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Manos Spanos

SLIPKNOT: First Teaser Images, Video For Forthcoming Album

Manos Spanos
SLIPKNOT's official web site, Slipknot1.com, and Facebook page have been updated with creepy images and sounds in preparation for the release of the band's long-awaited new album, tentatively due before the end of the year via Roadrunner Records. In addition, there are all-new graphics, including a new version of the nonagram. SLIPKNOT has announced that the second edition of its Knotfest event will take place on October 24-26 in San Bernardino, California. The Iowa-based band will headline two of the three days, Friday and Saturday, playing a completely different set on each night. More than two dozen other acts are scheduled to appear, including FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, VOLBEAT, OF MICE & MEN, DANZIG, ANTHRAX, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, IN THIS MOMENT, HELLYEAH, ATREYU, SUICIDE SILENCE, MISS MAY I, TESTAMENT and many others. Friday night's show will be exclusively for fans who buy VIP or camping packages. With the long-awaited new SLIPKNOT album nearing completion, singer Corey Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio that the band did not want to announce any new live dates until the record was almost done. "After everything that happened last year, you know, we just basically said okay, what are we gonna do?" he said. "And everybody wanted to make an album. So we basically just cleared the slate and started looking at touring after we've got the album done. It's gonna be with new content, with new music, with new everything, basically." Fans who purchase tickets to Knotfest will receive a digital copy of SLIPKNOT's new album when it's eventually released. The band will also stage Knotfest Japan on November 15-16 in Tokyo. Taylor said that the new SLIPKNOT album is "98 percent done" in an interview posted by Loudwire. Taylor revealed, "It is very close. The next step is the mix, and we’re going to try to get it out very soon. There will be big announcements soon." The band's first all-new album since 2008's "All Hope Is Gone" will be its first since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray and the late 2013 dismissal of drummer Joey Jordison, both founding members and primary songwriters in the group. SLIPKNOT is rumored to have recruited drummer Jay Weinberg to play on the new album. Weinberg is the son of Max Weinberg, longtime BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND drummer.
03 min read

Blues Legend JOHNNY WINTER Dead At 70

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Blues legend Johnny Winter has died at the age of 70. The news was first reported by American Blues Scene and Jenda Derringer, wife of Winter's former bandmate Rick Derringer. Jenda wrote on Facebook: "[Johnny] passed early this morning in Zurich, Switzerland." She added: "He was not in good health and was very frail and weak." Johnny — elder brother of fellow music legend Edgar Winter — has always been one of the most respected singers and guitar players in rock and the clear link between British blues-rock and American Southern rock. Throughout the '70s and '80s, Johnny was the unofficial torch-bearer for the blues, championing and aiding the careers of his idols like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. The Blues magazine editor Ed Mitchell said this morning: "It's no secret that Johnny has battled with ill health for many years — but he seemed to transcend that struggle when he played live. No one's slide tone was as sweet, searing, stinging or fiery. Johnny Winter blazing away on a Gibson Firebird is an iconic blues image. "He was the greatest slide blues guitarist that ever lived. We'll always have him to thank for pulling Muddy Waters out of his funk in the Seventies and helping him record some of his greatest work: 'Hard Again', 'I'm Ready' and 'King Bee'. All essential."
01 min read

Dustynation’s singer Cons Marg on “Theater Equation”

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Great news straight from Holland. Ayreon's most popular release "The Human Equation" is transformed into a theatrical show under the name "The Theater Equation". Arjen Lucassen and his creative team have been organizing this event quite some time now, with three performances booked for September 2015 in Holland. -James LaBrie(Dream Theater), Marcella Bovio (Stream Of Passion), Devon Graves (Psychotic Waltz / Dead soul tribe) and Irene Jansen are some of the names that participated on "The Human Equation" and are already confirmed for the shows. A special 20 members' choir is also confirmed including female and male vocalists from around the globe specially chosen by Arjen and his team to perform under the name "Epic Rock Choir" Greece is to participate as well with Cons Marg (Costas Margaritis) -Singer/guitarist of the progressive metal bands Dustynation and Gallows Tree- that was chosen after auditioning with the rest of the choir in Dordrecht / Holland. More news for this great effort soon. Currently Dustynation have been preparing and recording demos for the follow up of their debut "Echoing Lullabies" and Gallows Tree are collecting material for their yet untitled debut release...Stay tuned!!! Videos: Epic Rock Choir Auditions [youtube id="-4ydPQIF6D0" width="620" height="360"] Dustynation - Crossed We Are [youtube id="XVGduj8JTwI" width="620" height="360"] Gallows Tree - Each Eleventh Hour (ep) [youtube id="a8RCxHVjXjk" width="620" height="360"] Band links: Dustynation GallowsTreeBand Thetheaterequation
01 min read

