METALLICA played its classic self-titled album, commonly known as “The Black Album,” in its entirety during its headline set on September 26 at Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky.

METALLICA performed the LP as part of its second headline set of the weekend at Louder Than Life, which hosted tens of thousands of people at the Kentucky Exposition Center.

After opening with three non-“Black Album” songs — “Hardwired”, “The Four Horsemen” and “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” — METALLICA performed the album’s closing track, “The Struggle Within”, and went through the entire LP in reverse order, finishing the main set with album opener “Enter Sandman”. The band then returned for a two-song encore consisting of “Blackened” and “Creeping Death”.

For its first show on September 24, METALLICA played a 16-song set that spanned its entire catalog, including “Whiplash”, “Harvester Of Sorrow”, “The Memory Remains”, “Master Of Puppets”, “Battery”, “Fuel” and “Seek & Destroy”.

METALLICA’s setlist for Sunday, September 26 at Louder Than Life festival at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky:

01. Hardwired
02. The Four Horsemen
03. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
04. The Struggle Within
05. My Friend Of Misery
06. The God That Failed
07. Of Wolf And Man
08. Nothing Else Matters
09. Through The Never
10. Don’t Tread On Me
11. Wherever I May Roam
12. The Unforgiven
13. Holier Than Thou
14. Sad But True
15. Enter Sandman

Encore:

16. Blackened
17. Creeping Death

Professionally filmed video footage of METALLICA’s “The Struggle Within” performance from the September 26 concert can be seen below.

The Black Album is one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed records of all time. Its 1991 release not only gave METALLICA its first No. 1 album in no fewer than 10 countries, including a four-week run at No. 1 in the U.S., its unrelenting series of singles — “Enter Sandman”, “The Unforgiven”, “Nothing Else Matters”, “Wherever I May Roam” and “Sad But True” — fueled the band’s rise to stadium headlining, radio and MTV dominating household name status. The album’s reception from the press was similarly charged, building over the years from the top 10 of the 1991 Village Voice Pazz & Jop national critics poll to becoming a constant presence in the likes of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. The album’s impact and relevance continue to grow — as proven by one indisputable fact: The Black Album remains unchallenged as the best-selling album in the history of Nielsen SoundScan, outselling every release in every genre over the past 30 years.

To commemorate its 30th anniversary, the Grammy-winning, 16-times-platinum-certified Black Album received its definitive re-release on September 10 via the band’s own Blackened Recordings.

“Metallica” was the first of four collaborations with producer Bob Rock, with whom the band clashed throughout the recording of the disc.

METALLICA previously performed The Black Album in its entirety at a number of European festivals in 2012.

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Eddie Van Halen’s son and widow have both posted touching tributes on social media to the legendary VAN HALEN guitarist on the first anniversary of his death.

Wolfgang Van Halen, who played with his father as a member of VAN HALEN, wrote: “One year.

“You fought so hard for so long, but you were still taken away. It’s just so unfair.

“I’m not ok. I don’t think I’ll ever be ok. There’s so much I wish I could show you. So many things I wish I could share with you. I wish I could laugh with you again. I wish I could hug you again. I miss you so much it hurts.

“I’m trying to do my best here without you, but it’s really fucking hard. I hope you’re still proud.

“I love you with all of my heart, Pop. Watch over me.”

Janie Van Halen (née Liszewski), a stuntwoman-turned-publicist who owns her own public relations agency High Profile Media, shared a photo of her with her late husband, hidden from the camera with only their feet visible, along with their dog, and she wrote: “I think about you every single day. Your smile, your laugh, your kindness – in every single way.

“I miss this, I miss us, I miss you, and I try my best to carry on the way you would want me to. But my Peep, some days, that’s really hard to do.

“This will never get easier because there really is no getting over you. The only solace that I can seem to find is knowing you are with god and truly free.

“Until our souls find each other again, please keep an eye on me.

