WARRIOR SOUL, the band fronted by legendary singer Kory Clarke, will release its new album, “Out On Bail”, on March 4 via Livewire/Cargo Records UK. The LP’s first single, “We’re Alive”, arrived in December.

“Out On Bail” is described in a press release as “a statement of considerable intent” from Clarke, who is “one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most prolific, prophetic and controversial songwriters.” Poetic and timely, “Out On Bail” speaks to us as survivors and fighters, celebrating in success and yet wary of things to come. It is a perfect gateway into the mind and soul of this unique songwriter and groundbreaking band.

“Out On Bail” track listing:

01. We’re Alive (Arling / Clarke) (5:10)
02. One More For The Road (Post / Polachek / Clarke) (4:07)
03. Hip Hip Hurray (Clarke / Post) (3:33)
04. Out On Bail (Hodgson / Clarke) (4:20)
05. Cancelled Culture (Polachek / Clarke) (3:41)
06. End Of The World (Kimmett / Post / Clarke) (4:50)
07. YoYo (Clarke / Peter Jay) (4:40)
08. The New Paradigm (Mark Gemini Thwaite / Paul Raven / Clarke) (4:35)

“Out On Bail” was produced by Clarke, with additional production by Dennis Post. It was mixed and mastered by Rune Buck.

Recording lineup:

* Kory Clarke – Vocals, Drums on “One More For The Road”
* Dennis “El Guapo” Post – Guitars
* Christian Kimmett – Bass
* Ivan Tambac – Drums on “Paradigm”, “End Of The World”
* John Besser – Drums on “We’re Alive”, “Hip Hip Hurray”, “Out On Bail”, “Cancelled Culture”, “YoYo”
* John “Baby H” Hodgson – Guitars on “Out On Bail”
* Adam Arling – Guitars on “We’re Alive”, “Paradigm”
* John “Full Throttle” Polachek – Guitars on “One More For The Road”, “Cancelled Culture”
* Maria Hatzina – Special Guest Vocals on “Hip Hip Hurray”

WARRIOR SOUL released a trio of albums on the Geffen major label during the ’90s, beginning with its classic 1990 debut, “Last Decade Dead Century”.

Having initially split in 1995 following the release of “The Space Age Playboys”, WARRIOR SOUL was resurrected in 2007 by Clarke, who has issued several albums since: “Destroy The War Machine” (2008), “Stiff Middle Finger” (2012), “Back On The Lash” (2017), “Rock ‘N’ Roll Disease” (2019), “Cocaine And Other Good Stuff” (2020) and “Out On Bail”.

A couple of years ago, Clarke told TotalRock that WARRIOR SOUL translates better in front of U.K. audiences. “For some reason, people in England like me a lot, more than Americans like me,” he said. “I always thought it was because of my criticism of the social situation in America and the guts to actually say what I feel about it.”

Swedish metallers HAMMERFALL have released a new single, “Venerate Me”, featuring a special guest appearance by legendary Danish heavy metal singer King Diamond. The track is taken from the band’s twelfth studio album, “Hammer Of Dawn”, which is due on February 25 via Napalm Records.

HAMMERFALL guitarist Oscar Dronjak comments: “The second single is here, and I’m very, very proud of it. The music was written during the darkest, most uninspiring days of the pandemic and still came out as one of the strongest on the whole album. Joacim’s [Cans] fantastic lyric idea makes this track really stand out, and the special guest appearance towards the end really pushes it over the edge.”

Adds Cans: “The song is overloaded with enchanting melodies and a very catchy chorus. Lyrically one of my greatest efforts dealing with the fact that we die twice. First when we take our last breath and second when someone says your name for the last time. Say my name and I will never die.”

As one of the main forces in heavy metal, HAMMERFALL have dominated not only the Swedish album charts, but album charts across Europe throughout their extensive career, while earning gold status thrice. Faced with the daunting task of following up the band’s last studio album, “Dominion”, an album that fans and critics hailed as one of the band’s strongest releases, HAMMERFALL collectively met the challenge head on and have delivered what many early listeners are predicting as the best metal album of 2022 and a high point of the band’s catalog.

Cans states about the new album: “It’s hard to describe in words how extremely happy and proud I am about the outcome of ‘Hammer Of Dawn’. It was a struggle, for sure, but in the end we pulled it off and delivered a solid, vital and positive new album. Everyone is on top of his game and together we have created yet another milestone in HAMMERFALL history. Can’t wait to sing these songs live together with my sisters and brothers, The Templars of Steel!”

