Today’s I LOVE Pedals giveaway is from Interstellar Audio Machines. Enter for your chance to win an Octonaut Hyperdrive! Ends Feb. 15, 2022.Octonaut HyperdriveREADY FOR OUT OF THIS WORLD TONE?Using the iconic Klon Centaur as a benchmark reference, the Interstellar Audio Machines team have painstakingly realized the original pedal’s magical sound and expressive dynamic response through meticulous analysis and detailed craftsmanship. Each Octonaut Hyperdrive features rare germanium diodes rigorously tested for optimum tone, an IC3 that converts voltages giving the player more headroom, a dual-ganged gain pot which expertly blend the clipping & clean stages, a selectable true/buffered bypass operation, and a refined circuit design for ultra consistent performance from pedal to pedal. Pair this little guy with any guitar rig and the resultant tone will lead to massive planetary destruction!Here’s what you get with this out of this world pedal:Top-Mounted JacksDual Ganged Drive Knob with Volume, and Tone KnobsRare Germanium Diodes for Optimum ToneBypass Switch for On/Off True Bypass9V battery and 9V power supply (sold separately)I Love Pedals Day #14: Interstellar Audio Machines

Read more »

San Francisco Bay Area thrashers VIO-LENCE have released the official music video for “Let The World Burn”, the title track of their upcoming EP. The five-song collection, their first original release since 1993’s “Nothing To Gain”, will be available worldwide on March 4 via Metal Blade Records.

“Let The World Burn” marks the third video in VIO-LENCE’s catalog, following “World In A World” (off 1990’s “Oppressing The Masses”) and the 2020 single “California Über Alles”, a cover version of the DEAD KENNEDYS classic. The new video was directed by Robert Graves of Defiant Digital Productions.

Frontman Sean Killian states: “The memory of you will be forever forgotten when the extinction event arrives and fire becomes God. When the world burns and all is destroyed, all you know, all you believe will be forgotten forever. Let the world burn!”

Guitarist Phil Demmel adds: “I hadn’t written a lot of thrash in the past 17 years or so, but being the main songwriter for the band over the years, I wanted that sound, I wanted that mid-’80s raw thing, but I also wanted to capture our signature notes and structures and stuff like that.”

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).

Killian previously commented: “For 34 years, a creation called ‘Eternal Nightmare’ has been making memories for people around the world. Now, it is time to create some new memories in 2022. I am very proud of the new music we created, and we are fortunate to have worked with some very creative people. Nothing too polished here, unless fragments of glass and broken razor blades are what you consider polished. I love to create, and we hope your heads explode when you hear the new VIO-LENCE.”

“Let The World Burn” track listing

01. Flesh From Bone
02. Screaming Always
03. Upon Their Cross
04. Gato Negro
05. Let the World Burn

In a recent interview with Mark Kadzielawa of 69 Faces Of Rock, Demmel stated about “Let The World Burn”: “We had decided to write [some new material]. I didn’t wanna do a full-length record. Ten tunes is just… I’ve got a baby at home. I’ve got a five-year-old who’s just the highest of energies and exhausting. So my time is very valuable and I just don’t have the time to write a full-length record. I just felt, let’s take little baby steps with the band and see if we can write a couple of tunes — maybe do three or four. It ended up being a five-song EP.”

Regarding the songwriting process for “Let The World Burn”, Demmel said: “Man, in the 16 years that I was in [MACHINE HEAD], it had thrash moments, but towards the end, there wasn’t. And I had written thrash songs. I always have riffs, but it was exciting to… Fuck, [I’m writing an] all-out thrash song. I wanted to capture some moments of ‘Eternal Nightmare’ [VIO-LENCE’s 1988 debut album], and there are some signature VIO-LENCE sounds that I wanted to perpetuate and continue. But also, since I’ve been playing thrash for a bit too, my right hand has gotten a lot stronger. I’m playing the best that I’ve ever played. And so I’m pushing the riffs. These aren’t songs that you’re picking up at Guitar Center and just playing in Guitar Center; they’re pretty hard to play. I wanted to push everybody in that sense.”