“I love you and miss you so much.

“Love, Your PooPee and our Kody too”.

After Eddie was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, he began flying to Germany for treatments. Eventually, the cancer spread to Eddie’s spine and brain. Just a few months later, Eddie died at age 65.

The 30-year-old Wolfgang speculated to The Washington Post that his father could have flown to Germany for more radiation had the coronavirus crisis not happened, possibly prolonging his life.

Last November, Wolfgang said that doctors told Eddie he had “six weeks” after he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. “And then he went to Germany,” Wolfgang told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show. “Whatever the fuck they do over there, it’s amazing, because I got three more years with him.”

Last December, Eddie’s immediate cause of death was revealed to be a cerebrovascular event, such as a stroke. Pneumonia, the blood disorder myelodysplastic syndrome and lung cancer were also cited as underlying causes in his death certificate, which was obtained by TMZ. The certificate also listed a number of other “significant conditions” that contributed to Eddie’s death, including squamous cell carcinoma (skin cancer) of the head and neck, and atrial fibrillation, a condition that causes irregular heartbeat and elevates stroke risk.

In the Howard Stern interview, Wolf said the cause of his dad’s death had been “misattributed” by some media outlets as throat cancer. Eddie had previously battled tongue cancer in the early 2000s, which Eddie blamed on holding a metal pick in his mouth.

Wolf said it was “certainly feasible” that Eddie got tongue cancer from the pick but he shot down the suggestion that he died from throat cancer.

“People love to give him shit about that,” Wolfgang said, before adding, “He would hold that pick in the same spot all the time, and that’s the exact area that he got the squamous cell carcinoma in his tongue that he had to get cut out.

“When it’s reported, it’s always attributed to the throat cancer and then everybody instead of going ‘Oh shit. His cancer’s back,’ people are just going ‘What an idiot. He thinks he got throat cancer from a pick?’ And it just totally derails the whole thing,” he said.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Eddie Van Halen No. 8 in its list of the 100 greatest guitarists.

VAN HALEN was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007.

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Brutal death metal project Maimed share insight into each track on their skull-crushing bloodbath of an EP, Torrential Gore.
The post Track by Track: Maimed – “Torrential Gore” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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MÖTLEY CRÜE has shared “Live Wire” from the upcoming digital remaster of the band’s debut album, “Too Fast For Love”.

CRÜE’s 40th-anniversary celebrations will culminate with the digital remaster “Too Fast For Love”, set to arrive exactly 40 years to the original release date of November 10, 1981. The remaster is now available for pre-order. The LP was recorded at Hit City West Studios and made available via the band’s own label Leathür Records. Eventually reaching platinum status in the U.S. and charting on the Billboard 200, the album was ranked No. 22 on Rolling Stone magazine’s “The 100 Greatest Metal Albums Of All Time.”

The “Too Fast For Love” and “Shout At The Devil” remasters join the recently released digital remasters of “Dr. Feelgood”, “Girls, Girls, Girls” and “Theatre Of Pain”, which kicked off CRÜE’s 40th-anniversary celebrations earlier this year.

The recently launched Mötley Crüe 101 Spotify Playlist includes hits from the band’s entire discography. It gives new and existing fans a comprehensive guide to the band’s iconic musical legacy, taking them on a celebratory sonic journey for this special anniversary.

It was January 17, 1981 when bassist Nikki Sixx first jammed with drummer Tommy Lee and vocalist/guitarist Greg Leon. Leon left, and Mick Mars and Vince Neil were recruited. The rest, as they say, is history…

Nikki recently said about CRÜE’s 40th anniversary: “In ‘Kickstart My Heart’, the lyrics say, ‘When we started this band / All we needed, needed was a laugh / Years gone by, I’d say we’ve kicked some ass.’

