KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has seemingly thrown his support behind pop singer Britney Spears in her conservatorship battle, which saw her finally speak out last year after 13 years locked into a guardianship that left her few freedoms, including financially.

Britney and her family have been at war over her conservatorship, which controlled her personal affairs and estimated $60 million estate from February 2008 until its termination in November 2021.

Earlier today, Gene took to his Twitter to share a TMZ article about Britney’s estranged father’s request for her to sit for a deposition, and he included the following message: “Ok. Not usually an area I comment on. But here goes. @britenyspears_earned her money the hard way — she worked for it…No one, including parents and family should have any say regarding her finances. Period.”

In a June 2021 court hearing, Spears famously said about her family: “My dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship — and my management, who played a huge role in punishing me when I said no — ma’am, they should be in jail.”

Britney’s fans fought to end her 13-year-long conservatorship with the #FreeBritney movement.

Last month, Britney took to her Instagram to open up on sensitive subjects involving her family, and how the power of prayer and reflecting on her career accomplishments are helping propel her forward.

“I had an experience three years ago where I stopped believing in God,” Britney wrote, according to People. “From every angle I was being hurt for no reason and my family was hurting me. I went into a state of shock and the way I coped was being [in] fake denial. It was too much to really face.

“Honestly my family embarrassed me and hurt me deeply,” she wrote, adding that “tooting my own horn and seeing my past accomplishments reflecting back at me actually helped” in overcoming her insecurities — appearing to reference how she listed her achievements the week before in a separate Instagram post.

Ok. Not usually an area I comment on. But here goes. @britenyspears_ earned her money the hard way — she worked for it…No one, including parents and family should have any say regarding her finances. Period. https://t.co/CnXEFknNTZ
— Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) January 28, 2022