Dronjak adds: “We spent a long time creating the songs for this album, mainly due to the coronavirus but also because we began working on the material very early. That’s definitely evident in the result, the attention to detail is very big. Another thing that is quite palpable is the energy level, and that can be contributed to the extreme and forced downtime we all had to endure during the pandemic. The atmosphere in the studio was relaxed and laid back and the lack of stress created the perfect working environment for turning up the heat when the red light came on. It was easy to peak when you had to since there was no outside distractions or immediate deadlines. This album is a product of the pandemic in some ways, but more importantly it’s a strong statement that we are experiencing the high point in our creativity at the moment. I’ve said it before: HAMMERFALL has never sounded better than we do right now.”

“Hammer Of Dawn” track listing:

01. Brotherhood
02. Hammer Of Dawn
03. No Son Of Odin
04. Venerate Me
05. Reveries
06. Too Old To Die Young
07. Not Today
08. Live Free Or Die
09. State Of The W.I.L.D.
10. No Mercy

“Hammer Of Dawn” starts off with remarkable opener “Brotherhood”, a hymn echoing the deep connection of bandleaders Cans and Dronjak with their loyal Templars of Steel worldwide. Other tracks on the album present one smasher after another, with songs like “Reveries”, “No Son Of Odin” and “Venerate Me” — the latter featuring an appearance by none other than King Diamond — making sure it will go down as another milestone in the career of the Swedes.

“Hammer Of Dawn” was produced by long time collaborator Fredrik Nordström (IN FLAMES, OPETH), who handled mixing, mastering, drum recording, and shared the duty of recording guitars and bass with Pontus Norgren and Oscar Dronjak. Jacob Hansen (VOLBEAT), produced the lead vocals.

Later this year, HAMMERFALL will team up with HELLOWEEN for an extensive co-headlining tour through Europe.

Former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson is collaborating with the visual art team SceneFour on an art collection crafted from a new medium in artwork, bass performance.

Ellefson is expected to build visuals for canvas based on the movement of his fingers on the frets using a proprietary LED-tipped glove. The result is an astonishing collection of artworks that showcase the unique style of the bassist in a visual form.

SceneFour announced the collaboration in a social media post on Wednesday (January 19). They wrote: “This week, @scenefourart is in studio with our first bass player David Ellefson creating artwork from performance. Look for the collaboration’s unveiling later this year.”

SceneFour is primarily known as the team responsible for the “rhythm-on-canvas” medium, having released art collections over the last several years with a highly select group of drumming legends, including Bill Ward (BLACK SABBATH), Rick Allen (DEF LEPPARD) and Dave Lombardo (SLAYER).

SceneFour, a Los Angeles design and branding firm, uses LED technology to transfer the musicians’ unique style onto a canvas. The art reportedly provides a “musical fingerprint” that is as unique as an artist’s autograph.

“Each guy’s artwork looks drastically different because their styles and techniques are different,” Cory Danziger, who co-founded SceneFour in 2004 with Ravi Dosaj, a graphic designer, told The New York Times.

“Bill Ward’s artwork is dark and there’s kind of a foreboding element to it, whereas Chad Smith’s has kind of a light and airy feel to his playing. His arms are open and those pieces have a butterfly effect,” Danziger said.

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH last spring after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter. At the time, Ellefson was accused of grooming an underage girl through videos and online messages. David has denied the allegation and has repeatedly said the woman in question had been a willing, consenting adult at the time of their virtual sexual encounter. Ellefson accompanied his denial with an alleged screenshot of a statement from the woman with whom he was supposedly involved at the time. In it, the woman admitted to recording the alleged intimate communications she had with Ellefson and called herself “naïve” for sharing them with a friend without the musician’s permission.

David was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.

In 2004, Ellefson filed an $18.5-million lawsuit against Dave Mustaine, alleging the MEGADETH leader shortchanged him on profits and backed out of a deal to turn Megadeth Inc. over to him when the band broke up in 2002. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed and Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH in 2010.

David, a Christian who launched the Mega Life Ministries worship group in 2007, studied for a year at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis a decade ago.

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Fan-filmed video footage of Bruce Dickinson belting out an a cappella version of the IRON MAIDEN song “Revelations” during his January 17 spoken-word show at Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida can be seen below.

Fort Lauderdale was the kick-off of Dickinson’s two-month North American spoken-word tour which will run through the end of March.

