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Manos Spanos

Former THE HAUNTED Singer PETER DOLVING Says SPOTIFY Is A ‘Ripoff Construction’

Manos Spanos
AltSounds recently conducted an interview with former THE HAUNTED frontman Peter Dolving. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. AltSounds: What do you think about the new and popular streaming services like Spotify? Do you think it is fair for the artists? Peter Dolving: Well, this is not even an opinion; It is NOT fair to the artists. ESPECIALLY if they sign the rights to their work away to an outside entity. It's really as simple as that. Spotify etc. are ripoff constructions. There is ONE place that do it right, and it'sBandcamp.com. True story. AltSounds: There's still a great discussion about how damaging that music piracy has been to the music industry and to the artists that try to sell their work. Do you think illegal downloads can help people to discover bands and records they would later buy merchandise, go to gigs or even buy original albums?
03 min read

IRON MAIDEN Tops BILLBOARD’s ‘Hot Tours’ Chart

Manos Spanos
British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN this week landed at position No. 1 on Billboard.com 's "Hot Tours" list of top-grossing tours with $19 million in ticket sales from 14 performances in 13 cities on their summer tour of Europe. The shows were attended by a total of 259,298 fans, including a sellout crowd of 55,531 at a football stadium, Friends Arena, in the Stockholm suburb of Solna, Sweden. Also included was a sold-out concert on May 29 at Lisbon, Portugal's Pavilhão Atlântico. IRON MAIDEN's August 3 show at London, England's O2 Arena (with a capacity of up to 20,000, depending on the event) sold out in just 12 minutes, so a second show was added on Sunday, August 4. This will definitely be the band's last U.K. show this year as soon after they head off for a few selected USA shows before a massive trip around Latin America, including headlining Rock In Rio and national stadiums in Mexico, Chile and Argentina.
02 min read

IN FLAMES Featuring THE HAUNTED’s PATRIK JENSEN: Footage From GRASPOP METAL MEETING

Manos Spanos
Fan-filmed video footage of IN FLAMES' June 30 performance at the Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium can be seen below. IN FLAMES guitarist Niclas Engelin is sitting out a few of the band's shows this summer. His temporary replacement for those gigs is Patrik Jensen from THE HAUNTED. IN FLAMES' tenth album, "Sounds Of A Playground Fading" (Century Media), sold around 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart. IN FLAMES' previous CD, "A Sense of Purpose" (Koch) opened with 20,000 units to land at No. 28. This was slightly less than the opening tally of "Come Clarity" (Ferret), which shifted just under 24,000 copies in February 2006 to enter the chart at position No. 58. "Sounds Of A Playground Fading" was the first IN FLAMES album to be recorded without founding guitarist Jesper Strömblad, who quit the band in February 2010 in order to continue receiving treatment for his alcohol addiction.
01 min read

KORN: ‘The Paradigm Shift’ Cover Artwork, Track Listing Revealed

Manos Spanos
KORN will release its 11th studio album, titled "The Paradigm Shift", on October 1. The disc is the first to feature original guitarist Brian "Head" Welch since 2003's "Take A Look In The Mirror". "The Paradigm Shift" track listing: 01. Prey For Me 02. Love & Meth 03. What We Do 04. Spike In My Veins 05. Mass Hysteria 06. Paranoid And Aroused 07. Never Never 08. Punishment Time 09. Lullaby For A Sadist 10. Victimized 11. It's All Wrong 12. Wish I Wasn’t Born Today (bonus track on deluxe edition) 13. Tell Me What You Want (bonus track on deluxe edition) The cover artwork for "The Paradigm Shift" can be seen below. Welch told The Pulse Of Radio how it felt to get back in the studio and record with the band again. "You know, all this stuff came in the perfect time and I knew it was meant to be because it was so smooth, everything fell into place, and then when we started writing, everything started falling into place better," he said. "So it was just so awesome, dude, and even from when we started writing to this day right now, there's been nothing, no negative anything at all." Welch told Rolling Stone that the new album has "the old KORN vibe, but with a new twist . . . The end
02 min read

ALICE IN CHAINS: ‘Voices’ Radio Edit, Lyric Video Available

Manos Spanos
ALICE IN CHAINS has released "Voices", the third single from new album"The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here". USA Today is premiering the song’s radio edit, which can be heard below. "Voices" follows the album's first two singles, "Hollow" and "Stone", both of which rocketed to No. 1 on both the Active and Mainstream Rock Charts and whose companion videos have amassed over 3 million YouTubeviews combined. ALICE IN CHAINS' fifth studio album, "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here", sold 62,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 2 on The Billboard 200 chart. The disc follows up 2009's"Black Gives Way To Blue", which was the group's first all-new collection of material in 14 years. That CD opened with 126,000 units back in October 2009 to debut at No. 5. ALICE IN CHAINS was last in the Top Two with its self-titled 1995 set, which debuted at No. 1 on that year's November 25 chart, according toBillboard.com. It would be their final studio release with singer Layne Staley, who died in 2002.
02 min read

DUFF MCKAGAN On VELVET REVOLVER: We’re Just Waiting For The Right Singer To Come Along

