News

HALFORD Discusses FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH Collaboration, Upcoming JUDAS PRIEST Album

Singer Rob Halford of British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST was interviewed on this past Friday's (May 10) edition of Eddie Trunk's"Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM. A transcript of the chat follows below. Eddie Trunk: I saw you get up and do [JUDAS PRIEST's "Rapid Fire"] with METALLICA [on May 2 at Revolver Golden Gods in Los Angeles]. Rob Halford: Yeah, was another great night. Let me quickly bring everybody up to speed about that. Out of the blue, I get this really cool e-mail from the guys from FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, and much like you do in metal, you know, you just throw things out there and see what happens. And they said they had this cool song ["Lift Me Up"] and they wondered whether there was a chance of me jumping in and doing some singing on the track. And I asked them to send it to me, and, man, as soon as I heard it, I just lit up. I said, "I want to be a part of this." So a few days later, I was in Las Vegas recording it.

CARCASS Inks Deal For New Album

Reactivated British extreme metal legends CARCASS inked a deal last Thursday (May 9) with an as-yet-undisclosed label for the release of their comeback album, "Surgical Steel". The CD was mixed by Andy Sneap(MEGADETH, ACCEPT, EXODUS, ARCH ENEMY) to mix its comeback album, "Surgical Steel", after the project's producer, Colin Richardson(FEAR FACTORY, MACHINE HEAD, NAPALM DEATH, SLIPKNOT, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE), quit the project two weeks into the mixing process. During a March 2013 concert at the Underworld in London, CARCASSbassist/vocalist Jeff Walker claimed that Richardson walked away from the mix in order to work on the new TRIVIUM album. CARCASS' first studio LP since 1996's "Swansong" will feature guest vocals from original sticksman Ken Owen.

AMBERIAN DAWN Releases First Video With New Singer, Parts Ways With Bassist

Helsinki, Finland-based, female-fronted symphonic metallers AMBERIAN DAWN will release a compilation album of songs released on their first four albums — "Circus Black" (2012), "End Of Eden" (2010), "The Clouds Of Northland Thunder" (2009) and "River Of Tuoni" (2008) — to showcase new singer Päivi "Capri" Virkkunen after the departure of Heidi Parviainen. "Re-Evolution" will be made available on June 14 in Finland, distributed by Suomen Musiikki. Comments AMBERIAN DAWN guitarist Tuomas Seppala: "We all thought that the best way to introduce our new singer Capri to our fans is by re-recording a compilation album of our best songs. It was very important for us to give you all a broad overview about Capri's great talent in all its facets and present her vocal sound and way of singing to you before we start recording a whole new studio album. We hope very much that you like the fresh sound created through Capri's voice and the re-recording of the music parts which was necessary due to some required key changes. I believe that this compilation album is an excellent 'visiting card' of the newAMBERIAN DAWN sound and style, all in all we all are really happy with the results we achieved."

PAUL STANLEY Says ‘People Will Be Blown Away’ By KISS’ New Stage Show

On June 1, legendary rockers KISS will kick off the European leg of their"Monster" world tour in Stockholm, Sweden and they'll have a new stage show for the trek. VH1 Radio Network's Dave Basner caught up with the band's frontman, Paul Stanley, when he opened his new restaurant,Rock & Brews, in California on Wednesday and Paul spoke about what to expect from the jaunt. "It's really great," Stanley said. "You know, for so many years, we've talked about a new stage show and basically what we've been doing has been an extension of the old stage show. So people would sometimes come and, obviously, the band does a great show and it's great to be there, but some people would say, 'Gee, it doesn't look that different.' This is a completely different stage, it follows a really great theme, the lights are like nothing you've ever seen before." When pressed for more details, Paul said, "Um… I hate to give anything away but when you see first photos of this new tour, and we're headlining festivals all over Europe, I think people will be blown away by what we're doing onstage."

WHITESNAKE: ‘Made In Britain/The World Record’ Trailer Released

Frontiers Records will release WHITESNAKE's "Made In Britain/The World Record" in Europe on July 5 and in North America on July 9. The album will be released in Japan on June 19 via Ward Records. A trailer for "Made In Britain/The World Record" can be seen below. During 2011, the mighty WHITESNAKE embarked on one of their most successful world tours in recent times, performing 96 shows in more than 35 countries, starting in North America in May until the second U.K. run in December. The request for another live album came from WHITESNAKE's incredibly loyal fans — never ones for being notoriously shy about insisting what they want from their favorite musical reptiles. Before heading out on the "Forevermore World Tour 2011", the decision was made to record every performance on the tour.