New ALICE COOPER Guitarist NITA STRAUSS Says She Received ‘Unofficial’ Offer To Pose For PLAYBOY

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Jay Nanda of San Antonio Metal Music Examiner conducted an interview with THE IRON MAIDENS guitarist Nita Strauss, who recently joined Alice Cooper's touring band. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: How much of an influence was [Alice Cooper] on you growing up, musically? Nita: Alice Cooper, I think, transcends anybody's influence. The cool thing about him is that, even today, there's not that many artists from that generation that are still so relevant and touring so much. Alice now tours with IRON MAIDEN and MARILYN MANSON and ROB ZOMBIE. He's touring with these artists that are a little bit newer. And definitely, also, Steve Hunter was, of course, a huge influence on me as a guitarist as well. I think their influences are more far-reaching than any of us really know. San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Having been in all-female bands THE IRON MAIDENS and with the revamped FEMME FATALE, your talent speaks for itself. But do you find yourself sometimes battling within some circles of the music industry to get people to focus on your guitar playing and musicianship. Or is it a case of, "Hey, the sex appeal doesn't hurt the cause"? Nita: I think it's always going to be a give-and-take with the image thing. I had an interesting conversation yesterday about dressing to avoid people talking about your image and only focus on the guitar playing versus dressing to use your image as an asset. And I don't really see myself as doing either/or. Because first of all, I'm not going to dress myself; other people dress… [laughs] I'm a total tomboy at heart. If I don't have to be on stage or doing anything that day, I'm always in band t-shirt and yoga pants and sneakers. But at the end of the day, I'm a girl. I'm from Santa Monica. I'm going to look how I want to look and play how I want to play, and if people don't like it, then they don't like it. The awesome thing about this great country of America that we live in is that they're absolutely free to not like it. But I like it. If I go on stage and I think I look cool and I think I'm playing well, that's what it's all about, I think. San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: You recently did an interview for Playboy Radio, so I'd be remiss if I didn't ask — did they offer you a pictorial? Nita: They joked about it a lot. They didn't put an official offer on the table. But they definitely threw it out there. My joking response was, "Maybe with a strategically placed guitar." [laughs] I don't think it's actually in the future, but it's fun to joke about. San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Well, if you did something like that — with a strategically placed guitar — that wouldn't be too different from the Revolver [magazine] "Hottest Chicks" type of thing, would it? Nita: Yeah. You know, for photos, we talk about the word "objectify." And, you know, it's subjective. If you want to look at the photos in Revolver and think, "This girl's trying to get attention because she looks the way she does," then that's fine. I'm still going to do my same practice regimen, and I'm still going to get on stage and do all my guitar set-ups and swap out my own pickups. I'm still going to do all that stuff too. People are always going to talk. Read the entire interview at San Antonio Metal Music Examiner.
04 min read

