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Official Hellfest Announcement Concerning Band Cancellations

Manos Spanos
Here is the Official statement that Hellfest posted concerning the band cancellations: "Recently, you may have noticed that the « Running Order » of the Hellfest 2014 edition tends to suffer of cancellations and/or schedule changes… Though we definitely take a lot of risks by programing more than 160 bands each year, we would like to make things clear in order you, the festival-goers, not to reconsider our main goal: satisfy YOU! Questions gush out on social networks: why all these last minute schedule changes? Why all these cancellations in such a short period of time? Be assured that we are the first to be awfully sorry to be forced to announce these “bad news”, especially since we are far from being the ones to blame… Indeed, all over the year, the Hellfest team works on the development of the site and the setting up of a coherent program, based on commitments founded and confirmed by the bands, via their agents and managers. All of that is an upstream work, more than 6 months (sometimes even more) before the opening of the doors. Personal reasons/pretexts, sudden unavailability, poor organization of tour routes, abusive financial re­-negotiations and ego/fame problems… any excuse bands can to avoid their commitments and to put sick pressure on the festival organization in order us to yield to their desiderata. The more the years go by, the more some artists grant themselves liberties and the “luxury” to change, by instance, their timetable at the last moment, without, of course, caring about the disruptions linked to this, and even less about the complainers it creates… which fall, obviously, on festival organization’s back. So today, thanks to all the (too) many negative comments we have to face, we have decided to say STOP, and that it’s our time to yell out. To yell out about all those artists who too often forget that the first reason of their participation to an event like the Hellfest is, before everything, to please the audience and to share emotions with YOU, the fans! And not to demand any preferential treatment that will, in the end, be prejudicial to all who make sacrifices to come applaud them! Since its creation, the Hellfest has always been a festival organized by fans for fans… And even if we sometimes have to give in under some bands lobby, the Hellfest shall always be a festival organized by fans for fans… We would like to apologize once again about the troubles caused by these last minute changes. But be aware that this kind of situations saddens us as well… Having said this, we have to once again announce “bad news”, because the bands ICED EARTH, MGLA, and ALUK TODOLO have just let us known about their cancellations… The bands BORGNE and BLACKLODGE shall stand in respectively for MGA and ALUK TODOLO. Hoping that all of that shall not tarnish the party we planned for the 20th, 21st, and 22nd of June in Clisson… Two weeks to go…"
02 min read

OZZY OSBOURNE: ‘It Is Possible There’s Gonna Be Another BLACK SABBATH Album’

Manos Spanos
BLACK SABBATH members Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar) and Geezer Butler (bass) took part in a press conference yesterday (Friday, June 6) before their performance at this year's edition of the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden. You can now watch video footage of the question-and-answer session below. Asked about the band's recent concert in Moscow when technical issues prevented BLACK SABBATH from playing "Paranoid" as an encore, Geezer said: "It's probably one of the very few times that we haven't [that song during a SABBATH concert]. But it wasn't our fault, because it was the hard disk in the P.A. system went down. And you can't just replace it. You have to reboot the whole system, and it takes 24 hours, I think." Tony added: "We were all ready to go on, and then suddenly it went off." Regarding BLACK SABBATH's plans for the future beyond the band's current tour, Ozzy said: "We haven't really discussed it. It is possible there's gonna be another album. But we haven't really sat down and decided what we're gonna do yet. We just wanna finish this tour and then we'll see." Asked about Tony Iommi's recent remark that their upcoming concert in London's Hyde Park could be their last, Ozzy told Guitar World, "If it's goodbye, we're ending it on a high note… But I'm up for another BLACK SABBATH album and tour. If we can, great. If not, I'll just carry on doing my own thing." According to The Pulse Of Radio, Butler, meanwhile, thinks that the threesome already have a head start on a new record, explaining, "We've still got four tracks left over from ['13']. So maybe we'll fill in the other four or five tracks and put out another album — if it's right. We wouldn't do it just for the sake of it, or the money or whatever. But yeah, maybe." Ozzy added, "I never say never. I never thought after 35 years I'd [be back with BLACK SABBATH], have a No. 1 record and a sold-out tour." "13", the first SABBATH album since 1978 to feature Ozzy, Butler and Iommi, was No. 1 in the U.S., the U.K. and nearly a dozen other countries. Iommi, who has battled cancer since 2012, said recently that the massive July 4 gig at London's Hyde Park could be the band's last because the touring can be tough on him. Iommi, who is in remission, admitted, "To be honest I don't want to be touring to this extent too much longer, because it makes me feel so bad." The Hyde Park show will feature SOUNDGARDEN and others in addition to the headliners.
03 min read

JUDAS PRIEST’s GLENN TIPTON On ‘Redeemer Of Souls’: ‘It’s Nice To Get Back To What People Want To Hear’

