Russia's Classic Rock magazine has uploaded a 14-minute video report on the April 18 concert in Moscow from PROJECT ROCK (formerly ROCKSTAR), the new band featuring former and current members of JUDAS PRIEST, ALICE COOPER, OZZY OSBOURNE and AC/DC. The clip includes performance footage as well as an interview with the group's lead singer, Tim "Ripper" Owens, who has previously fronted JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN and DIO DISCIPLES.
Asked how much of the 2001 Warner Bros. movie "Rock Star", starring Mark Wahlberg as a salesman-turned-rock star, was styled after Owens, who fronted a JUDAS PRIEST cover band before being tapped to become the new lead singer of the actual group, Tim said: "When they first [got the idea to do] the 'Rock Star' movie [under its original name 'Metal God'], it was really gonna be about me. And then JUDAS PRIEST pulled away from it, because they didn't like some things. So [the producers] really made their own movie, I think. The similarities were that I auditioned for JUDAS PRIEST and I sang one line of a song and hit a note and made the band. But then a lot of the things, they kind of went out… I mean, I wasn't that kind of fan when I made the band, because I was that kind of crazy kid in high school in the '80s. But this was 1996, so I wasn't living at my parents' with posters on the walls. I mean, it was still pretty cool. I mean, to have a movie loosely based on you is pretty cool."
Regarding whether it was ironic that the "Rock Star" movie became almost prophetic in the sense that Mark Wahlberg's character in the film ends up playing small clubs with his original material after the band's original lead singer rejoins the group, Owens said: "For me, the movie was almost [like real life]. Rob [Halford] came back [to JUDAS PRIEST], which was good for me, to be honest. My career, I went on to do a lot of stuff. It was better for the band, it was better for Rob. So it was kind of funny. I think I became a little bit bigger than the coffee shop singer that Mark Wahlberg was in the movie in the end, just playing there. I still get to play in front of thousands of people in Russia. But it is similar how he went on to do his own thing."
Owens also spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for the debut album from PROJECT ROCK, which also features Keri Kelli (SLASH'S SNAKEPIT, ALICE COOPER, RATT) on guitar, Simon Wright (DIO, AC/DC, UFO, DIO DISCIPLES, Geoff Tate's QUEENSRŸCHE) on drums, Rudy Sarzo (OZZY OSBOURNE, QUIET RIOT, WHITESNAKE, DIO) on bass and Teddy "Zig Zag" Andreadis (GUNS N' ROSES) on keyboards. "I just finished the vocals," he said. "I flew from L.A. — I was in the studio with Keri — I flew directly here. The vocals are done. It's almost done. Probably, like, a September release, maybe. But it's gonna be great. We're really looking forward to it. Keri and I busted our butts on it, especially Keri."
In a 2012 interview with Loud magazine, Owens stated about his departure from JUDAS PRIEST: "Well, you know, we all knew that Rob would come back eventually. That was a given. I love the guys in PRIEST, and if there's anything where I look back and wish, 'Oh man I wish it could have worked out,' that would probably be it. I was glad to see Rob come back, [but] I do wish they would play some of my material when they're out there [on the road]."
Owens recorded two studio albums with JUDAS PRIEST — 1997's "Jugulator" and 2001's "Demolition" — before the band reunited with Halford in 2003.
On May 23, Steve-O of "The Live Addiction" conducted an interview with drummer Mike Portnoy (THE WINERY DOGS, DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ADRENALINE MOB) in Houston, Texas. You can now watch the chat below.
Asked about his relatively short stint as the studio and touring drummer for AVENGED SEVENFOLD following the death of the band's original drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan, from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, Portnoy said: "It was a really cool experience. There were basically two experiences — it was the ['Nightmare'] album [recording] and the [subsequent] tour. The album was a really heavy emotional experience. 'Cause we started the album, I don't know, maybe six weeks after The Rev was buried. So it was still really fresh for those guys, and everybody was really very emotional. So making the album was a really emotional experience and I felt really honored to have been part of that experience with them. And that's why me and Zacky [Vengeance, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist] got these matching tattoos. To me, it was a real amazing experience to bond with them during that period. And then after that experience, you know, I wanted to be there to help them, and that's how my services got called upon for the first half of the tour — I did, I think, I guess, the first five or six months of the 'Nightmare' tour — basically, 'till the end of 2010. And, you know, at that point, it was just them getting back on their feet and [I was] helping them out."
He continued: "I don't think I was ever going to be there for long. I was still in DREAM THEATER at that point, and even once I left DREAM THEATER, it was pretty established that it was just a helping-them-out phase. And it was a great tour, man. I had fun with those guys. They're nice guys. And I'm so happy to see that they've gotten back on their feet and have blossomed to a whole new level and continue to do what they're doing. So it was an experience I look back upon with a lot of great memories."