ANTHRAX Guitarist SCOTT IAN To Release ‘I’m The Man’ Autobiography In October

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On October 14, Da Capo Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group, will publish "I'm The Man: The Official Story Of Anthrax", the long–awaited and vastly entertaining autobiography of Scott Ian, a founding member of legendary, ground-breaking and influential thrash–metal band ANTHRAX. The official book-release party will be held October 10 at Largo in Los Angeles. In this fast-paced, humorous, and revealing memoir from the leader of a band that proved to the masses that brutality and fun didn't have to be mutually exclusive, Ian will tell his life story, starting with his upbringing as a nerdy Jewish boy in Queens, New York, and evolving through his first musical epiphany when he saw THE WHO on television and decided he wanted to play guitar. Not long after, Ian saw KISS at Madison Square Garden and realized what he wanted to do with his life. The book will chronicle his adolescence in a dysfunctional home, his escapism through the turbulent world of heavy metal, and the complete history of ANTHRAX, starting with the band's formation through the present day reinvigoration with the return of vocalist Joey Belladonna, the release of "Worship Music", and their triumphant performance at Yankee Stadium with the Big Four of thrash: METALLICA, SLAYER, and MEGADETH. The book will also feature eye-popping full-color autobiographical comic book inserts. For "I'm The Man", Ian will be working with Jon Wiederhorn, co-author of the books "Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History Of Metal" and "Ministry: The Lost Gospels According To Al Jourgensen". Wiederhorn is a senior writer at Revolver and a regular contributor to Guitar World, Noisey.com, eMusic.com, and Yahoo Music! He has also worked on staff at Rolling Stone, Guitar, Guitar.com, and MusicPlayer.com. Speaking to ChicagoNow.com, Ian stated about "I'm The Man": "I am working with Jon Wiederhorn. But I am doing quite a bit of the actual writing. That's kind of one of the reasons why I haven't done one yet. For years I would get asked about doing a book but I couldn't commit because I couldn't say 'yes' and then take seven years to write it. But I know Jon so well and he's written things based on interviews that I've done with him — he's literally written things that are my voice. He could write in my written voice. So I just knew that it would work really well together with him and obviously that takes a lot of the load off of me. So we've kind of broken it up into who's gonna do what." Ian recently told Lithium Magazine about his his memoir is going to be different form other rock and roll autobiographies out there: "What makes mine different is that it doesn't take the usual story arc that most of these rock/metal biographies and autobiographies do. That arc is usually the rise to fame, the fame, the crash and burn and then some sort of redemption. I don't have that story arc. I don't know what you would call my story genre, but it's more about coming from nothing and being able to do all that I have done. I think it's about being able to show anybody that no matter where you come from, whether you're a scrawny kid from Queens [New York], you do have the opportunity to make something of yourself. I am the living proof of that. And you don't have to take the normal road that's portrayed in these books. You don't have to take the MÖTLEY CRÜE road." Da Capo executive editor Ben Schafer made the deal with Jim Fitzgerald at the James Fitzgerald Agency.
04 min read

VOIVOD Parts Ways With Bassist JEAN-YVES ‘BLACKY’ THERIAULT

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**UPDATE**: VOIVOD has released the following statement regarding bassist Blacky's latest departure from the group: "It saddens us to announce that VOIVOD will no longer be performing live with Blacky. Jean-Yves has decided to leave the band for his own personal reasons. We wish him all the best. VOIVOD will carry on." The original article follows below. Canadian metal innovators VOIVOD have once again parted ways with bassist Jean-Yves Theriault (a.k.a. Blacky). No further details are currently available. Blacky has confirmed that he will not perform with VOIVOD at the band's next live appearance, which is scheduled for this Saturday, July 12 at Festival Jonquière En Musique in Jonquière, Quebec, Canada. Theriault played his first show with VOIVOD in 17 years in June 2008 in front of 22,500 fans as part of the Heavy MTL festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He spent the last few years touring with the band in addition to performing on VOIVOD's latest studio album, "Target Earth", which came out on January 22, 2013 via the group's own company, Iron Gang Factory, and Century Media. Blacky originally left VOIVOD in 1991 for personal reasons, and went on to co-found The Holy Body Tattoo Dance Society, a now-defunct award-winning Canadian contemporary dance company, which existed from 1992 to 1999. He composed, produced and engineered the scores for "White Riot", "L'Orage", "Poetry & Apocalypse", and "Our Brief Eternity". In a 2003 interview Metal Update, VOIVOD drummer Michel Langevin (a.k.a. Away) vowed that Blacky would never rejoin the band, explaining: "Unfortunately, we don't really get along with Blacky. He is the one who will never be back in the fold. I know that it would please the hardcore fans and everything, but it just won't happen. The circumstances of his departure were really hurtful. It has a lot to do with childhood friendship and broken trust. I don't think we can patch it up, actually. It's too bad. It really got to the bottom of the barrel with the 'Angel Rat' recordings. We were not too sure about the final result of the album, but our approach was just, 'Okay, let's keep going and next time we'll do better,' you know? But it didn't happen like that with Blacky, and the way he left the band was really, really awful. But it's something that we never discuss in the press and it's an obscure part of the VOIVOD story. It's just that the breakup was so sour." During Blacky's time away from VOIVOD, the band recorded and performed with Eric Forrest and Jason Newsted (METALLICA, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM).
03 min read

