More photos have been posted online of Alexi Laiho’s final resting place. The CHILDREN OF BODOM frontman’s ashes were buried earlier this month — nearly a year after his tragic passing at the age of 41. He was laid to rest at the Malmi Cemetery, a large cemetery located in the Malmi district in Helsinki, Finland.

Australian-born music publicist Kelli Wright, who says she married the musician three years before his death, announced Alexi’s burial in a social media post last Friday (December 10). She wrote: “Finally, with extremely mixed emotions, I can announce MY late, unconditionally and forever loved husband’s ashes were buried yesterday on our 4 th Wedding Anniversary. The family Laiho plot is where he was buried. Alexi and Kelli 2005 – eternity”.

A large gravestone has been ordered for Alexi’s final resting place, but it has not yet been installed. Social media posts of Alexi’s grave show a candle sitting on top of his burial spot.

At the time of his death, Alexi was still legally married to his former SINERGY bandmate Kimberly Goss. In January 2021, Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported that Laiho tied the knot with Goss in February 2002, and the couple never officially divorced. Although Laiho filed for divorce in November 2002, he quickly withdrew the petition and never filed another.

According to Finnish law, Laiho and Wright would not have been able to legally wed, as Laiho and Goss had never terminated their marriage.

This past March, Alexi’s sister Anna accused Kimberly of holding up the burial process, writing in a social media post that Goss was using “her legal rights as a widow, preventing grie[v]ing mother and father [from] bury[ing] their own son. Her selfish and narcissistic explanation is that she wanted to take part in the funeral and still wants to be present when the ashes are buried,” she wrote. “But our family does not want this monster anywhere near us.”

For her part, Goss, who lives in Chicago, Illinois, denied allegations that was “a ‘gold-digger’ who Alexi ‘hated’,” explaining that “this can be easily disproven through the beautiful text and video messages he sent me daily, right until the last day of his life. Messages so sweet, yet so heartbreaking at the same time. Heartbreaking because you can see how ill he was. I tried everything I could to help him. I often messaged people in Helsinki to check in on him because I was so worried.”

This week, Anna told Ilta-Sanomat that “the protracted dispute” over her brother’s ashes was “over” and that she and the rest of her family welcomed the opportunity to focus on grieving her brother “in a new way.”

Alexi died on December 29, 2020 in his home in Helsinki, Finland. He died of alcohol-induced degeneration of the liver and pancreas connective tissue. Furthermore, Laiho had a cocktail of painkillers, opioids and insomnia medication in his system. He had suffered from long-term health issues leading up to his death.

Alexi and drummer Jaska Raatikainen founded CHILDREN OF BODOM in 1993, and the band was one of the most internationally acclaimed metal acts in Finland up until their very last farewell concert in December of 2019. Last year, Alexi put together BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT, which recorded three songs and shot one music video, all of which were released posthumously.

Besides CHILDREN OF BODOM, Laiho had played in such acts as WARMEN, SINERGY, KYLÄHULLUT and THE LOCAL BAND. Awarded with a Metal Hammer Golden God and several other international prizes, the guitarist was also the main star, leading a group of one hundred guitar players at the Helsinki Festival in 2015 in “100 Guitars From Hel” — a massive concert piece he composed.

At Malmi graveyard today. It was quiet and peaceful. Grave itself is under a mighty tree, in a very beautiful place….

Posted by Marian Elsinghorst on Saturday, December 11, 2021

Alexi laiho forever ❤️

Posted by Bikalp Rai on Sunday, December 12, 2021

Diving into T2’s 1970 prog-rock debut It’ll All Work Out in Boomland.
The post Primitive Origins: T2’s ‘It’ll All Work Out in Boomland’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

DREAM THEATER singer James LaBrie spoke to Full Metal Jackie’s nationally syndicated radio show about his upcoming solo album “Beautiful Shade Of Gray”, which is due on May 20, 2022 via InsideOut Music. Unlike previous LPs “Elements Of Persuasion” (2005), “Static Impulse” (2010) and “Impermanent Resonance” (2013), which were written and recorded as a collaboration with LaBrie’s songwriting partner for over a dozen years, Matt Guillory, the new effort was tracked with Scottish musician Paul Logue, bassist and founding member of the multinational melodic metal band EDEN’S CURSE.