Hello and welcome back to Mod Garage. This month we’ll continue with our relic’ing project, taking a closer look at the front side of the neck and treating the fretboard and the headstock. We’ll work on the front side of the headstock in the next part, but first we must prepare it.When we talk about a vintage Gibson fretboard from the ’50s, we’re talking about the mystic Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) and its certain look and feel. Our Harley Benton doesn’t have a Brazilian rosewood fretboard. If it did, the fretboard material would cost more than the entire guitar because it’s so rare and limited today. Brazilian rosewood trade is restricted by CITES and almost no guitar companies use it anymore, except for some special custom shops. Other rosewoods or alternative woods are common substitutes.Our Harley Benton fretboard is amaranth (better known as purpleheart), but sadly it was stained or painted black, giving the guitar a different look that’s closer to ebony rather than rosewood. So, there’s no way to get it brown or make it look like rosewood other than getting a new fretboard installed, which isn’t reasonable. Maybe it’s possible to get the black color out of the wood by using chemicals, but we don’t know what we’d find underneath, either. There could be another surprise waiting for us and all the work would be useless. On a budget guitar like this, we’ll have to live with this fretboard, loving it for what it is rather than hating it for what it’s not. The fretwork is surprisingly good and close to excellent, which is far from the industry standard in this price range.The fretboard edges of well-played vintage guitars feel comfortable and round because the edges receive pressure from a player’s hand over decades.But to show you the process of aging a fretboard, I chose a guitar with a rosewood fretboard, so you’ll know how to do this on a guitar with this type of fretboard if you want to. It’s not complicated so here we go.Look at the slightly pale and lifeless color of the rosewood in Photo 1. It has a nice grain but is rather dull. Brazilian rosewood has a rich chocolate brown color, which clearly shows the grain of the wood.Let’s make it less boring:1. Use some fine steel wool or sanding pads to sand the rosewood. Use a soft brush afterwards to get the dust off.2. Use some naphtha or alcohol and a cotton cloth to degrease the wood and get all the fine dust and dirt out of it.3. Use masking tape to protect the fretboard edges and the binding, if your neck has one. You don’t need to cover the frets. They’re easy to clean after the process. Use a Q-tip and some Vaseline to protect the fretboard dots from the dye.4. You need a chocolate brown wood dye and a small soft brush to apply it (Photo 2). Some luthier supply stores offer special Brazilian rosewood dye in different shades of brown. I decided on a classic chocolate brown color on a solvent base for best results. Apply the dye thin and carefully and let it dry for some minutes. Now look at the difference in Photo 3. It’s easy to see! If you want your fretboard darker, repeat the process until you like it. Cover your workspace with old newspapers and have an old cotton rag nearby just in case. This dye will stain everything permanently and you don’t want it on your clothes or your kitchen table. Let the fretboard dry for a day and take off the masking tape.5. Use some very fine steel wool to polish the fretboard and the frets, to get any dye off the fret material easily. Use a soft brush to clean the fretboard afterwards.6. Use some naphtha and a Q-tip to carefully clean the fretboard dots from any Vaseline leftovers. Then use the amber color from the last part of this series [“DIY Relic’ing: Hardware Continued”] together with a fresh Q-tip and apply the amber color to the dots until you like the shade.Now that we’ve made this rosewood fretboard look much closer to Brazilian rosewood, it’s time to mimic the touch and feel of it. Brazilian rosewood has a certain smell and feel that can be described as greasy compared to most other rosewoods. This is because of the oil content of this wood. We can’t naturally “oil up” other woods, but we can get close to this certain feel by waxing the fretboard rather than oiling it. This is also an easy process so let’s go for it.Get a clear, hard wax for fretboards and a soft polishing brush (Photo 4). Apply a thin layer of wax to the fretboard using a cotton cloth to massage it into the wood.Let it dry for some time, then wipe off any remaining excess wax and use the soft polishing brush to get this greasy look and shine on your fretboard, as seen in Photo 5.So far, so good. We’ve taken care of the color and the feel of the fretboard but there is another haptic thing to consider when talking about vintage necks: the broken-in feeling of the fretboard edges. The fretboard edges of well-played vintage guitars feel comfortable and round because the edges receive pressure from a player’s hand over decades. This is not what is called “rolled fretboard edge,” which is a common custom shop option, but it goes in the same direction only to a much lesser degree.To bring this typical broken-in feeling to your neck, you don’t need much: just a round metal bar and some time. You can do this to any guitar neck. I prefer to use a massive metal slide for pedal-steel players, but you can also use a bigger screwdriver or something similar. If possible, clamp down your guitar and use the steel bar in a 45-degree angle to move it along the edge of the fretboard, applying pressure (Photo 6). What we’re doing with this is not making a rolled edge but compressing fibres, which is exactly the natural process over time. Repeat moving the bar while applying pressure for some time and check the result until you like it. This is not done within a minute, so take your time. With the metal slide, I usually need 10-15 minutes for each edge until I like it, but this depends a lot on how hard your fretboard material is.If you’re done with that part, excellent! You just finished your fretboard. Moving up the neck, the nut is our next task. The nut of our Harley Benton is pure white plastic, which not the best choice. If you want to keep it, you can sand it with some steel wool and apply some of the amber color with a Q-tip, followed with some of our mixture of dirt, dust, and ashes we used for the plastic buttons of the tuners [DIY Relic’ing Tuners, Part 2”]. Use your fingers to wipe on some of this mixture and you’re done. If you want to upgrade the nut, nylon is the historically correct material, and such nut blanks are available from numerous luthier supply stores. I decided to use an unbleached bone nut blank and make a new nut. Afterwards, I used some of the amber color and dust to make it look old (Photo 7).Further up the neck is the cover for the truss rod adjustment screw with its mounting screw. Harley Benton decided to use a modern shape for it, which doesn’t look very good to me. The typical Gibson-style covers with their bell-like shape look much different, so I decided to swap the cover for such a model, modifying it for a flat bottom so it covers the whole opening for the truss rod (Photo 8). To make it look old, you can use the exact steps we used on the jack plate: break the shine with some steel wool, add some light scratches, wipe on some amber color on the white part of the cover, and then rub in some dust and dirt. You already know how to age screws, having done it many times before in the earlier parts of this ongoing project. If you need a refresher on our aging process for screws, refer back to “DIY Relic’ing: Break the Shine” for guidance.The last thing we’ll do today is begin to work on the headstock of the guitar, which is often a delicate task. A lot of modders try to reshape the headstock so it will look like it’s from a vintage guitar, and, even worse, replace the headstock logo with a fake logo from another company. I would never do that. This project is about aging a guitar and not about making it an exact copy of a vintage original. Personally, I really like the headstock shape of the Harley Benton. It looks at least a little bit Gibson-like, and I also think the Harley Benton logo looks cool the way it is (Photo 9). So, aging it is very easy: Break the shine with some steel wool and wipe off the dust. Use a Q-tip and apply some layers of the amber color to the logo until you like the shade. Adding dings, dongs, and scratches will come later. In the next part of this project, we’ll take care of the backside of the neck and the body by cracking the lacquer to mimic some old nitro lacquer.That’s it for now. We’re almost finished with this relic’ing project, but before we wrap it up, we’ll return to guitar mods in the next issue. We’ll take a deeper look at putting vintage parts into new electric guitars, so stay tuned.Until then … keep on modding!

