During a recent appearance on the “Who’s Your Band?” podcast, former JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim “Ripper” Owens was asked how long it took him, after he joined the legendary British heavy metal legends, to feel comfortable enough to voice his opinion when he disagreed with how they went about doing certain things. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I mean, I don’t know if I’d ever really do that, just because it was JUDAS PRIEST. These guys have done it for so long. I always gave them the respect of who they were. Who am I to tell them [what to do] at times?

“It was a really funny thing. When we first started rehearsing… We would rehearse… This is hilarious. I remember Glenn [Tipton, guitar] and Ken [K.K. Downing, guitar], they’d go, ‘Hey, Tim, is this right?’ Because they hadn’t played songs in so long that they knew that I probably knew ’em. They would be, like, ‘Is that part right? Are we doing that right?’ It was really funny.

“But I went with the flow on… I know I got in some talks with them about what I should wear and stuff towards the very end,” he recalled. “Of course, then I was fired right after that. But I would talk to them about, ‘I don’t know if I wanna wear that jacket. That’s not my thing. I’ve gotta be me.’ But they treated me so good, everything felt natural. So if I really had to say something, I could say it without feeling like I was stepping on toes. But on purpose I would sit back and just be, like, ‘I’ll let these guys call the shots.’ I mean, they got here for a reason. I sat back and learned from ’em — let’s put it that way. I sat back, and what they did, whether I thought it was right or wrong… If they did something I thought was wrong, I would learn… I don’t know if that was the right move. Turning down Ozzfest. Turning down touring with [IRON] MAIDEN. Just little things at the time I thought might have been some bad moves. But 99.9 percent of the things I learned off of them was good and positive and helped me out in my career.”

Owens joined PRIEST in 1996 and recorded two studio albums with the band — 1997’s “Jugulator” and 2001’s “Demolition” — before PRIEST reunited with Rob Halford in 2003.

Two and a half years ago, Halford said that he would love to see PRIEST join forces with MAIDEN for a tour. “I think both bands would look to do that,” he told Consequence Of Sound. “It’s all about the timing of doing such a thing. We’re good friends.”

He added: “When we talk about rivalry, healthy rivalry, it’s like the Arizona Cardinals and the Raiders or the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors. It’s that kind of rivalry, a good rivalry. It’s a fun rivalry. But I think both bands have admired each other throughout the metal years, and it would be a spectacular event — PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN together.”

In 2018, Downing told SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk that the contentious rivalry between PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN developed when the two bands toured together in the early 1980s. “We’d just finished the ‘British Steel’ record in England, and we were going out on tour [in early 1980 with IRON MAIDEN],” he recalled. “And then the next thing I know, I read in a music paper that [IRON MAIDEN said] something like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna blow the bollocks off PRIEST,’ or something like that. And I went, ‘What the hell is this shit?’ We were still in the recording studio, tidying up the last mixes or something. And I said, ‘Well, who are these guys?’ Why should we have [them] on tour if they’re gonna create this type of vibe before we’ve even met them, let alone done a show together?’ I said, ‘Let’s get rid of them and get somebody that really appreciates the gig,’ of which there would have been an awful lot of bands. But anyway, everybody talked me into going with it, and I said, ‘Well, fine,’ obviously being democratic. And the next thing I know, we were at the rehearsals at some theater in London somewhere, and this bunch of guys walked in and just sat down in front of me. And I said to my guitar tech, ‘Who are those dudes there?’ [Laughs] And he went, ‘Oh, that’s the support band.’ And I said, ‘Well, who the hell invited them into our rehearsal?’ I was thinking about what I read in the papers. And I said, ‘Well, just go and tell them that they weren’t invited and they need to leave.’ I didn’t see an invite; nobody told me they were coming in — when you’re trying to work out songs and this and that and the other. So that’s what happened.”

Downing continued: “Anyway, we went on tour [together], and can I just say they didn’t blow the bollocks off JUDAS PRIEST — we were pretty well established at the time, and those guys were coming up through the ranks. So that happened. But it wasn’t a good atmosphere on the tour, and it’s not something I like to have happen — it shouldn’t be that way. And next thing I know, somebody [said], ‘Oh, IRON MAIDEN is opening up for you on their first U.S. tour [in 1981].’ And I went, ‘Oh, no! Not again. Can we just not have those guys on [the tour]?’ But they came on the tour [anyway], and they created upsets, is what they did, for different reasons and it led to a confrontation and it got a bit ugly. I don’t know how it all happened, but I did meet [former IRON MAIDEN singer] Paul Di’Anno so many years later, in about 1995, and he said, ‘Hey, K.K., we’re sorry about that quote in the paper.’ And that’s all you need.

“But, anyway, like I said, it’s all water under the bridge,” K.K. added. “Those guys were young, coming up through the ranks, a bit delinquent, but at least they had balls, they got on with it, they knew what they wanted to do.”

