SION, the new project featuring former KILLSWITCH ENGAGE singer Howard Jones and modern guitar virtuoso/content creator Jared Dines, has released the official music video for the song “Inside The Hollow”. The track is the fourth single from SION’s self-titled debut album, which came out at the end of November. The 12-song effort was “almost two years in the making” and “was funded independently out of Jared and Howard’s own pockets,” according to a statement released by the group.

“Sion” track listing:

01. The Blade (03:39)
02. Drown (04:13)
03. More Than Just Myself (03:30)
04. The Worst Way (03:18)
05. Buried Alive And Wide Awake (03:50)
06. Skyfall (03:58)
07. Endless War (03:06)
08. A Constant Reminder (03:57)
09. Something To Live For (04:10)
10. Great Deceiver (03:50)
11. Dying Of The Light (03:25)
12. Inside The Hollow (03:49)

Speaking about how their collaboration came about, Dines told Rock Feed: “Way back [in] 2018 was the TRIVIUM tour that I filled in for that Howard was on with his band LIGHT THE TORCH. And, of course, we met and we talked and we just kind of randomly started talking [about working together]. I think Howard mentioned, ‘Down the road, let’s maybe talk about doing something.’ And, of course, I was, like, ‘Yeah, that sounds awesome.’ So that’s kind of where it started. And then maybe just until [early 2020], I think [he] reached out and had said that [he] had some free time, and I had some free time, so we figured why not start now and start writing some songs. So that’s kind of how it started. It was just very casual, and it’s just been that way — very natural, and not, like, [with] any type of real plan.”

Regarding SION’s musical direction, Dines said: “I think there’s a lot of natural influence I have from bands like KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, AS I LAY DYING, et cetera, et cetera, because that’s the era I grew up on, so that’s kind of imprinted into my playing as it is. So it’s very natural for me just to flow out these very, you could call it KILLSWITCH ENGAGE-sounding songs, but that’s not the intent, what we were going for. But, yeah, they’re going to sound, when you hear them, of course, because of Howard and because of my influence and my style, they will be similar to that sound — just naturally. [KILLSWITCH ENGAGE’s third album, 2004’s] ‘The End Of Heartache’, of course, for me, was my favorite and what influenced me the most, so I would say it’s probably gonna sound more like that, as far as instrumentally. And whatever Howard wants to do with it, it’s gonna sound like Howard. It’s gonna sound like me and Howard, whatever that sounds like.”

Jones left KILLSWITCH ENGAGE in 2012 and battled manic depression and bipolar disorder before forming a new project, DEVIL YOU KNOW, with guitarist Francesco Artusato (ALL SHALL PERISH) and drummer John Sankey (DEVOLVED). Along with bassist Ryan Wombacher (BLEEDING THROUGH), they recorded and toured behind two well-received albums, 2014’s “The Beauty Of Destruction” and 2015’s “They Bleed Red”. In 2017, the band changed its name to LIGHT THE TORCH following a bitter dispute with Sankey, a part owner of the name.

Asked what made him get back into music after leaving KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, Howard told Heavy New York: “Honestly, I think it was because I was just kind of tired of doing nothing and I don’t do much else other than music. I felt like I needed to venture out because I was basically agoraphobic for three years. It’s kind of well known. I went off the grid. I didn’t have a cell phone for three years — I was gone. It felt, like, ‘Okay, maybe I should dip my toe in. I don’t have to do it full time. I don’t have to do what I don’t want to do.’ That’s all I was thinking. I started moving, I started doing things. It was definitely a struggle, especially for the first few years. I was, like, ‘What am I doing?’ There’s been few things in my life that has been consistent other than music. I just did it. It just took some time, then all of the sudden, the spark showed up. I fell back in love with what I was doing. I really can’t explain it. It just sort of happened.”

In a 2014 interview with Fishing World, Jones stated about his musical influences: “Well, just about anything I can listen to. AC/DC and KISS were the first bands that introduced me to heavy music. After that, I just absorbed anything I could get my hands on. Some favourites are FAITH NO MORE, HIM, ALICE IN CHAINS, PORTISHEAD … My taste is kind of all over the place.”

Jones makes an appearance on KILLSWITCH ENGAGE’s latest album, “Atonement”, contributing guest vocals to the song “The Signal Fire”.