Take an exclusive sneak peek of the second and final excerpt of Turned Inside Out: The Official Story of Obituary, now shipping directly via Decibel Books.
The post Read How Obituary Clashed With Roadrunner In 1992 In This Exclusive Excerpt From ‘Turned Inside Out: The Official Story of Obituary’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

“Gifts From The Holy Ghost” is the album that Hungarian-born vocalist/writer Dorothy has always wanted, and has perhaps been destined to make. Born from a sense of divine urgency, it is her most bombastic and gloriously, victorious rock and roll work yet. Each song built on triumph — the unshackling of chains, the slaying of demons with a sword of light — the album is a healing and remedial experience, made to unify listeners and point them towards a life full of purpose.

Dorothy’s unforgettable vocal performance is soul-baring, and her powerful resilience is palpably heard throughout “Gifts”‘ entirety and especially on its moving new single “Rest In Peace”. She reveals, “‘RIP’ is about breaking free from oppression, burying demons, and reclaiming sovereignty and power.” The video was directed by Nick Peterson and edited by Linda Strawberry.

Dorothy Martin’s life changed forever when she was forced to face death on her tour bus some three years ago. After her guitar technician had taken an overdose, Dorothy instinctively began praying for his survival. While he may have temporarily died, the technician was astonishingly, miraculously restored back to life. It was this moment that seemed to bring Dorothy to life too. It was this divine intervention that caused a radical and spiritual awakening in the singer, the result of which can be heard on “Gifts From The Holy Ghost”, Dorothy’s third studio album as front person for the pseudonymous, blues-rock band DOROTHY.

While the band’s first, irreverently named album “Rockisdead”, was made on a combination of whiskey and heartbreak — inspiring Rolling Stone to name them one of rock’s most exciting new acts, and Jay-Z to sign them to his label Roc Nation — “Gifts” was built on recovery, health, and holiness, in a way that reverses the clichéd “good girl gone bad” narrative.

With the combined powers of Keith Wallen, Jason Hook, Scott Stevens, Phil X, Trevor Lukather, Joel Hamilton and the legendary ear of producer Chris Lord Alge, “Gifts From The Holy Ghost” is made from a musical palette which seems to encompass each of the musician’s influences, as well as many of the essential sounds of rock music’s history — from swampy blues to ’90s alternative — in a way that makes the case for rock and roll itself. Not only is the genre alive, but it’s more invigorated than ever.

“I think this album is going to speak to a lot of people, it’s meant to be healing, unifying, eye-opening, ear-opening, heart-opening and celebratory,” says Dorothy, adding: “I wanted to make the realest album I could make, and I went in with the question does this make me feel alive? Does it make me feel free? If a song didn’t give me chills or make my heart soar, then it didn’t make the cut.”

Dorothy has always been an instinctual writer and artist. Throughout her life, she’s been asking the big questions, both in and outside her art: ‘What’s the meaning of life? Why are we here? How are we here?’ When she couldn’t find the answers to those questions, she’d numb out the empty uncertainty with drugs and alcohol. She was eventually admitted to rehab and a new chapter was opened in her spiritual journey.

The album’s lyrics are a perfect balance of specificity and generality, so that the listener can attach their own darknesses and triumphs to the songs, while still getting a sense of Dorothy’s own. “We are all one human family.” she declares.

With “Gifts From The Holy Ghost”, Dorothy identifies her purpose as an artist. She conquers darkness with light, numbness with feeling, disharmony with unity — all while delivering one of this year’s most fun rock and roll records.