“It’s always been about great songs and over-the-top live shows for us. The fans were always right by our side. I don’t know where all of the years went. It went by in a flash. What I can’t forget are the four decades of fans who have counted themselves as Crüeheads from day one, supporting us through thick and thin. To them we are in debt and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

“Happy 40th birthday to us all.”

Sixx, Mars and Lee are firmly ingrained in the fabric of rock history. MÖTLEY CRÜE has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, achieving seven USA platinum and multi-platinum albums, 22 Top 40 mainstream rock hits, six Top 20 pop singles and three Grammy nominations.

The band’s biography “The Dirt: Confessions Of The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band”, first published in 2001, became a New York Times best-seller and has sold over one million copies worldwide. In addition, the band members have authored three other New York Times best-sellers.

2019 saw “The Dirt” released as a feature-length biopic. The film became one of the biggest releases of that year and scored a 94% positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

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

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RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson, who recently completed an album’s worth of material with former CONEY HATCH singer/bassist Andy Curran, was asked in the new issue of Guitar Player magazine if he has any plans to play live in the near future. He responded: “I’m not really thinking about that. It’s challenging enough to try to get this album out first.

“To be honest with you, I don’t think I have it in me to go on the road,” he continued. “I mean, if it was a handful of shows, that might be kind of fun, but anything beyond that… After 40 years of sitting in hotel rooms, I’m not interested. I’ve had quite enough of that. I do love my home life.

“I thought I would miss being onstage a lot more, but I don’t really. I’ve done a couple of things here and there. Small things — usually it’s a charity event or something like that. It’s kind of fun getting up and playing with other people, but the whole production — the big, giant machine — it doesn’t really hold much appeal to me now.”

Four months ago, Lifeson spoke in more detail about his collaboration with Curran, tentatively dubbed ENVY OF NONE, in an interview with Sweetwater. At the time, he said: “Andy approached me about four years ago, shortly after the last RUSH tour, about just adding some guitar on some of the things that he was doing. And I did that. A few months later, he sent another one, and did that. And then we started getting more serious. And then we found a great singer, Maiah Wynne, from Portland, Oregon — just a fabulous, fabulous voice and a really smart songwriter and vocal performer. So we’ve basically done an album’s worth of material that we hope to release sometime soon. I’m really excited about that.”

Asked about a possible timeline for the release of his collaboration with Curran and Wynne, Alex said: “We’re just working on that part of it. All the music is recorded. We are mixing currently. We’re in a good place, but it’s very challenging. The industry is so, so very different than it was certainly 10 years ago, never mind last year. We’ll see. Hopefully late summer, early fall we might have something. But we are very, very excited about it. It’s pretty cool stuff, I think.”

Lifeson previously collaborated with Wynne on her 2019 solo single called “Fearless Girl”, which featured Alex and the Portland Cello Project. Wynne also laid down vocals on a May 2019 collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Marco Minnemann and Lifeson titled “Lovers Calling”.

RUSH drummer Neil Peart died in January 2020 in Santa Monica, California after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 67 years old.

RUSH’s final show took place at the Forum in Los Angeles on August 1, 2015. Peart indicated at the time that he wanted to retire while he was still able to play well, along with a desire to spend more time at home with his young daughter.

Lifeson and bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee have repeatedly said that RUSH will never do a show unless all three musicians agree to take part. They haven’t performed as RUSH without Peart since he joined the band in 1974.

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During last month’s chat with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, METALLICA’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich opened up about bassist Jason Newsted decision to leave the band 20 years ago.

“My theory now is I could love anybody, really, at the end of the day,” Hetfield said. You get to know them, you get to know where they’ve come from, you understand where their parents came from — all of that. How are you you? I can accept that. I can really accept that. There was more to be revealed. I mean, really.

“He was at a point where he was at; we were at a point where we were at,” James continued. “It happened because it happened. If it was like that right now — say, Robert [Trujillo, METALLICA’s current bassist] comes and says, ‘Hey, I’m done here.’ We would fight. We would fight, or I would fight for him. I didn’t know about the fight back then.”