In his autobiography, Di’Anno claimed that he was the main reason old feelings of rivalry existed between MAIDEN and PRIEST during the early 1980s — something that Downing later denied. “Paul apologized personally to me — what a great gesture,” K.K. told Rock Hard magazine in a 2003 interview. “But he wasn’t the main reason for the rivalry. At the time of ‘British Steel’, PRIEST was the bigger band and MAIDEN was the supporting act. They were saying that they [would] blow us off the stage without any problem — well, I thought their behavior wasn’t very nice. I’d have loved to send them home to take another band with us, [one] who would have appreciated the chance. But we were told not to do it as it would have looked like we were frightened by them. So we kept on going… but they were very arrogant. And I remember the main rehearsal before the tour when there were a few guys hanging around in the room who didn’t say a word and watched everything we did — every step we made and every move of the stage lights. I wasn’t very pleased and asked the guitar tech to tell the guys to leave the place. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not too good not to play in front of the supporting band — but they could have asked, at least, if it was okay to attend the rehearsal. We went on tour and they didn’t blow us off the stage, of course. I watched quite a lot of the MAIDEN shows, but the reaction of the audience wasn’t very explosive — because the fans were waiting for us. Okay, MAIDEN became one of the biggest bands of the metal scene — and I’m proud of them. We made a big mistake by focusing more on the U.S. than on Europe after releasing ‘British Steel’. [I mean], we lost a lot of attention at home. In the U.S., we were quite big — and MAIDEN asked us for a support slot on our U.S. tour. We said yes — and the same old story happened again. It had a lot to do with rivalry and jealousy.”

When asked what he would say to Harris if they bumped into each other, K.K. told Rock Hard: “I’d buy him a beer — because it’s an old story. Like I already said, I’m proud of what MAIDEN achieved and of what they did for the British metal. It might sound stupid — but it’s true.”

Owens is currently in a new band called KK’S PRIEST with Downing, along with guitarist A.J. Mills (HOSTILE), bassist Tony Newton (VOODOO SIX) and drummer Sean Elg (DEATHRIDERS, CAGE).

KK’S PRIEST’s debut album, “Sermons Of The Sinner”, was released on in October via Explorer1 Music Group/EX1 Records.

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Now that 2021 has ground to a halt, blast back with the 21 best grindcore and powerviolence songs of the past year.
The post Blast Worship’s 21 Favorite Grindcore Songs of 2021 appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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Ex-MÖTLEY CRÜE singer John Corabi has once again said that he has “no idea” why Nikki Sixx would describe the writing process for the band’s “Mötley Crüe” LP as a prolonged and difficult experience.

Corabi joined CRÜE in 1992 as the replacement for the group’s original singer, Vince Neil, who was dismissed due to personal differences. With Corabi on vocals, MÖTLEY CRÜE released one critically acclaimed full-length CD, which ended up being a commercial failure in the wake of grunge despite a Top 10 placing on the album chart. When Neil returned to the fold in 1997, Corabi was left on his own and formed the band UNION with ex-KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.

Six years ago, the MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist told Sweden Rock Magazine about the group’s self-titled album: “I think it was a very unfocused record. It was painful for me, because John Corabi can’t write lyrics, and I had to do all that work.

“It was the first time I ever had to work with somebody that wanted to participate in the lyrics,” he continued. “And my standard is so high that it was so hard, it took months. Usually, I write a set of lyrics in an hour.

“It’s all about having pent-up information and aggression and just [letting it out]. It was just hard, because he was a nice enough guy, but he just didn’t have that fire, and it was hard for me.”

When he was asked in a recent interview with Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of Rock Interview Series why Nikki would make those comments more than two decades after the CRÜE LP was released, Corabi said: “I’ve had a few people ask me, ‘What’s the beef with you and Nikki?’ And I go, ‘I have no fucking idea.’ I don’t know. The one beef that I did have with Nikki was probably 10 years ago, and it was something in relation to his…

“I had done an interview. And I was in Brazil. And the interviewer asked me a question, and they said, ‘Have you read Nikki’s book ‘The Heroin Diaries’?'” he continued, referencing Sixx’s 2007 book which was supposedly taken from actual journals Sixx kept in the late ’80s while in the grip of a near-fatal heroin addiction. “And I said, ‘Yeah. I own the book. I bought the book.’ And he said, ‘What do you think?’ And I said, ‘It’s a great read.’ Now the guy, I don’t know if he was doing this to bait me or what, but the guy said, ‘Well, do you believe it all?’ And I said, ‘Whatever, dude. It doesn’t matter. It’s a great read.’ And he goes, ‘Well, do you think it was colored?’ And I said, ‘Of course. Of course it was.’ ‘Well, why do you say that?’ ‘Well, ’cause [the CRÜE official band biography] ‘The Dirt’ was colored. I know for a fact ‘The Dirt’ was colored.’ … And then I said, ‘And besides, all of the heroin addicts that I knew didn’t have the foresight to bring a diary with them and write shit down as it was happening or could not remember what they did the night before.’ Now I followed it up with, ‘Maybe Nikki’s different, but the ones that I knew… So I think it was a little… It may have been a little colored.’ And we left it at that. Then, two months later, Nikki e-mailed me and he was pissed. He’s, like, ‘Dude, I don’t appreciate you slagging my book.’ And I go, ‘I didn’t slag it.’ So I responded to him, and I said, ‘Okay. First of all, a couple of things. Did you read the whole interview? ‘Cause in the interview I did say, at the beginning and at the end, that it was a great read and I bought the book.’ And then I said, ‘Why do you give a fuck about anything I have to say?’ And I just hit ‘send.’ And then he came back and he was, like, ‘ Oh, okay, dude. Sorry. I didn’t read the whole… Okay. Great. Awesome.’ And it was cool. It was put to bed.