Manos Spanos
JUDAS PRIEST members Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner recently spoke to Ultimate Classic Rock about their forthcoming album, "Redeemer Of Souls". You can now watch the chat below. "Redeemer Of Souls", will be released in North America on July 8 (pushed up a week from the originally announced July 15) via Epic Records. The CD's title track was made available for purchase via iTunes and other digital service providers on April 29. "This album has got vikings, dragons, aliens, a bit of bible thumping and some guns," Halford said."That's what you need in a metal record. It's strong and it's intense, but there's a lot of fun and exploration, through at least that side, with the lyrical content." The follow-up to 2008's double-disc concept album "Nostradamus", "Redeemer Of Souls" is being billed as a return to JUDAS PRIEST's heavy-metal roots. "It's nice to get back to what people want to hear," Tipton said."This album just typifies JUDAS PRIEST." "We felt it was important to make another classic metal album, which is generally what PRIEST has been famous for over the last 40 years," Halford added. "We had great success with 'Nostradamus', which was something that we'd always wanted to try. I think there was a nice enough space of time, musically, to do a lot of things but primarily just to kind of get all of the pieces into place to make what we feel is one of our best records — with all of the elements of what classic PRIEST stands for." Regarding why there are five "bonus" tracks that are included on the deluxe version of "Redeemer Of Souls" and do not appear on the CD's regular version, Glenn Tipton told the "Trunk Nation" show: "They are all great songs. The reason they are not on the album is because the 13 that we chose are very consistent with what we wanted to do, which was release an undisputable heavy metal album. The others, they are not lightweight by any chance, but they've got a different feel, a different texture. So it's not a case of trying to rip the kids off and trying to get more money for an extra album, it's just a case of, these five tracks seem to deserve to go on their own CD, and that's what we did." Added Halford: "We didn't want to drop the energy. From the opening thunder-and-lightning on 'Dragonaut' right up 'till the end of 'Battle Cry', it's just full-on, it's relentless. It's great." "Redeemer Of Souls" CD track listing: 01. Dragonaut 02. Redeemer Of Souls 03. Halls Of Valhalla 04. Sword Of Damocles 05. March Of The Damned 06. Down In Flames 07. Hell & Back 08. Cold Blooded 09. Metalizer 10. Crossfire 11. Secrets Of The Dead 12. Battle Cry 13. Beginning Of The End Bonus tracks: 14. Snakebite 15. Tears Of Blood 16. Creatures 17. Bring It On 18. Never Forget
04 min read

LARS ULRICH Is ‘Unbelievably Bad’ On Drums And METALLICA ‘Is Shite,’ Say Scottish Post-Rock Icons MOGWAI

Manos Spanos
Scottish post-rock icons MOGWAI have slammed METALLICA as "shite," claiming that they don't understand the controversy surrounding METALLICA being the first metal artist to headline Glastonbury in the U.K. festival's 44-year history. The members of MOGWAI, who are set to perform at the same time as METALLICA at this year's festival, gave their opinion of the heavy metal giants during a recent interview with Gigwise. "I can't wait to hear that guy [presumably referring to Lars Ulrich. — Ed.] play the drums again — unbelievably bad," said multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns. "He's terrible." Singer Stuart Braitwaite added: "I just can't wait until we go all quiet and you can hear 'Enter Sandman' in the background, because we're on at the same time. I don't really see the fuss. They're a pretty big rock band and it's a pretty big rock festival." When put to the band that the METALLICA's booking had proven controversial with apprehensive Glastonbury punters, MOGWAI drummer Martin Bulloch opined, “Because they’re shite.” Mick Jagger of THE ROLLING STONES — who headlined the festival last year — recently shared his opinion of METALLICA headlining Glastonbury, saying: "I've seen them live and they're going to be great." Jagger added that his band had a "great time" headlining the event.
01 min read

Is FAITH NO MORE Working On New Music?

Manos Spanos
Reactivated influential alt-metal act FAITH NO MORE has hinted at the possibility of new music 17 years after the release of the band's last LP, "Album Of The Year". The group, which made a comeback in June 2009 with a headlining performance at the Brixton Academy in London, England and has played sporadic shows for the past few years, has just launched a new Twitter account and one of the first posts reads as follows: "The reunion thing was fun, but now it's time to get a little creative." FAITH NO MORE will play a number of European summer festival shows beginning on June 28 in Hungary. Speaking to IHeartGuitarBlog.com in November 2012, FAITH NO MORE singer Mike Patton stated about the possibility of the band releasing any live material from its reunion tours: "Right now, we have no plans whatsoever — live, recording or anything. We've done what we set out to do with the reunion, and it's all great, but it's just, 'Let's see what happens next.' And I think you need to take a pause to actually reflect on something like that, because otherwise we could just keep playing, and we're very conscious of overdoing it, y'know, milking material that's so old. You can only do that for so long, and I feel that we've done pretty well. The whole band's naturally came to this conclusion, so now we're just sitting tight." According to Patton, one of the reasons the FAITH NO MORE reunion didn't happen sooner is the fact that they wanted to avoid making it feel like a nostalgia thing — like "Here's FAITH NO MORE again." "We wanted it to feel fresh and still somehow vital," he said. "It wasn't an money grab. It's funny to say, but we all kind of reconnected, and after quite a long time we all kinda looked at each other and were like, 'Man, we actually spent half of our lives together.' It's interesting to see it through that set of glasses as opposed to the ones you wore back then. I suppose, at least personally speaking, I've grown up a lot since then, and I think I approach the music differently, and I felt better about the music than
02 min read