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DEF LEPPARD To Enter Studio In February

Manos Spanos
DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen tells Artisan News that the band will enter the studio on February 1 to begin work on the follow-up to 2008's "Songs From The Sparkle Lounge". "I saw Joe [Elliott, vocals], Vivian [Campbell, guitar] and Rick [Allen, drums] on Rick's birthday out here on November 1," he said (see video below). "And we were discussing and we were all excited and buzzing about new material. I can't even remember the last time we were like that about that stuff. 'Cause it's been a long time since we've had new recordings out, so it's like a brand new band; you have all these ideas and we're just gonna get together and bash it out." In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Collen revealed that the band has plans to record both an EP and full-length album. He explained: "An album would obviously take too long, so we're gonna do about four or five songs, get those out and then [later in the] year have an album come out, so it'll be an EP and an album." Campbell explained to Billboard that DEF LEPPARD's next release will likely see them delivering elements of their classic tunes while also delving into new territory. "The band is successful for a certain sound," said Campbell. "It's a brand like Coca-Cola and you've got to give the people what they expect. At the same time, you have to move on." After completing the successful "Viva! Hysteria" residency in Las Vegas last spring that resulted in the recently released concert video and album packages, DEF LEPPARD is planning to return to Sin City later this year with a "Viva! Pyromania" residency, which will see the group perform the entire classic 1983 album "Pyromania" at each show. The move comes in time for the album's 31st anniversary rather than its 30th, but Elliott told journalist Gary Graff that commemorating that mark wasn't on DEF LEPPARD's agenda last year. "We ignored the anniversary because I think a lot of these anniversaries are just invented by the record companies to rehash for some bullshit reason, to re-release an album that doesn't need re-releasing because it's never been deleted," he said. "We agreed to doing the 25th anniversary of 'Pyromania' five years ago, where we put out the second disc which was... basically an extra live album with the Steve Clark lineup, if you like, the way that we were in 1983," he continued. "The cupboard's bare. There's nothing left. "They wanted to do a re-release of a 30th anniversary of 'Pyromania', and we just said, 'Absolutely no! The only thing that anybody is going to get out of this is some different liner notes.' I think it's just ripping off the kids, so we said no. "If somebody wants 'Pyromania Deluxe', it's already out. "We celebrated after 25 years; we don't need to do it again after 30."
03 min read

OPETH’s MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT On Next Album: It’s Time To Go ‘All In’ With String Instrumentation

Manos Spanos
Guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH spoke to Decibel magazine about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2011's "Heritage". "I have about six songs done and another two or three just started," he said, "plus a million ideas that I haven't processed yet. Some songs are simple and stripped-down, while others are epic in the true sense of the word. Business as usual, hopefully with unusual music." Åkerfeldt also revealed that he plans to enrich at least a few of the new OPETH tracks with strings. "Some of these things could easily be done with synthetic sounds or effects," he said, "but recording the STORM CORROSION LP with Steven Wilson made me realize what a massive difference it can mean to incorporate the real shit. I'm semi-pretentious in my songwriting and sometimes I go all in. I think it's time for 'all in' with strings and the full monty. Hopefully it won't be a mess." One of the songs that will appear on OPETH's forthcoming album was previously described by Åkerfeldt as a "crazy rip-off" of Italian prog outfit GOBLIN, which formed in 1972 and ran for ten years before splitting (the band has since reformed). "It's a jam I came up with during the MASTODON/GHOST tour," he told Decibel, "that we ended up soundchecking. After a few days, you'd hear people in the corridors humming it. It's a fucking hit! But basically it's a not-so-subtle headbanging-type nod in GOBLIN's direction. And to avoid confusion, the song is even called 'Goblin'. My rip-off deteriorates mid-song and becomes fusion-esque darkened prog rock like MAHAVISHNU or ELP (yikes!). But it swings! It really does." Speaking to the Swedish newspaper Expressen in September, Åkerfeldt stated about OPETH's plans for the upcoming CD: "We've been looking at [tracking the next album at] Rockfield Studios in Wales where QUEEN recorded 'Bohemian Rhapsody', but we haven't made a decision yet. But it will be an expensive album. There's a lot going on, lots of string arrangements that we haven't had in the past."
03 min read