“I’ve never said anything negative about that band ever,” Corabi added. “But then all of a sudden he started with, ‘Corabi can’t write.’ ‘It was painful.’ ‘He doesn’t have any fire.’ And I’m just, like, going, ‘Where the fuck did that come from?’ It was just random. Now it’s weird. If I retort to it, [the music new web sites] take every little piece of retort and they dissect it and then they reprint just the parts that — you know, the clickbait — and it’s just been this ongoing thing, like I’m saying Nikki doesn’t like it, and it’s back-and-forth volleying between me and Nikki when in all actuality I have zero bad things to say about any of them. They’re irreleveant to me — completely irrelevant.”

In February 2018, Corabi released a live album of his performance of MÖTLEY CRÜE’s entire 1994 self-titled album, recorded on October 27, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. “Live ’94: One Night In Nashville” documents the album in its entirety along with the bonus track “10,000 Miles”, which was originally released as a bonus track on the Japanese version of the “Quaternary” EP.

Corabi recently completed work on his autobiography. Titled “Horseshoes And Hand Grenades”, it was written with the help of MÖTLEY CRÜE historian/author Paul Miles, and is due in June via Rare Bird Books.

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THE OFFSPRING guitarist Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman has blasted as “insane” Donald Trump supporters who embrace wild conspiracy theories and outright lies about the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

On Monday (January 3), CNN aired a segment in which reporter Donie O’Sullivan asked Trump supporters about the Capitol riot and discovered that many of them insisted the insurrection was caused by some combination of Democrats and the FBI, despite extensive video footage and other evidence showing otherwise.

Earlier today, Noodles shared O’Sullivan’s tweet which included the CNN video report, and he wrote in an accompanying message: “These people are insane, but there’s a huge, very sophisticated, media wing dedicated to stoking this sort of misinformed paranoid delusion. That media wing is anti-democratic & anti-American. #FoxNews #misinformation #MisinformationPsychosis #Cult45 #Cult”.

More than 725 individuals have been charged with various crimes in connection with the deadly insurrection. Of those, 225 people were charged with assault or resisting arrest while more than 75 were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon against police officers. 640 people were charged with entering a restricted federal building or its grounds and another 75 were charged with entering a restricted area with a deadly weapon.

As result of the insurrection, Congress was forced to temporarily halt its counting of the 2020 Electoral College votes, a process that ultimately certified the election of President Joe Biden.

Among the popular conspiracy theories which have emerged in the year since the insurrection are unfounded claims that the rioters were members of Antifa, that FBI operatives were to blame for the riot, and that the rioters were peaceful and were framed for crimes that never happened.

“Earlier today, the Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as antithetical to the MAGA movement,” Laura Ingraham said on her Fox News show the night of January 6, 2021, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “They were likely not all Trump supporters, and there are some reports that Antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.”

Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who was sprayed with a chemical substance during the riot, later collapsed and died.

Many top political figures have accused Trump of personally inciting the attack by repeatedly intimating that his followers should take action in order to demand legislators address his baseless claims of voter fraud. At a rally preceding the riot, Trump gave an inflammatory speech, urging the crowd to go to the Capitol, “show strength” and “fight much harder.”

In the wake of the attack, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

FBI director Christopher Wray has called the riot an act of “domestic terrorism.”

These people are insane, but there’s a huge, very sophisticated, media wing dedicated to stoking this sort of misinformed paranoid delusion. That media wing is anti-democratic & anti-American. #FoxNews #misinformation #MisinformationPsychosis #Cult45 #Cult https://t.co/dJXNQtiOz9
— Gnudz fears democracy is in decline. ? (@TheGnudz) January 4, 2022

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Some of us are still recovering from hearing the last WILDERUN album, 2019’s “Veil of Imagination”, for the first time. Not that the pursuit of the perfect progressive metal hybrid is any kind of sensible endeavor, but there was something extraordinarily rich and all-encompassing about the music on the band’s third full-length record. WILDERUN were, and definitely remain, something special. Satisfyingly, “Epigone” goes beyond simply reaffirming how ingenious and technically gifted these musicians are. Instead, via a somewhat hazy and convoluted conceptual thread that deigns to unpick the emotional maze of creativity itself, this is another grand leap into hitherto untouched musical and emotional depths.