Speaking about how 1970s rock music influenced and inspired his new solo album, James said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m a huge [LED] ZEPPELIN fan. I’m a huge [fan of] PINK FLOYD and AEROSMITH and DEEP PURPLE and all that. These bands were so iconic back in the ’70s. So a lot of the inspiration, when I sat down with Paul Logue, who’s the other musician that I wrote the album with, and he’s from Scotland, I said, ‘Paul, I just want us to think more about…’ If you think about the acoustic end of ZEPPELIN and their organic approach to their songs, it was still beautiful, it was still powerful, extremely melodic, and it just kind of reached deep within, it resonated deep within each and every one of us that listened to any ZEPPELIN. So that was the catalyst to set things in motion. It became a full ensemble. I mean, I have keyboards, drums, bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar and then myself doing all the vocals. So it’s somewhat acoustic but it’s also a full ensemble as well. So it still has the full band kind of sound and orchestration.”

Regarding the lyrical themes covered on the LP, James said: “‘Beautiful Shade Of Gray’ has a lot to do with the lyrics that I wrote for this album. And a lot of my lyrics are dealing with the human condition and all the dynamics of life in itself that each and every one of us experience and, to a certain degree, it’s common for most of us to go through the same experiences. So I wanted to write a lot about that. So that’s kind of what inspired this whole venture.”

LaBrie went on to say that he was “really excited for everyone to hear” “Beautiful Shade Of Gray”. “It came out fantastic,” he said.

Two months ago, James told “The Everyman Podcast” about how his collaboration with Logue came about: “I sang on one of [EDEN’S CURSE’s] songs back in 2010 called ‘No Holy Man’; so I guest on that. And I really liked Paul’s writing. To me, Paul’s writing was more from a classical era — like the ’70s; that classic rock approach. And I had a lot of ideas in that vein.

“Paul and I actually bumped into each other — you think fate isn’t there with you; holy shit… The day after we finished the show — DREAM THEATER in Glasgow [on] February 23rd [2020]. I’m waiting for my flight on the 24th to go to London and then Toronto, and Paul walks by me and he goes, ‘James!’ I’m, like, ‘Oh my God!’ He goes, ‘You know I was at the show last night.’ He kept trying to e-mail me on my old e-mail address. And he goes, ‘Listen, let me know. You wanna get together? You wanna do some writing?’ And I said, ‘I’d love to.’ At the time, I said, ‘I don’t know. Some freaky shit’s going on. You’re hearing about this virus?’ ‘Yeah. Yeah.’ [I said] ‘We’ve gotta go to Asia, then we’ve gotta go to freakin’ South America and North America and all that.’ I said, ‘So we’re probably not gonna be done till October, but why don’t we start writing then? Or why don’t we start throwing ideas back in the meantime, and I can even be on the road and working on it?’ And he goes, ‘Great.’ All of a sudden, the world closes down. So we got on it… It was probably… Everything closed down March 15th, I believe, and by March 20th, him and I were already passing ideas back and forth.”

Elaborating on the songwriting process for “Beautiful Shade Of Gray”, LaBrie said: “We started as, we said, ‘Let’s just keep it real raw and acoustic-based — that’ll be the fundamental of this album,’ and then it kind of morphed into more of an ensemble, so [with] keyboards… Marco Sfogli is playing lead guitar on all the tracks. Paul is playing all the rhythm acoustic guitars and bass. And then [my son] Chance [LaBrie] is doing drums. Christian Pulkkinen is the keyboard player, who’s a fantastic keyboard player, piano player. All the lyrics, except one, I penned.