Dines has redefined the very idea of a guitar hero online. His YouTube channel boasts a staggering 2.92 million subscribers and more than 700 million views. He also has collaborated with everyone from Post Malone to BREAKING BENJAMIN. His recorded output includes “Rest”, “Repose”, “Daddy Rock” and “Dissimilator”, to name a few. He made history as “the first YouTuber” to grace the cover of Guitar World magazine. Meanwhile, he teamed up with Music Man for a signature Stingray guitar.

Read more »

Professionally filmed video footage of German thrash metal veterans KREATOR performing the song “Terrible Certainty” during their August 14 appearance at the Bloodstock Open Air festival at Catton Park, Walton-on-Trent, United Kingdom can be seen below.

This past summer, KREATOR entered Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin, Germany to begin recording its new album for a tentative early 2022 release. Helming the sessions is Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, CODE ORANGE, POWER TRIP and SOULFLY, among others.

Earlier this year, KREATOR frontman Mille Petrozza revealed to the official podcast of Italy’s Metalitalia.com that the band would wait until the coronavirus pandemic has subsided before releasing an album.

“Last [year], in August, we felt that we were done [writing], and we were very enthusiastic about, like, ‘Okay, this is almost an album. We have 12 songs. And we take the 10 best, or whatever we come up with.’ And we already planned on going into the studio in February,” he said. “Now it’s February, and the world is still kind of fucked with the COVID. So we have to wait and be patient… I think going on a tour, the artwork, everything has to connect. So we’ll wait until that’s possible again, and then we’ll put out the album.”

On the topic of the musical direction of the follow-up to 2017’s “Gods Of Violence” album, Mille said: “It’s definitely different. It’s hard for me to describe, but I think it’s definitely more thrash again. It has a lot of melody, and it has a lot of traditional parts, and it has a lot of ingredients of the last four or five albums. But it also has some very old-school moments. I think it’s definitely the next step.”

KREATOR’s next album will mark the band’s first with bassist Frédéric Leclercq, who joined the group in 2019.

In September 2020, KREATOR guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö described the sessions for the band’s new album to Italy’s Poisoned Rock as “a lot of fun,” adding that the “mood” in the band “is great. And the general vibe and the atmosphere is very good,” he said. “[These are] creative times for KREATOR at the moment.”

In March 2020, KREATOR surprise-released a new single, “666 – World Divided”. The song was produced by Andy Sneap and Markus Ganter and was recorded at Hansa Tonstudios.

The music video for “666 – World Divided” was created under the direction of Jörn Heitmann, who was responsible for the music videos for “Radio” and “Ausländer” by RAMMSTEIN.

KREATOR played its first show with Leclercq in October 2019 in Santiago, Chile.

Before joining KREATOR, Leclercq rose to fame with U.K.-based extreme power metallers DRAGONFORCE for whom he handled bass duties from 2005 until August 2019.

KREATOR’s previously announced “State Of Unrest” European tour with LAMB OF GOD has been rescheduled for November/December 2022 in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

KREATOR released a new live set, “London Apocalypticon – Live At The Roundhouse”, in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast. The effort was professionally filmed and recorded on December 16, 2018 at the Roundhouse in London, England.

Read more »

EVANESCENCE has released a studio recording of its cover version of THE BEATLES’ “Across The Universe”. The track, which was previously covered by Amy Lee and her bandmates on their 2018 “Synthesis” tour, was also featured on disc two, “A Live Session From Rock Falcon Studio”, of the limited box-set version of EVANESCENCE’s latest album, “The Bitter Truth”, containing 10 live studio session songs. The song has now been made available as a digital single via all digital music service providers.

Upon its release, “The Bitter Truth” charted at No. 4 in the U.K., making it the band’s fourth Top Five album in the country. EVANESCENCE’s first full-length release of all-new material in a decade, “The Bitter Truth” also debuted as the top-selling rock and alternative album in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music Connect.

Shortly after its arrival on March 26, “The Bitter Truth” rose to the top of the iTunes album charts in 22 countries. Recorded during the pandemic, it confronts the dark realities of the world head-on. Yet its resounding message is one of light, and that pushing through is better than giving up.