Admittedly, you probably need to be heavily into progressive metal and all the experimental insanity that goes on at its fringes to find this an accessible piece of work in any way, but “Epigone” defies modern attention spans and almost seduces, drawing the listener into an unapologetically escapist and otherworldly realm, where the normal rules of boring music do not apply and everything sounds like the soundtrack to the wildest of hallucinations. It also becomes swiftly apparent that occasional echoes of kindred spirits like OPETH, DEVIN TOWSEND, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME and others are purely incidental, and simply the product of similarly feverish and fearless imaginations. Again, WILDERUN are something special and “Epigone” refines their sound to its wondrous, still-evolving essence.

Opener “Exhaler” is one of the most beautiful songs of 2022, and I realize it’s only January. A deliberate curveball with a gentle melody that drifts and swoops through shimmering strings and elegant acoustics, it speaks of its creators’ supreme confidence in their own artistic judgment. It also provides the most disarming of preamble to the outright madness that soon ensues, as 14-minute colossus “Woolgatherer” weaves its labyrinthine spell. Lushly orchestrated, as you might hope from a band whose ranks number former co-workers of HANZ ZIMMER, and almost overburdened with unforgettable melodies, it showcases WILDERUN’s collective lightness of touch, and the impeccable precision and tastefulness of their individual performances. Symphonic in the truest sense, “Woolgatherer” rattles through bursts of blackened blasting and guttural bellowing, with tumultuous choirs and orchestral color thrown in for good measure, before a seamless switch to elegant, twinkly eyed folk rock and a final, genuinely startling crescendo of joyously pompous and unrelenting brutality. Barely 20 minutes into the record and discerning listeners may find themselves needing a quick lie down. But persist you must because the rest of “Epigone” is equally jaw-dropping. From the previously heard, immaculate sprawl of “Passenger” and “Identifier”‘s full, 11-minute, kaleido-metal mystery tour, to “Distraction”‘s final, four-part, mutant-metal revelation, “Epigone” is absorbing, immersive, fascinating, terrifying and beautiful. Frequently audacious and never less than brave, it’s another reason to get childishly excited about what else WILDERUN might be able to do. For now, this is what a happy new year sounds like. Wow.

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In a new interview with Dean Cramer, Steve Thompson, a prominent music producer who has worked with a vast array of rock icons, including GUNS N’ ROSES (on “Appetite For Destruction”), KORN (on “Follow The Leader”) and SOUNDGARDEN (on “A-Sides”) spoke about the mixing sessions for METALLICA’s classic 1988 album, “…And Justice For All”, and the criticism that record has received for the bass parts being nearly inaudible.

While “…And Justice For All” is considered one of METALLICA’s classics, it has been panned almost since the day it was released for the lack of any bass guitar on the record. Jason Newsted’s playing is virtually buried in the mix — and many fans feel that drummer Lars Ulrich, who had very specific ideas for how he wanted his drums to sound, is to blame.

Thompson said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We did the project up at Bearsville, New York — we worked on an SSL [console] up at Bearsville studios. And Lars originally came in with a whole EQ setup chart of how he wanted his drums to sound. So Michael Barbiero, my partner, says, ‘Why don’t you work with Lars and get the drums [sounding the way he wants them to sound], and then once you do that, I’ll take care of the rest.’ So he does that. And I listened to the sounds, and I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I think this sounds like ass.’ So anyway, I kind of re-EQed all the drums a little bit just to make ’em a little more palpable — it’s in the ear of the beholder. Then I brought the bass up, which I thought the bass was a great part because… You know what was great about [Newsted’s] bass? It was a great marriage with [James] Hetfield’s guitars; it was, like, they needed to work together. It was perfectly played.

“So I got the whole rhythm section together, vocals and everything like that, and then I felt, ‘Okay, now’s the time,'” he continued. “Hetfield was in there, [giving] thumbs up and everything like that. Then I brought Lars in. First of all, Lars hears it for about five to ten seconds, and he goes, ‘All right, stop right there.’ He goes, ‘What happened to my drum sound?’ I basically probably said something like, ‘You were serious?’ [Laughs] So I had to rearrange the drum sound to get it to where he wanted it again. He goes, ‘Okay, see the bass?’ I go, ‘Yeah.’ ‘Drop it down in the mix.’ I said, ‘Why? It’s great.’ ‘Drop it down in the mix.’ ‘Okay.’ So I did it as a joke. [I] dropped it all the way down. He goes, ‘Drop it down another five or six dB’ from there, which could hardly hear it — you couldn’t hear it. I said, ‘Seriously?’ And I think I turned around to Hetfield, and he just went like this [raises both hands]. And then I remember having a conversation with Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch who were managing them. And I basically had a conversation, I said, ‘Listen, I love these guys. I think this band is fucking amazing. I don’t agree with what they want me to do with this. And I understand, it’s their record. They should get whatever they want. We were hired to get them what they want. But I just can’t see doing this.’ And we wound up giving ’em what they want. Again, it’s not my record — it’s their record — and you have to respect their opinion. I hated it personally, because I’m a bass guy. I love bass. When we’re recording, we record the fattest basses in the world.”

