Lost your password?

News

ZAKK WYLDE Halloween Costume Now Available

Manos Spanos
A limited-edition Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE) costume beard featuring a black beanie with an embroidered BLS on the front and attached to a long yarn beard can be ordered at BlackLabelSociety.com. BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's new live DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Video, "Unblackened", was released on September 24 by Eagle Rock Entertainment. Wylde's label home, eOne Music, also released the audio version of the "Unblackened" DVD under the same name. The double disc release has six additional tracks not found on the DVD, including two acoustic versions of "Queen Of Sorrow" and "Won't Find It Here", and covers of LEON RUSSELL's "Song For You" and BILL WITHERS' "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone".
01 min read

SLAYER Hopes To Include JEFF HANNEMAN-Penned Material On Next Album

Manos Spanos
Earlier today (Monday, October 7), SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya spoke to Loudwire about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's next studio album — the group's first since the passing of guitarist Jeff Hanneman this past May. "We have two songs," said Araya. He added: "I haven't had the privilege of going through [Jeff's] audio files at the moment, but that's something I plan to do. Once we get some business squared away, that's something I plan to do; to go through his music and see what he has. "I know that he had several ideas together that he had presented to us in the course of the past year. Before he passed away, there was one complete song that he had managed to send to everybody that I listened to and that I thought was really, really good and communicated that to him. There's stuff that I thought would be great to listen to just to see what's there and how we can possibly use what he had done. That's something I have every intension of doing." Araya offered more information about the material that Jeff left behind that may end up on the next SLAYER record. "One song was a song we didn't finish for [2009's] 'World Painted Blood'," he said. "That song is actually complete. Me and Jeff were working on melody and lyric ideas for that song. We weren't really happy with what we were doing or what was becoming of that song, so it didn't make it on the album. It was just something we were working on and we couldn't find anything we were happy with that would work well lyrically and melody-wise, so that's one reason why that one didn't make it on the album, but that song is complete, it's done, it's ready to go." He continued: "I don't want to use the term 'typical' [laughs] but it's Jeff, it's obvious who put the song together. It's Jeff music. He created a certain way and he put music together a certain way; it's signature Jeff. It's new, it doesn't sound like anything else that we've done, in my opinion. Jeff usually just wrote songs and a lot of his stuff had certain signature things he would do to songs. That stuff is in there, but I would consider it new."
03 min read

PHILIP ANSELMO: ‘I Consider Myself An Explorer In Music’

Manos Spanos
Smells Like Infinite Sadness recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current DOWN vocalist Philip Anselmo. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Smells Like Infinite Sadness: When did you decide you wanted to make a solo album? Anselmo: That's a tough thing to pinpoint, but if you look at my track record at all, even when I was in PANTERA and all throughout those crazy years of incredible memories, and, honestly, great success, I was always doing different projects. And really I think as a musician… to be pinned down to one genre, it feels a little bit unfair. I guess I consider myself an explorer in music. You know, DOWN is what is it is: a BLACK SABBATH-based band that happens to have a Southern feel and maybe that's because of where we come from and how we get things across… but we know that at the end of the day when we go to write DOWN music how it's going to turn out and what it should turn out to be. For me as far as doing the solo record… I'm a big fan of extreme music of all sorts, and especially death metal and black metal, and any subgenre that may fall in between the cracks… And I wanted to create a record that I felt was as extreme as anything out there but with perhaps a different twist on its approach, whether it be lyrically or just pure attitude-wise. So whether I've done that, I guess time will tell… so right now DOWN and my solo band (THE ILLEGALS) are my only two working bands, and I'm going to try to keep it like that for semi simplicity, or maybe quasi simplicity's fucking sake. We'll see how it goes from there, man. I have to give a little shoutout to the fact that my solo band has another EP coming out strictly for the [Housecore Horror Film & Music Festival]; it's a two-song, 10-inch vinyl and very different than anything off "Walk Through Exits Only". I think that's its epic in its own way, as a matter of fact. The EP is called "Housecore Horror Film Fest EP"… [I] think the B-side is really one of the most epic songs I've ever written in my life. Smells Like Infinite Sadness: How does the live experience differ from you with DOWN vs. THE ILLEGALS? Does each set feel different for you (for lack of a better term) when playing for an audience? Anselmo: It is different, man. DOWN has been around for a long time. We did our first demo in ‘92, and I guess our first record came out in ‘95… and DOWN has a very strong core fan base whereas THE ILLEGALS are looked at as something new, something different. I think people are still wrapping their heads around it, whereas with DOWN, everyone's familiar with the stuff and they know the personalities on stage and the songs inside and out. So there is a difference there, a different type of energy a different type of approach and a different type of crowd reaction… so it's a little bit different on both scales of the spectrum. But that's fine by me. I'm really cool with the unexpected. It is what it is and that's how the ball bounces and I'll take it.
03 min read