A kiss-off to the naysayers and the cheats in the rearview mirror, “Better Without You” explodes with the “metal catharsis” that runs through ‘The Bitter Truth'” (Los Angeles Times). The official music video for the track was directed by filmmaker Eric D. Howell (“Ana’s Playground”, “Voice From The Stone”), who also directed the video for EVANESCENCE’s “Use My Voice”.

EVANESCENCE’s new music was produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who also worked on 2011’s self-titled LP.

Read more »

Chris Cornell’s daughter Toni Cornell performed her late father’s Grammy-nominated cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” on last night’s (Thursday, December 16) episode of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”. The 17-year-old singer was joined on acoustic guitar by Pete Thorn, who had performed with Chris Cornell on tours supporting the SOUNDGARDEN frontman’s “Carry On” and “Scream” solo albums.

Last month, Chris Cornell was nominated for two Grammy Awards: “Best Rock Album” for his covers collection “No One Sings Like You Anymore Vol. 1”, and “Best Rock Performance” for his version of “Nothing Compares 2 U”.

“No One Sings Like You Anymore”, Chris Cornell’s handpicked collection of 10 cover songs, which he personally selected and sequenced to celebrate artists and songs that inspired him, was released in December 2020. Recorded by Chris in 2016, the album, which is his last fully completed studio LP, also features his renditions of John Lennon’s “Watching The Wheels”, GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY’s “Sad Sad City”, Harry Nilsson’s “Jump Into The Fire”, Carl Hall’s “You Don’t Know Nothing About Love”, ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA’s “Showdown”, Terry Reid’s “To Be Treated Rite”, Lorraine Ellison’s “Stay With Me Baby” (originally released for HBO’s show “Vinyl”), and “Get It While You Can”, popularized by Janis Joplin. Chris’s cover of GUNS N’ ROSES’ “Patience”, which was released on his birthday this year, and earned him his first solo Billboard No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart, is also included on the album.

Three and a half years ago, Toni shared a recording of her and her late father covering “Nothing Compares 2 U” to mark Father’s Day.

“Daddy, I love you and miss you so much,” she wrote at the time. “You were the best father anyone could ask for. Our relationship was so special, and you were always there for me. You gave me courage when I didn’t have any. You believed in me when I didn’t. I miss your love everyday. Recording this song with you was a special and amazing experience I wish I could repeat 100 times over and I know you would too. Happy Father’s Day daddy, nothing compares to you.”

In April 2020, Toni performed an acoustic cover version of TEMPLE OF THE DOG’s “Hunger Strike” from her father’s home studio during LiveXLive’s “Music Lives” global digital music festival.

In August 2017, Toni Cornell joined the band ONEREPUBLIC onstage on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to perform the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah”. The performance was a celebration the lives of Chris Cornell and late LINKIN PARK frontman Chester Bennington, both of whom died within months of each other.

Chris Cornell was found hanged in his room at the MGM Grand Detroit hotel in May 2017, following a SOUNDGARDEN show at the city’s Fox Theatre. His body was found soon after he had spoken with a “slurred” voice to his wife, Vicky Cornell, by phone. The death was ruled a suicide. But his family has questioned the medical examiner’s ruling, saying that he had a prescription for Ativan and that a higher than recommended dosage may have caused him to experience suicidal thoughts.

Read more »

Swedish high-energy rock and rollers THE HELLACOPTERS will release a new studio album, “Eyes Of Oblivion”, on April 1, 2022 via Nuclear Blast. It will mark their first full-length collection of new material since 2008’s “Head Off”.

THE HELLACOPTERS guitarist/vocalist Nicke Andersson states: “The album has 10 songs, and although it’s obviously not easy to be objective at all, I think musically it sums up everything we’ve touched upon from the start in 1994 up until now. Some of the songs date back as far as 10 years or more, and some were written more recently. It’s rock and roll played with high energy, so for lack of a better term, I say high-energy rock and roll. You could say it sounds like THE BEATLES meets JUDAS PRIEST or LYNYRD SKYNYRD meets the RAMONES but the best way to describe this album is that it sounds like THE HELLACOPTERS today.”

To celebrate the kick-off of this new chapter for THE HELLACOPTERS, the Swedes are sharing with you a band new single, the anthemic album opener “Reap A Hurricane”. The song presents itself as a potential future fan-favourite with all of the juicy riffs and in-your-face swagger you could’ve possibly hoped for, topped off with a captivating chorus that won’t leave your head any time soon.