“It was really interesting how it came together, whether I’d be throwing [Paul] a riff or I’d be throwing him a melody idea that became a chorus to one of the songs or verses,” he continued. “And then he’d throw me back his ideas musically. And we slowly but surely put it all together. We had everybody fully involved. And it came out fantastic. The label is really stoked about it. It has that kind of ZEPPELIN-esque feel to it, but still the modern-day aspects of it as well are there. So it’s great.”

“Impermanent Resonance” was released in August 2013 via InsideOut Music. The follow-up to “Static Impulse” saw Guillory not only taking the leading role in composing the material, but also handling all of the keyboards and background vocals. The album’s lineup was intact from the previous recording, featuring Marco Sfogli from Italy on guitar, Ray Riendeau (HALFORD, MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE) on bass and Swedish drummer Peter Wildoer (DARKANE, MAJESTIC), who was a finalist in the DREAM THEATER drum auditions. Additionally, former SOILWORK guitarist Peter Wichers came into the fold to contribute songwriting and studio guitars.

In 2014, LaBrie released a digital EP, “I Will Not Break”, via InsideOut Music. While the opening title track was the album version taken from the “Impermanent Resonance” release, two other songs were previously only released physically as digipak bonus tracks, one tune was an alternate mix version, and two other songs were special demo versions, all previously only released physically as bonus tracks on the digipak and the Japanese edition for the “Static Impulse” album in 2010. The last three tracks were special dub step / electronica remixes of “Static Impulse” songs, previously unreleased. The remixes were done by U.S.-based DJs Jason Miller, Mutrix and NeonGenesis. The cover artwork for the EP was once again designed by Gustavo Sazes of Abstrata.net (ARCH ENEMY, KAMELOT).

Vocalist Biff Byford of British metal veterans SAXON spoke to Liselotte “Lilo” Hegt of HeadBangers LifeStyle about the band’s plans to return to the road in 2022. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[We’re doing] 40th-anniversary shows [in the U.K.] with a big production. And we’ve got three of those to do [in January]. And we’ve also got some of those to do in Europe as well in the summer, at the festivals. So I don’t know what’s happening with them. They’re still on. They’ve been postponed and put back to next year, like Bang Your Head!!! in Germany and Graspop [Metal Meeting in Belgium]. We’re doing festivals in the summer — they’re still there; we’re still doing them. And I think we’re gonna be touring in autumn in Europe and the U.K. I think the first tour we might do next year will be America.”

He continued: “You can’t book things too far in front — too soon, I mean — because it all gets changed; the governments are changing things all the time [due to COVID-19 restrictions]. But you can make it a little bit later on, to see whether we can get over the new variant — omicron or whatever the fuck it is. Just fingers crossed, really, that we can do that. But meanwhile, just in case, we’re planning albums to do. If we’re not gonna be touring, then we’re gonna be making more music. That’s the plan.”

Asked what the situation is like with live events in the U.K. at the moment, Biff said: “We’re wearing masks again in shops. They haven’t said anything about big events yet. I just think they’re waiting to see if this variant makes people more sick than the last one [did]. I think that’s what it’s about. Everybody has to have a booster. They’re vaccinating people like crazy in the U.K.; that’s what they’re doing.”

SAXON will release its 23rd studio album, “Carpe Diem”, on February 4, 2022 via Silver Lining Music. The LP was produced by Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, EXODUS, ACCEPT) at Backstage Recording Studios in Derbyshire with Byford and Sneap mixing and mastering.

John Cooper, the frontman and bassist for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band SKILLET, has once again railed against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, saying it is “absolutely insane” that the government is requiring vaccines as a way to contain the virus outbreak, which has killed nearly 800,000 people in the U.S.

The 46-year-old vocalist/bassist, who previously publicly revealed that he was unvaccinated, discussed his views on the COVID-19 vaccines during the final 2021 installment of his “Cooper Stuff” video podcast.

