SCORPIONS have shared their new single, “Seventh Sun”. The song is taken from the band’s 19th studio album, “Rock Believer”, which will be released on February 25.

From the very first note of “Seventh Sun”, guitarist Rudolf Schenker and his Flying V manage to spectacularly draw us into this powerful song in an almost mystical way, much in the tradition of SCORPIONS classics such as “Animal Magnetism” and “China White”.

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 Pawel Maciwoda 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.

The life of late METALLICA bassist Cliff Burton was celebrated with “Cliff Burton Day” on what would have been his 60th birthday, February 10. A special livestream, emceed by Nicholas Gomez, included such guests as Big Mick, Metal Joe, Gary Holt (EXODUS, SLAYER), Dan Riley, Brian Lew, Dean Delray, Brian Slagel, Charlie Benante (ANTHRAX), Mike Bordin (FAITH NO MORE), Canada Dave and Connie Burton. You can now watch the entire four-hour event below.

Cliff was asked to join METALLICA in 1982 after the band saw him perform with his group at the time, TRAUMA.

The bassist was not willing to move to Los Angeles, where METALLICA was based, so they decided to move to the San Francisco area so that he would join.

Burton played on METALLICA’s first three studio albums — “Kill ‘Em All”, “Ride The Lightning” and “Master Of Puppets” — and co-wrote classic songs like “Ride The Lightning”, “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, “Fade To Black”, “Creeping Death” and “Master Of Puppets”.

His life was tragically cut short at the age of 24 in a tour bus crash on September 27, 1986 in Sweden.

Burton’s initial replacement in the group was Jason Newsted, who stayed in the lineup until 2001. Robert Trujillo joined in 2003 and remains in the band to this day.

February 10, 2018 was proclaimed “Cliff Burton Day” by Alameda County supervisors. The late METALLICA bassist would have turned 56 years old on that date had he lived.

Back in 2016, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich spoke to Seattle’s KISW 99.9 radio station about Burton’s tragic loss when METALLICA’s tour bus skidded on ice while the group was on tour in Scandinavia and Cliff was thrown out the window and crushed. Lars said: “We were so shocked and stunned that we didn’t know what hit us. And, like most, I guess, kids in their early 20s who get ambushed with that type of thing, we jumped into a bottle of, in this case, vodka, for me, and stayed in there for quite some time. We weren’t mature enough or seasoned in life enough to know how to deal with this other than just to sort of, basically, almost hide behind the alcohol and compartmentalized it. So the next few months were very difficult, and it was crazy, but we just put the blinders on and started auditioning bass players. And we knew in our hearts that Cliff would be the first one to kick us in the ass and tell us to keep going, if he could see us mope. And so there was no moping; we just kept going the best we knew how to.”

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield was asked in an interview with TeamRock what he thinks Burton might have thought about the drastic changes in its look and sound that METALLICA made through the 1990s and early 2000s with albums like “Load”, “Reload” and “St. Anger”. Hetfield replied: “Well, I certainly would have thought there would have been some resistance, for sure. I think the ‘Black Album’ was a great album and I appreciate the fact that we did have the balls to do that… I would certainly think that the ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ [era], I would have had an ally that was very against it all — the reinvention or the U2 version of METALLICA.”

Asked if Hetfield was personally comfortable with the more “alternative” image and music METALLICA made on those albums, the singer/guitarist replied: “No, no, not at all. There’s some great, great songs on there but my opinion is that all of the imagery and stuff like that was not necessary. And the amount of songs that were written was… it diluted the potency of the poison of METALLICA. And I think Cliff would have agreed with that.”

Burton’s huge talent and achievements were chronicled in book form with the 2009 global publication of “To Live Is To Die: The Life And Death Of Metallica’s Cliff Burton”, written by U.K.-based author Joel McIver and published by Jawbone Press. The foreword was provided by METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett.

SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor will release a solo album of covers and acoustic recordings, titled “CMFB…Sides”, on February 25 via Roadrunner Records. The official lyric video for the LP’s first single, Corey’s rendition of “On The Dark Side” by JOHN CAFFERY & THE BEAVER BROWN BAND, can be seen below.

“CMFB…Sides” track listing:

01. Holier Than Thou (METALLICA cover)
02. All This And More (DEAD BOYS cover)
03. Kansas (acoustic)
04. Shakin’ (Eddie Money cover)
05. Home/Zzyzx (STONE SOUR medley) (live)
06. Lunatic Fringe (RED RIDER cover)
07. Got To Choose (KISS cover)
08. Halfway Down (acoustic)
09. On The Dark Side (JOHN CAFFERTY & THE BEAVER BROWN BAND cover)

Corey broke the news of the “CMFB…Sides” release in an interview with SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” earlier in the month. At the time, he said: “CMFT is putting out a B-sides album which has all the covers that we’ve done and some acoustic versions of some of the songs that are on ‘CMFT’,” he said, referencing his debut solo LP, “CMFT”, an acronym for “Corey Mother Fucking Taylor”, which arrived in October 2020. “The first single will actually be February 11th, and people will be able to download that. It’s our cover of ‘On The Dark Side’ by JOHN CAFFERY & THE BEAVER BROWN BAND, which is one of the best rock tunes ever. It’s one of our favorites to play live… The ‘CMFT’ B-sides will come out February 25th. It’ll be available everywhere. We’re really stoked on that too.”