Dickinson is considered one of the world’s most storied musicians. Aside from decades spent delivering high-octane performances with his larger-than-life persona in IRON MAIDEN, Bruce has lived an extraordinary off-stage existence too. A true polymath, his accomplishments include: pilot and airline captain, aviation entrepreneur, beer brewer, motivational speaker, film scriptwriter, twice-published novelist and Sunday Times best-selling author, radio presenter, TV actor, sports commentator and international fencer… to name but a few.

So there’s plenty to be entertained by, throughout the evening’s cornucopia of fascinating tales and derring-do exploits, all delivered by Bruce with characteristically infectious enthusiasm and wry wit.

Split into two parts, the first section of the show sees Bruce taking a humorous and often satirical look at the world from his own very personal perspective, treating the audience to private insights into his drive and ambition, peppered with plenty of MAIDEN anecdotes, and a myriad of other experiences encompassing not just the giddy heights but also the extreme lows, as told first-hand in his inimitable anarchic style, punctuated with photographs, videos and sometimes even erupting into song a-capella, to illustrate a point.

The final section of the evening is devoted entirely to the aforementioned question-and-answer session, with the opportunity to pose questions on any subject whatsoever. As Bruce’s answers will all be completely improvised — the more left-field and quirky the question, the more interesting and compelling the response is likely to be.

Remaining tour dates:

Jan. 20 – Tampa, FL @ Theatre
Jan. 21 – Jacksonville, FL @ Florida Theatre
Jan. 23 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
Jan. 24 – Raleigh, NC @ Meymandi Concert Hall at Duke Energy Center
Jan. 26 – Nashville, TN @ Polk Theater
Jan. 27 – Columbus, OH @ Jo Ann Davidson Theatre
Jan. 29 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead
Jan. 30 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
Feb. 01 – Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY @ Buffalo State Performing Arts Center
Feb. 02 – Albany, NY @ The Egg
Feb. 04 – New York City, NY @ The Town Hall
Feb. 05 – Boston, MA @ Schubert Theatre at the Boch Center
Feb. 07 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
Feb. 08 – Washington, DC @ Warner Theatre
Feb. 10 – Cleveland, OH @ MGM Northfield Park
Feb. 11 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
Feb. 13 – Minneapolis, MN @ Pantages Theatre
Feb. 14 – Milwaukee-Racine, WI @ Pabst Theater
Feb. 16 – Des Moines, IA @ Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre
Feb. 17 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Rose State College Hudiberg Chevrolet Center
Feb. 19 – Kansas City, KS @ Uptown Theater
Feb. 20 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
Feb. 22 – Dallas, TX @ Majestic Theatre
Feb. 23 – Houston, TX @ Stafford Centre
Feb. 24 – Austin, TX @ Paramount Theatre
Feb. 26 – Phoenix, AZ @ Mesa Arts Center
Feb. 28 – San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
Mar. 01 – Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre
Mar. 03 – San Francisco, CA @ Palace Of Fine Arts
Mar. 04 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Mar. 06 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre
Mar. 12 – Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
Mar. 14 – Vancouver (New Westminster), BC @ Massey Theatre
Mar. 16 – Victoria, BC @ Royal Theatre
Mar. 18 – Edmonton, AB @ Winspear Centre
Mar. 20 – Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre
Mar. 21 – Calgary, AB @ Jack Singer Concert Hall
Mar. 23 – Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
Mar. 26 – Ottawa, ON @ Algonquin Commons Theatre
Mar. 27 – Quebec City, QC @ Palais Montcalm
Mar. 29 – Hamilton, ON @ FirstOntario Concert Hall
Mar. 30 – Kitchener, Centre In The Square

Dickinson recently told Pablo of the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X about his latest spoken-word tour, which kicked off in his native United Kingdom in August: “It’s hopefully reasonably amusing. It’s a look at how a spotty kid from the middle of nowhere ended up being the singer in IRON MAIDEN wearing crazy trousers, and all points in between. And it covers the cancer thing. It covers a lot of the early-days stuff, like how I learned to sing, all the weird stuff that happened to me at school and what formed your personality [and] character — all done with a very dark sense of humor, I hope. And then we take a break, and then the last 45 minutes, one hour-ish is basically improv. And so what I do is I take cue cards from the audience they write on the night, and I arrange them into kind of an improv script. Then I do that. That’s the show.”

Back in October/November 2017, Dickinson read from his autobiography, “What Does This Button Do?”, talked about the experience of writing it and answered questions from the audience at half a dozen U.S. appearances, including in New York City and Los Angeles.

