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BLACK SABBATH’s BILL WARD Pays Tribute To METALLICA’s LARS ULRICH: He ‘Is an Exceptional Drummer’

Manos Spanos
On this weekend's edition of his radio show "Rock 50", legendary BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward paid tribute to METALLICA's Lars Ulrich. He said: "Lars is an exceptional drummer. He's spiritually sound. I really like that. "A lot of the paths that Lars has passed through I've travelled myself. And I ended up with being able to take whatever my abilities are, and I was able to utilize that in whatever music we did with SABBATH or we're doing with my own bands now, or if I jam out with anybody, I just play whatever shows up. So it's, like, 'This is what I've got.' But I can remember going through a period over 20, probably 28, 25 or 26 years ago, where I stopped competing, so I had to find out what I could do and make good use of it. And it sounds like Lars has reached that settling ground as well. And I think he does such a good job of it. "His drum creations have brought the sound of METALLICA to the very edge of metal spearhead, and he's worthy of much praise. He's inspirational and a must-listen for the students. So go ahead, students. If you are learning drums or need to learn the new techniques and stuff like that, listen to Lars, man. He's got some really good stuff that you can learn from." After airing several METALLICA songs — including "Enter Sandman", "Master Of Puppets", "Until It Sleeps" and "All Nightmare Long" — Ward said: "There are so many things, drum-wise, in all of those songs that are departure points, where other drummers can look at it and go, 'Well, this didn't exist before.' Then Lars created it and we can all listen to it and go, 'Wow!' We can nick some stuff as well, you know. [Laughs] But I love the guy. I think he's just absolutely incredible." He continued: "I sighed a deep sigh of relief when I heard [METALLICA's] 'black' album. Everything musically had seemed to be distorted feng shui until I heard Lars and METALLICA landing firmly with a statement that announced, 'This way.' And that's how it felt." Ward added: "You know where the music scene was during the early '80s. Things were kind of, like, 'Oh, we've got this band, and we've got that going on.' And I was in bad shape. I was coming off SABBATH and we'd been through all the SABBATH years and touring and grinding. And so it was 1980 and I was just waking up into a new life, I guess, and I was listening around, looking around for music, and [a short time later] I heard a couple of METALLICA's early albums and then I heard the 'black' album, and I thought, 'Oh my god.' And it seemed to be like that was… it had the same effect that the 'white' album, THE BEATLES' 'white' album had on me. METALLICA's 'black' album, when I heard that and I heard Lars' playing, and I just was, like, you know, 'Wow! Something really neat's been accomplished here.' It pointed, 'This way, guys. This is the way we're going.' And it seemed like there was a multitude of music that followed that, and we've got this incredible heavy metal thing that we have today."
03 min read

AC/DC Drummer PHIL RUDD Missing From New Promotional Photo

Manos Spanos
AC/DC has released an official new publicity photo of the band and notably absent from it is drummer Phil Rudd, who was also a no-show at the group's recent video shoot on October 3 and October 4 for the two new singles, "Play Ball" and "Rock Or Bust". Rudd was replaced for the filming by drummer Bob Richards (who had previously played with SHOGUN and IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith), with singer Brian Johnson reportedly telling fans at the shoot that Rudd was unable to participate due to an undisclosed "family emergency." Neither Rudd nor the band has issued any further comment on his absence from the shoot. Now the fact that he is missing from the first official band photo for its new album can only be cause for concern among fans already saddened by the departure of founding guitarist Malcolm Young, who is suffering from dementia. Rudd joined AC/DC in 1974 and has been its only Australian-born member since 1977. He exited AC/DC in 1983 and was succeeded by Simon Wright and Chris Slade. When Slade left in 1993, Rudd rejoined the band and has been behind the kit until now. Phil's solo album, "Head Job", was released on August 29 via Universal Music Australia. AC/DC will release its new album, "Rock Or Bust", on December 2. The 11-song set is the band's first since 2008's "Black Ice" and the first in its history without Malcolm, who has been replaced by nephew Stevie Young. AC/DC made it official last month that Malcolm would no longer record or perform with the group. His family disclosed a short time later that he was afflicted with dementia. The guitarist was rumored to have suffered a stroke earlier this year. Despite the loss of Malcolm, Rudd said that "everything's great in the band, we're ready to fire up on all cylinders again." AC/DC 2014 publicity photo:
02 min read

SODOM To Release ‘Sacred Warpath’ EP

Manos Spanos
German thrash metal veterans SODOM will release a new EP, "Sacred Warpath", on November 28 in Germany, December 1 in the rest of Europe and late January 2015 in the USA via SPV/Steamhammer. The effort will be made available on CD, 10-inch clear vinyl (limited to 1,000 copies) and as a digital download. Comments SODOM frontman Thomas "Angelripper" Such: "Since we've been getting the impression that the world is falling apart at the seams, we've decided to make our voices head … while there's still time. "'Sacred Warpath' was originally written for our upcoming album, but we feel it's a good idea to release it now as an appetizer for future SODOM tracks. Because it's going to get raw, brutal and will be a reflection of all the things that we're afraid of and that give us nightmares. Pretty much like that hate-filled world we live in. And it's probably more authentic than any of our releases so far.”" Reagarding the bonus material that is included on SODOM's new EP, Angelripper said: "The record includes three representative titles which we recorded in Germany this year, and it's guaranteed to become a rare collectors' item. The cover will feature a re-paint of an old design from the '80s which I did for a demo cover, painted in oil by Christian Ermel. "This may all sound a little old-school, but that's intentional. That's what we've always been and always will be about. "We very much hope to tie over the waiting time until the arrival of our new album. And now listen to my unmistakable demand on this world: turn back on your sacred warpath and find the path of peace before it's too late. Our music will help you!" "Sacred Warpath" track listing: CD-EP: 01. Sacred Warpath 02. The Saw Is The Law (live) 03. City Of God (live) 04. Stigmatized (live) 10-inch clear vinyl: Side 1 01. Sacred Warpath Side 2 01. The Saw Is The Law (live) 02. City Of God (live) 03. Stigmatized (live)
03 min read