Last year, Newsted told Metal Hammer that he was “fucking livid” when he heard “…And Justice For All” for the first time. “Are you kidding me?” he said. “I was ready [to go] for throats, man! No, I was out of my head, because I really thought I did well. And I thought I played how I was supposed to play.”

Newsted went on to say that METALLICA’s sound always revolved around Ulrich and Hetfield. “Lars and James were the original garage band duo, as far as that goes,” he explained. “They always made the records that way, from [1982 demo cassette] ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’, it was Lars and James, guitar and drums. On the original ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’ cassette — if you happen to ever see a real copy or a photo of a real copy — in Lars’s handwriting, in ink pen, on the label of the cassette, [it reads] ‘Turn bass down on stereo.’ On ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’! They mixed it how it was supposed to be mixed: there’s the bass and there’s the guitar from all the way back. But Lars didn’t want [that] because it messed with his drums somehow, so when he sends the demo out to fucking Combat Records and wherever, [his instruction is] ‘Turn the bass down before you even listen to this.’ Before you even get it going, just turn the bass down. Right from the get-go. Before you even start. That’s where he’s been his whole goddamn life, so why would it be any different when it came to [‘…And Justice For All’]? They made ‘Kill ‘Em All’ that way, they made ‘Ride [The Lightning]’ that way, they made ‘Master [Of Puppets]’ that way, all of them. Those two guys in a room [mimics drum beats and playing], that’s the way it always happened. [For] the most successful metal band of all time. So you argue with this shit? I’m not really sure. Now it’s become the best garage band album ever [for artists such as] BLACK KEYS, WHITE STRIPES, DUO JETS, the different ‘power duos’ of garage stuff.”

Three years ago, Hetfield defended the sound of “…And Justice For All”, saying that he and his bandmates simply “wanted the best-sounding record” they could make. “It was not all about, ‘Fuck [Jason]. Let’s turn him down.’ That’s for sure,” he said. “We wanted the best-sounding record we could make. That was our goal. We were burnt. We were frigging fried. Going back and forth [between touring and mixing the album]. Playing a gig. No earplugs, no nothing. You go back into the studio, your hearing is shot. If your ears can’t hear any high end anymore, you’re gonna turn it up. So we’re turning the high end up more and more and more and all of a sudden, low end’s gone. So I know that played a bigger part than any hazing or any ill feelings towards Jason, for sure. We were fried. We were burnt.”

Hetfield also addressed some of the criticism leveled at METALLICA by Thompson. In a 2015 interview with Ultimate Guitar, Thompson suggested that Ulrich was the culprit for the lack of any bass guitar on the record, claiming that Lars wanted his drums to sound a certain way — even if it meant cutting out the bass.

“We wanted it tight,” James explained. “We wanted it fucking tight. That’s what we wanted. We wanted the snare, we wanted the guitar, we wanted everything up front and in your face and really tight. And we thought we got it. And, you know, we kinda know what we want to sound like. Can we sit behind a desk and make it happen? No. We ask people to do it, and they do it. So [Thompson] did his job. He’s got nothing to apologize for or point fingers at. No one’s to blame for ‘something.’ It is a piece of art. It happened and it ended up the way it is for a reason. And for reasons we were just talking about. We were burnt. We’re traveling, we’re playing a gig, our ears were fried. We were not sleeping. He doesn’t need to defend himself. He was a part of an awesome album in history, so I think he should be maybe be a little easier on himself.”

James also once again dismissed calls for METALLICA to remix “…And Justice For All” so that Newsted’s contributions are more audible.

“All this [bass discussion] is after the fact, and it’s, like, who gives a shit, man, really?” Hetfield said. “And why would you change that? Why would you change history? Why would you all of a sudden put bass on it? There is bass on it, but why would you remix an album? You can remaster it, yes, but why would you remix something and make it different? It’d be like… I don’t know. Not that I’m comparing us to the Mona Lisa, but it’s, like, ‘Uh, can we make her smile a little better?!’ You know?! Why?”

In a 2008 interview with Decibel magazine, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett attempted to explain the lack of bass on “…And Justice For All”, saying that “the reason you can’t hear the bass so well is because the bass frequencies in Jason’s tone kinda interfered with the tone that James was trying to shoot for with his rhythm guitar sound, and every time the two blended together, it just wasn’t happening. So the only thing left to do was turn the bass down in the mix. It was unfortunate, but for some reason or another, that album is known for the low end being there without the bass being very high up in the mix. It was an experiment, too — we were totally going for a dry, in-your-face sound, and some people really like that sound. A lot of the newer-generation bands, especially, think that album sounds great. But at the end of the day, it was an experiment. I’m not really sure it was 100 percent successful, but it is a unique sound that that album has.”

In the Ultimate Guitar interview, Thompson said that he spoke out because he was tired of being blamed for the lack of bass. He remarked: “They flew us out [to METALLICA’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2009] and I’m sitting with Lars. He goes, ‘Hey, what happened to the bass in ‘Justice’?’ He actually asked me that. I wanted to cold cock him right there. It was a shame because I’m the one getting the shit for the lack of bass.”

Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that fans were extremely vocal about the sound of the album at the time of its release. “I mean, it was unbelievable, you know, ‘…And Justice For All’, ” he said. “People were saying, ‘That’s the worst-sounding record, where’s the bass, and it sounds like it was recorded in a garage, and…’ But, you know, listen, you do the best you can in the moment and then you move on.”

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JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon has explained Jeff Scott Soto’s dismissal from the band, saying the singer’s voice wasn’t what he and keyboardist Jonathan Cain wanted.

Soto, who previously sang with Yngwie Malmsteen, joined JOURNEY about a week and half into a six-week summer 2006 tour with DEF LEPPARD, after Steve Augeri began having vocal issues. Soto had earlier worked with Schon and drummer Deen Castronovo in the short-lived side project SOUL SIRKUS. JOURNEY named Soto its permanent lead singer in December 2016 before firing him just five months later.

Jeff discussed his time with JOURNEY during a recent interview with Argentinian journalist Lucas Gordon. Asked what caused his split with the band, Soto responded: “The problem is I don’t know. That’s the problem. If I knew what the problem was, if I knew the reason why I got fired, then at least I could be at peace with it; I could find a way to discuss it or talk about it. But I’m not legally supposed to talk about it, because when we finally… It got to the point where we had to take it a legal side of things. But to get away from the legal side, I signed a document that I wouldn’t talk about anything negative, anything bad about them. And I don’t wanna talk negative; I don’t wanna talk about anything bad. But if I knew the reason… And this is not bad — I’m not saying anything bad about them; I’m just telling you the truth. My truth is if I was told why I was fired, if I was told ‘your voice sucks,’ if I was told I killed one of the guys’ dogs, if I made somebody in their family angry, if I was told the reason why I was fired, I could make peace with it. But to this day, 14 years later — whatever it is — I don’t know. I don’t have the answers. I was never given a proper reason. The only thing I was told was they had a change of heart. It didn’t make sense to me. If you have a change of heart, call me up and we can say goodbye, we can hug and say, ‘Hey, hopefully I can get a couple of tickets to the show with the new singer.’ That kind of stuff. You can leave as friends. I came in as friends; I wanna leave as friends.”

Schon responded to Soto’s remarks in a comment on the BLABBERMOUTH.NET Facebook page. “It was unfortunate but Steve Augeri’s voice gave out. We were in the middle of DEF LEPPARD tour so I was working with Jeff on side project and suggested he come in and help Finnish the tour. It went well but all were not sold on him being the lead singer after writing a tune and listening. Both Jon and I agreed it didn’t sound right- or better put what we wanted. I hope this satisfies this on going drama. It didn’t work out.”

Three years ago, Soto told “The Robbcast Podcast” that performing JOURNEY’s classic songs originally sung by Steve Perry was no easy task. “It was difficult — it was really, really difficult to adapt,” he admitted. “First of all, my voice was already kind of going through its changes. If I had gotten that JOURNEY gig even five years earlier, I would have destroyed, I would have just killed the range, the intensity of what Perry left behind.”

Asked if JOURNEY ever made him an official member of the band, Jeff told “The Robbcast Podcast”: “In December of 2006, when the entire DEF LEPPARD run was done for the year, there was an official press release that they inducted me as their permanent singer at that point. And this is the part that kind of pisses me off still to this day, because there’s zero mention, there’s zero attention brought to the fact that I was even in the band and I did those tours. You look at the JOURNEY web site, I don’t exist — my name is not there. It goes from Perry to Augeri to Arnel [Pineda]. It’s like it didn’t exist. It’s kind of strange. How can that not exist when I have… I have photo clippings. I even still have URL sites that show you when I was officially made a member of the band. And then for them to act like it didn’t exist or to say that they wanted a signature sound and I was only supposed to be a hired gun and just to get them through the tour, that kind of bums me out, man. ‘Cause have at least enough respect to tell the truth or to even sugarcoat it and say, ‘Yeah, Jeff was a permanent member of the band, but we realized, as we were going into that, that it was a decision we had to change and that’s why we moved on or eventually got Arnel,’ or whatever. Because I was in the background listening to Neal doing interviews when we were doing the European tour, saying I was their new singer and that we could finally get past the ghost of Steve Perry and blah blah blah. I was there, and I heard all of that. And to not have that acknowledgement now, it just hurts.”

Last year, Soto told the “Rehired” Internet show that he was left in a precarious position once he was fired by JOURNEY.

“I don’t really go into defense mode unless I’m being attacked where it’s not justified,” he explained. “I went more into warrior mode, kind of survivor mode — what do I do next, kind of thing. And to be honest with you, I was just more hurt about the situation and only hurt in the sense of, everything on their social media, web site, whatever, anything that had to do with me being in the band was removed. There was no photo of me; my name was gone. It literally went from Steve Perry to Steve Augeri to Arnel Pineda. And it stinks. It stinks to feel like I didn’t matter. That validation, to be able to front that band, to be able to sing those songs and to front them, and the trust and respect they gave me to be able to do that is completely washed away, because I can’t even be part of their history.