Following Sullivan's death, AVENGED SEVENFOLD recruited his favorite drummer, Portnoy, to record the drum tracks for "Nightmare" and all its 2010 tour dates before dismissing him at the end of that year.
AVENGED's current drummer is Arin Ilejay, who began playing with them in early 2011.
Portnoy, who co-founded DREAM THEATER more than 20 years ago, abruptly quit the band in September 2010 while on tour with AVENGED SEVENFOLD. He has since been replaced by Mike Mangini (ANNIHILATOR, EXTREME, JAMES LABRIE, STEVE VAI).
In a December 2011 interview with the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance stated about being caught in the middle of the drama between Portnoy and DREAM THEATER, "It was something that we were not used to at all. We had never, ever experienced any kind of in-the-spotlight drama; we just always stay in the shadows and keep any of our personal business private. And [Mike is] a very different character — he always goes straight to fans [on] Twitter or whatever… That's how he dealt with his band, and it was new to us. We like to be in touch with our fans, but we're also very private."
He continued, "[Mike had] been talking about quitting DREAM THEATER, that he wasn't necessarily happy, and he was excited to be playing with us; we were playing huge shows and stuff. I think he got caught up in the moment, got excited. We begged him to consider what he did, because we were in no position to find a permanent replacement, because in all honesty, you can't replace Jimmy, who was our best friend — first and foremost — besides beng an amazing drummer. So it just wasn't the right time and the place. And he told us, 'Hey, I've got good news and bad news. I quit DREAM THEATER.' We were like, 'Oh, no. Well, if you're happy, then that's good.' [And he was like], 'Now I can be with you guys.' And we were like, 'That's not necessarily what we decided upon. And you should take your time and reconsider.' And he was like, 'Well, I put out my press release.' We were like, 'Dude, that's not how we do business. You should have talked to us before.' Then it was back and forth [between Mike and his former DREAM THEATER bandmates]. We were out of it; we had nothing to do with it. We were just trying to get back on our feet. So when all that was going down, it was causing us a lot of heartache, to be honest — to see our name in this drama-filled love triangle. He helped us out at a really vulnerable time, and for that we will always be extremely appreciative. But for us, we were so unstable at that point that any unneeded attention was just very harmful to us. Obviously, it didn't work out [between us and Mike], but I think it's for the best — for him and for us."
Vocalist Mark Osegueda of San Francisco Bay Area metallers DEATH ANGEL has released the following statement:
"It's with a heavy heart I have to inform you that the rumors you are hearing are unfortunately true... although there is a platinum lining to this black cloud of DEATH ANGEL's 2014 summer festival season.
"The platinum lining is that we are very proud to announce is DEATH ANGEL WILL be playing Hellfest [in France] this year! Hellfest will have the exclusive European DEATH ANGEL show this summer! However, our billing on that festival has been updated. We will now be playing on Sunday, June 22! (The BLACK SABBATH day!) On main stage #1 in place of MEGADETH who unfortunately had to cancel… and we plan to give that slot on the bill, and you metal fans the damage it deserves!
"The dark cloud, I must announce, is the rest of our summer festival has been canceled... and canceled by us.
"I assure you this has NOTHING to do with the structure or strength of the band itself! We feel the band is at its live performing peak riding on the wave of our latest album, 'The Dream Calls for Blood'! It boils down to the infrastructure of the business side of this band… Certain aspects of how this band was being handled were no longer matching up to the quality level of product we are releasing, and the live shows we've been unleashing! And if we carried on that way any longer, it would have damaged the core of what is us, and that is the band! So we are taking this time to restructure our business team to make DEATH ANGEL the strongest band that we can possibly be from the outside to the core!
"The lineup is intact! The hunger is voracious! And we will be back in Europe with a full-blown tour when we feel confident that we have the full arsenal, and team behind us that this band, and its music, and, most of all, you fans, deserve!
"We are doing all we can to expedite this process!
"I know some of you will not understand this aspect of the art form known as music! But it is a business. And hasty business choices in this art has brought down bigger than us.... And we have NO intentions of being brought down!
"Some of you will have negative comments and thoughts... But believe me, no one is more saddened and disappointed about these cancellations than us... And if you have ever seen us live, I'm sure you can attest to our love for being on stage!
That being said, we'll see you at Hellfest. And we plan on giving you a performance that night that will convince the naysayers that DEATH ANGEL is here to stay and a force to be reckoned with."
DEATH ANGEL's seventh album, "The Dream Calls For Blood", sold 5,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 72 on The Billboard 200 chart.
DEATH ANGEL's previous CD, "Relentless Retribution", opened with 2,700 units in September 2010. The band's 2008 effort, "Killing Season", registered a first-week tally of around 2,300. This number was in line with the performance of its predecessor, "The Art of Dying", which premiered with around 2,100 copies back in May 2004.