“Gifts From The Holy Ghost” sees its release this spring via Roc Nation. Today Dorothy has announced an extensive headlining North American tour which kicks off in San Diego on March 22 and spans throughout the U.S., coast to coast.

A special BLABBERMOUTH.NET presale will begin on Wednesday, February 2 at 10:00 a.m. local time and end on Thursday, February 3 at 10:00 p.m. local time. When prompted, type in the presale code “HOLYGHOST” to access tickets before the general public. General on-sale will be Friday, February 4 at 10 a.m. local time from DorothyOnFire.com.

DOROTHY tour dates:

Mar. 21 – Music Box – San Diego,CA
Mar. 22 – Nile Theater – Phoenix, AZ
Mar. 24 – Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM
Mar. 26 – Scoot Inn – Austin, TX
Mar. 27 – Granada – Dallas, TX
Mar. 28 – White Oak Downstairs – Houston, TX
Mar. 30 – Parish at HOB – New Orleans, LA
Apr. 01 – Vinyl Music Hall – Pensacola, FL
Apr. 02 – Mars Music Hall – Huntsville, AL
Apr. 03 – Basement East – Nashville, TN
Apr. 05 – Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
Apr. 06 – Underground – Charlotte, NC
Apr. 08 – Charleston Music Hall – Charleston, SC
Apr. 09 – Elevation – VA Beach, VA
Apr. 10 – Brooklyn Bowl – Philadelphia, PA
Apr. 12 – Recher – Towson, MD
Apr. 13 – Mickey’s Black Box – Harrisburg, PA
Apr. 15 – Wellmont Theater – Montclair, NJ
Apr. 16 – Lost Horizon – Syracuse, NY
Apr. 20 – Paradise – Boston, MA
Apr. 21 – Aura – Portland, ME
Apr. 23 – HOB Cleveland – Cleveland, OH
Apr. 24 – Bluestone – Columbus, OH
Apr. 26 – St. Andrews – Detroit, MI
Apr. 27 – Elevation – Grand Rapids, MI
Apr. 28 – Piere’s – Ft. Wayne, IN
Apr. 30 – HOB – Chicago, IL
May 01 – Majestic – Madison, WI
May 02 – Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, MN
May 03 – Slowdown – Omaha, NE
May 05 – Record Bar – Kansas City, MO
May 06 – Temple Live – Wichita, KS
May 08 – Summit – Denver, CO
May 10 – Knitting Factory – Boise, ID
May 11 – Knitting Factory – Spokane, WA
May 13 – El Corazon – Seattle, WA
May 14 – Hawthorne – Portland, OR
May 15 – Virginia St. Brewing – Reno, NV
May 18 – Ace of Spades – Sacramento, CA
May 19 – Parish at HOB – Anaheim, CA
May 27 – BottleRock Festival – Napa Valley, CA

Approximately one year ago, legendary guitarist Steve Vai underwent shoulder surgery to repair an injury. That procedure was successful, enabling him to record his new album, “Inviolate”. However, in preparing for a U.S. tour in support of the LP, it became clear that a new injury emerged that requires another surgery prohibiting the tour to be staged as previously announced.

Steve discussed his physical issues in a new interview with Holland’s FaceCulture. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “The shoulder started years ago and it was something I was experiencing when I was working out. And I let it go, to the point where I kind of crossed a point of no return where therapies weren’t gonna work and they had to get in there and fix it. And they did, and they did a great job. And it healed. And I made ‘Inviolate’. Unfortunately, over the summer, I tore another tendon, and that’s why we had to move the American leg of the tour to the fall — because I had to get another surgery. But it’s all right. I’m not worried about any of that.”

According to Steve, he never lost his belief that he would be able to continue writing and recording music after recovering from his surgery. “What I noticed is I didn’t panic,” he said. “There was never a time where I thought… Well, there was a moment after I got the sling off where I started to try to play and there was nothing there — I couldn’t pick, I couldn’t strum. And I thought, ‘Okay, this is what it’s like at the end of the day for a musician.’ And for about 10 seconds, that thought, ‘This is it. I’m done.’ That was in my head. And I can honestly tell you that with that thought, there wasn’t any fear but there was a disappointment, of course.