He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’s a new year. I don’t know where we’re at. I don’t know if it’s gonna get worse or if, all of a sudden, people are gonna wake up and realize how insane this is, how absolutely insane it is that we are pushing mandates — all over the whole world, by the way — at a time when countries are getting… I think America is, like, 70 percent vaccinated now. Are we close to 70 percent vaccinated? I can’t remember. Some of these countries in Europe are 80, 90 percent vaccinated. Some of them have, in terms of adults, 98 percent vaccination rates for people over 15 or 16. At a time when a lot of these countries, basically, for all intents and purposes, should have, quote, herd immunity, which is a whole other discussion, because they have those populations vaccinated but the rates of COVID are still going up, it is absolute insanity to say, ‘Well, the answer then has to be mandated vaccines. You’re not allowed to come out of your house.'”

He continued: “I’m not telling you not to get a vaccine. I’m not even an anti-vaxxer. Except that the dictionary changed the [definition] of anti-vaxxer and now part of what anti-vaxx means is that if you don’t support mandates, you’re an anti-vaxxer. So I a guess I am an anti-vaxxer. I’m not against vaccines. I’m not against this vaccine. I’m just against the mandate.

“But the question just remains: when you have 70, 80, 90, 96 percent vaccinated people and your rates of COVID are still going up, why are people asking that question?” he added. “Are people gonna wake up to this finally? I really just don’t know. I honestly don’t know.

“Last year, I felt like certainly it was gonna get worse before it gets better. I don’t think we’re out of it yet. I think we’re still going to watch a little bit of this getting worse, to be honest with you. But I like to think that we’re at least on the backside.”

Last month, the Memphis, Tennessee-born Cooper, who lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin, said that COVID-19 vaccine mandates are “much more about tyranny than they are actually keeping people safe.”

During the summer, Cooper opened up about his reluctance to wear masks, saying: “The issue of the mask wearing, to me, is nothing more than theater. It is making me jump into an unreality, something that I do not believe, just to acquiesce to either the overlords — overlords meaning government, Big Tech [Editor’s note: A name given to the five largest and most dominant companies in the information technology industry of the United States — namely Google (Alphabet), Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft], big business, big media, whatever — to acquiesce to what they want me to do. Even though I know that it’s not true, but I’m gonna play the game. And every time I put my mask on, I know that I’m doing something that I do not believe in. In other words, I’m being forced to lie… I’m being forced to jump into something I don’t believe, and I’m living by a lie — I’m living by a lie that this mask is actually gonna keep me safe from all harm. To acquiesce to the government, which says that I’m believing something that I know that I don’t believe. So now I’m basically living in a fantasy world. That frightens me. And every time I put that mask on, that’s basically what I think. I know I’m doing this, I know it’s show, I know it’s theater, I know my overlords don’t even believe in it, because if they did, they wouldn’t be breaking all of their own rules.”

In the U.S., more than 61% of the population are currently fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, while more than 72% have received at least one shot, according to data from the CDC.

More than 797,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the U.S.

According to the nonpartisan, nonprofit web site Fact Check, while vaccines reduce the probability of getting infected, they are not 100% effective, so there is a chance that an unvaccinated person could infect a vaccinated person — particularly the vulnerable, such as elderly and immunocompromised individuals. And, despite vaccination providing excellent protection against severe disease, a small proportion of vaccinated people still require ICU care.

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

Watch the new video from spazzy grind project, Deaf Club!
The post Video Premiere: Deaf Club Skirts Around the Law with “Shoplift from Jail” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

In a new interview with Pete Bailey of Primordial Radio, Swedish multi-instrumentalist Peter Tägtgren was asked if his former LINDEMANN collaborator, vocalist Till Lindemann of German industrial metallers RAMMSTEIN, is as “larger than life” as appears to be. “Yeah, if you see it from the outside,” Peter responded. “If you know him, he’s not really any different than anybody else. He just has a vision of how he likes things to look like. And he’s a very smart guy when it comes to the business stuff and to the show. Other than that, he’s a normal guy.”