Released on October 11, 2013 in Europe (except for the U.K. where it arrived three days later) and October 15, 2013 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records, "The Dream Calls For Blood" was recorded at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida with producer Jason Suecof (TRIVIUM, AUGUST BURNS RED, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, ALL THAT REMAINS, WHITECHAPEL, DEVILDRIVER), and once again features cover art by Brent Elliot White (JOB FOR A COWBOY, CARNIFEX, WHITECHAPEL).
Swedish / American / Canadian metallers ARCH ENEMY played their first show with new singer Alissa White-Gluz, former vocalist of THE AGONIST, last night (Friday, May 23) at Turbohalle in Bucharest, Romania. Angela Gossow, who joined ARCH ENEMY in 2000 and made her debut on the now-classic "Wages Of Sin" (2001), has stepped down as frontwoman and will focus on management, while Alissa takes her place.
Fan-filmed video footage of the Bucharest concert can be seen below.
Check out photos of the concert at Metalhead.ro.
ARCH ENEMY, new album, "War Eternal" will be released in North America on June 10 via Century Media Records. The cover artwork was created by Costin Chioreanu.
The "War Eternal" video was directed by Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, IN FLAMES, SONIC SYNDICATE and KAMELOT, among others.
In a recent interview with Turk Gitar, ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott stated about Angela's exit from ARCH ENEMY: "It was a sudden change for the fans; we know that. But, of course, these kind of big steps in life don't come easily, and I believe this was a gradual thing that kept growing in Angela's mind for some time.
"We had decided to take 2013 off from the road and any sort of band activity. The only thing we were doing was writing music and also there always the plan to go into the studio and record at the end of 2013. As the scheduled recording time got closer, Angela informed us last year that she would definitely be stepping down from her position in the band.
"To be honest, it was not such a huge surprise to the rest of us, as there were a lot of conversations of that nature leading up to that point. I made the changes in the band that were necessary for ARCH ENEMY to continue and keep the music alive."
Regarding Alissa's more versatile vocal approach compared to that of Gossow, Amott said: "Alissa has many different vocal styles that she can do very well… She is much more versatile in that aspect than Angela. But for ARCH ENEMY, we are sticking with the aggressive vocal style that we are known for.
"When I started the band in 1995, I had the idea to make the most heavy melodic band of all time, combining elements of extreme death metal heaviness and thrash speed alongside traditional heavy metal and hard rock influences with the harmonies, melodies and solos. We are very much staying true to these roots of the band on 'War Eternal'."
Speaking to Metal Underground, Alissa had the following to say about "War Eternal": "The circumstances surrounding the creation of this album, writing the lyrics and recording it, I'm just happy to have it finally come out. I think people are going to like it. The production quality is amazing! I always wanted an album that would sound this full. I'm a really big fan of this album, myself. Even if I weren't in the band and ARCH ENEMY put out this album, I would pick it up and say it's great. I'm really excited."
On the topic of the new album title, Alissa said: "This album ended up being a lot more personal than maybe some of my previous or Michael's previous lyrics. In the past, a topic like war or a political or global issue was what we normally wrote about. We were writing in two different bands, but we happen to have similar topics in our writing. Then when we were writing for this album, we had a collection of lyrics for this album, but we found that we were actually writing on similar things. Fighting the ongoing war in your day-to-day life, everybody has their battle going on that nobody else knows about. And then there are song titles like 'Never Forgive, Never Forget' and on and on, I think it ties in very nicely. It wasn't something we planned out, but that is the way it turned out, so it worked out really nicely. I think we really saw eye to eye and were experiencing similar things in our lives, so we ended up writing about the same topics even though we have different styles of writing lyrics."
Former MEGADETH drummer Nick Menza was interviewed on the May 15 edition of "Rock 'N' SeXXXy UnCensored", the Internet radio show hosted by adult film star Amber Lynn. You can now listen to the program at this location.
Speaking about his forthcoming book, which is being written with J. Marshall Craig best known for his critically acclaimed work as a writer for Eric Burdon's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", THE ROLLING STONES keyboardist Chuck Leavell's "Between Rock And A Home Place" and the West Coast hip-hop history "Guilty By Association", Menza said: "My book is about me and my life. It includes all kinds of stuff, from my childhood up until just as of recently. And I'm actually adding another chapter to it, probably, because it's taking so long to finalize everything — legal stuff, the cover artwork, the picture that's gonna be used… we're not really sure yet."
He continued: "I don't know what I can tell you about it. There's a lot of funny things in it. It's all true stuff. There's some government conspiracies and alien coverups and all kinds of stuff in there. Now that I'm into space exploration and research stuff — that's kind of what I'm into right now. I've always been into aliens and stuff like that. We are are the aliens and that's why we're here. All the evolution of everything is from alien technology.