OBSCURA Parts Ways With Drummer HANNES GROSSMANN, Guitarist CHRISTIAN MUENZNER

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Drummer Hannes Grossmann and guitarist Christian Muenzner have left German progressive death metallers OBSCURA. Says Muenzner: "My decision to step down from my position as the lead guitar player in OBSCURA after more than six years was not an easy one, but even though it may come unexpected for the majority of fans, it is something I have been contemplating for the last couple of years. "There is no bad blood between me and any of the other members of the band. However, I just want to devote the biggest part of the time that I have to work on my own music and visions. Doing this, I just can't invest the bulk of my time into the band, because a band operating at the level of OBSCURA does not work as an additional thing or even a 'hobby'. It demands a lot of time and availability, but I I know that if my heart is not fully into the music anymore, it is not true to myself, my bandmates or to the fans, and I have always believed that solely the fact that a band is successful or that people expect you to play a certain style of music are not enough of a reason to do it. "A second crucial factor in my decision was that I am still dealing with a neurologic condition in my fretting hand called Focal Dystonia, which almost took the ability to play guitar away from me completely by late 2011/early 2012. Even though I regained most of my chops by now through re-training and Botox therapy, the condition is still there and I have to be very careful not to relapse and undo my progress by putting too much strain on my hand, which is why touring several months on an album cycle with material that brings me to the edge of my technical ability every night is not an option for me anymore in the near future. The slightest chance of recovery or at least further improvement have absolute priority for me in the coming years, as I want to be able to play guitar and release music for much longer. Thus I decided to focus mainly on my teaching career and on writing and recording my own music for now. I will remain very active and you will hear a lot of new music from me in the future. "I still consider all past and present members in OBSCURA that I played with among my very best friends, and the album recordings and tours we did in the last six years are among the greatest memories of my life so far. The band took me all around the world several times and I got to meet thousands of great people and fans. "I want to thank all of you for your support, even in the tough times when my condition was at its worst. I do not exclude the possibility of future collaborations with each of the other members and wish the band the best of luck for the future." States Grossmann: "Leaving the band was a difficult choice to make, but it was also a big relief. "In the last two years, it just became more and more obvious that the musical chemistry between band founder Steffen [Kummerer] and me just wasn't right anymore. It's not a personal issue, it's a musical one. "For the last two records I contributed a large amount of music, including most of the arrangement work. However this was causing problems, because the band was set up as a collective of songwriters, and so the new record should have been a collective work. In general, I also prefer working with other people rather than just doing it on my own. However, my musical vision was going into the direction of songs like 'Aevum' or 'Septuagint', maybe in terms of complexity even further. Steffen's ideas are musically rather in the vein of the 'Comogenesis' album. But I wanted to explore a way different side of OBSCURA. The catchy 'Anticosmic Overload' side just doesn't really hook me emotionally. "In the end, it's hard to explain to an outsider, but our musical taste and vision for the band's future are just incompatible at this point. It even started to affect our personal relationship and I don't think that it's worth sacrificing our friendship for personal issues. That's why I decided to quit the band and record the songs I wrote with my new band ALKALOID." As a result of these lineup changes, the recording sessions for OBSCURA's as-yet-untitled fourth album have been postponed until the end of 2014. OBSCURA will soon begin the audition process to replace both Muenzner and Grossmann. Muenzner and Grossmann appeared on OBSCURA's last two releases, "Cos
05 min read