Six years ago, Dickinson had surgery to remove a cancerous lump on his throat. The rocker, who had a golf gall-size tumor on his tongue and another in the lymph node on the right side of his neck, got the all-clear in May 2015 after radiation and nine weeks of chemotherapy.

Bruce previously told iNews that he wanted to cover his cancer battle in his 2017 autobiography to raise awareness of the condition, which affects people who often have no or minimal history of tobacco or alcohol abuse. The individuals with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer who undergo treatment have a disease-free survival rate of 85 to 90 percent over five years. Dickinson also expressed disdain for some of the media outlets that suggested he may have gotten tongue cancer from performing oral sex on women.

IRON MAIDEN’s 17th studio album, “Senjutsu”, was released in September via BMG. The band’s first LP in six years was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by bassist Steve Harris.

GHOST will release its new album, “Impera”, on March 11 via Loma Vista/Concord. The official music video for the LP’s latest single, “Call Me Little Sunshine”, can be seen below.

“Impera track listing:

01. Imperium
02. Kaisarion
03. Spillways
04. Call Me Little Sunshine
05. Hunter’s Moon
06. Watcher In The Sky
07. Dominion
08. Twenties
09. Darkness At The Heart Of My Love
10. Griftwood
11. Bite Of Passage
12. Respite On The Spital Fields

In September, GHOST released “Hunter’s Moon” which is also featured in the latest blockbuster installment of the legendary film franchise “Halloween Kills”. The “Halloween Kills” soundtrack arrived on October 15 via Sacred Bones, with the film hitting theaters (and Peacock) the same day as well.

Produced by Klas Åhlund and mixed by Andy Wallace, GHOST’s “Hunter’s Moon” plays as the “Halloween Kills” end credits roll, and will be released January 21 as a collectible seven-inch single by Loma Vista Recordings. “Hunter’s Moon” can be streamed, purchased, and/or pre-ordered in its vinyl incarnation. The retail version of the seven-inch will feature the special B-side “Halloween Kills (Main Title)”, performed, produced and engineered by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies.

“Hunter’s Moon” features OPETH’s Fredrik Åkesson on guitar and THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES founder Martin Hederos on the piano. Producer Max Grahn and “A Ghoul Writer” are listed as the song’s composers and lyricists.

In a recent interview with the KLAQ radio station, GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge spoke about how the extraordinary world events of the last couple of years have served as an inspiration for the band’s new material. He said: “The album that I have been working on, I came up with that concept years ago. We played in Seattle in 2013, 2014 — something like that — we played at Showbox At The Market. [Editor’s note: The concert took place in April 2013.] I remember that day I came up with the idea for this record, this upcoming record. Because I got a book called ‘The Rule Of Empires’. So, basically, I wanted to make a record about the rise and ultimately the unescapable fails and falls of empires. And an idea like that can take — at least me — quite far. So once you get that idea of, like, ‘Oh, now I know what the pile is gonna look like. I know now what not to put in there.’ And it was the same thing with [2018’s] ‘Prequelle’ [album]; it was gonna be about the great death, a medieval, primordial threat of annihilation which was, I guess I wouldn’t say carnal but maybe a tiny tad more spiritual and philosophical death, with the ever presence of actual termination, whereas this record about the empires was gonna be a little bit more practical, I guess; a little bit more, I don’t wanna say political. So it wasn’t really hard to be inspired by the last couple of years.”

The book Forge referenced is apparently “The Rule Of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, And Why They Always Fall”, in which author Timothy Parsons gives a sweeping account of the evolution of empire from its origins in ancient Rome to its most recent twentieth-century embodiment. He explains what constitutes an empire and offers suggestions about what empires of the past can tell us about our own historical moment.

In March 2020, at final show of GHOST’s “Prequelle” tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the new character who will front the act for its next LP phase.

Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of 2018’s “Prequelle”.

As previously reported, GHOST will be the featured musical guest on the Thursday, January 20 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, airing at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.

Four months ago, GHOST announced a 26-date co-headlining U.S. arena tour with VOLBEAT and special guests TWIN TEMPLE, coming to cities including Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix. The trek will kick off on January 25 in Reno, Nevada and conclude on March 3 in Anaheim, California.

MÖTLEY CRÜE frontman Vince Neil played his second concert of 2022 this past Saturday night (January 15) at Lawrenceburg Event Center in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be seen below.