Two months ago, Peter admitted to the “Scars And Guitars” podcast that he was “not really” friends with Till anymore. “But it doesn’t matter,” he said. “So, just to keep it short and [concise], we did something major and it left rings on the water, so to say. I’m proud of it. I was happy. We were really productive when we were working together. There is nothing like me and him when we start doing shit. We can just sit and talk about things like, ‘Ah, it would be cool to do it like this,’ and then 10 minutes later, we have it.”

Tägtgren previously spoke about his exit from LINDEMANN in a chat with Landry.Audio. At the time, he said: “I can just tell you this: it was great when it was, and it wasn’t great when it wasn’t — put it that way.”

He continued: “[Till and I] had a dynamite chemistry. We just had to look at each other and then we started writing music. It was that easy. The easiest part was the studio work. We could have spit out hundreds of songs every year because we had so many ideas, and we really clicked.

“So, yeah, it’s sad,” Peter added. “We could have been one of the biggest bands in the world if we kept on going, I tell you that. It was insane.

“I was taking care of the music, and he was taking care of the image. And in between there, we helped each other, kind of.”

This past July, Peter told the “I Ask No One” video podcast that the final tour he played with LINDEMANN “was not really my cup of tea at all, to be honest. And that’s why we’re not playing anymore together. So [Till] can go on with his stuff; I go on with my stuff. To keep it very simple.”

In November 2020, Tägtgren and Lindemann confirmed that they were ending their collaboration on the LINDEMANN project.

LINDEMANN’s second album, “F & M”, was released in November 2019. The follow-up to 2015’s “Skills In Pills” was once again produced and mixed by Tägtgren.

“Skills In Pills” reached gold status in Germany and was entirely in English. On the second opus, Lindemann went back to singing exclusively in German.

LINDEMANN had received some criticism due to its use of pornography during its second album cycle, with the music video for “Platz Eins” described by one site as “full-on art porn — slick and stylish, weird and experimental, and definitely X-rated.”

LINDEMANN released a concert film, “Live In Moscow”, in May on Blu-ray. The set included professionally filmed video footage of LINDEMANN’s March 15, 2020 performance at Moscow, Russia’s VTB Arena.

MASTODON guitarist Bill Kelliher spoke to the FM99 WNOR radio station about the fact that he and his bandmates decided from the beginning to split their songwriting credits equally between the four members of the group. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “In our band, when we first started, I remember when signing [a record deal]… We got a lawyer, and he wanted [to know], ‘How do you wanna divvy all your publishing up?’ And, ‘Who writes what?’ — music and stuff like that. And I thought about it long and hard, and I said everybody in the band has a job and everybody does something. It might not always be this person that writes every song, and I just think it’d be silly if it’s, like, well, the guys that write the most get paid the most. ‘Cause that’s gonna be like a competition now in our band. So many bands break up over that. Bands that have one guy that does all the writing tend to kind of sound very similar on every song.

“I said, ‘You know what? Just divvy everything up 25 percent [for each member],'” he revealed. “So, no matter what people do in the band… Everyone always has a job. And sometimes Troy [Sanders, bass/vocals] doesn’t write that many riffs, but he writes lyrics. Brann [Dailor, drums/vocals] plays drums but he writes most of the lyrical content lately.

“I just didn’t want it to be like a competition,” Bill added. “And it’s worked out well for us. Everybody writes and everybody contributes in their own ways. Back in the day, Troy drove the van 90 percent of the time. It’s, like, well, how do you pay somebody more for that if they don’t write the music and you have it in the contract where the guys that write the music get paid more. We’re not that kind of band. We’re a very fair and democratic kind of band. And that’s what keeps us going.”

Last month, MASTODON was announced as one of the “Best Metal Performance” nominees at the 64th annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on January 31, 2022, at the Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) in Los Angeles, California. The progressive metallers were nominated for their song “Pushing The Tides”, the first single from their latest album, “Hushed And Grim”, which came out in October.

The follow-up to 2017’s “Emperor Of Sand”, “Hushed And Grim”was recorded at West End Sound, which is located inside of Ember City, the rehearsal facility that members of MASTODON manage in Atlanta. Helming the effort was Grammy-winning producer/mixer/engineer David Bottrill, who has previously worked with MUSE, DREAM THEATER and TOOL, among many others.

