In a brand new interview with CNN Indonesia, Slash was asked what piece of advice he would give to young musicians who are just starting out. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “The music industry has changed so much since I got into it. It’s hard to sort of give anybody any kind of real advice because I’m still trying to learn how to navigate the sort of new terrain. But I think the most important thing is to stick to the music that you really love — don’t let anybody try and tell you different — and then go and try and figure out how you can connect with an audience and the best way to make that possible and do what you have to do and be prepared to work really, really hard and to sacrifice everything in order to do what you love to do.”

SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS’ new album, titled “4”, will be released on February 11 via Gibson Records in partnership with BMG. “4” is Slash’s fifth solo album and fourth overall with his band featuring Myles Kennedy (vocals), Brent Fitz (drums), Todd Kerns (bass, vocals) and Frank Sidoris (guitar, vocals).

In October, SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS released the official music video for the LP’s first single, “The River Is Rising”, shot on location in downtown Los Angeles with Gibson TV director Todd Harapiak.

For “4”, Slash and the band traveled across the country together to Nashville, Tennessee and recorded the new album at the historic RCA Studio A with producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, John Prine, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile). Cobb shared the band’s desire to lay down the tracks live, in the studio including guitar solos and vocals — a first for the group.

The new album “4” has the added history-making distinction of being the first-ever album to be released on the new Gibson Records label, which is headquartered in the iconic American instrument brand Gibson’s hometown of Music City, Nashville. In light of the 30-year partnership between Gibson and the Grammy Award-winning Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Slash, it makes sense the new SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS’ album “4” will be released via Gibson Records.

SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS will kick off a North American headlining tour on February 8, in Portland, Oregon and hit 28 major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Dallas, Austin, Houston, and more, before wrapping up March 26 in Orlando, Florida.

During an appearance on the latest episode of “The MetalSucks Podcast”, vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway of British grindcore pioneers NAPALM DEATH spoke about what it was like for him and his bandmates to complete their first pandemic-era U.S. tour last fall as the support act for GWAR. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “The tour itself was great, but you had to be kind of a little bit vigilant to try as best you could to not be mixing with too many people who you didn’t know — for obvious reasons at this point in time. Which is completely alien to my way of doing things usually, but, of course, we completely understood why that needed to be the case. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop all of us from getting COVID right at the end of the tour, so that was rough [laughs], to say the least.”

Greenway clarified that he and other members of the NAPALM DEATH touring party tested positive for COVID-19 “right at the end of the tour after we finished, actually. [That was] good in some ways but not in others,” he said. “I mean, I had to stay over for 10 days in the States when I didn’t want to. And it was a big old financial hit for the band on top of everything else. The COVID tests that we had to do while in the States, the cost was eye-watering. We’d already got that, and then we had to pay for accommodation [at the end of the tour], and that was the financial hit. But on the other side of things, we got travel insurance, so we made sure that everybody got travel insurance, just in case they became hospitalized. Nobody did in the end, but we were covered for the hospitalization but not for the accommodation, so we still had to pay for that.”

NAPALM DEATH will return to the U.S. this spring as part of “The North American Siege 2022” tour with ARCH ENEMY and BEHEMOTH. Set to kick off in April, the trek will also feature heavy gothic rockers UNTO OTHERS as special guests.

“It’s really strange, man, because America is actually the easiest place to tour right now,” Barney told “The MetalSucks Podcast”. “We had a European tour that just got canceled, or postponed till next year, because of the varying COVID restrictions at this point from different countries. Logistically, it was just not doable right now. So the States is actually the easiest place so far to be able to tour. And obviously this tour [with BEHEMOTH and ARCH ENEMY] came up unexpectedly, then we may as well — we may as well do it.

“If you know anything about us as a band, you know it would really be to the nth degree that something wasn’t possible for us to pull it, especially at this short notice,” Greenway said, referencing the postponed European tour. “I was gutted, to be honest. One of the bands on the tour was DOOM, and the drummer is one of my oldest friends, and I really wanted to do it — I was really looking forward to it — and it just all fell apart at very short notice. We hung on in there as long as we could but it just became clear that, because of the different regulations in each European country, it was just too prohibitive. And there is a chance in Europe, I think — people will correct me if I’m wrong — but the restrictions might even change for some countries, so it could get more severe while we’re out there. And if we can’t get into a country because of that, well, for the logistics of the tour and stuff, that’s gonna be really difficult. So we kind of took the unfortunate but necessary decision at this point to just not chance it. It would be too much of a risk for us for the tour.”

As previously reported, NAPALM DEATH will release a new mini-album, “Resentment Is Always Seismic – A Final Throw Of Throes”, on February 11 via Century Media Records.

“Resentment Is Always Seismic – A Final Throw Of Throes” is a partner recording to NAPALM DEATH’s latest album, “Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism”, concluding matters through vital, tumultuous grindcore and shockwave ambience.

“Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism” came out in September 2020 via Century Media Records. The band’s 16th studio LP was recorded with longtime producer Russ Russell and features artwork by Frode Sylthe.

