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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

ICED EARTH’s JON SCHAFFER Says ‘Everything Went Smooth’ During His Latest Operation

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ICED EARTH was recently forced to cancel a number of festival appearances and headlining shows this summer so that the band's guitarist and leader Jon Schaffer could undergo surgery to address continued pain from a neck injury he suffered nearly 20 years ago. In a new message on the band's Facebook page, Schaffer writes: "I'm writing to let you know that I made it through the surgery and am steadily on the road to recovery. "The surgeon informed us that everything went smooth during the operation and that I should be back in action within a few months. "Thank you all very much for your support, you truly are the best fans any band could ask for." Schaffer previously stated about his need to go back under the knife: "I underwent surgery on my neck in the year 2000, due to an onstage injury that occurred in 1996. Since that time, I have battled with this problem, and it has begun to accelerate in the past several months, causing additional issues that can no longer be ignored. "In February, while on tour in Europe, I underwent highly specialized treatment in Germany from a doctor who has helped, among many others, Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen. This treatment helped sustain my ability to perform so that we could complete our Worldwide Plagues Tour. However, I am now forced to take further, more invasive action sooner than I intended in order to maintain my overall health. "Surgery was originally planned to take place in September during our break, but I have now been advised to have the procedure completed sooner rather than later. "As much as it pains me and everyone else in our camp to have to cancel these dates, this is something that cannot be put aside any longer."
02 min read

CANNIBAL CORPSE Bassist Talks Masturbating On Tour Bus: ‘If Somebody Knows It’s Happening, Then You Blew It’

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On June 25, bassist Alex Webster of Florida death metal veterans CANNIBAL CORPSE was interviewed by El Prezidente of 91.3FM WTSR's "The Chainsaw Symphony". You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. Asked about CANNIBAL CORPSE's touring setup and how he navigates masturbating regularly on "a bus with a bunch of dudes," Webster said: "This summer [on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival] we're not [sharing a bus with any other bands]. Sometimes we share, sometimes we don't. It just really depends on what our budget is. When we have enough money coming in from the shows to be able to pay for the bus all by ourselves, that's generally the option we'll take, just to have that extra space." He added: "I think with anything personal like that [masturbation], you just… you know… discretion. [laughs] I will leave it at that. [laughs] If somebody knows it's happening, then you blew it. [laughs] And I won't talk too much further about that. But yeah, man, anything like that, I think, yeah, discretion is very important. Nobody wants to know that kind of thing is going on right next to them, you know. [laughs]" Webster also spoke about the CANNIBAL members' family situations and how having kids is affected by the touring lifestyle. "I'm married — no kids — but yeah, me and my wife have been together, married in 2001, and we were actually seeing each other since 1997," Webster said. "So I've been very settled into that whole situation for a very long time now. The other guys… Like, George ['Corpsegrinder' Fisher, vocals] has been married a long time and has two daughters. Paul's [Mazurkiewicz, drums] married as well; he's got a daughter. Rob [Barrett, guitar] has a wife, [but] no kids. "Me and my wife never wanted to have kids; that was something we both agreed on long before we even got married, as a matter of fact. It's the most important thing a person could ever do, so that decision shouldn't be taken lightly. You're creating a human being, so you have to really be in the right frame of mind for that. And my wife and I knew that we were never gonna be in the right frame of mind for that kind of a thing; it just wasn't something that we were inclined to do. But for some people, it's absolutely the right decision. You've gotta just think it over; it's an important thing." CANNIBAL CORPSE will release its new album, "A Skeletal Domain", on September 16 via Metal Blade Records. The band switched gears for the new CD, opting to work with producer Mark Lewis (THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, DEVILDRIVER) at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida, after having tracked their previous three outings ("Kill", "Evisceration Plague", "Torture") with Erik Rutan.
03 min read