METALLICA’s JAMES HETFIELD: ‘We Want To Make A Record’

Manos Spanos
METALLICA frontman James Hetfield recently spoke to The Detroit News about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to the band's 2008 album "Death Magnetic". "We have been pushing that further and further away," Hetfield said. "We want to make a record, that's what we do best and that’s what we've gotta do in springtime. We've got skeleton bones that we're starting to lay out to make something out of it, but there's a lot of work ahead of us that we're really excited about doing. And that will be next year." Hetfield was also asked if the group planned to stage a third installment of its Orion Music + More festival in Detroit next year, after bringing the show's second edition there last June. The guitarist/vocalist replied: "I sure hope so, that is the plan. The festival itself is not 100 percent greenlit yet. There’s gotta be a powwow where all of us get together and make sure we’re on the same page." This year's Orion two-day event drew at least 20,000 people a day to see METALLICA, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, DEFTONES, SILVERSUN PICKUPS, RISE AGAINST and more. METALLICA surprised fans at Orion Music + More on June 8 by playing its 1983 debut disc "Kill 'Em All" from beginning to end on a smaller stage at the event. METALLICA was officially announced to play a headlining set on June 9 to close out the festival, but hit the stage at 4:30 p.m. one day earlier for a 10-song set that started with "Hit The Lights" and finished out with "Metal Militia".
02 min read

TOOL Planning New Video From 2006 Album

Manos Spanos
According to The Pulse Of Radio, TOOL guitarist Adam Jones has revealed that he is working on a new music video from the group — for a song off its last album, 2006's "10,000 Days". During an online chat with Guitar World, Jones — who created most of TOOL's videos — was asked why he did not direct any for songs from "10,000 Days". He replied, "We just haven't finished them yet. We ran into a really big snag because the first video is all CGI and we had some vicious production problems. The company we started with kinda screwed us, but luckily my friend's company is bailing us out. Since he's helping us, they can only work on it when their schedule is clear. But it's gonna be great. When I go home, practically all my time is spent on it." Jones added, "I thought the CGI process would be a lot easier than physically filming something, which is what we've always done in the past. But it's actually a lot harder to get action down and get it moving and looking right . . . We're also doing pre-production on the second video, which will be all stop-motion." Jones did not direct the sole video released to date from the "10,000 Days" album, for the song "Vicarious", although he has directed many of the band's creepiest and most popular clips. Jones, who worked as a visual effects artist before TOOL took off, told The Pulse Of Radio a while back how visuals have always played a major role in the band's music. "I've just always thought in vision, I mean, just, like, putting on headphones when I was a kid and trying to dream stuff while I was listening to music," he said. "I guess I still do that today when I play. But it's a lot more emotional than visual and I know that sounds pretentious, but it really is, what the four of us do. The visuals just kind of, like, bring themselves in it." The guitarist also spoke about long-awaited plans for TOOL to make a live DVD, saying, "Yeah, we've talked about it. We had shot a bunch of live concert footage and were going to put out a DVD, but it turned out to not sit very well with our band. We were like, What can we do that's more epic than just a live DVD? I think we're just going to keep shooting stuff, and when we're ready, we'll put something out. Of course, we'd like to do something really epic, like the movie version of 'The Wall', but movie deals are really tough." Jones and the rest of the members of TOOL are reportedly working at last on the follow-up to"10,000 Days", although, as usual, information on that remains murky.
02 min read