“Reap A Hurricane” continues the good old HELLACOPTERS tradition of releasing physical seven-inch singles in each album cycle. The seven-inch vinyl of “Reap A Hurricane” will be released on February 4, 2022, and it features an exclusive song called “Done Fighting” as a B-side. The seven-inch is available in two different color variants, red and green, which applies to both the vinyl and the respective cover.

THE HELLACOPTERS were formed in 1994 by ENTOMBED drummer Andersson and BACKYARD BABIES guitarist Dregen.

THE HELLACOPTERS’ second album, 1997’s “Payin’ The Dues”, was the band’s last studio effort to feature Dregen before his departure to focus full-time on BACKYARD BABIES.

In October 2007, THE HELLACOPTERS announced that they would be breaking up after the release of their seventh full-length album, “Head Off”, a collection of cover songs. Eight years later, the band reunited, initially for an exclusive performance at the Sweden Rock Festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut album, “Supershitty To The Max!”

Robert “Strängen” Dahlqvist, who played guitar for THE HELLACOPTERS for nearly a decade, died in February 2017 at the age of 40.

Dahlqvist was a member of THE HELLACOPTERS from 1999 until the group disbanded in 2008.

THE HELLACOPTERS achieved two gold certifications, won the Swedish Grammy equivalent and a Kerrang! award, and have amassed 100 million streams to date.

Read more »

San Francisco mayor London Breed proclaimed Thursday (December 16) as “Metallica Day” in the city, ahead of the band’s citywide “takeover” this weekend for its 40th anniversary.

Earlier today, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich and bassist Robert Trujillo appeared with Breed and Another Planet Entertainment president Gregg Perloff for a press event where an official proclamation was made commemorating the first 40 years of the legendary heavy metal band.

Mayor Breed praised the band for its importance to San Francisco and the Bay Area, calling the members of METALLICA “extraordinary musicians and people”

“They’re part of the fabric of the community,” Breed said. “They have touched people’s lives for generations.

“When you talk about San Francisco, you talk about cable cars and then you talk about METALLICA,” she said. “And on behalf of the City and County of San Francisco, I want to officially declare today ‘Metallica Day’.”

Ulrich and Trujillo spoke about the acceptance and sense of home that San Francisco offered to METALLICA after the band first moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles in 1982.

“We didn’t start in San Francisco,” Lars said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “We started in Southern California. And we came up to San Francisco, the first time, in 1982, in September, and played at the Stone and subsequently played at the Old Waldorf a couple of times… And we had done six, nine months in Los Angeles, and we did not belong.

“The reason we all wanted to be in a band was to fit into something greater than ourselves, and we absolutely did not fit into anything in Los Angeles, Sunset Strip, Hollywood — any of that. We felt like complete outsiders,” he explained. “When we came up here in September of 1982 and we started playing, we played four shows that fall — like I said, at the Stone, the Old Waldorf and at the Mabuhay Gardens — and we were embraced and we were taken in and we felt so welcomed and so loved up here. There was a sense of music community for people like ourselves who felt like outsiders, who liked things that were not in the mainstream, and that was has obviously been a significant part of San Francisco’s history. So coming up here in 1982, standing on the shoulder of the history of the culture, the Beat poets and the hippie movement and the music and Bill Graham and everything that San Francisco represented, we were just embraced instantly. We felt so welcomed, so loved and we felt finally like we belonged someplace. And it’s been 39 years of feeling that sense of belonging, to not just a geographical place — San Francisco, the Bay Area, Northern California, whatever you wanna call it — but it’s also a state of mind. You belong to what San Francisco represents.

“We have been so proud to shout from every rooftop all over the world, at every press conference, in every mic that’s been shoved in our faces for the better part of 40 years how much San Francisco gave us an identity and gave us, like I said, a sense of belonging,” he added. “And we fly the flag proud for San Francisco and the Bay Area all over the world on our t-shirts. But we are so proud of our connection to everything that San Francisco represents and to all the wonderful people, to, obviously, the great physical and geographical elements here and the history and the cable cars and the Giants and the Warriors and the list goes on.