Former RAMONES Drummer/Producer TOMMY RAMONE Dies At 62

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Tommy Ramone, the last surviving original member of the legendary New York punk quartet the RAMONES, died Friday at his home in the Ridgewood, Queens, New York following treatment for bile duct cancer. He was 62 years old. Born Erdelyi Tamas in Budapest, Hungary, Ramone is survived by Tienan and an older brother. A private funeral service is planned. When the RAMONES first came together, with Johnny Ramone on guitar, Dee Dee Ramone on bass and Joey Ramone on drums, Erdelyi was supposed to be the manager, but was drafted as the band's drummer when Joey became the lead singer and found that he couldn't keep up with the RAMONES' increasingly fast tempos. "Tommy Ramone, who was managing us, finally had to sit down behind the drums, because nobody else wanted to," Dee Dee later recalled. Tommy remained as drummer from 1974 to 1978, playing on and co-producing RAMONES' first three albums, "Ramones", "Leave Home" and "Rocket To Russia", as well as the live album "It's Alive". He was replaced on drums in 1978 by Marky Ramone, but handled band management and co-production for their fourth album, "Road To Ruin"; he later returned as producer for the eighth album, 1984's "Too Tough To Die". Dee Dee, in his books, expressed resentment towards Tommy for having it "together" more than anyone else in the band, being able to cook himself dinner and organize his life in a much more functional manner, without the psychosis or addiction problems that Dee Dee himself suffered from. In comparison to everyone else in the band, Tommy was seemingly "normal," though there are accounts of him partying with the band and driving them around in his car in the early days. Tommy Ramone wrote "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and the majority of "Blitzkrieg Bop" while bassist Dee Dee suggested the title. He and Ed Stasium played all the guitar solos on the albums he produced, as Johnny Ramone largely preferred playing rhythm guitar.
02 min read

BABYMETAL Wants To Start New Musical Genre Called ‘Cute Metal’

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BABYMETAL — the heavy metal offshoot of the Japanese pop idol group SAKURA GAKUIN that performs a distinctly Japanese mix of schoolgirl J-pop and metal — was interviewed at the U.K. edition of the Sonisphere festival, which is being held July 4-6 at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire. You can now watch the footage below. "Our goal is to start a new genre of metal called Kawaii Metal [Cute Metal]," BABYMETAL said. "We are the only band making music in this genre right now and we want this genre to be accepted." BABYMETAL kicked off its world tour with a headlining show on July 1 at La Cigale in Paris, France. The band will support pop superstar Lady Gaga on five shows in July and August: Jul. 30 - Phoenix, AZ @ US Airways Arena Aug. 01 - Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena Aug. 02 - Stateline, NV @ Harveys Lake Tahoe Aug. 04 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Energy Solutions Arena Aug. 06 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center BABYMETAL will also play a headlining show at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles on July 27. BABYMETAL became the youngest artists to ever appear at Tokyo Nippon Budokan when they took the stage at the famed venue on March 1 and March 2. Sayuri Iwai, previous holder of the title, made her Budokan debut at 15 years old and one month. She was usurped by Suzuka Nakamoto (16), Moa Kikuchi (14) and Yui Mizono (14), who hold a mean age of 14.6 years. BABYMETAL released its debut album on February 26 via Toy's Factory. The effort was made available in regular and limited editions. The CD includes five of BABYMETAL's singles that were released in 2011 - 2013, from "Doki Doki Morning" (digital single) to "Megitsune", their B-sides and three new songs. "Babymetal" made it to No 3 on iTunes' U.S. rock chart and was in the Top 10 in six other countries, including the U.K. The band's video for the song "Gimme Chocolate" has received nearly 10 million views on YouTube, and BABYMETAL was featured on the cover of the U.K. weekly rock magazine Kerrang! The band's first major single, "Ijime, Dame, Zettai", sold 19,000 copies in its first week and debuted at No. 6 in the Japanese Orion weekly singles chart. BABYMETAL released its first-ever concert Blu-ray, "Live ～Legend I, D, Z Apocalypse～", on November 20, 2013 (the limited-edition DVD box was issued on October 19). The set contains footage of the band's performances at Shibuya O-East (October 2012), Akasaka Blitz (December 2012) and Zepp Tokyo (February 2013). BABYMETAL last year embarked on the "Death Match Tour 2013" and was accompanied by a "full metal band." In the spring of 2013, Suzuka Nakamoto graduated from junior high school and therefore had to "graduate" from the group SAKURA GAKUIN (which consists of girls of up to junior high). However, it was decided by the management that BABYMETAL would not dissolve and would continue their activities as a band. BABYMETAL is: Su-Metal - Vocals and Dance Moametal - Screamer and Dance Yuimetal - Screamer and Dance TeamRock interview: Sonisphere interview:
04 min read