IRON MAIDEN’s ‘Maiden England’ Tour Comes To An End

Manos Spanos
IRON MAIDEN's "Maiden England" 2013 world tour came to a spectacular end two nights ago in Santiago, Chile, with a return to the Estadio Nacional, playing to 60,105 fans, "the largest audience by a British band ever" (La Tercera newspaper). This is quite ironic consideringMAIDEN was banned by the church from playing in Chile in 1992, yet has played there four times in the past six years alone, and, of course, recorded the live DVD "En Vivo!" at the Estadio Nacional in 2011. IRON MAIDEN tour production manager Patrick Ledwith has checked in with these details from his 2013 tour logbook: "Since rehearsals started 131 days ago with 1 band and 102 crew, there have been 46 shows, 1,175,714 MAIDEN fans, 45,350 miles travelled, 44 cities in 25 different countries on 3 continents, 3,853 hotel rooms, 71,579 lbs of air freight, 2,576 stage hands, 350 lighting fixtures, 330 sets of guitar strings, 2,000 picks, 184 drums sticks, 600 rolls of gaffer, 400 rolls of over tape, 598 tanks of CO2 gas, 278 tanks of propane, 3,380 dinners, 96 cheese wheels, 5,646 bottles of Trooper beer, hundreds of miles walked by Hackers... and we have made it to the end of another tour." Footage of IRON MAIDEN performing the song "Run To The Hills" in front of 90,000 Brazilian fans at the Rock In Rio festival can be seen below. During a brand new interview with Chile's Radio Futuro, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dave Murraywas asked if there are any plans for the band to return to the studio to begin work on material for the follow-up to 2010's "The Final Frontier". "We've been out on tour quite a few months this year," Dave explained. "So when we finish, we're actually going to go and head back and take a break, really." He continued: "We haven't got any plans, as such, really, what's gonna happen next year. Basically, we're just gonna wait and see. [laughs] But there's things that are going on in the meantime. I mean, we just had a beer come out — it's like the Trooper beer — and that's actually doing really well. So we'll just let the Trooper beer go on tour for us. [laughs] And then we're just gonna spend some time off recuperating. So I'm not quite sure what's gonna be happening next year. It's all up in the air." IRON MAIDEN last month landed at position No. 1 on Billboard.com's "Hot Tours" list of top-grossing tours with $8.5 million in ticket sales from six performances on their summer tour of Europe. The shows were attended by a total of 121,280 fans, including a two-night, sold-out stand on August 3-4 at the O2 Arena in Lonon, England, where the band played to 27,000 fans. With totals added from this summer's Europe dates, overall ticket sales from the tour top $42 million from 45 reported concerts.
02 min read

Video: GHOST-Inspired Burger Generates Controversy

Manos Spanos
According to the Chicago Tribune, a burger inspired by the Swedish occult rock band GHOSThas been causing a lot of controversy since it was first introduced by the Chicago restaurantKuma's Corner. The "Ghost Burger" — a 10 ounce goat and beef patty made with a red wine reduction and topped with an unconsecrated communion wafer — has offended some people because they believe that it's in "poor taste" to have a communion wafer on a burger. "In the spirit of our undying reverence for the lord and all things holy, we give you the Ghostwhich we think is a fitting tribute to the supreme blasphemous activities carried out by the band itself," reads a post on the Kuma's Corner Facebook page. Luke Tobias, the director of operations for Kuma's Corner, admitted to the Chicago Tribunethat "people have been kind of upset" about the burger, but added: "The thing with this is, the communion wafer is unconsecrated, so until that happens, it's really just a cracker." "It's not a commentary on the state of religion or anything like that," Tobias added. "It's literally, 'We like this band; we think what they do is cool.'" The "Ghost Burger" costs $17 and is served on a pretzel bun and includes braised goat shoulder, aged white cheddar cheese and Ghost chile aioli. Jeff Young, producer of the Catholic Foodie blog, told the Chicago Tribune: "It's not the Eucharist, but it's still symbolic. For us as Catholics, the Eucharist is more than a symbol, it's a sacrament. At the same time, it doesn't mean that symbols aren't important. … It is a mockery of something that is holy. The same thing could be said of the band itself." The members of GHOST dress in religious robes and wear skeleton face makeup. Check out a video report from NBC Chicago below.
02 min read