“Those of you who know our story know that we’ve been fortunate enough to travel all over the world — we’ve played all seven continents — and there are many, many wonderful places on this planet where music, compared to when we started — Latin America, Southeast Asia, places that you wouldn’t expect 30, 40 years ago that you could bring rock and roll to — that have now also embraced us. But our hearts and our souls and our sense of belonging will always be San Francisco. And METALLICA and San Francisco will always be two words which are synonymous with each other.”

This past July, METALLICA announced details of its massive 40th-birthday celebration: The band will mark this milestone by inviting the worldwide METALLICA family to join them in their hometown of San Francisco for two unique live shows featuring two different setlists December 17 and 19 at Chase Center. Tickets for these shows were made available only to registered members of METALLICA’s Fifth Member fan club.

The 40th-anniversary shows see METALLICA return to Chase Center for the first time since the September 2019 “S&M²” concerts that also served as the venue’s grand opening. It was impossible not to notice that fans from more than 60 countries traveled to the City by the Bay and completely took over San Francisco for “S&M²” weekend. That outpouring of positive vibes from around the world inspired METALLICA to invite those Fifth Members back — and this time, in addition to the two shows at Chase Center, METALLICA will be curating other live music and comedy events, Blackened Whiskey tastings, and so much more all around the city during the long four-day weekend of celebrations starting on Thursday, December 16.

Formed in 1981 by Ulrich and guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield, METALLICA has become one of the most influential and successful rock bands in history, having sold nearly 120 million albums worldwide and generating more than 2.5 billion streams while playing to millions of fans on literally all seven continents. The band’s several multi-platinum albums include “Kill ‘Em All”, “Ride The Lightning”, “Master Of Puppets”, “… And Justice For All”, “Metallica” (commonly referred to as The Black Album), “Load”, “Reload”, “St. Anger”, “Death Magnetic” and “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct”, released in November 2016 and charting at No. 1 in 32 countries.

METALLICA’s awards and accolades include nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, multiple MTV Video Music Awards, and its 2009 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. In June of 2018, the band was awarded one of the most prestigious musical honors in the world: Sweden’s Polar Music Prize. METALLICA’s newest release, the “S&M²” album and film, arrived in August 2020 on the band’s own Blackened Recordings label. “S&M²” chronicles METALLICA and San Francisco Symphony’s September 6 and September 8, 2019 “S&M²” concerts that served as the grand opening of San Francisco’s Chase Center and reunited the band and Symphony for the first time in 20 years. “S&M²” brings those historic shows back to life, capturing more than two and a half hours of James, Lars, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo joining forces with the nearly 80-strong San Francisco Symphony, legendary music director of the orchestra Michael Tilson Thomas and conductor Edwin Outwater.

Metallica’s San Francisco Takeover

Join us LIVE at Chase Center with Metallica as they discuss their 40th Anniversary San Francisco takeover.

Posted by Chase Center on Thursday, December 16, 2021

Metallica Day at Chase Center.

Posted by 107.7 The Bone on Thursday, December 16, 2021

It’s official, Happy Metallica Day!! It was an honor to ask the first question at the Chase Center press conference…

Posted by Chasta Freeman Michaelis on Thursday, December 16, 2021

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lars Ulrich (@larsulrich)

Read more »

Hear Copenhagen-based experi-metal/post-mental trio Bye Bye Tsunami squall their way through a noisy, banana-triggered psychotic episode.
The post Track Premiere: Bye Bye Tsunami – “Holdin’ Banana Spiders Through The Folds Of Time/Space” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Read more »

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor spoke to Lou Brutus of HardDrive Radio about the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s follow-up to 2019’s “We Are Not Your Kind” album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “When we started first putting the new music together, it was a lot of flying around, people doing it in certain spots and trying to get the best out of it even though we were in the confines of lockdowns and stuff. So it was tricky. But we had a great producer with Joe Barresi, and he knows how to get the best out of pretty much any band that he’s ever worked with. He’s super rad and loves what we do, which sometimes that’s all you need — is just somebody going, ‘We’re gonna do this.’ So he would come into town so I could do the vocals. He would fly out and get the guys together to do the guitars and stuff, get them together with [drummer] Jay [Weinberg] while the drums were going on. We were able to really kind of pull off something crazy. And now we’re about… I’d say we’re about 90 percent away from the album being finished. And it’s really good; I’m really, really stoked on it. I actually like this one more than I like ‘We Are Not Your Kind’, and I loved ‘We Are Not Your Kind’.”