“I didn’t expect an invitation to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, I didn’t expect my name to be dropped, but even just to be able to see some level of positivity of my time with them, and to not have any of it, that’s the part that hurt,” he added.

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Stern Pinball, Inc. has announced a new line of pinball machines celebrating the iconic Canadian progressive rock band RUSH. RUSH pinball machines are available in Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition (LE) models.

RUSH first burst on to the scene when its song, Working Man, crossed the pirate radio airwaves from Toronto, Canada to Cleveland, Ohio and then onto the rest of North America and the world. Their magnum opus “2112” represents one of progressive rock’s greatest works. RUSH’s music remains in constant rotation to this day. Absolutely uncompromising in every conceivable way, the band featured bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and the late drummer, percussionist and lyricist Neil Peart.

Stern’s RUSH pinball machines, reflect the energy, excitement, and experience of a live RUSH concert. In this epic music pinball adventure, players will travel with RUSH through time.

Immersed in exclusive RUSH concert footage and guided by custom speech from Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, and fellow Canadian Rock Hall Of Famer Ed Robertson of the BARENAKED LADIES, players will experience RUSH and their iconic music as never before. This RUSH pinball concert under glass features sixteen iconic songs, accentuated by sound and lighting effects. Songs include “Headlong Fight”, “Far Cry”, “One Little Victory”, “Working Man”, “2112”, “Tom Sawyer”, “The Spirit Of Radio”, “Freewill”, “Cygnus X-1” (“Book One: The Voyage” and “Book Two: Hemispheres”), “The Big Money”, “Subdivisions”, “Limelight”, “Fly By Night”, “La Villa Strangiato”, “Bastille Day” and “Red Barchetta”.

RUSH pinball machines include Stern’s new Insider Connected system, which enables players to interact with the game and a global network of players in a variety of ways. Stern Insider Connected provides dynamic entertainment and player engagement features. Insider Connected also provides an operator focused toolset to drive location play and remotely manage every aspect of the machines. Registration for Insider Connected is available at insider.sternpinball.com/.

Travel back in time with RUSH by shooting pinballs through a custom sculpted, electromagnetic Time Machine. Players will explore Red Barchetta, Subdivisions, and Fly By Night Multiball action. The RUSH Premium and LE model pinball experience includes a motorized ramp with custom lighting effects and a custom sculpted Clockwork Angels Clock, inspired from Neil Peart’s bass drum from their “Time Machine” tour. This motorized clock illuminates, and when it strikes midnight players will be transported to a Headlong Fight Multiball frenzy.

Additional features on the Premium and LE models include a custom subway system, locking pinballs to unleash a high energy Far Cry Multiball. The “Dead End” vertical upkicker propels pinballs up an additional wireform ramp return for non-stop pinball action. As an encore, a three-bank of musical drop targets guard a secret ball lock for players to discover an adrenalized Freewill Multiball to continue their musical pinball journey.

Limited to 1,000 LE machines globally, the highly collectible LE version includes the Expression Lighting System. With 96 intelligent RGB LEDs, the Expression Lighting System enables full-color spectrum control. Positioned in pockets cut into the cabinet sides to provide color themed full playfield illumination, this integrated playfield lighting system is synchronized to custom light shows specifically designed for every song and dynamically responsive to game events. The LE version also includes an exclusive full color mirrored backglass inspired by “Clockwork Angels” iconic custom cabinet artwork, custom high gloss and powder-coated guitar-shaped pinball armor, a custom designer-autographed bottom arch, exclusive inside art blades, upgraded audio system, anti-reflection pinball playfield glass, shaker motor, a sequentially numbered plaque, and a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Stern chairman and CEO Gary Stern.

“Partnering with RUSH, we created a musical pinball experience that every fan will want to explore. Incredible music, memorable toys, unique mechanical pinball action, and custom speech will make players feel like they are on tour with the band,” said Stern. “In memory of Neil Peart, we have also decided to support the Neil Peart Research Award sponsored by the Glioblastoma Foundation as it researches cures for this deadly brain cancer.”

RUSH pinball machines will be showcased virtually to the press and public for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from January 5 to January 8.

RUSH pinball machines and accessories are available now through authorized Stern Pinball distributors and dealers around the world.

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According to Ilta-Sanomat, Finnish streaming company Elisa Viihde has removed the documentary about former HANOI ROCKS singer Michael Monroe from its service just days after the film was initially made available.

Mika Lepistö, Elisa Viihde’s director of partnerships, told Ilta-Sanomat that the documentary’s release date had been agreed upon with the production company, but Elisa Viihde decided to suspend its distribution “due to ambiguities between Michael Monroe and the production company.”

Saku-Petteri Perintö, the film’s director and CEO of the production company Love U Mean It, told Ilta-Sanomat: “The documentary was released for a few days before Monroe started to put pressure on the distribution company. The distribution has therefore been temporarily suspended.”