Manos Spanos
Former GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan spoke to Billboard.comabout the current status of VELVET REVOLVER, the band that released two full-length albums through RCA/Sony BMG — 2004's "Contraband"and 2007's "Libertad" — before dismissing singer Scott Weiland back in April 2008. "We talk about it every now and again. Slash [guitar] and Matt [Sorum, drums] and Dave [Kushner, guitar] and I played in South Africa at the beginning of June...and of course we talked about it. We've tried out a bunch of singers, but I think we're just waiting for the right person to come along. It'll just happen. But the chemistry of Matt and Slash andDave and I is really good, so you don't want to let that just go away." McKagan also commented on Weiland's recent split with STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, noting that, "You could kind of see it coming, I suppose. It's a sad situation any way you look at it. That guy...You hope [Weiland] pulls it together; I shared enough good times with that guy that I wish him nothing but the best."
01 min read

METAL CHURCH Signs With RAT PAK RECORDS

Manos Spanos
Reunited METAL CHURCH — Ronny Munroe on vocals, Kurdt Vanderhoof and Rick Van Zandt on guitars, Steve Unger on bass, and Jeff Plate on drums — has inked a deal with Rat Pak Records. The band's tenth studio album, "Generation Nothing", will be released in the early fall via Kurdt's label Body Of Work Recordings in conjunction with Rat Pak. According to Vanderhoof, "Generation Nothing" — which was recorded at Kurdt's English Channel studio in Washingtion — marks a "return to [METAL CHURCH's] classic metal sound. It has elements of the first album and 'The Dark', but still embraces the new sound of the band without chasing the past." Munroe said in a recent interview with Metal Assault that the new METAL CHURCH effort would contain material that is "very reminiscent of the old days with some stuff that's very 'now.'" He added: "There's a bit of… I'm not going to say 'prog' because it's not, but there's a couple of elements in there that are a little bit progressive. For the most part, out of this batch of songs, they really sound more reminiscent of the early days than anything we've done before with this lineup. This excites me very much, and I think the fans are really going to dig it." Regarding the circumstances that led to METAL CHURCH's breakup in 2009, Ronny said: "Well, in a nutshell, without going into a huge and long story here, it was certain aspects of things that had continued to happen to the band throughout its career. Not having the proper management and the proper people in place that were handling us. You know, we ended up taking some shows we shouldn't have taken and that just
03 min read

DAVID DRAIMAN Demands Apology From ROGER WATERS For ‘Blatant’ Anti-Semitic Symbolism

Manos Spanos
DISTURBED and DEVICE frontman David Draiman has asked his 120,000Twitter followers to condemn British rock musician and anti-Israel activistRoger Waters for allegedly using the Jewish Star of David as one of the symbols on the giant inflatable pig that hovers over "The Wall" concerts. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the pig-shaped balloon emblazoned with the Star of David, as well as dictatorial symbols, dropped from the ceiling while Waters performed on last week in Belgium. The 69-year-old rocker has been using the inflatable pig for years to display political messages, serving primarily as a symbol of greed, fascism and oppression. In a message on Twitlonger.com, a related Twitter site that allows one to send tweets that require more than 140 characters, Draiman — who has extensive family in Israel, including his brother, Jerusalem-based folk rock and ambient musician Ben Draiman, as well as his grandmother — wrote: "My brothers and sisters, my blood, "Regarding Roger Waters' usage of a flying pig with the Star of David on it during his performances;
03 min read

PHILIP ANSELMO: It Would Mean The World To Me If VINNIE PAUL Would Let Me Back Into His Life

Manos Spanos
Puff of the 99X radio station in Shreveport, Louisiana recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current DOWN vocalist Philip Anselmo. The chat is now available for streaming using the SoundCloudwidget below. Asked about the persistent Internet rumors about the possibility of a PANTERA reunion with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE) filling in for the late "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott on guitar,Anselmo said: "This is something that… it started out as an Internet rumor, for sure. But rumors sometimes grow legs, so to speak. And with that, I've gotta say that I've actually spoken to Zakk Wylde about this, and he seems to be very open to the idea. And I know Rex [Brown, former PANTERA bassist] is open to the idea, to a certain degree. But right now Vinnie Paul [Abbott, former PANTERA drummer] is the captain of his own ship, and he's decided to keep, basically, a vow a silence forever concerning myself and Rex. You know, that's his decision, and I can't think for Vince, and I can't make decisions for Vince. But, really, as a music fan… forget reunion shows, forget making records or whatever… as a music fan, I hate reading about my favorite band not getting along; it hurts my heart. Because if I'm a fan of a band, that means I'm a fan of everybody in the band. So when I read, myself, about bands not getting along, it bothers me, really, as a fan." He continued: "Really, what I'm trying to say is one day, it would mean the world to me, and I'm sure to Rex, if Vince would let us back into his life, let us talk through our differences, and let the public know that at least we're speaking, at least we have some form of camaraderie again, and that we're on decent terms. Because right now, I think that it would mean a lot to all the PANTERA fans out there if we were to do that as well. And right now, it's just very difficult to gauge any of that, because things are the way they are. I believe that my door, Rex's door… our doors are open, and Vince's is locked, and that's just the way it is, and
03 min read

Manos Spanos

Manos Spanos (Metalpaths' co-editor-in-chief), eight years in this site but still can't be characterised as a metalhead.