del Metal. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, at the time we got back together, that wasn’t gonna happen. Robb’s got a thing — MACHINE HEAD’s a big band; it’s a business; they’re out touring; people love ’em; they do great. He and Phil, they got personality conflicts over the years. That happens when you’re in such tight-knit quarters with people. I can’t speak for Robb or Phil but I know that I like ’em both. I was texting Robb the other day.

“For me, I haven’t experienced any of what those guys experienced together, so I can’t comment on it [except to say] I like ’em both and they’re both my friends,” the singer continued. “I consider both of ’em my good friends.

“Would Robb play with VIO-LENCE? If it was convenient and it worked out… Obviously, he wouldn’t play if Phil was playing, but if Phil was doing something else and we needed a guitar player, I don’t know that Robb would say he wouldn’t do it. Because we all just have a good time. And he recognizes that VIO-LENCE is a band that just goes out ’cause we love it — we like to write; we like to play live shows; we love the energy from the crowd that the music gets out of ’em.

“Would Robb play with us? I can’t speak for him, but if the moment was right, I think he would wanna taste that again,” Killian added.

A year ago, Demmel told Dean Delray’s “Let There Be Talk” podcast that he hadn’t spoken to Flynn since he left MACHINE HEAD and added that he had no “desire or need to talk to him ever again.”

Demmel left MACHINE HEAD at the end of the band’s fall 2018 North American tour. He was in MACHINE HEAD for nearly 16 years, during which time he played on five of the group’s studio albums: “Through The Ashes Of Empires” (2003), “The Blackening” (2007), “Unto The Locust” (2011), “Bloodstone & Diamonds” (2014) and “Catharsis” (2018).

In 2019, Demmel told the “In The Pitts Of Metal And Motor Chaos” podcast that MACHINE HEAD ended up becoming a Robb Flynn solo project toward the end of his time with the group. “We weren’t a band,” he said. “That was Robb’s trip, and we were basically just being told what was gonna happen… Everything had changed over time. Shit, we were together for 16 years and stuff changes after that. It’s been the band that he started. So things shift, and as they weren’t what we agreed to or what we wanted to be a part of, [drummer Dave McClain and I] just left.”

VIO-LENCE will release a new EP, “Let The World Burn”, on March 4 via Metal Blade Records. A music video for the title track was made available earlier this week.

Filling out the band’s ranks on “Let The World Burn” alongside Killian and Demmel are original drummer Perry Strickland, former OVERKILL guitarist Bobby Gustafson and former FEAR FACTORY bassist Christian Olde Wolbers.

“Let The World Burn” was recorded with Juan Urteaga at Trident Studios (TESTAMENT, MACHINE HEAD, EXODUS), with mixing handled by Tue Madsen (THE HAUNTED, MESHUGGAH) and Grammy Award-winning engineer Ted Jensen (ALICE IN CHAINS, DEFTONES, PANTERA).

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