SUICIDE SILENCE Recruits ALL SHALL PERISH Singer

Manos Spanos
California deathcore masters SUICIDE SILENCE have officially announced the addition of ALL SHALL PERISH singer Hernan "Eddie" Hermida to the group's ranks. Comments SUICIDE SILENCE: "For those of you unfamiliar, our relationship with Eddie goes way back to the 'Spreading Disease Tour', our first U.S. headlining run, in 2006. [LateSUICIDE SILENCE singer] Mitch [Lucker] and Eddie remained longtime friends and we felt that if the band were to continue, it should be with someone Mitch knew personally and respected as both a friend and an artist. We've chosen Eddie as our new frontman in association with this long-standing relationship and countless other attributes, from his quality of character to his dynamic vocal abilities that make him the absolute best fit for this band. "We hope you all will embrace this decision with open arms understanding that this is whatMitch would have wanted. He would want his brothers to stick together and carry forward what he helped create. Every time we step on stage, it will be in his honor and for his legacy. "SUICIDE SILENCE will continue." An audio snippet of the SUICIDE SILENCE song "You Only Live Once" featuring Hermidacan be streamed in the YouTube clip below. Lucker died November 1, 2012 after sustaining injuries in a motorcycle crash in Huntington Beach on Halloween night. A funeral service for Mitch Lucker was held on November 8, 2012. The ceremony was attended by family and friends. According to the Los Angeles Times, Lucker struck a light pole near the intersection of Main and 13th streets and was thrown from his 2013 Harley Davidson. The motorcycle continued sliding south on Main Street and struck a northbound 2007 Nissan Titan pickup. Lucker, who was treated at the scene by paramedics, died shortly after 6 a.m. at UC Irvine Medical Center. Randy Blythe (LAMB OF GOD), Robb Flynn (MACHINE HEAD) and Max Cavalera(SOULFLY, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, SEPULTURA) were among the "surprise" guests who performed with with the surviving members of SUICIDE SILENCE at a special show on December 21, 2012 at the Fox theater in Pomona, California as a tribute Mitch Lucker. All proceeds from the event went towards the education of Mitch's six-year-old daughter,Kenadee Lucker. The Pomona concert was professionally filmed for a DVD that is expected to surface before the end of the year.
02 min read

Did AVENGED SEVENFOLD Copy MACHINE HEAD’s Logo?

Manos Spanos
San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD have posted the following message on their official Facebook page: "Last night, the BLABBERMOUTH.NET Facebook posted a side by side photo of AVENGED SEVENFOLD's new stage set against MACHINE HEAD's 16-year-old lion crest. Unquestionably, lion crests have been around for ages, but there are some uncanny similarities to MACHINE HEAD's distinct lion crest. * Lions (with axes) * Roman numerals at the bottom * Band symbol in the center * Black-and-white juxtaposition in the center "Head Cases, tell us what think." AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows told the Worcester/Boston, Massachusetts radio station WAAF that he isn't bothered by recent comments from MACHINE HEAD frontmanRobb Flynn, in which Flynn called the band's new "Hail To The King" CD a "covers album."Flynn specifically called the band out for songs like "This Means War", which bears a strong resemblance to METALLICA's "Sad But True", along with others. Shadows told WAAF's Mike Hsu (hear audio below): "I think, more than anything, [Robb's comments] brought a lot of attention to the record. "I saw a lot of people saying, 'Oh, well, I didn't like AVENGED before, but now I'm gonna check it out, and I like this record.' So that was kind of funny. "But, you know, [I'm] just trying to be displomatic about the whole thing." He continued: "I don't really care what anyone says, but when people ask you about it over and over, you have to have some sort of response. And my response is just, look, I know the guy. He can say whatever he says. He's a grown-ass adult. He's 40-something years old and has an opinion on our record. I guess he can write and say whatever he wants." Flynn didn't pull any punches in his critique, writing, "Congratulations to AVENGED SEVENFOLD On their latest 'covers album' coming in at #1. Who knew that re-recordingMETALLICA, GUNS N' ROSES, and MEGADETH songs could be such a worldwide hit!!?? Ba-dap Psssssss!!"
02 min read

BARONESS: Dortmund Concert To Be Streamed Live

Manos Spanos
BARONESS is back on tour in Europe, and tomorrow, Thursday, October 3, the band plays theVisions Westend festival in Dortmund, Germany. The show can be viewed via live stream onWDR "Rockpalast" web site at WDR.de. BARONESS will hit the stage at 4:30 p.m. EST / 1:30 p.m. PST; other bands performing on Thursday include LONG DISTANCE CALLING and THE OCEAN. "March To The Sea", the latest video from BARONESS, can be seen below. The clip, which was filmed at the Union Transfer in singer/guitar player John Baizley's adopted hometown of Philadelphia, opens with the enthusiastic crowd chanting "welcome back" to the obviously emotional band, highlighting BARONESS' first live performance following the well-documented accident that left the bandmembers severely injured. BARONESS has been on the road steadily since May, having performed at several festivals including Bonnaroo, Orion Music + More, Lollapalooza and most recently FYF Fest.Entertainment Weekly described the band's Lollapalooza performance as "a volcanic eruption of thick riffs, spry solos, and wicked vocal bellows" while Rolling Stone's FYF Fest review highlighted BARONESS' "feats of stunning metal artistry."
01 min read