“I don’t define myself as just a guitar player,” he explained. “People say, ‘Music is your life.’ Music isn’t my life. Music is something I do in life. Life is much bigger than what you do in it. So I never felt restricted in expressing creative musical ideas, even if I didn’t have a guitar. And I always knew that that was gonna be there, no matter what. So I wasn’t devastated. But then another little voice came in, the voice of my higher self — it usually comes in to the rescue — and it said, ‘Shut the fuck up and just start playing. You know you got this.’ And I said, ‘Okay. Yes, sir.’ And I just started. And it came back.”

Last February, Vai revealed that he had undergone shoulder and trigger finger surgeries, explaining that his shoulder had been “screwed up.”

During an appearance on Tyler Larson’s “Guitar Villains” podcast, Vai said that he sustained the finger injury by holding a tough chord for too long.

“I was doing this fun thing, and I had to put my thumb in this really weird position,” he said. “And I had to kind of hold this chord really for a long time — I was meditating on it. And I knew it was a hard position, and I just kept sitting there and playing it and playing and playing, and 20 minutes later, I’d kind of come out, and I [felt pain in my hand]. So I kind of sprained this, and then, all of a sudden, I developed trigger finger. My wife said, ‘Don’t show anybody,’ ’cause they did that operation and they cut in there, and the guy’s fooling around with everything in there, and it’s really bizarre. But it’s all fine — it’s something very simple that they can fix. But I won’t be able to play for a while.”

“Inviolate” is being released today (Friday, January 28) digitally and on CD via Favored Nations / Mascot Label Group.

The first U.S. leg of Vai’s tour dates will now begin on September 28 in El Cajon, California and wrap the first week of December. The itinerary will now feature performances in 52 markets as opposed to the initial plan of staging 54 shows. All ticket and VIP purchases will be honored for the rescheduled date. Vai’s performance in Atlanta, Georgia will now take place at the Variety Playhouse instead of The Eastern and due to scheduling conflicts, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Billings, Montana shows will no longer be a part of the tour.

Former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson and guitarist Chris Poland have come together to record one final song posthumously with their friend, late ex-MEGADETH drummer Gar Samuelson. The new track, “The Raven”, is the latest single from FATAL OPERA, part of a new 12-song collection of demo material compiled as the group’s final release, titled “Fatal Opera 3”, out now on Combat Records.

Following his departure from MEGADETH in 1987, Gar assembled his new band FATAL OPERA, along with his brother Stew on guitar. Gar went on to produce the group’s debut album in 1994, which also featured Dave Inman on vocals, Travis Karcher on bass and Billy Brehme on guitar. The group’s second album, “Eleventh Hour”, was released in 1997 and introduced Andy Freeman on vocals, reaching top 10 on European charts while the group continued building a loyal fan base touring across the USA that year. Sadly, in 1999 Gar became ill and passed away, at which point the group disbanded.

Then, in 2018, Andy and Stew set out to remix the “Eleventh Hour” LP and in the process discovered a collection of demos with Gar which were intended to become the band’s third album before his passing. Although the demo tapes were damaged after many years of neglect, Freeman labored to revive the tracks with some songs lost forever. However, he was able to complete 12 tracks, inviting Ellefson and Poland to participate on “The Raven” as a way to conclude the legacy of Gar and FATAL OPERA.

Poland recalls: “Back in the day, long before MEGADETH, Gar and his brother Stew were the heart and soul of a heavy instrumental jazz/rock project called THE NEW YORKERS. I played guitar with them and Robbie ‘Pag’ Pagliari played fretless bass. It was everything we could do just to keep up. Stew’s right hand was a machine. Flawless. And Gar was right there with him always pushing things to the next level. And again, these two brothers were the heart and soul of FATAL OPERA.

“It was a privilege to be a part of this release, and playing on ‘The Raven’ with David Ellefson made it that much more special. Gar was a true artist. Be it his amazing drumming, his painting or his wood sculpture pipe (he made by hand). Gar was one of a kind. And here Gar, Stew and crew push the limits of experimental metal. These songs are complex yet accessible. Music with a dark side that draws you into their world and keeps you wondering ‘what’s next!'” Poland also added additional guitar work to the track “Mask Of Time”.

Ellefson adds: “This is a really cool moment for Chris and me to musically reunite with our friend Gar, now almost 35 years after our last studio session together, which was the 1987 re-recording of ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin” for the ‘Dudes’ movie soundtrack, compiled by director Penelope Spheeris.