As for when the new SLIPKNOT album might see the light of day, Corey said: “The goal right now — and I don’t wanna talk out of turn — the goal is to get it ready for mix [in] January so we can get it out two or three months after. I have four songs that I have to sing, ’cause I’m redoing one that I wasn’t happy with; I listened to it, and I was, like, ‘I can do that better.’ And honestly, very rarely have I ever had the opportunity to do that. So it’s actually kind of rad that I’m getting a chance to go in and go, ‘You know what? I can beat what I did.’ But that’s gonna take me five days to get that done. ‘Cause I’m gonna do those four songs and then go back through and do punch-up on anything that I’m just not feeling. But it’s gonna be very, very little ’cause I’m pretty down with everything that I’ve got. So once that’s done, man, it’s just a matter of having Joe mix it. And I know [percussionist] Clown’s [Shawn Crahan] been working on the artwork. We’re working on a video for… obviously for [recently released single] ‘[The] Chapeltown [Rag]’, but also probably for whatever the first single’s gonna be. Yeah, it’s just a matter of time before we start getting it together.”

Asked what the songwriting process in SLIPKNOT is like nowadays since the band’s two main songwriters, bassist Paul Gray and drummer Joey Jordison, are no longer in the group, Corey said: “I think that’s the greatest misconception. People think that Joey and Paul wrote all the music. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Everybody writes. Joe and Paul were the ones that would get stuff going, but it would always change from their demo to the main meat of what the song would actually become. So, from that standpoint, we’ve still got writers like Jim [Root, guitar], we’ve still got writers like Mick [Thomson, guitar], we’ve still got writers like Clown; Clown has written a lot of stuff over the years. And the people have just never gotten a lot of the credit that they’re due, I guess. I mean, I’ve written stuff for this band from time to time when I get the bug to write something super heavy. Then they take it and make it better — they always make it better. So from that standpoint, it’s not really any different than the way it’s been in the past. Obviously, the music sounds different because Paul’s voice isn’t there, Joey’s voice isn’t there. And yet we still are able to write in a way that sounds very SLIPKNOT, and that’s because it would always go through the SLIPKNOT filter. No matter what demo we wrote, it would always go through the SLIPKNOT filter and become a SLIPKNOT song.”

SLIPKNOT performed “The Chapeltown Rag” live for the first time on November 5 at Knotfest Los Angeles. The studio version of “The Chapeltown Rag”, which was released that same day, was produced bythe aforementioned Barresi, who has previously worked with AVENGED SEVENFOLD, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE and CHEVELLE, among many others.

Taylor described the song to Knotfest.com as “a punisher,” saying it documents what happens when the distortions of mass media circulate within the echo chambers of social media.

“It’s classic SLIPKNOT,” said Corey about the track, which is inspired by a Netflix documentary he watched about the Yorkshire Ripper serial killer who murdered multiple women in the West Yorkshire, United Kingdom suburb Chapeltown in the late 1970s. “And it’s frenetic. But lyrically, it’s coming from a point of talking about the various manipulations that can happen when social media meets media itself. And the different ways that these manipulations can try to pull us in different directions, in the fact that we’re all becoming addicts to it, which is very, very dangerous.”

“We Are Not Your Kind” was released in August 2019. The LP sold 118,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Furthermore, the album made an impact worldwide with No. 1 debuts in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal and Finland, as well as Top 5 debuts in Germany, France, Norway, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and New Zealand.

SLIPKNOT recently completed the “Knotfest Roadshow” tour, featuring support from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, FEVER 333 and CODE ORANGE. The 29-date run, produced by Live Nation, kicked off following the band’s Knotfest Iowa hometown show in Des Moines on September 25.

SLIPKNOT announced its split with Jordison in December 2013 but did not disclose the reasons for his exit. The drummer subsequently issued a statement saying that he did not quit the group.

Joey’s family confirmed that he died “peacefully in his sleep” on July 26 of an unspecified cause.

Gray was found dead on May 24, 2010 after overdosing on drugs in a hotel room in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa, where he and SLIPKNOT were based. His family blamed the death on a Des Moines pain doctor, Daniel Baldi, who had treated Gray for years, and sued the doctor and his former employers.

Photo courtesy of Steve Thrasher

Read more »