The “Hushed And Grim” artwork was created by longtime MASTODON collaborator Paul Romano, who also designed the sleeves for “Crack The Skye”, “Blood Mountain”, “Leviathan” and more.

“Emperor Of Sand” debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. That LP was nominated for the 2018 Grammy Award for “Best Rock Album,” and its opening track, “Sultan’s Curse”, won the Grammy Award for “Best Metal Performance.”

In a new interview with Consequence, IRON MAIDEN drummer Nicko McBrain was asked now he and his bandmates balance MAIDEN’s creative vision with the lofty expectations of fans. He responded: “Of course, we’ve got the best fans in the world. We got the best critics, and we got some of the most stupid critics in the world, as well. [But] I’ve gotta be honest, we’re a very selfish, motivated band. We love our fans. When we go out on tour, that’s when we think of you guys: What do you wanna see? But it’s not the main motivation. Because if you get lost in that world… ‘What do you think all these fans wanna see?’… You’re gonna have different fans and attitudes around different parts of the world. You’re all one big family, but say South America… they might want to hear certain older songs or whatever. But from an album standpoint, when we go in the studio, I’m sorry, none of you lot out there are even thought one millisecond about. Please don’t get offended, any of you lot out there. We just write what we — at that time in that studio, in that circle of the sun, if you like, where we are in that time of our lives — come up with. There’s a lot of pressure on the writers, but we all tend to be able to suck that pressure in. Like an atomic bomb, we’ve got this nucleus, then we explode within the song. Once the song is written, that’s where MAIDEN come alive and we make it ours.”

Nicko added: “The fans, we really think about you guys primarily when we’re putting tours together and the visual aspect of it. But we are really very selfish. We do it for ourselves really. And we pretty much know what you like, so that’s where you guys come into it.”

MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson previously touched upon fans’ expectations in a 2017 interview with Fortune while discussing the importance of playing new songs live. He stated at the time: “If you take advantage of them [fans], as in you serve up the same old thing every single tour, you can expect some of them to walk away. That is just a band becoming a karaoke band. If you’re not doing new music, why bother? We don’t share the idea that going and doing stadiums, playing 30-year-old songs, is a success. It’s just making money.”

When asked about the fans who want them to play only the classic 1980s songs, he said: “That’s tough. In that case, don’t come.”

In a 2016 interview with The Music, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris admitted that songs from the band’s then-latest album, “The Book Of Souls”, weren’t going over as well as MAIDEN’s earlier material. “It’s like any new tour with new songs; you’re not going to get the reaction that the old stuff gets,” he said. “It’s just always like that when you’re playing new stuff. Maybe one day a couple of them songs will be regarded as a massive part of the set, once people know them more. But I think it’s really important to push your new stuff; it keeps things fresh.”

“Senjutsu”, IRON MAIDEN’s first album in six years, came out in September. It was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Harris.

For “Senjutsu” — loosely translated as “tactics and strategy” — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

“Senjutsu” bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band’s early classics like “Powerslave” and “The Number Of The Beast”. Nearly 90 percent of the LP’s 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015’s “The Book Of Souls” and 2010’s “The Final Frontier”, which both peaked at No. 4.

“Senjutsu” was MAIDEN’s 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.

MAIDEN’s first two Paul Di’Anno-era albums, “Iron Maiden” (1980) and “Killers” (1981), as well as with those recorded with singer Blaze Bayley, “The X Factor” (1995) and “Virtual XI” (1998), all failed to dent the Top 40 in the U.S.

According to Billboard, “Senjutsu” logged the second-largest week of 2021 for a hard rock album in both equivalent album units earned and in traditional album sales. It trailed only FOO FIGHTERS’ “Medicine At Midnight”, which debuted on the Feb. 20 chart with 70,000 units (of which 64,000 were in album sales).

“Senjutsu” topped the charts in several European countries upon its release, including in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.