CAVALERA CONSPIRACY Begins Recording Third Album

Manos Spanos
CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, the band led by brothers and founding SEPULTURA members Max (also of SOULFLY) and Igor Cavalera, has entered the studio to begin recording its third album for a mid-2014 release via Napalm Records.. A couple of photos from the studio can be seen below. CAVALERA CONSPIRACY recently recruited Nate Newton of CONVERGE as its new bassist. Johny Chow, who had been touring and recording with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY for the past few years, in 2013 joined STONE SOUR as that band's new touring bassist. Joining CAVALERA CONSPIRACY on stage last year for its tour of South America and Mexico was SOULFLY bassist Tony Campos. CAVALERA CONSPIRACY released the critically acclaimed and universally praised albums "Inflikted" and "Blunt Force Trauma" through Roadrunner Records. "Blunt Force Trauma" sold around 5,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 122 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's debut CD, "Inflikted", opened with 9,000 units to enter the chart at No. 72. "Blunt Force Trauma" was once again tracked with ex-MACHINE HEAD/SOULFLY guitarist Logan Mader, who co-produced the LP with Max. Logan also mixed the effort.
01 min read

SABATON Begins Recording New Album

Manos Spanos
Swedish metallers SABATON entered the studio earlier today (Thursday, January 2) to begin recording their new album. SABATON played its first show with new drummer Hannes Van Dahl on November 16 at the Metal Hammer Paradise festival in Germany. Regarding their decision to enlist Hannes Van Dahl, SABATON said in a statement: "For some time, there has been rumors about Robban [Bäck] coming back soon, or that Snowy [Shaw] would fill in for a while longer, or even take Robban's place permanently behind the drums. "To put an end to these rumors we now present our new full-time member in SABATON: Hannes Van Dahl. "Hannes has previously played in EVERGREY, which we have toured with in the past, and he has also worked side by side with us as drum technician for Snowy during his time in SABATON." SABATON's latest album, "Carolus Rex", was released on May 22, 2012 via Nuclear Blast Records. The lyrics for the CD, which was made available in both English and Swedish, deal with the Swedish Empire (referring to the Kingdom of Sweden between 1561 and 1721). SABATON in 2012 parted ways with guitarists Oskar Montelius and Rikard Sundén, drummer Daniel Mulback and keyboardist Daniel Mÿhr.
01 min read

GORGOROTH Completes Recording ‘Instinctus Bestialis’

Manos Spanos
Black metal veterans GORGOROTH have finished recording their new album, "Instinctus Bestialis", for a mid-2014 release. The recording lineup for the eight-song CD consisted of Infernus (guitar), Tomas Asklund (drums; ex-DISSECTION, DARK FUNERAL), Bøddel (a.k.a. Frank Watkins, bass, ex-OBITUARY), and new vocalist Atterigner from the Serbian band TRIUMFALL. The mixing sessions for "Instinctus Bestialis" will begin this month. "Under The Sign Of Hell 2011", the re-recording of GORGOROTH's third album, was made available in 2011. On "Under The Sign Of Hell 2011", Pest and Infernus repeated their roles as vocalist and guitarist/bassist, respectively, from the original 1996 recording, while Tomas Asklund handled the drums. GORGOROTH's ninth album, "Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt", was released on October 21, 2009 in Europe via Regain Records. The CD, which was made available in the U.S. on November 11, 2009, was recorded at Monolith Studio and featured Infernus on guitar, OBITUARY's Frank Watkins on bass, Pest on vocals and Asklund on drums. "Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt" was produced by Infernus and co-produced/engineered by Tomas Asklund. It was mastered at the Cutting Room in Stockholm.
01 min read