AS I LAY DYING Singer TIM LAMBESIS To Return To San Diego Courtroom Next Week

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According to Radio.com, AS I LAY DYING singer Tim Lambesis is expected to return to court next week to argue that he deserves "custody credit" for the days he was on "house arrest" as he awaited sentencing for hiring a hitman to kill his estranged wife, Meggan. "There will be a hearing on July 18th to determine if the time Lambesis spent on house arrest will count as credits towards his prison term," prosecutor Claudia Grasso stated in an email. Lambesis and his attorney are scheduled to appear in San Diego's North County Superior Courthouse at 9:30 a.m. on July 18. On May 16, Lambesis was given a six-year prison sentence without probation for his role in the murder-for-hire plot. The 33-year-old musician was arrested in May 2013 after handing the "hitman" — really an undercover police officer — $1,000 in cash, along with his wife's address and gate security codes. Lambesis spent 24 days in a local jail (and given credit at sentencing for 48) after his initial arrest before he paid $160,000 in fees to the bondsman who posted his $2 million bail. The singer was on house arrest at his parents' home in Del Mar, California, wearing a GPS monitor, from June 2013 until his sentencing in May 2014. Two weeks before his sentencing, Lambesis gave an interview to a probation officer, who then prepared a report which includes the following quotes from Tim: "There is not a day that goes by that I don't wish I could undo this…. "An apology to Meggan does not seem like enough to make it up to her. I don't have any animosity towards her and I have deep remorse…. "We had a difficult separation…. I was trying to fight for my kids through the courts but was not seeing any results. I felt helpless and I began to feel desperate…. "I was in a different mindset due to the separation and custody experience and my mind was altered due to the steroid use. "My steroid use was affecting many decisions in my life. "I am not a risk to her (Meggan) in the slightest way…. "If you look at the majority of my life, this was out of character for me. I don't have a history of violence. I have never been an angry person. Given the potential of my future, I feel that I can be an asset to others if I am allowed to remain in the community." Tim's former AS I LAY DYING bandmates Jordan Mancino (drums), Nick Hipa (guitar), Phil Sgrosso (guitar) and Josh Gilbert (bass) of San Diego, California-based metal act AS I LAY DYING have teamed up with vocalist Shane Blay (previously lead guitar/clean vocals in OH, SLEEPER) to create the new band WOVENWAR. AS I LAY DYING's sixth album, "Awakened", sold around 28,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 11 on The Billboard 200 chart. Released in September 2012 via Metal Blade Records, the CD was produced by Bill Stevenson and was mixed by Colin Richardson.
03 min read

HAVOK Signs With CENTURY MEDIA

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Century Media Records has announced the signing of Denver, Colorado's HAVOK. The young thrash metal quartet has worked nonstop, releasing three albums and touring the world the past five years, and is poised to take its music and career to another level. "We're so excited to sign with Century Media!" exclaims HAVOK guitarist Reece Scruggs. "Their reputation as a front running metal label is obvious. Timeless albums that have influenced us as individuals, and as a band, have been released through the label, and we aim to become a part of that tradition." "I'm pleased to add HAVOK to our artist roster," says Century Media president Marco Barbieri. "I have watched the band evolve and progress musically and highly admire their work ethic and commitment to metal and their fans." HAVOK just concluded extensive tours of Asia, South America and Canada and will be starting a month-long onslaught of European shows this weekend, including performing at many of the continent's prestigious festivals, as well as off-dates with SUFFOCATION and SKELETONWITCH. "I can't wait to see what will be accomplished with Century Media behind our next album," states HAVOK singer/guitarist David Sanchez. "The next record is going to be the best yet, so you'd better start exercising those neck muscles!"
01 min read

DREAM THEATER’s JORDAN RUDESS: ‘We’re Passionate About Making Music’

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Felicity Hall of GetYourRockOut conducted an interview with keyboardist Jordan Rudess of progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER at the U.K. edition of the Sonisphere festival, which was held July 4-6 at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire. You can now watch the chat below. Asked if DREAM THEATER has already begun thinking about the follow-up to last year's self-titled release, Rudess said: "We haven't really gotten into serious band discussions about what's gonna happen next, although we've had little discussions between some of us about what we would like to see happen next. At the same, if I get a good idea in the middle of the night, or whatever, I'll record it onto my iPhone. I elected James [LaBrie, vocals] to kind of be the keeper of some of my ideas; I'll send him little YouTube clips of me playing something I think is cool. And then when it wraps around and we get into writing again and start our process, then we'll go back an see what we've got and kind of figure it out." Rudess also reassured fans that there are no plans for DREAM THEATER to stop making new music and become a nostalgia act. He said: "Oh, no no no. We love what we do. We're passionate about making music and as composers; that's just who we are. DREAM THEATER has never been a band that hit at a particular fashionable point and said, 'OK, that's basically it.' We're a band that really… It's important to us to write music and put it out there and to work together. And we love it. And that's why we keep going." DREAM THEATER's latest, self-titled album sold around 34,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 7 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on September 24, 2013 via Roadrunner.
02 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.