He continued: “I needed [Perry] to be able to accept this material in a language that I could speak with him. And I had to teach him how to understand my language. And it was hard. And it was grueling. It was me and him in a room… Mostly, this record musically was written… I wrote the music but with Perry for… 99 percent of it was just me and him in a room fucking hammering it out. So I’m super proud of him for what he played on the record. It’s some of his best playing. It’s definitely my best playing that’s ever been recorded. Towards the end of my time in [MACHINE HEAD], I wasn’t tracking rhythms, so it’d been a long time since I really tracked a metal record. I did a BPMD record and tracked those, but fuck, this is a thrash record, so tracking the rhythms was something refreshing and super cool to me. We did it with Juan Urteaga in his spot, and he’s awesome to work with. I had a great time. It was just a great experience recording with Perry. And I kind of let Sean do his own thing ’cause he had his vocals down. Sean is just destroying it on these songs, man; his voice is so unique. And nobody sounds like him. It’s sinister, man. ‘Cause he had a real high register that he was singing in back in ’88, and there’s moments of that, really, now. But it’s dark, man — he’s singing dark. And I fucking love it. I love his lyrics. He’s the favorite lyricist that I’ve ever worked with. He’s smart and he’s witty and he’s colorful with what he does. I thoroughly enjoy his lyrics.”

VIO-LENCE released three studio albums between 1988 and 1993. The group reunited soon after Demmel left MACHINE HEAD in late 2018.

The band performed its first comeback concert in April 2019 at the Oakland Metro in Oakland, California and spent most of the ensuing months playing select shows in the U.S. and Europe.

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

Killian underwent a successful liver transplant surgery in March 2018. The year before, Killian was diagnosed with stage four liver cirrhosis, which was caused in part by a genetic condition called hemochromatosis.

VIO-LENCE’s last album, “Nothing To Gain”, was recorded in August 1990, but wasn’t released until 1993.

Photo credit: Gene Ambo

Read more »

Jason Hartman (Vanishing Kids) trips into the digital fantastic on new song “Sunset”. New album out March 18 on Bright As Night Records.
The post Track Premiere: Night Eyez “Sunset” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Read more »

Last month, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE postponed the start date of its much-anticipated “Public Service Announcement” to this summer. The North American leg of the trek was originally slated to begin in March 2020 before it was rescheduled several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The trek will now kick off on July 9 in East Troy, Wisconsin.

The 19 RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE shows that were supposed to take place between March 31 and May 23 will now take place in early 2023. The new dates are as follows:

Feb. 22 – Las Cruces, NM – Pan American Center
Feb. 24 – El Paso, TX – Don Haskins Center
Feb. 26 – Glendale, AZ – Gila River Arena
Feb. 28 – Glendale, AZ – Gila River Arena
Mar. 03 – Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena
Mar. 05 – Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena
Mar. 07 – Portland, OR – Moda Center
Mar. 09 – Tacoma, WA – Tacoma Dome
Mar. 11 – Vancouver, BC – Pacific Coliseum
Mar. 13 – Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome
Mar. 15 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place
Mar. 17 – Winnipeg, MB – Canada Life Centre
Mar. 19 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center
Mar. 20 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center
Mar. 22 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford Premiere Center
Mar. 28 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center
Mar. 30 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center
Apr. 01 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
Apr. 02 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena

Support on the trek will still come from RUN THE JEWELS

All tickets for the moved dates will be honored. Fans who would like a refund have until March 15 to do so and should contact their point of purchase.

The upcoming tour will mark the first time the reunited quartet — Zack De La Rocha, Tom Morello, Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford — has hit the road together since 2011.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE last played together at L.A. Rising and has resisted calls for a reunion, with vocalist De La Rocha previously believed to be the lone holdout. Guitarist Morello and his fellow RAGE bandmates Commerford (bass) and Wilk (drums) have since teamed up with PUBLIC ENEMY’s Chuck D. and CYPRESS HILL’s B-Real in the similarly styled PROPHETS OF RAGE.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE recorded three original studio albums and one set of covers before breaking up in 2000. The group reformed in 2007 but only played sporadic gigs and never a full tour.

Posted by Rage Against The Machine on Monday, February 14, 2022

Read more »