Former MEGADETH members David Ellefson and Jeff Young reunited last week in Los Angeles for interviews to be included in the upcoming feature-length documentary “This Was My Life: The Story Of Nick Menza”. Ellefson has signed on as a co-producer of the film, and also will provide narration to guide the viewer through the exploration of the late MEGADETH drummer’s life.

On Sunday (January 16), Ellefson took to his Facebook to share photos of him with Young, and he included the following message: “Was great to connect with Jeff Young this week while in LA doing interviews for the ‘This Was My Life: The Story Of Nick Menza’ documentary. Also many other friends, Mega staff and crew from over the years who gladly came together to share stories and fond memories of our beloved Nick.”

Last September, Screaming Butterfly Entertainment announced a partnership with Ellefson and his Ellefson Films on “This Was My Life: The Story Of Nick Menza”.

“This Was My Life” will be the first-ever film to memorialize Menza’s legacy and celebrate his life exactly how it was. It is described in a press release as “an unflinching exploration into the life of one of the most successful thrash-metal drummers of all time, authorized by the Menza family. From his childhood all the way through to the end of his life including a true blow-by-blow account of the repeated failed attempts of the classic ‘Rust In Peace’ lineup.”

“This Was My Life” will feature rare and never-before-seen photos and video footage from Nick’s archived VHS tape collection, personally filmed by Menza himself from 1988 through 1991. Included will be exclusive content showcasing Nick working at the studio, personal home movies, casual time and party time with his fellow bandmembers, as well as other well-known artists of the era that Nick toured with. A screenshot from the film was recently released that featured an interview with former LAMB OF GOD/MEGADETH drummer Chris Adler.

Late in the evening on May 21, 2016, Nick collapsed after suffering a heart attack during a concert with Chris Poland and Robertino “Pag” Pagliari in their band OHM: at The Baked Potato in Studio City, California and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner said Menza died of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

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.

Young’s entire career with MEGADETH was spent recording and touring in support of the band’s 1988 platinum-selling album “So Far, So Good…So What!”

Jeff made headlines in December 2009 for accusing Mustaine of, among other things, “dissing, exaggerating and just plain lying on some level about nearly every talented musician that has passed through his dysfunctional little ensemble.” He also disputed Mustaine’s claim in an interview that Young’s drug problem led to MEGADETH’s 1988 Australian tour being called off and the group being “banned” from performing in the country.

Was great to connect with Jeff Young this week while in LA doing interviews for the “This Was My Life: The Story of Nick…

Posted by David Ellefson on Sunday, January 16, 2022

John Cooper, the frontman for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band SKILLET, spoke to “Washington Watch With Tony Perkins” about how music and his band’s music in particular affects the way people think about the world. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Music is a fantastic vehicle. Music kind of — what’s the right word to say this? Music kind of softens you up to hear what someone thinks about something that maybe you wouldn’t normally want to listen to. Now, what we have to realize, of course, is that that can be used for bad — that can be used for really evil things or it can be used for really good things. What our young people are going through now is that they’re constantly hearing this pop music… The popular music or the culture is so godless. It is lawless. It celebrates just absolute sexual revolution, I guess you would say — an abandonment, a liberation from Christianity, a specific liberation from Jesus Christ himself. It is a celebration of sin.

“A lot of people say, ‘I don’t really listen to the lyrics,’ but the truth is that these lyrics, they get into you,” he continued. “So we wanna do something that is the opposite, you see, because I don’t believe that music is owned by the Devil. The Devil doesn’t create music; he does not own music. Music belongs to the Creator, and so we aim to go into the culture, and through music, we bring music and art and rock music, specifically for me, back under the subjection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We bring it back under His feet where it belongs as we give glory to Him.”

John added: “So I do think that there’s a great place for music to change people’s hearts ’cause they listen to the beat, they listen to the tune, and they go, ‘I kind of dig that.’ And then they turn on an interview with you and they get to hear me say what the song is about. And you never, ever know how God may use that. God does incredible things through interviews — these little seeds of truth. That’s what we’re praying for.”

In various interviews over the years, John has said that he “always had faith in God” and that his mother was a “Jesus fanatic.” He also claimed that he was willing to put his career on the line to take a stand for Christ.

SKILLET’s latest album, “Dominion”, was released on January 14 via Atlantic. Produced by Kevin Churko (PAPA ROACH, DISTURBED, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) with songs written by John Cooper, Korey Cooper, Kevin Churko and Kane Churko, the LP was created 100% remotely between the band’s tour dates, home studio in Wisconsin, and the Churkos’ studio in Las Vegas.