GHOST’s ‘Infestissumam’ Certified Gold In Sweden

Manos Spanos
"Infestissumam", the sophomore album from Swedish occult rockers GHOST, has been certified gold in the group's home country for sales in excess of 20,000 copies. Note: The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in Sweden has revised the sales requirements for albums to reach gold status in the country twice in the last seven years — from the pre-2002 level of 40,000 to the current 20,000. "Infestissumam" sold around 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 28 on The Billboard 200 chart. A Nameless Ghoul from GHOST told Jägermeister about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to 2013's "Infestissumam" and the covers EP "If You Have Ghost": "Obviously, we have plans for pretty much everything. We are a very strictly planning band in that sense, that we have contingencies for basically everything. But I can say as much as there is a plan for everything, but at this point, there's still a long way to go." He continued: "We are obviously very much in the process of making the next album, and we have come a long way with that. And we know what it's about, we know what it is, we know what the songs are, we know what the concepts are. The EP was very much a sort of a sideways step for us a little bit, with all the covers and all that, but it was a very deliberate thing to do. And it centers, obviously, around the session with Dave Grohl [FOO FIGHTERS, NIRVANA] and the time we spent with him at [his] Studio 606 [in California]. And we did a lot of different stuff there for us, whereas the next step is gonna be back to full-on, more traditional-type GHOST stuff. "We're kind of finishing up the writing, actually. The conceptual stuff has been finished for a long, long time, so we know, basically, what we're gonna do with the next album and quite some time after that as well. So we have a very deliberate plan of doing things. But the actual album in terms of material and imagery and stage plots and everything is basically finished." GHOST was forced to modify its name in the U.S. to GHOST B.C. for "legal reasons."
02 min read

SONG PREMIERE: SLIPKNOT’S ‘CUSTER’

Manos Spanos
A brand new SLIPKNOT song called "Custer" can be streamed in the YouTube clip below. The track is taken from the band's fifth album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", which will arrive on October 21 via Roadrunner. The new CD is the first by SLIPKNOT since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray and the late 2013 firing of drummer Joey Jordison. Speaking to the Q105.1 radio station in Fargo, North Dakota, SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor stated about the making of ".5: The Gray Chapter": "The great thing about this band is we've never put shackles on ourselves creatively. If we're feeling one way, we go that way. If we're not, then we tend to go in the opposite direction. It's one of the reasons why we took so long to actually start thinking about doing a new album, 'cause we weren't gonna do it until we were ready." He continued: "As far as pressure, we've never had a lot of pressure, because we approach it that way. We're, like, 'We're gonna do what we want. If nobody listens to it, that's fine, but we've fulfilled something inside ourselves.' So it was more emotional than it was stressful, to be honest. Because filling in the shoes of Paul, especially, was heavy duty. He was such an integral part of the songwriting process and had such a great ear for it, we knew that we were all going to have to step in and fill those shoes in, and I thought we did a great job. Jim [Root, guitar] came up with some killer stuff, I brought in some stuff, Clown [percussionist Shawn Crahan] really, he brought in some really killer atmospheric stuff that we were able to build into some great music. I think we all really stepped up to the challenge, and I think it was because we wanted to. It wasn't because we felt we had to; we felt we wanted to, we wanted to be able to do that and really kind of make new music with this band again. So it wasn't so much stressful as it was powerful." Taylor recently denied that the band's new song, "The Negative One", is about Jordison, telling Metal Hammer, "'The Negative One' is about me, and not just me, but everybody in the band. We all have so many different sides to ourselves, but especially with this band. When we get together, there's something about the music we make that really unleashes the crazy, dark shit inside of us. And that song in particular is about, basically, embracing it again, giving into it and letting it have its say. Because if you don't, then you sit on it and you repress and it blows up in really negative ways. So, that song is about freeing it." Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio that the new disc is autobiographical. "The whole album is essentially the story of the band over the last four years, and part of that story is that we've had to reach a point of acceptance with everything," he said. "You know, the last four years have been really difficult for us." Taylor told Metal Hammer that the album is laid out like a story, "from the moment Paul died to the moment we stepped out of the studio. So there are certain songs that deal with, not Joey in particular, but about the tension and trying to deal with the ugliness that we all have in us." The identities of the band's new bassist and drummer have not yet been revealed, but the bassist is widely believed to be Alessandro "Vman" Venturella, while the new drummer is thought to be Jay Weinberg, son of longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.
04 min read