San Francisco-based blackened heavy metal outfit NITE list their Top 5 movies. New album, Voices of the Kronian Moon, out March 25th on Season of Mist.
The post NITE’s Top 5 Sci-fi Films appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

KEEL frontman Ron Keel has launched a new record label/multi-media company called RFK Media LLC. The first release from this new venture is “Keeled”, a five-track EP by RON KEEL BAND which features new versions of 1980s KEEL classics such as “The Right To Rock” and “Tears Of Fire”. RFK Media has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Amplified Distribution, and “Keeled” is now available worldwide on all major digital outlets, retail, and streaming platforms.

The label’s first signing is THE FIFTH, featuring vocalist Roy Cathey (COLD SWEAT). These hard rockers have been terrorizing the southeastern U.S. for years and are now set to break out with their first release on RFK later this year.

“Roy has the pipes, personality and passion required to be a world-class frontman,” Ron explains, “and he’s part of the KEEL family tree. The band, the songs, the style and the image are all killer, and we couldn’t be more excited about our first signing to the RFK roster.”

Keel and his partners have also joined forces with Uncontrolled Noize to unleash KRFK, a state-of-the-art online streaming station that will feature a massive playlist of all rock from all genres and top-rated syndicated programming. KRFK is the only exclusively online station with broadcast rights to “House Of Hair With Dee Snider” and “The Joe Elliott Show”; the station will, of course, be home to Keel’s “Streets Of Rock N Roll” radio show each week.

RFK Media plans to release brand new music from RON KEEL BAND, KEEL, STEELER, IRONHORSE and other projects from Ron’s history, with a succession of singles in 2022 leading up to the compilation album “Keelworld” in January 2023, which will be a collection of all-new tracks from those bands.

“It’s time,” Ron insists. “When HighVol Music chief Bill Chavis died [along with his wife Lori, from COVID-19] we lost not only two dear friends but our record deal as well. My business partners and I decided to take the bull by the horns and do this our way, and I believe we have the experience, brains and balls to get it done right.”

It’s kind of morbid, but for years now I’ve been saving a bookmark to an article recapping Australian nurse/author Bronnie Ware’s main takeaways from the years she spent caring for elderly patients at the end of their lives. Ware chronicled the experience in her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, but even the brief recap is worth a read no matter where you’re at in life. One of the regrets she mentions stands out to me right now.Often [the patients] would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.As I mentioned a while back, 2019 was a pretty shit year for me. Even now, in the midst of what seems like an interminable pandemic, it still stands as the worst of my life, in part due to the unexpected passing of my mom. Even so, it still had its bright spots. While back in my old stomping grounds in Provo, Utah, to prep for the funeral, I was driving up the road from mom’s house one day when I passed the home where an old friend used to live. We’d met in fourth grade, and it had been 35 years since I’d seen or heard from him. I had no idea if his mom still lived there, but I noticed a pickup parked out front. As I got closer I noticed someone was sitting on the driver’s side, so I slowed to get a good look. He appeared to be about my age, with orange hair. Shit, could it be Brandon—the kid who’d moved to town from Arizona and picked up guitar about the same time I did? (He got a black Yamaha S-style with rad matching hockey-stick headstock about the same time I got my ’83 Strat, when we were in seventh grade.)I flipped a U-turn, parked across the street, and shouted to the man now headed up a long, steep driveway. Dude was tall. Probably a foot taller than the last time I’d seen him. But there was no mistaking it. It was my old skating/guitar/getting-into-trouble pal of yore, going to check on his mom (who used to lovingly call us “little shits”).We spent the next 40 minutes catching up on the side of the road. I was stoked to hear Brandon was still a guitar nut. Among other things, we bored my wife and sons (and his mom) with gear and band talk before exchanging phone numbers and saying goodbye. We both had stuff to attend to.Shit, could it be Brandon—the kid who’d moved to town from Arizona and picked up guitar about the same time I did?I had no idea what would happen from there. We’ve all had those run-ins where both sides say, “We should stay in touch” or “Let’s do lunch,” or whatever, but nothing ever comes of it. But within hours, Brandon and I were texting back and forth, reminiscing about past escapades—skating across town to tear it up on the local university campus … mush-balling passing cars from a vacant lot at night, only to be caught minutes later by a guy who, luckily, didn’t beat us to a pulp….Since then, hardly a week goes by that one of us doesn’t reach out to see how the other’s doing. Sometimes we yak about job or family stuff. Sometimes it’s totally random. More often than not, it’s guitar-nerd ridiculousness. I’ll send Brandon pics of various Gretsch Jets or Penguins I’m lusting after. He’ll respond with covetous blurbs about that week’s Les Paul obsession. It would probably be stomach-turning to someone who doesn’t play this 6-string thing we’re all suckers for. All I know is I’m glad we reconnected that day, Brando. Ms. Ware was right. Work and the daily grind will always be there, but we need our friends—especially the ones who happily put up with our inner dork and respond in kind.