Spain-based modern metal quintet Inerth lay down ultra-heavy grooves on new track, “Resilience In.” FFO: Godflesh, Napalm Death, Neurosis.
The post Track Premiere: Inerth -“Resilience In” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

THE OFFSPRING has canceled its previously announced Canadian tour with SIMPLE PLAN. The 21-date trek was scheduled to kick off on January 27 in Moncton and conclude on March 3 in Vancouver.

Earlier today, THE OFFSPRING released the following statement: “To our friends in the Great White North:

“We’re bummed to be sharing this update, but after much consideration we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the Canadian leg of the LET THE BAD TIMES ROLL TOUR with @simpleplan.

“There’s no point in us asking you to come out and see our kick-ass show if there’s a chance that everything could shut down at the last minute. We’re disappointed, but let’s get through this mess together. You stay home and we’ll stay home, we’ll give you your money back and then wait for a better R naught number.

“We’re working hard to find a new time frame and we’ll be back to rock with you guys as soon as we can.

“Refunds for ticket purchasers will be processed automatically. Keep an eye out for more info from your point of purchase.”

THE OFFSPRING also shared a three-minute video (see below) in which singer Bryan “Dexter” Holland, who has a Ph.D. in molecular biology and wrote his thesis on microRNA in HIV genomes, explains the science behind the band’s decision to scrap the tour. Specifically, he discusses the R-naught or R0 value, which indicates the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to. A pandemic is considered to end if this value goes below 1.

Although there is no reliable estimate right now for the R-naught value for the omicron variant, figures for other variants vary, but it is estimated at roughly six for delta.

Holland’s 175-page research paper, titled “Identification of Human MicroRNA-Like Sequences Embedded within the Protein-Encoding Genes of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus”, had been published in PLoS One. He had received his Ph.D. from University of Southern California in 2017.

In October, THE OFFSPRING canceled its concerts in Denver and Salt Lake City after guitarist Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman tested positive for COVID-19.

Two months earlier, longtime THE OFFSPRING drummer Pete Parada announced that was being dropped from the band’s touring lineup after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine for medical reasons.

Pete said a doctor had advised him not to get the shot because he has a rare autoimmune disorder. The musician said he first experienced Guillain-Barré syndrome, where a person’s immune system damages their nerves, in childhood and the effects had got “progressively worse over my lifetime”. He also revealed that he contracted COVID-19 over a year earlier and only had mild symptoms, “so I am confident I’d be able to handle it again”, he wrote.

It is not clear if Parada, who joined the group in 2007, has now left THE OFFSPRING permanently.

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In a new interview with Myglobalmind, Steve Vai spoke about what it was like for him to join Yngwie Malmsteen for a performance of the legendary Swedish guitarist’s classic song “Black Star” during their joint “Generation Axe” tour, which took place over several legs between 2016 and 2019. He said: “I can’t play like Yngwie; nobody can play like him. Nobody can play like me. Nobody can play like anybody. What I did was take the harmony or melody of the song and play it the way I would do it. It was challenging because there were a lot of little fast runs with his fingerings and his tonal center, which is different than mine. I had to work on it. I could do it, but when it came time as to playing against each other, I’m Steve, and he is Yngwie.”

Referencing the rest of the “Generation Axe” bill, which included Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt and Tosin Abasi, Vai continued: “That is one of the greatest things about that tour; they are all extremely confident in what they do. They don’t compete with you at what you do. What happens is it forces us to compete with ourselves to be the best we can be. Zakk is being Zakk as best as he ever can be. We are all helping each other to push all sorts of aspects of being professional to stage appearance to communication to playing to off-stage etiquette.”

“Generation Axe” saw the five musicians sharing a backing band and performing together in addition to playing individual sets. A year after their successful inaugural tour, the five guitarists reconvened for an 11-city tour of Asia that included a stop in Beijing, China. Select performances from that April 2017 concert appeared on a live recording, “Generation Axe – The Guitars That Destroyed The World: Live In China”, which was released in June 2019 via earMUSIC.

Vai said the idea behind “Generation Axe” was “to create a seamless show with one backing band and five completely accomplished and astonishing guitarists that take to the stage in various configurations, performing some of their solo music and merging together as cohesive co-creators of lushly orchestrated guitar extravaganzas.”