GOJIRA’s JOSEPH DUPLANTIER: ‘We Have 20-Something Ideas’ For Next Album

Manos Spanos
During a brand new interview with Loudwire, guitarist/vocalist Joseph Duplantier of French progressive metallers GOJIRA spoke about the band's plans for 2014. "We have a lot in our minds," he said. "There's a lot of stuff we'd like to do — some stuff I can't talk about because it's too early, but definitely a new album. We at least want to work on a new album; that's going to be really important for us. "There's a platform now for our band to release a record without thinking about anything else because the deal with Roadrunner took a lot of energy and time. It was a big deal for us because we were without a record company, without management, without a crew, without a lot of things. All we had was a lawyer and an accountant and one tech for a couple years until 2009 or 2010. "We found great management, we signed a deal with Roadrunner, we have a crew on the road — it took us a long time to settle down with people. Now we feel like, 'Okay, all we have to do now is release another album.' This is the platform for us to do it without thinking about other things." Asked if GOJIRA writes new music on the road, Joseph said: "We always wanted to write on the road and never did it. We're like, 'On this tour [with SLAYER], we have two months together on the road! Let's use this free time to write.' "I remember we toured for three months with LAMB OF GOD in 2007 and all I did was one riff, one riff! [laughs] It was impossible for us to write on the road. On this tour, for the first time we're like, 'Okay, let's do it this time. What do we need? We need speakers, a computer, keyboards so Mario [Duplantier] can do drums on the bus.' "There's no room on the bus; it's so small and we need a guitar and a bass and interface and we got all that together. "It's not easy. "When you go on tour, you think about the instrument and what's essential. It's a bit of work with all the cables and stuff so we created this small studio in the back lounge of the bus and we did write a lot of riffs this time. We have maybe 20-something ideas, cool riffs, atmospheres, intros, outros and all that stuff. So now we want to put all of this together and make and album." GOJIRA's fifth album, "L'Enfant Sauvage", sold almost 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 34 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous CD, "The Way Of All Flesh", opened with 4,200 units back in 2008 to land at No. 138. "L'Enfant Sauvage" entered the official chart in France at position No. 7 (No. 17 on the digital chart). "L'Enfant Sauvage" (which translates to "The Wild Child") features 11 tracks of mind-bending, thunderous metal. The CD was recorded at Spin Recording Studios in Long Island City, New York with co-producer Josh Wilbur (LAMB OF GOD).
03 min read

MEGADETH To Enter Studio Next Summer

Manos Spanos
Rooster of 94.5 FMX's "The Wrecking Yard" in Lubbock, Texas recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. You can now listen to the chat at KFMX.com. Speaking about MEGADETH's plans for a new studio album, Mustaine said: "We right now have a bunch of dates that's gonna take us up until August of next year. That's when we start recording the next record. We've already started working on writing stuff… "Sometimes we've been forced to really kind of write on the spot. Right now we've got an amazing luxury to be able to take some time. "Besides doing a lot of interesting things, the other guys in the band, I've got a performance coming up in April with the San Diego Symphony. And just interesting stuff like that. "We're trying to go a little bit out of our comfort zone while we're near the end of this cycle, because we wanna make sure that we really experience as much as we can." He continued: "Life is what you make it, man. And we really, really enjoy what we're doing right now. I mean, we're not in it for anything other than just the love of playing music and looking at the smiles on your faces. That's, to me, the biggest reward. Because if you've got a roof over your head and your kids are healthy, then you're very wealthy. And if you've got enough friends to count on one hand, then you're a really blessed person. I've had a great life and I love playing for our fans." MEGADETH's tour with FEAR FACTORY and NONPOINT kicked off on November 23 in St. Paul, Minnesota. MEGADETH's latest album, "Super Collider", has sold more than 70,000 copies in the United States since its June 4 release. The CD arrived in stores via Mustaine's new label, Tradecraft, distributed by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe).
02 min read