"Before, back in the Stone Ages, like when we were just regular humans, we didn't have brains in us and then the aliens came down and they intervened and they put brains in our heads and now we're all smart and we're starting to figure things out, ascending to the next level and a higher level of conscious awareness and that sort of stuff.
"If you listen to your brain, your brain's always gonna get you in trouble. If you listen to your heart and you follow the path of your heart, it will lead you and it will never lead you down the wrong path. So always follow your heart. That's what I tell people. Follow your heart, go with your heart. Don't listen to your brain, 'cause your brain's gonna kill you.
"You know what's weird? When people that don't even know each other, they get into a room, the hearts are already communicating with each other before you even speak words. When you feel something from another person or something like that. That's why I say I can't just be with a girl that I don't have a connection with. You know right away when you meet someone: 'Yes, I would' or 'No, I wouldn't.' And that's how that works. If you're emanating a lot of love out of your body, you'll attract people that love, and that's how that works. With any job, or any place you go, people communicate. It's, like, the heart's code. They're, like, all talking to each other. There's a book out called 'The Heart's Code'. It's really interesting. If you haven't read it, you should check it out."
Originally announced as "Megalife", Nick's book will now be titled "Menzalife". He explained: "It got changed just as of recently, because I can't use 'Megalife'; someone's already using that name and it's trademarked. No big deal. It's still the same content inside. It's gonna be for sale at the stores and stuff like that. A publisher is gonna put it out. I don't have a deal as of yet, but the book is really cool."
Menza's first performance was at the age of two on stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival when legendary jazz percussionist Jack DeJohnette (Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson) placed Nick on his kit. Thirty years later, he was stepping out on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans every night.
Menza, son of legendary jazz saxophonist Don Menza, was at the top of his game when MEGADETH started a world tour in support of its album, "Cryptic Writings", but began to suffer knee problems and escalating pain. Doctors diagnosed him with a tumor. Surgery waylaid the drummer briefly, but he was relieved to learn the tumor was benign and was eager to rejoin his bandmates, who had continued their tour with a replacement drummer. But deteriorating relations within the band exploded and Menza was replaced permanent
Matt Pinfield of Fanpass conducted an interview with KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch at this year's Welcome To Rockville festival, which was held April 26-27 at Metro Park in Jacksonville, Florida. You can now watch the chat below.
Welch, a former drug addict and reformed Christian, spoke about what it's like touring with KORN since rejoining the band in early 2013, eight years after first leaving the band. "I like to get high on something, and when I asked the Lord to come and make his home inside of me, the spiritual high, it's so real," Welch said. "And I hate religion — I don't talk about religion at all — but the relationship through Christ is what I found. And I'm totally satisfied. Now I can enjoy raising my kid, I can enjoy jamming with music in KORN, I can enjoy anything I do. It's the best high ever."
Welch also discussed how his attitude has changed since first he fell victim to the pitfalls and excesses of rock stardom, saying: "When you get that big, everyone's, like, crawling after you and everything, and you start to believe, even if you don't say it, you start to believe that it's about you. And what I've come to realize is it's all about them, it's all about the fans, it's all about them and the music. You're here to give to them, not to be some king rock star. It's all about them."
As previously reported, Welch is getting ready to write his fourth book. Welch, who has three previous tomes to his credit, told The Pulse Of Radio that his new one will focus on the time he spent away from KORN between 2005 and 2013. "I call 'em like 'the wilderness years,' when I was gone in a way, raising my daughter and doing all that stuff for all those years," he said. "And then, you know, getting together with the KORN guys again and — you know like my first book, like I told about my whole childhood and all the details and everything? I'm gonna do the same with this during like the mysterious 'wilderness years,' I like to call 'em."
Welch's previous books include 2008's "Save Me From Myself: How I Found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, And Lived To Tell My Story", a young adult variation on that called "Washed By Blood: Lessons From My Time With Korn And My Journey To Christ" and 2010's "Stronger: Forty Days Of Metal And Spirituality".
Welch left KORN in 2005, got sober and embraced Christianity, saying that as a single father he did not want his daughter around the rock and roll lifestyle. "The last two years I was in KORN, I partied non-stop and started doing speed every day," he said. "I got so addicted that I got scared. I tried to go to rehab, but that didn't work. No one could help me. Then I ended up seeing if Jesus was real, and He instantly took the drugs away. He revealed Himself to me and gave me the strength. Once I figured that out, I knew I was accountable to God."
Welch pursued a solo career for several years before rejoining KORN onstage in 2012 at a festival. He reunited with the group permanently last year and recorded his first album with them in 10 years, "The Paradigm Shift".