Vai described “Generation Axe” as “pure controlled chaos.” “My favorite thing about ‘Generation Axe’ is the tour bus,” he said. “Between the hours of 1 a.m. and 7 a.m., when we’re all hanging out in the lounge just rapping. I wake up in the morning [and] my jaw hurts from laughing so much. These guys, they’re out of their minds.”

Fan-filmed video of LAST IN LINE’s performance on Sunday, January 16 at RokIsland Fest in Key West, Florida can be seen below.

Formed in 2012 by bassist Jimmy Bain, drummer Vinny Appice and guitarist Vivian Campbell — Ronnie James Dio’s co-conspirators and co-writers on the “Holy Diver”, “Last In Line” and “Sacred Heart” albums — LAST IN LINE’s initial intent was to celebrate Ronnie James Dio’s early work by reuniting the members of the original DIO lineup. After playing shows that featured a setlist composed exclusively of material from the first three DIO albums, the band decided to move forward and create new music in a similar vein.

LAST IN LINE’s debut album, “Heavy Crown”, was released in February 2016, landing at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. Initially, the release had been preceded by tragedy when Bain unexpectedly died at the age of 68 on January 23, 2016. LAST IN LINE, honoring what they knew would be Bain’s wish to keep the band moving, brought in Phil Soussan and committed to sustained touring in support of the album before beginning work on the follow-up release, 2019’s “II”.

Last June, Soussan spoke to Metal-Net.com about the progress of the writing and recording sessions for LAST IN LINE’s third album. The LP is tentatively due later this year via an as-yet-undisclosed record label.

“I’ve been quite motivational with the band,” Phil said. “I’m trying to keep things happening. We wanted to work on a few different aspects [during the pandemic]. And we also had to go about getting a new record deal — we were changing labels — so that’s something we’re in the process of doing, and we’re getting pretty close now. But part of that was writing a third record. So we’ve been hard at work trying to write a third record and even record that third record while we’ve been in different locations around the world. And, obviously, this band works as a unit in every sense of the word, so it’s a real handicap not being able to be in the same room as everybody and trying to make it happen.”

In February 2021, Appice told Metal From The Inside that former DOKKEN and current FOREIGNER bassist Jeff Pilson, who produced both “II” and “Heavy Crown”, is not involved with the upcoming LAST IN LINE album. “We made a change,” he said. “Actually, the guy who mixed the last record, Chris Collier — he’s great; he’s working with KORN — he recorded this record. And we’re kind of producing it ourselves, between all of us.

“Jeff is great — Jeff’s a great producer, and [he has] great ideas and stuff, but we just felt that we could probably do what we wanna do now that we’re a band, we’ve been on the road, and we know what we wanna hear,” he explained. “But it’s coming out great. The stuff sounds fantastic.

“And yeah, I’ve been through a lot with Jeff Pilson. I’ve known him for years. He’s a great guy. He’s like my brother.”

Also in February, Soussan told the “Pat’s Soundbytes Unplugged” podcast about the musical direction of the new LAST IN LINE material: “The songs are another progression from the last album — the difference between ‘Heavy Crown’ and ‘II’, and now ‘II’ and whatever this next album is gonna be called; we don’t know yet, by the way. But it’s definitely evolved even more; it’s gone into even more of an evolution, but we are always trying to keep the characteristics of LAST IN LINE there. I mean, you can’t shake those things — you can’t shake Vinny’s drumming, you can’t shake Vivian’s playing. And I’d like to say the same thing about myself, and, of course, Andrew.”

Some of the early recording sessions for LAST IN LINE’s third album took place in January 2020 at Steakhouse studio in North Hollywood, California.

TOOL performed the song “Culling Voices” for the first time ever during the band’s concert this past Saturday, January 15 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. Fan-filmed video of the performance, which started off with all the members seated at the front of the stage and drummer Danny Carey playing guitar alongside Adam Jones, can be seen below.

“Culling Voices” is taken from TOOL’s latest album, “Fear Inoculum”, which arrived in August of 2019, following years of anticipation. The LP debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200, shattering sales and radio records while also earning widespread critical praise.

TOOL kicked off its 2022 tour in support of “Fear Inoculum” on January 10 at the Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon. It marked the band’s first live appearance since March 2020 when TOOL’s trek was cut short following a gig in Portland, Oregon due to the burgeoning pandemic.

A year ago, TOOL singer Maynard James Keenan revealed that he battled COVID-19 twice in the span of just a few months. He told “Strombo” on Apple Music Hits that he suffered a second COVID-19 infection around “mid-November [2020] and ended up in the ER on December 1.”