Perintö went on to say that the documentary was originally planned for release in 2017 before “extensive additional reshoots” were carried out at Monroe’s request. “The real reason for Monroe’s reaction, in our view, is therefore that he entered into an overlapping contract for a new documentary with another production company without our knowledge, and I would suggest that he has a problem with that,” he suggested. “Obviously for this reason he wants to make it difficult for this documentary to be released.”

Despite online rumors that the documentary had been released “illegally without Monroe’s permission,” Perintö stresses that he is perfectly within his legal right to make the film publicly available.

“These allegations are completely absurd,” he said. “We have been filming the documentary in collaboration with Monroe for about five years. We own the rights to the documentary and have distributed it under existing distribution agreements of which Monroe has been aware. It is therefore a perfectly legal document, which has been legally released.

“It is a pity, because we hold Michael Monroe and his career in very high esteem,” he added. “The documentary is of a very high quality and has been very well received.”

Lepistö told Ilta-Sanomat the ambiguities were unexpectedly revealed only after the documentary’s agreed-upon release date and it was removed from Elisa Viihde until the parties find a solution.

“We had obtained the content and distribution rights to the documentary directly from the production company, as is normal practice,” he said. “After the release of the documentary, Elisa was informed of the disagreement between the production company and Monroe.

“There is an agreement between the production company and Monroe to which Elisa is not a party and we do not know the details. As the promotion of cultural content is important to Elisa, we thought it best to support the suspension of the documentary until Monroe and the production company have reached a solution.”

Michael touched upon the dispute with the documentary’s director in a December 2020 interview with the “In The Trenches With Ryan Roxie” podcast. At the time, the then-58-year-old singer stated about the film: “There was somebody who started making it some years ago, but it wasn’t working out with the person, so I’m now making it — someone else started making it, and they really know their business. So we started on it at the end of the summer [of 2020], and it’s gonna be a really good movie. But we’re gonna take our time with it. We’re aiming at releasing it in a couple of years when I turn 60 — in 2022.

“It’s not gonna be a list of things I’ve done,” Michael clarified. “It’s gonna be more like… There’s a movie about Diego Maradona, the football player, and [Ayrton] Senna, the [Brazilian] Formula [One racing] driver — they were great movies. And that’s the idea for this movie. It’s a great story, and you can only tell it once. The director has a great vision. We’re not gonna rush it. At the latest, [we’ll release it] in 2022. It could be a good celebration when I’m gonna turn 60.”

The December 27 press release about Perintö’s documentary described it as “the first wide-ranging and in-depth documentary on HANOI ROCKS.” According to the release, “The fast-paced and moving documentary takes viewers deep into Michael’s soul and behind the scenes of the rock world. The extensive documentary has been in the works since 2017 and has also been filmed extensively outside Finland.” The documentary includes an interview with Michael’s mother Marjatta and delves into the deaths of HANOI ROCKS drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, who was killed in a car accident caused by MÖTLEY CRÜE’s Vince Neil, and Monroe’s first wife Jude Wilder. Also interviewed for the film were Slash and Duff McKagan from GUNS N’ ROSES, and Chris Shiflett from FOO FIGHTERS.

Last spring, Monroe, who was born as Matti Antero Kristian Fagerholm in 1962 in Finland, spoke about the documentary during an appearance on a video podcast hosted by Todd Kerns, the bassist of SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS. He said: “[It’s gonna be] the whole story of my life, pretty much, based around the 10 years [I spent] in New York. But it starts with the beginning of HANOI, and [it’s] really a documentary of my life and me. So that’s in the works. But it’s the kind of thing you only make once in your life, so I wanna make sure it’s [done properly].

“People always say, ‘What about making a movie with actors?’ It’s always kind of corny when people act as somebody,” he continued. “But after the documentary is made, then I don’t care anymore. But I wanna make it as great as possible. ‘Cause it’s a fascinating story, even if I say so myself.

“We already interviewed Slash and Duff [McKagan from GUNS N’ ROSES] and Chris Shiflett [FOO FIGHTERS] for the original version, but we’re gonna now start over and make it a documentary movie that’s not only about all my accomplishments. Of course, it’s great to have all these cool, great names say things about me that describe my character. But, really, make it a fascinating story, so people who do not give a shit about me or even rock and roll will be interested in watching.”

Even though HANOI ROCKS was formed in Finland, their trashy, hedonistic, decadent hard rock/pop-metal boogie influenced many Los Angeles acts, including GUNS N’ ROSES and MÖTLEY CRÜE.

HANOI ROCKS originally broke on to the hard rock scene in the first half of the 1980s, becoming one of the first Finnish bands to make an international impact. HANOI ROCKS’s career was subsequently derailed after Razzle’s 1984 death. Internal tensions and the commercial disappointment that was 1985’s “Rock & Roll Divorce” led to Monroe leaving the band that year, thus putting an early end to HANOI ROCKS.

Monroe’s latest solo album, “One Man Gang”, was released in 2019 via Silver Lining Music.

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