For much of the past year, George Lynch has been rejoining DOKKEN on stage at various shows to perform three of the band’s classic songs: “Kiss Of Death”, “When Heaven Comes Down” and “Tooth And Nail”. Asked in a new interview with SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” what the experience has been like for him, George said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It has been [fun], actually, more than I would have thought. I would have thought there… ‘Cause Don [Dokken, DOKKEN leader] and I had had animosity towards each other at a couple of different levels over the decades. And it’s kind of a weird thing, when you think about it. And sometimes, it is uncomfortable for me, because when I show up, I have to sit there, and, of course, they’re playing the songs that I wrote. And the [current DOKKEN] guitar player, Jon [Levin], is a wonderful guy; we’re friends. But they’re doing my whole thing, and then I walk out.

“I think it comes down to, we’re entertainers, and if I’m gonna spend my time crying about anything, I’m just gonna hurt myself and the fans, and that doesn’t do anybody any good,” George continued. “And so I try to keep positive about the whole experience. And it has been, actually, good for everybody. The fans love it. I love doing it because the easiest thing I can do is play DOKKEN songs — songs that I helped write 35, 40 years ago that I can play in my sleep with one arm tied behind my back and go out and enjoy it and not have to work that hard and just really enjoy what I’m doing, enjoy the moment. And it’s the path of least resistance. A lot of these other projects I do, they’re not as easy of a sell. When I’m doing a KXM project or whatever it is, I sometimes have to work at it a little bit — I do have to work at it a bit harder. What is this supposed to be? How am I supposed to write? How am I supposed to look? How am I supposed to sell this? With DOKKEN, I don’t have any of those issues or concerns because all the work’s been done, we’ve already established what we are and I know what to do. So it’s really, like I said — the path of least resistance sometimes is the right one.”

As for why he only performs three songs with DOKKEN as opposed to playing the entire set, George said: “Well, that’s probably an economic issue on Don’s side. I mean, Don owns the name of the band. It works on me on all levels at this point, and obviously it works for Don, so if it’s not broken, why fix it? And I don’t know… I would just be speculating that he’s concerned maybe that something could pop up if he gets in bed with me and then now he doesn’t have what he’s built over all these years. So there’s that. And maybe financially it would be not as — I don’t know — not as [much of] a positive outcome for him. I’m not sure; we haven’t talked about it. But what we’re doing now works. Obviously, what you just brought up is something that everybody’s thinking about, but, hey, it’s not up to me to decide. But I certainly feel that would probably make sense [for me to play the whole set]; I could see that making sense. I’m already there — why don’t I just go out and finish playing the rest of the songs that are part of my legacy? People would like that. There’s a lot of different ways to think about that. There’s what we do as a business, and I’m not ashamed of that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to talk about the business side of music. It doesn’t take away from the art; it doesn’t take away from the creative part of it. Those are two different sides of the same coin. We all need to make a living. But you have to have that balance of appreciating and producing music that you love and that people enjoy, and at the same time, it has to make sense financially. So I’m not sure which one that is, as to why we’re not back together on a more complete basis, where I’m playing the whole set, but I’ve got a feeling it’s probably financial.”

Asked if there has been any talk of the classic DOKKEN lineup reuniting once again to write and record new music, George said: “We have [talked about it], and the opportunity has come up every couple [or] few years. And we had offers, and they’re good offers. But it’s tricky at this point in all our careers, when we’ve all kind of established ourselves on other paths, to bring us all together. And even though the offers are good, it’s not enough to make us all just stop what we’re doing in our tracks and re-route our careers to do that. Every time it comes up, we always run into these obstacles. They’re not anybody’s fault in particular, but it just seems like an impossibility.”

In October 2016, the classic lineup of DOKKEN — Don, George, Jeff Pilson (bass) and Mick Brown (drums) — reunited to play the Loud Park festival in Japan. Fortunately for fans outside of Japan, cameras were there to capture the performance and Frontiers Music Srl issued “Return To The East Live 2016” in April 2018. In addition to the Japanese performance, the set featured footage from the classic lineup’s only U.S. show in September 2016 at Badlands in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The package also included a new song called “It’s Just Another Day”, the first DOKKEN track featuring the group’s classic lineup since 1997’s “Shadowlife”, and two acoustic re-workings of classic tracks.