Ulrich added: “If you think about it, Jason is the only member of METALLICA who’s ever left willingly, and that in itself is a statistic. And the resentment from James and I was just so… [We felt like] you can’t do that. You can only leave if we want you to leave. And then we weren’t equipped at the time to do a deep dive into why he was leaving. And so, of course, now you can see 20 years later, it makes complete sense.

“We write the songs; we make the decisions; we do all of it,” Lars continued. “You have no creative outlet in this band; you have no creative voice. And then when you go and do something that gives you satisfaction and a way for you to express yourself to the rest of the world, then we get fucking pissed at you. And then that resentment then goes to you leaving the band. I mean, that’s kind of Psychiatry 101 here. But we weren’t equipped to see that side of it. Twenty years later, so now it makes complete sense.”

Ulrich added: “Jason gave 14 years — every day, every performance, he was there always… I mean, we always used to joke. It’s, like, ‘He’s so fired up. Come on, dude. Slow down.’ He was the fucking first guy in and the last guy out. He was signing autographs when we were driving by waving on the way out of the buildings. I mean, he really was. And I now [am] finally equipped to appreciate every moment that he gave. And we have, I think, so much respect for each other now, so much appreciation. Ten years ago, when we did the 30th anniversaries, when he came up and played four nights with us at the four Fillmore shows, played two nights with us, seeing Rob and him together up there, that felt like it was the beginning of the thawing of where we are now. But he’s been a very integral part of the [Black Album] reissue and the re-release and has done interviews and been very, very helpful. He did the unboxing of the box for the cameras and the whole thing. I mean, he’s been so gracious.”

Apple Music’s entire one-hour METALLICA 40th-anniversary special can be viewed below.

Newsted was METALLICA’s third bassist, following Ron McGovney and the late Cliff Burton. Trujillo took over in 2003 after Newsted’s exit.

Newsted’s exit from METALLICA was documented in the band’s 2004 documentary, “Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster”, which followed the members of the group through the three most turbulent years of their long career, during which they battled through addiction, lineup changes, fan backlash, personal turmoil and the near-disintegration of the group while making their “St. Anger” album.

While initially helping METALLICA towards restoring band harmony, the film shows the band’s “performance coach” Phil Towle, a former psychotherapist who was brought into the picture in January 2001 to help Hetfield, Ulrich and Kirk Hammett repair their relationship with Newsted, attempting to increasingly insert himself into the band’s creative process, submitting lyrics for the album and even attempting to join them on the road.

“Some Kind Of Monster” also documented Hetfield’s spiral into alcoholism and decision to check himself into a rehab facility. Hetfield’s re-emergence from rehab is when the film really gets into gear, with the chief worry in his mind whether or not he could do METALLICA sober.

In a 2004 interview with The Kansas City Star, Towle spoke about being present when Newsted told the band he was leaving, though that scene isn’t in “Some Kind of Monster”. Asked how that went down, Towle said: “We’d been sitting around talking for about a half-hour when Jason says to me, ‘I want to talk to the guys. Will you excuse me?’ So I went into the other room in the suite. I could hear all this pain resonating from the room they were in, and after about 10 minutes, I went back in. Jason says, ‘I don’t want you in here.’ I said, ‘I was hired to be here, to work with you guys and your issues, and I can’t in good faith stay in the other room.’ There was silence. Then Lars says, ‘Let him stay.’

“They were all jarred so much that a family member for 14 years was leaving for various reasons. They said, ‘We gotta do something about this.’ Here’s what I offered: Rather than invest energy in being pissed at Jason, use this thing to explore the underlying issues of discomfort and conflict that led to his leaving.

“In a very dysfunctional family, Jason had the courage to stand up. He was the one who set in motion this process of calling everyone out. I’d read an old interview with METALLICA in Playboy in which the band members separately trashed each other. So now the conflict had come to a head.”