“Gar was always such a free spirit with his music; no click tracks or digital reinvention for him. And he seldom played the same thing twice; quite unusual for heavy metal. He just went for it with real gusto and that became the hallmark of his sound.”

He continues: “When I was laying down the bass track for ‘The Raven’, it reminded me once again of Gar’s spontaneity in the studio, as if we were recording live in the same room together. I’m super happy these tracks were brought to life so we could have one last go around with Gar behind the kit. It’s a reminder that he truly was one of the greats.”

Combat Records is the label which was home to many iconic thrash and metal albums in the 1980s and 1990s and was relaunched by Ellefson & Co. in 2017. It was also home to Samuelson’s first full-length record with MEGADETH, their debut, “Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good” (1985). Ellefson states: “As a label, we are proud to release these final tracks from Gar. He was a masterful drummer who made an incredible impact on fans and musicians everywhere. I think it’s appropriate that Combat would be home to his first and now final recordings.”

“Fatal Opera 3” is available now across all digital outlets.

“Fatal Opera 3” track listing:

01. The Raven (feat. David Ellefson & Chris Poland)
02. Live Again
03. Mask Of Time (feat. Chris Poland)
04. Killers In The Night
05. Swept Away
06. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
07. 10 Years Gone
08. Little Sister
09. Salt
10. Rise
11. Wings Of Pain
12. Jumped In The Pot

“Fatal Opera 3” lineup:

Andy Freeman – Vocals, Keyboard, Guitar
Stew Samuelson – Guitar
Billy Brehme – Guitar
Travis Karcher – Bass
Gar Samuelson – Drums

Finnish melancholic progressive metallers AMORPHIS will release their fourteenth studio album, “Halo”, on February 11, 2022 via Atomic Fire Records. The official music video for the LP’s latest single, “On The Dark Waters”, directed by Pekka Hara, can be seen below.

Lyricist Pekka Kainulainen comments: “I got the idea to reverse the direction of the Tuonela stream — Tuonela is the realm of the dead in Finnish mythology. So I started writing from the moment of death… And death was not the end, but the beginning.”

In the past, mythology and legend took the role of today’s pop culture: Stories and a set of values uniting us by giving us a voice and a tapestry on which we can find each other and identify with something. By weaving the tales of Finnish national epos “Kalevala” into their songs and interpreting them in a timeless way, AMORPHIS combine the role of ancient minstrels and luminaries of the modern world, honoring tradition without getting stuck in the past.

The vibrant, lively, and touching beauty that is “Halo” highlights their musical and storytelling mastership on a once again soaring level: It’s a progressive, melodic, and quintessentially melancholic heavy metal masterwork plucked from the fickle void of inspiration by original guitarists Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari, bassist Olli-Pekka Laine, drummer Jan Rechberger, longtime keyboardist Santeri Kallio and vocalist Tomi Joutsen, the band’s long-standing lyrical consciousness Pekka Kainulainen and a selected group of world class audio professionals led by renowned Swedish producer Jens Bogren. Considering the band’s prolonged journey in the forefront of innovative metal music, it’s difficult to grasp how AMORPHIS manages to raise the proverbial bar time and time again, presenting a more than worthy finale to the trilogy begun with 2015’s “Under The Red Cloud” followed by 2018’s “Queen Of Time”.

“It really is a great feeling that we can still produce very decent music as a band,” says Holopainen, a founding member of the band. “Perhaps a certain kind of self-criticism and long experience culminate in these latest albums.” To the songwriter himself, “Halo” sounds both familiar and different. “It is thoroughly recognizable AMORPHIS from beginning to end but the general atmosphere is a little bit heavier and more progressive and also organic compared to its predecessor,” he elaborates.

Tomi Joutsen, the man with vocal cords capable of unleashing colossal, bear-like growls as well as singing soothing, mesmerising lullabies, adds, “To me, ‘Halo’ sounds a little more stripped down compared to ‘Queen Of Time’ and ‘Under The Red Cloud’. However, don’t get me wrong: when a certain song needs to sound big, then it sounds very big.” He’s right, of course: By stripping down some of the arrangements, the monumental moments become even more monumental.