Since completing the Japanese reunion dates, DOKKEN has continued to perform with the group’s current lineup — including bassist Chris McCarvill, Levin and drummer BJ Zampa (HOUSE OF LORDS).

DOKKEN recently finished recording a new studio album, tentatively due later this year via Silver Lining Music, the label owned by Thomas Jensen, one of the founders of Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival. It will mark the group’s first disc since 2012’s “Broken Bones”.

Over the past several years, Lynch has appeared on recordings by THE END MACHINE, KXM, ULTRAPHONIX and SWEET & LYNCH. He released his first-ever full-length instrumental album, “Seamless”, last August via Rat Pak Records.

New for 2022, and in conjunction with their 60th anniversary, Takamine debuts the LTD2022. The Takamine LTD2022 draws design inspiration from the early days of Takamine history, based on a model that adapted a classical body to an x-braced concert steel string with a cutaway, with koa back and sides. It was one of the guitars that helped Takamine first gain recognition as a steel-string acoustic guitar manufacturer. The LTD2022 uses this design as a starting point, featuring a stunning figured spruce top and gorgeous figured koa on its back and sides.A brand new CTF-2N preamplifier comes with the LTD2022. This FET preamp revives the warm, dynamic sound of Takamine’s early FET preamp model, affectionately known as the “Brownie”. The CTF-2N has that legendary sound, while adding the modern functions of a chromatic tuner and a versatile notch filter. To honor the landmark 60th anniversary of the company, the LTD2022 features a diamond-shaped inlay on the 12th fret. The guitar is also adorned with abalone purfling and matching rosette. The position markers feature a colorful abalone circle-within-a circle motif.The Takamine LTD2022 is designed for both serious players and instrument collectors alike, and will be available through select Takamine dealers in the USA. More information on the LTD2022 is available at www.esptakamine.com.

Ted Nugent performed the U.S. national anthem at the 13th annual Walker County Warrior Banquet, which was held last night (Thursday, January 27) at the Walker County Fairgrounds in Huntsville, Texas. The Banquet, an event on Texas gubernatorial candidate Allen West’s campaign trail, included a fiery speech by Nugent, who is widely considered to be one of the most outspoken conservative musicians in rock.

West had served as a member of the House of Representatives for Florida’s 22nd congressional district from 2011 to 2013 and later relocated to Texas, where he was elected chair of the Republican Party of Texas in 2020. He resigned from that position last June, a short time before announcing a bid for governor.

Nugent, who recently resigned from the board of the National Rifle Association (NRA) after 26 years, has called Donald Trump “the greatest president in our lifetime.” He also said the billionaire real estate mogul represents “the heart and soul of the best American families out there.”

Leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Nugent teamed up with Donald Trump Jr. on the campaign trail.

Earlier this month, Nugent once again repeated the baseless conspiracy theory that the riot at the U.S. Capitol was orchestrated by undercover FBI agents, Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Nugent, an outspoken conspiracy theorist who has refused to take the vaccine, has falsely claimed that public health measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic violate the Nuremberg code, a set of medical experimentation guidelines set after World War Two, as the vaccine is “experimental.”

In the past, Nugent, who battled COVID-19 last April, had referred to the virus as a “leftist scam to destroy” Trump. He had also repeated a narrative pushed by conservative media and disputed by health experts that suggests the official death count from the coronavirus is inflated.

Nugent’s new studio album, “Detroit Muscle”, is due on April 29 via Pavement Music. The follow-up to 2018’s “The Music Made Me Do It” was recorded with Ted’s current band, which includes bassist Greg Smith and drummer Jason Hartless.

We had an amazing night last night at the Huntsville Warrior Banquet! Thank you to all who came out for a great event. Special thank you to @AllenWest, @TedNugent, and all of those who made this such a special night. #NeverFightAlone #HuntsvilleBanquet #Texas pic.twitter.com/AtTpU3bWhP
— Mighty Oaks Foundation (@MightyOaksFDN) January 28, 2022

Plus, how the song order on his original cassette version changed his view of the rock legends.