The Lawrenceburg show marked Neil’s third live appearance since he reportedly broke his ribs while performing with his solo band at the Monsters On The Mountain festival at LeConte Center in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee on October 15. Fan-filmed video of that gig showed the 60-year-old rocker walking to the front of the stage with his guitar strapped around him. He encouraged the crowd to clap along while playing the 1989 MÖTLEY CRÜE hit “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” when he suddenly fell and dropped out of the camera’s view almost instantly. TMZ later reported that there was a small gap between the speaker and the stage that Neil didn’t notice. His roadie and a security guy helped him get to his feet, and Vince “limped away.”

Last May, Neil made headlines when he struggled to complete his solo concert at the Boone Iowa River Valley Festival in Boone. Based on fan-filmed video footage of the gig posted on YouTube, the rocker, who hadn’t performed in more than a year and a half due to the COVID-19 pandemic, began losing his voice several songs into his set, which consisted exclusively of CRÜE classics and cover songs previously recorded by the band.

MÖTLEY CRÜE’s “The Stadium Tour” with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS was originally scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020 but ended up being pushed back to 2021, and then to 2022, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In December 2019, CRÜE manager Allen Kovac told Fox Business that “some of” the bandmembers had enlisted outside help to get in shape for the trek. Kovac was referring to criticism of Neil for his supposed diminished singing ability and weight gain, as well as the health status of guitarist Mick Mars, who has been dealing with a chronic form of arthritis that led him to undergo a hip replacement.

Kovac explained: “Some of them are working with a trainer, some of them are working with a nutritionist to make themselves the best they can be. The greatest insecurity for an artist is: Is anyone going to care about my music? Is anyone going to buy a ticket? We were in November [2019] when the discussions were happening, and these guys were already into regimens of how they get ready for a tour.”

Speaking specifically about Neil, Kovac added: “Let’s see what Vince sings like and looks like when the tour goes out.”

CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx also said that Vince was “killing it” while working with “trainers” and “nutritionists” in preparation for “The Stadium Tour”.

Chris Daughtry’s family has confirmed that his stepdaughter, Hannah Price, died by suicide while under the influence of narcotics.

The 25-year-old was found dead in her Nashville home on November 12 by the Nashville Police Department.

In a statement shared exclusively with People, the Daughtry family said: “Our beloved Daughter Hannah Price passed away on November 12th, 2021. Much speculation has been made since that date, and after a full investigation by law enforcement we are now able to speak in further detail.

The family said that Price had struggled with mental illness “from a young age,” and “was in and out of therapy and treatment centers” over the years.

“As Hannah got older, she struggled to find her footing and began using drugs and often found herself in abusive relationships,” the statement read. “Just months after losing her biological father to suicide, Hannah was the victim of a crime and was shot in the face. We did everything we could to support her and get her the help she needed to recover from these tragedies and get her life back on track. We had just recently made plans with Hannah for her to seek further treatment and move closer to the family.

“Hannah was a generous and loving person who wanted more for herself and others. She will forever be in the hearts and minds of those of us who love her,” the family said. “We ask for your continued privacy at this time while we grieve. If you or a loved one is experiencing mental health, abuse, or addiction problems, please seek help immediately. Free and confidential resources below can help you or a loved one connect with a skilled, trained mental health professional or counselor.”

Hannah and her brother, Griffin, 23, are Deanna Daughtry’s children from a previous marriage. Chris and Deanna Daughtry are the biological parents of 11-year-old twins Adalyn Rose and Noah James.

Chris and his band DAUGHTRY were on tour when Hannah was found dead. He said in a statement at the time that he was “absolutely devastated and heartbroken” by the loss of his stepdaughter.

“I just recently in the last week lost my mother to cancer but I was blessed with the chance to say goodbye and I was processing it privately,” he wrote. “We never got to say goodbye to our precious Hannah and it’s another huge hit to our family.”

DAUGHTRY released a new album, “Dearly Beloved”, in September. The 13-track effort features the Billboard Hard Rock Digital Songs Sales chart No. 1 and Top 20 Active Rock radio hit “Heavy Is The Crown”, along with “Lioness”.

DAUGHTRY first made history with the release of 2006’s quintuple-platinum self-titled debut. Notably, it stands out as the fastest-selling rock debut in SoundScan history in addition to yielding the multi-format smash “It’s Not Over”. Its platinum-selling 2009 successor, “Leave This Town”, became their second No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200. Next up, 2011’s “Break The Spell” earned a gold certification in under four weeks. Two years later, “Baptized” yielded the 2013 platinum hit “Waiting For Superman”. Along the way, they’ve captivated fans at sold-out shows in nearly every corner of the globe.

Brazilian death dealers Escarnium reveal their first new music in 6 years.
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