That’s of course also thanks to producing renaissance man Jens Bogren who harvested the thirteen final tracks from a batch of thirty songs AMORPHIS offered him. “Jens is very demanding, but I really like to work with him,” says Holopainen. “He takes care of the whole project from start to finish, and he allows the musician to focus on just playing. I may not be able to thank Jens enough. Everything we’ve done together has been really great, and this co-operation has carried AMORPHIS significantly forward.”

Indeed. Setting off with the stormy grandeur of opener “Northwards”, AMORPHIS take us on an epic journey through the lands of the north, their rich cultural and historical heritage and musical traditions. This is not only an album for fans or metal connoisseurs. It’s a must for every imaginative mind out there with a soft spot for cinematic soundscapes, triumphant melodies and breathtaking dynamics measuring the borderlands of light and dark.

However, no AMORPHIS album would be complete without the imaginative and poetic storytelling of renowned lyricist and “Kalevala” expert Pekka Kainulainen. “From day one, Pekka has always been an enthusiastic and prolific lyricist for AMORPHIS,” says Joutsen. “It is a slow process of translating archaic Finnish poetry into English and adapting it our progressive rhythms. Fortunately, Pekka does everything on time and with great care.” Since 2007’s “Silent Waters”, Kainulainen has been navigating the mythological waters of his homeland with great skill and respect. For “Halo”, he outdid himself once again. “‘Halo’ is a loose-themed record filled with adventurous tales about the mythical North tens of thousands of years ago,” he explains. “The lyrics tell of an ancient time when man wandered to these abandoned boreal frontiers after the ice age. While describing the revival of a seminal culture in a world of new opportunities, I also try to reach the sempiternal forces of the human mind.”

Thirty-one years after their inception, with uncounted global tours under their belt and fourteen albums deep in their career, AMORPHIS still proves to be the musical fountain of youth, an extraordinary band constantly reinventing itself without abandoning its mystical roots. With “Halo”, they deliver an astonishing album that deserves to be played everywhere, transcending the realms of metal and rock by its sheer profoundness and musicality.

The track listing for the effort is as follows:

01. Northwards
02. On The Dark Waters
03. The Moon
04. Windmane
05. A New Land
06. When The Gods Came
07. Seven Roads Come Together
08. War
09. Halo
10. The Wolf
11. My Name Is Night

AMORPHIS will embark on a North American tour this spring. The trek will kick off on April 13 in New York City and will make its way through nearly two dozen cities, coming to a close on May 12 in Baltimore, Maryland. Support will come from SYLVAINE and HOAXED.

AMORPHIS is:

Tomi Joutsen – vocals
Esa Holopainen – guitars
Tomi Koivusaari – guitars
Santeri Kallio – Keyboards
Olli-Pekka Laine – bass
Jan Rechberger – drums

Eddie Van Halen’s ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli discussed her new book, “Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today”, during a recent appearance on QFM96’s “Torg & Elliott” radio show. Bertinelli reflected on the special relationship she had with her late ex-husband, saying they were still on good terms when they split two decades ago.

“I pull things apart very, very gently, or at least I try to,” she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “There was never a lawyer. We had a mediator. We still lived together when we finally said, ‘We just need to move apart,’ until I found a home. And Ed was the first person to look at the home I live in now to make sure that we both felt that it was close enough to his house that [our son] Wolfie would be safe, close enough to his school. We stayed amicable. And he was very angry at me for the first few years. But we always, always had that love for one another, and we came back to that, and that alone, in the last few years — thankfully. We always had a love and respect for one another.”

Asked if Eddie’s second wife, Janie Liszewski, is “jealous at all,” considering that Valerie has written a book that covers her relationship with Van Halen and is doing interviews to promote it, including talking about their love and how she was present at the time of Eddie’s passing after a years-long battle with cancer in October 2020, Bertinelli said: “Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, she moved out a few years before Ed died, so he was alone [in his house for the last few years of his life]. I know that she still loved him as well, and she was there the day that Ed died. So they were still trying to stay close and be in each other’s life. But, yeah, she didn’t live there.”