This week’s package of new arrivals is stuffed with the latest from Celeste, Dark Meditation, Ravenous Death and more!
The post Five For Friday: January 28, 2022 appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

BLACK VEIL BRIDES frontman Andy Biersack recently went on the first video episode of the podcast “Side Jams With Bryan Reesman” to discuss his love for Batman. He mentioned that two his favorite subjects are Batman and theology. He connected the two in explaining how the superhero was a big influence on him growing up.

“This is not to be political or to be dismissive of any kind of religion, but for me, as someone who’s non-theistic, I had these heroes like Batman who [were] a reference point for parables or tales of how to live your life,” said Biersack. “The thing that impacted me the most as a kid was, create something more of yourself. Even if you’re afraid, even if people don’t respect you or like you or make fun of you – make something that you’re really proud of and wear that outside so that you can eventually become that thing that you want to be. As a teenager and as a kid growing up, wearing my MISFITS shirts and eyeliner, and everybody’s throwing stuff at me and making fun of me at school in Ohio, I felt like that was my Batsuit. That was the thing that, regardless of what anybody else thought about it, that was how I projected myself to the world. And that was my giant cape and pointy ears. It was the thing that I thought, ‘I don’t care if they’re freaked out by me or whatever it is. I’m gonna use this as my iconography, the way that I see the world.’ And so, in many other ways, just the self-belief, the idea of making something of yourself, not having superpowers. I was not born with a beautiful singing voice. I never opened my mouth and sang in a beautiful soprano voice or a tenor voice, but I figured I could teach myself how to do something that I liked the way it sounded. And I didn’t need superpowers to do that. So there’s many, many ways that that character has been influential.”

When asked about his favorite Christopher Nolan “Batman” movie, he replied: “It’s so bizarre because Christian Bale is not my favorite Batman. I don’t really like the suit. But I love those three movies so much — the totality of them. My least favorite is ‘Batman Begins’. That tends to be everyone’s favorite who are Batman fans. ‘Dark Knight’ is obviously the most famous of the series and one of the most successful movies of all time. But if you talk to dedicated Batman fans, they all say ‘Batman Begins’ is the best. I really like the third one the most because we go back to my entry point into Batman was ‘Knightfall’. That is the ‘Knightfall’ movie. That’s Bane breaking down Batman, breaking his back. I got to see the shot in a live action movie of Bane been holding up Bruce Wayne and breaking his spine, just like on the cover of the first comic book I ever got as a kid. So for me personally, even though [‘Dark Knight] Rises’ is not seen as the greatest film, I fucking love it. I’ll watch it every day.”

Biersack also addressed the controversy with some Superman fans over the fact that Kal-El’s son recently came out as bisexual.

“The thing that I never understand is the fervor and anger that people have giving people an opportunity to see themselves in these characters that we’ve loved forever,” he said. “Why not have an opportunity for someone who loves this character to see something of themselves in it? It boggles my mind that it would ever change your interpretation of the character for someone else to get to feel more close to them. There’s a million different iterations of all these characters. Why not allow people to have the opportunity to be reflected and feel some representation there?”

Tom Taylor, who wrote the November 9, 2021 issue of “Superman: Son Of Kal-El” in which Clark Kent’s son, Jon Kent, comes out as bisexual, said in a statement: “I’ve always said everyone needs heroes and everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes, and I’m very grateful DC and Warner Bros. share this idea.

“Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics.”

Not everybody has been happy with DC Comics’ decision to have a bisexual Superman. Arizona senator Wendy Rogers came out against the move, saying, “Hollywood is trying to make Superman gay and he is not.” Additionally, actor Dean Cain, known for roles on “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman” and the CW’s “Supergirl”, condemned the decision and accused DC Comics of “bandwagoning.”

BLACK VEIL BRIDES’ latest album, “The Phantom Tomorrow”, was released in October via Sumerian Records.

Hear metalcore crushers Foreign Hands take the genre back to its halcyon days of 20 years ago on “Separation Souvenir.”
The post Video Premiere: Foreign Hands – “Separation Souvenir” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

After a three-year… let’s call it a “hiatus,” The Decibel Magazine Tour triumphantly returns TODAY. Some date are already sold out, so get those tickets NOW!
The post The 2022 Decibel Magazine Tour STARTS TODAY! appeared first on Decibel Magazine.