Keenan previously discussed his first bout with coronavirus in October 2020, telling AZ Central that he suffered symptoms of the disease in February 2020 and was still recovering eight months later. “I’m still dealing with the residual effects,” he said at the time, “But it was ugly. I survived it, but it wasn’t pretty. So I definitely had to deal with that.”

Two weeks ago, it was reported that TOOL was one of several artists utilizing specially trained sniffer dogs to detect COVID-19 at their shows. The dogs are able to sniff for traces of the virus on anyone involved backstage, including members of the band’s crew and entourage.

TOOL was honored with a Grammy in the “Best Metal Performance” category in the pre-telecast ceremony at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards in January 2020 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. TOOL was nominated for “7empest”, a track from “Fear Inoculum”.

TOOL already had three previous Grammy Awards under its belt: “Best Metal Performance” in 1997 and 2001 for “Ænima” and “Schism”, respectively, and “Best Recording Package” in 2006 for “10,000 Days”.

TOOL formed in 1990 and has released five studio albums thus far: “Undertow” (1993), “Ænima” (1996), “Lateralus” (2001), “10,000 Days” (2006) and “Fear Inoculum”; two EPs: “72826” (1991) and “Opiate” (1992); and the limited-edition boxset, “Salival” (2000). The band has won four Grammy Awards: Best Metal Performance (1998, “Ænima”), “Best Metal Performance” (2002, “Schism”), “Best Recording Package” (2007, “10,000 Days”) and “Best Metal Performance” (2020, “7empest”).

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.

In September, GHOST released a new single titled “Hunter’s Moon” which is 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, 2022 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.

The official music video for the infectious first new track from GHOST since 2019’s “Seven Inches Of Satanic Panic” was directed by Amanda Demme.

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.

GHOST mastermind Tobias 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”.

George Lynch rejoined DOKKEN on stage on Sunday, January 16 at RokIsland Fest in Key West, Florida to perform three of the band’s classic songs: “Kiss Of Death”, “When Heaven Comes Down” and “Tooth And Nail”. Fan-filmed video footage of his appearance can be seen below.

Lynch had previously played the same three songs with DOKKEN on several occasions last summer and fall, including in West Hollywood, California; in Glenside, Pennsylvania; in Waukegan, Illinois; in Ashland, Virginia; in Moline, Illinois; and in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.

Last March, Lynch was asked in an interview with Jeff Gaudiosi of MisplacedStraws.com if there has been any talk of more shows featuring the reunited classic lineup of DOKKEN. He responded: “I’ve actually been talking to Don [Dokken] a little bit, and we’re both in agreement that that should probably happen — meaning some kind of a meaningful reunion done in the right way, carefully and with proper preparation and time and rehearsals and not just throwing it out there like we did last time.” George went on to say that “the obvious choice” to replace DOKKEN’s recently retired drummer “Wild” Mick Brown would be Mick’s brother Steve, who can be heard playing alongside Lynch and ex-DOKKEN bassist Jeff Pilson on the latest THE END MACHINE album, “Phase2”.

In a separate interview with Alamo True Metal, Lynch reflected on the last time DOKKEN’s classic lineup — Dokken, Lynch, Pilson and Mick Brown — reunited for a short Japanese tour in the fall of 2016. The trek marked the first time in 21 years the four musicians had hit the road together.

“I think I was slightly disappointed in it — not overwhelmingly disappointed, but I have some regrets,” he said. “I wish we had prepared more. And I know we all feel that way. ‘Cause of the logistics, we all had things we had to do right after the time we had allotted and beforehand. So we just were barely able to even pull it off with everybody else’s pre-existing commitments. The fact that we got to do it at all was… you know, we were fortunate for even being able to pull it off. So we were a little underprepared, I feel. And yes, we were offered a good amount of money to go to Japan and do some other things, so it made it just kind of a no-brainer.”

A DOKKEN concert DVD focusing on the band’s reunion tour, “Return To The East Live (2016)”, was made available in 2018. In addition to the Japanese performance, the set included footage from the classic lineup’s only U.S. show in September 2016 at Badlands in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as well as newly recorded acoustic reworkings of “Heaven Sent” and “Will The Sun Rise”. Also featured on “Return To The East Live (2016)” was “It’s Just Another Day”, the first DOKKEN track featuring the group’s classic lineup since 1997’s “Shadowlife”.

Since completing the Japanese reunion dates, DOKKEN has continued to perform with the group’s current lineup — including bassist Chris McCarvill, guitarist Jon 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 four 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.