Jason spoke in detail about the reason he left METALLICA in a 2013 interview with Scuzz TV. Newsted said that his eventual split with the group was over the way his then-side band, ECHOBRAIN, was handled. Newsted explained: “The management of METALLICA was very, very excited about ECHOBRAIN, wanted to take it out for me, wanted me to do ECHOBRAIN also, with METALLICA. They felt ECHOBRAIN was that good, the singer was that good, and it didn’t affect METALLICA because it was a totally different kind of thing, and I was in METALLICA; that would give it its pedigree already.”

Newsted continued: “They had told me, pretty convincingly, ‘This is a great record, we’ve been playing it around the office, that’s all I’ve been hearing, it’s fantastic, this kid has a great voice. Let’s do something with this.’ That’s what they told me, and then James heard about it and was not happy. He was, I think, pretty much out to put the kibosh on the whole thing because it would somehow affect METALLICA in his eyes, because now the managers were interested in something I was doing that had nothing to do with him.”

Newsted told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that he never saw how ECHOBRAIN could have interfered with METALLICA. “I never felt that it was going to affect METALLICA in any way,” he said. “There was no way that it could. The monster and the integrity and the legend that METALLICA’s built, it would take a lot more than that to ever affect it.”

Newsted added, “The people that I had counted on for 15 years to help me with my career, help METALLICA, take care of my money, do all of those things, told me, ‘Your new project is fantastic, we’d like to help you with it.’ James heard about it, the manager calls me back a couple of days later — ‘Sorry we’re not going to be able to help you with that ECHOBRAIN thing.'”

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In a new interview with Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada’s rock station 104.9 The Wolf, BUCKCHERRY frontman Josh Todd spoke about what it has been like for him and his bandmates to play live shows during the pandemic. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I feel a lot of energy. There’s all kinds of things going on. I think people are struggling, honestly. They’re tired of being corralled.

“I just read that it’s the biggest pandemic in world history now; it’s surpassed 1918 flu pandemic,” he continued. “It’s brutal. And we’re still gonna have to be very careful and stay on top of this for some time to come. And I know that’s just a drag for people to hear.

“So, yeah, when we finally hit the stage and it’s on, people, their enthusiasm is at a different level.”

When The Wolf’s Travis Stewart said that the BUCKCHERRY members must also be excited to be able to perform again, Josh replied: “We’ve always been super grateful to do this for a living. We know the odds and how many bands really get to stay around as long as we have. And so we’re grateful. We get together as a band every night before we walk on. We pray, and we get into gratitude. And as far as my process goes, I’m backstage, and one thing I always tell myself, ‘If this is it, this could be the very last show that you do. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?’ Play it like it’s your last one. And that seems to really work for me.”

This past July, BUCKCHERRY postponed a couple of weeks’ worth of tour dates after two members of the band tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

BUCKCHERRY’s latest album, “Hellbound”, was released in June via Round Hill Records. The follow-up to 2019’s “Warpaint” was recorded last fall in Nashville, Tennessee with producer and songwriter-for-hire Marti Frederiksen, who has previously collaborated with AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, Jonny Lang and Sheryl Crow, among many others.

In the summer of 2020, BUCKCHERRY recruited JETBOY’s Billy Rowe as its new guitarist. He joined the group as the replacement for Kevin Roentgen, who left BUCKCHERRY in July of last year.

In 2019, BUCKCHERRY recruited Francis Ruiz as its new drummer. He joined the group as the replacement for Sean Winchester, who exited BUCKCHERRY after laying down the drum tracks on “Warpaint”.

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THE LUCID, the four-piece hard rock band featuring bassist David Ellefson (ex-MEGADETH), vocalist Vinnie Dombroski (SPONGE), guitarist Drew Fortier and drummer Mike Heller (RAVEN, FEAR FACTORY), has released its third single, “Hair”. The song is taken from THE LUCID’s self-titled debut album, which is due on October 15 via SpoilerHead Records. The LP’s final cover artwork, which was created by Alex Sarabia, can be seen below.