Bertinelli split with Van Halen in 2002 after 21 years of marriage. They officially divorced in 2007. Eddie then went on to marry Liszewski in 2009, while Valerie also remarried, tying the knot with Tom Vitale in 2011. Valerie told People magazine that both marriages were struggling before Eddie’s death. She eventually filed for separation from Vitale in November 2021.

In “Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today”, Valerie writes about saying goodbye to Eddie when the legendary guitarist died from cancer. She and their son, Wolfgang, 30, were by his side in his final moments.

“I love you are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing,” Bertinelli writes.

Eddie died at the age of 65. The legendary VAN HALEN guitarist passed away at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California.

The following day, Janie took to her social media to write: “My husband, my love, my Peep,

“My heart and soul have been shattered into a million pieces.

“I never knew it was possible to cry so many tears or feel such incredible sadness.

“Our journey together has not always been an easy one but in the end and always we have a connection and love that will always be.

“Saying goodbye is the hardest thing I have ever had to do so instead I say so long, I will see you again soon in a place with no pain or sorrow.

“Please watch over Kody and I. We love you and miss you so very much.

“Love, your PooPee”.

Janie is a ballroom dancer and a stuntwoman-turned-publicist who owns her own public relations agency High Profile Media.

Eddie was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2000 and had tongue surgery. He later battled lung cancer and had been receiving radiation treatment in Germany. Things took a turn for the worse in early 2019 when Eddie got in a motorcycle accident. He was subsequently diagnosed with a brain tumor, and received gamma knife radiosurgery to treat the illness.

In a major interview discussing KISS’s classic “Destroyer” album, Paul Stanley admitted that he had a really hard time dealing with producer Bob Ezrin’s decision to give the Stanley-penned classic song “God Of Thunder” to Gene Simmons to sing. “Let’s put it mildly,” Stanley says in the new issue of Rock Candy magazine. “It was crushing and devastating. We’d understood and agreed that the role of the producer on ‘Destroyer’ was to have final say and make decisions. When I played ‘God Of Thunder’, Bob immediately said, ‘Oh, that’s great. That’s for Gene.’ I was just devastated. The idea of a song so quickly being passed off from me to someone else… It was difficult, and it remained a sore point, even when I heard it finished.”

When the “Destroyer” album was first released in March of 1976, “God Of Thunder” was quickly recognized as both a KISS classic and Gene’s signature song. Soon Stanley was forced to admit that Ezrin’s decision to give the bassist and vocalist the tune was absolutely right. “It’s so much a Gene song,” says Stanley. “It’s truly a highlight of who Gene is, and it would never have been as great a song if I’d sung it. Never. Bob was right and Gene did a great job. And at least I have the satisfaction and the joy of knowing that the song that personifies Gene is mine.”

In the Rock Candy cover feature, Stanley and Simmons go deep into the mechanics of making their breakthrough album, while also revealing the concerns they had at the time after some of the first people they played the album to weren’t crazy about it. “They didn’t find it heavy enough,” admits Stanley. “And coming on the heels of ‘Alive!’, which really captured the rawness of the band, I understand. But we did what we needed to do.”

Rock Candy also brought together five acknowledged KISS experts and fanatics to try to decide on the best albums the band have produced in their career of almost 50 years. The panel consisted of Michael Brandvold, former KISS webmaster and host of the much-loved KISS podcast “Three Sides Of The Coin”; Larry Mazer, erstwhile KISS manager; Frank Novinec, guitarist with HATEBREED and KISS obsessive; Ross Sampson, Rock Candy’s digital supremo and lifelong KISS fan; Mark Cicchini, rabid KISS collector and “Three Sides Of The Coin” cohort. The unofficial KISS podcast “Three Sides Of The Coin” has over 7.5 million plays since it was founded in 2012, with over 450 weekly episodes.

Read this 12-page KISS feature and many other fascinating stories including SCORPIONS, ANTHRAX and Steve Vai in issue 30 of Rock Candy.

Rock Candy is a 100-page, full-color bi-monthly rock magazine, created in the U.K. It covers the sights, sounds and smells from the greatest era in hard rock music, the ’70s and ’80s. Put together by respected U.K. rock journalists Derek Oliver, Howard Johnson and Malcolm Dome — all frontline writers for the legendary Kerrang! magazine in the golden era — Rock Candy is available in print format with a free digital download version for anyone who buys the mag online at www.rockcandymag.com.