Asked if there are plans for him to do more solo shows in the coming months, Corey said: “We’re doing little stuff here and there. We just did ShipRocked, which was a lot of fun… It’s looking like we’re gonna do a handful of shows in the U.K. in October, kind of threaded around the SLIPKNOT schedule. So we’re just gonna do it here and there while we kind of gear up [for the next album].

“‘CMFT 2’ is written, it’s demoed, it’s ready to go,” he added. “Plus we’re constantly writing new stuff. So we’re gonna be in a great position, next year probably, to go in and record ‘CMFT 2’ and just be ready to kind of do that. But that’s obviously after SLIPKNOT has kind of done its thing.”

“CMFT” made impressive debuts on charts around the world, entering at No. 1 on Billboard’s Current Hard Rock Albums chart, while claiming No. 2 on Current Rock Albums, No. 6 on Vinyl Albums, and No. 9 on the Top Albums charts. Furthermore, “CMFT” landed Top 10 on the official album charts in Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with Top 20 debuts in the United Kingdom, Finland and Japan (international chart).

“CMFT” was recorded at The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas with producer Jay Ruston and Christian Martucci (guitar), Zach Throne (guitar), Jason Christopher (bass), and Dustin Schoenhofer (drums).

“CMFT” had been a long time coming for Taylor, with newly written tracks alongside some dating back to his teens. The album was highlighted by the singles “Culture Head”, “HWY 666”, “CMFT Must Be Stopped” (featuring Tech N9ne and Kid Bookie), and the Active Rock radio hit “Black Eyes Blue”. Taylor also hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Songwriters chart following the unprecedented debut of “Black Eyes Blue” and “CMFT Must Be Stopped”. Furthermore, Taylor debuted the pummeling “Culture Head” during WWE’s NXT broadcast on the USA network, illuminating yet another facet of “CMFT” and showcasing the broad spectrum of this fiery and fearless rock ‘n’ roll opus, as Taylor touched on lifelong influences ranging from hard rock to classic rock, punk rock to hip-hop. 14-time world champion and EVP of global talent strategy and development at WWE, Triple H, also shared a WWE exclusive performance of Taylor and his band tearing through the MOTÖRHEAD classic “Ace Of Spades”.

Last year, Taylor made history as he reached No. 1 at Active Rock Radio with his powerful single “Black Eyes Blue”. The achievement put Taylor in a class all his own, making him the first artist in the history of the format to reach No. 1 with three separate projects, following chart-topping efforts from SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR.

Featured in Rolling Stone’s “Fall Album Preview 2020,” “CMFT” has been garnering widespread critical applause, with Forbes affirming, “Corey Taylor’s singing is undeniably the best it’s ever been. From SLIPKNOT’s last album to his new solo material, Taylor is easily among the best sounding rock singers alive.” Kerrang! raved, “Corey Taylor certainly couldn’t have predicted how important a sense of uninhibited joy would be on his debut solo effort, it’s just what 2020 needs — and, even more importantly, exactly what he delivers.” The Daily Beast attested, “‘CMFT’ finds the singer broadening his horizons and showing off his considerable versatility,” while Stereogum noted, “Corey Taylor’s lived several lives in the span that it takes most of us to push through just one, and it’s clear that he cherishes every experience he’s had so far.” New York magazine added that “CMFT” “bridges his vast tastes and influences, dabbling in punk rock, metal, reflective acoustic tunes, plaintive piano ballads, and hip-hop, with Taylor’s power-house vocals and introspective lyrics acting as a guide.”

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Ian McDonald, co-founder of KING CRIMSON and FOREIGNER and revered multi-instrumentalist and producer, has died at the age of 75. No cause of death was revealed but a spokesperson said he “passed away peacefully” surrounded by family at his home in New York City.

McDonald was on board for the first three FOREIGNER albums, “Foreigner” (1977), “Double Vision” (1978) and “Head Games” (1979), as a multi-instrumentalist proficient on reeds, winds, keyboards, and guitar, his primary instrument on stage. Combined with his significant contribution to the landmark KING CRIMSON album “In The Court Of The Crimson King”, also as a founding member, McDonald has figured prominently on four of the biggest-selling albums of the 10-year period from 1969 through 1979, encompassing two completely different rock genres (pop rock and progressive rock).

“I’m quite proud of the fact that the two bands I was a founding member of, KING CRIMSON and FOREIGNER, are still out there playing,” McDonald said in a 2020 interview with Sound & Vision.

McDonald took part in reunions of FOREIGNER’s surviving original members in 2017 and 2018, commemorating the 40th anniversary of that band’s 1977 debut.

Three years ago, McDonald said that he initially had second thoughts about leaving KING CRIMSON after “In The Court Of The Crimson King”, telling The Los Angeles Beat: “I used to have regrets about that, and that I should have stayed at least through the second album. But now I don’t regret it because had I stayed, things would have turned out very differently for me up until this moment… I’m very happy with the way things have played out since then.”

Asked in a 2017 interview with Glide Magazine if he was a musical child, Ian said: “Yeah, I listened to music as a child. There was an old upright piano that I used to plunk a bit on, I suppose. [Laughs] There was a Spanish-style guitar sort of lying around that my father had. We had a record player and thinking about it, I’m really glad. We had Les Paul and Mary Ford records and classical records and things like Scheherazade and things like that, so I did grow up listening to music, and then when rock and roll appeared, I got really interested and decided that’s what I want to do. People like Chuck Berry and Little Richard and others like Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent and even Ricky Nelson — he made some great records as well. I got interested from that point of view, and then, of course, THE BEATLES came along and I was about sixteen years old and that was it. [Laughs]”