“The Lucid” was produced by Heller and mixed/mastered by Lasse Lammert.

Track listing:

01. Maggot Wind
02. Deaths Of Despair
03. Spoiler Head
04. Hair
05. Maskronaut
06. Damned
07. Breech Boy
08. Pigs And Sons
09. Parade Of Spit

Ellefson states: “It’s been a real blast making a record with these guys and I must say that it’s refreshing to explore some new musical avenues… to step out a bit from what each of us have done stylistically in our own careers. There was an effortless synergy that came with creating these songs together which is always amazing when working with new people. I’m looking forward to everyone checking it out!”

During a November 2020 appearance on “The Chuck Schute Podcast”, Ellefson stated about how he got involved with THE LUCID: “Drew sent me a track and said, ‘Hey, can you throw a bass on here?’ And I was writing a new ELLEFSON solo record at the time, so my studio ears were on. I was plugged in and ready to go. He sent it over and I was, like, ‘Yeah, this is freaking cool, man.’ I’d seen Drew play, I know his BANG TANGO history and the other stuff he’s done. But this was really cool stuff that spoke to me. And then he called me up and he said, ‘Hey, Vinnie is gonna come in and write some vocals and lyrics and lay down some tracks.’ And it turned into a thing.”

“I love [Vinnie]. I love SPONGE,” David continued. “He’s such a rock star. He’s just a cool guy. And he writes such great lyrics — very trippy lyrics. He’s the type of lyricist I’d never worked with before, so it’s fun with that. And Drew is a great guitar player. Mike Heller — he’s good friends with [MEGADETH drummer] Dirk Verbeuren. And Dirk’s, like, ‘Mike’s awesome.’ They’re good friends. We all met in L.A. We got the songs together and we all met in L.A. in mid-July. I plugged in and banged out 10 songs in two days. And it was fun. Mike was very good in the studio; he really knows his way around.”

As for THE LUCID’s musical direction, Ellefson said: “It’s cool stuff, and it’s very different. It’s, obviously, not thrash metal, hence the name LUCID. [The name] kind of feels like what the music sounds like.”

Ellefson and Fortier have also announced the pre-order for their award-winning found-footage horror film “Dwellers”, which will be released October 12 on Blu-ray and digital streaming services and is available now in various limited edition pre-order bundles at www.dwellersfilm.com.

Ellefson and Fortier will promote the film at the following events:

* Dead Conventions, Fort Wayne, IN – Oct. 15-17
* Chiller Theater, Parsippany, NJ – Oct. 29-31

Ellefson was dismissed from MEGADETH in late May, just days after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving him were posted on Twitter. A short time later, he released a statement on Instagram denying all social media chatter that he “groomed” an underage fan. He also filed a report with the police department in Scottsdale, Arizona alleging unlawful distribution of sexually explicit images of him by unknown offenders. In the report, Ellefson admitted that he had been exchanging sexual text messages with a Dutch teenager, who captured a video of several of their virtual “masturbating encounters” without his consent and shared them with friends. (According to Ellefson, the woman was 19 at the time of their first virtual sexual encounter.) Ellefson, who lives in Scottsdale, first became aware of the video on May 9, when the claim “David Ellefson of MEGADETH is a pedophile” appeared on Instagram. Ellefson told police he was notified on May 14 by MEGADETH that the band would be parting ways with him. Three days later, he was fired.

Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on MEGADETH’s sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

In July, MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine announced during an episode of his Gimme Radio program “The Dave Mustaine Show” that Ellefson’s bass tracks would not be used on the new MEGADETH LP.

On May 24, Mustaine — who formed MEGADETH with Ellefson in 1983 — announced the bassist’s departure from the band.

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

Photo credit: Tharasa DiMeo

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