Judas Priest have announced that they entered the studio to begin recording their long-awaited follow-up to 2014’s Redeemer Of Souls. The band’s longtime producer Tom Allom, acclaimed British knob-twiddler Andy Sneap and engineer Mike Exeter.
Allom produced every Priest release from Unleashed In The East (1979) through Ram It Down (1988), along with several live records since then. As a young engineer, he also worked on the first three Black Sabbath records under producer Rodger Bain.
During a January 2017 appearance on Trunk Nation, Eddie Trunk’s show on SiriusXM,singer Rob Halford discussed (as per blabbermouth.net) the songwriting process for the band’s new record, stating, “Yeah, everything’s coming together great. We’re excited to be making new material.
As you know, whenever we go out to play, we like to say that we’re there for not only the reason to see our wonderful fans again but to show off what we’re doing. And that’s what we’re doing right now — we’re hard at work, and it’s all coming together great.”
Halford also confirmed that there is no set-in-stone timetable for the release of the next album. “You know, there is no rush,” he said. “There is no rush. We feel great. We’re very happy, we’re very confident, we’re very excited. And so, yeah, we’re working with our label and with promoters, and there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes.”
He continued “When we go out, we want it to be good — we want it to be good, we want it to be well planned, we wanna make sure that everybody’s happy.”
On February 3rd, the band released a remastered version of Turbo as a three CD reissue. Read more, here.
KXM, the band featuring dUg Pinnick of King’s X on vocals/bass, George Lynch of Lynch Mob/Dokken on guitars and Ray Luzier of Korn on drums, has released a new video for the song, The Sky, from their forthcoming album, Scatterbrain, which be released on March 17th. Watch it below.
To view other titles from this release, click on the highlighted song titles:
The band also posted a behind scenes look at the making of the record, which can be viewed below.
Recorded over the span of ten days, every song on Scatterbrain was the result of a musical jam from all three members playing together in the same room.
Ray Luzier explains on the process, “We wanted to use the same formula as the 1st KXM record, book studio time, come in fresh every day with a new idea & run with it and not over think anything.” George Lynch described the sessions as Record-topia, “We showed up in the studio, camped out with a bunch of gear and let the tape roll. Just like the first album, no pre-production, no rehearsal, no pre-written songs.” dUg Pinnick adds, “The vibe was like a bunch of old friends having fun creating music like the previous record, nothing but fun!”
The track listing for Scatterbrain is:
1. Scatterbrain
2. Breakout
3. Big Sky Country
4. Calypso
5. Not a Single Word
6. Obsession
7. Noises In The Sky
8. Panic Attack
9. It’s Never Enough
10. True Deceivers
11. Stand
12. Together
13. Angel
Weeks after announcing a stadium summer run with Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold have revealed plans for a series of special headline shows that begin April 22nd in Las Vegas. The dates will intersperse with the Metallica tour and include support acts Volbeat and A Day To Remember (each at different shows). The dates begin at Las Rageous, where A7X will top the bill on a lineup featuring acts such as Mastodon and Eagles of Death Metal (see full itinerary below).
Members of Deathbat Nation, the band’s new—and first official—fan club will get first crack at tickets via an exclusive 24-hour pre-sale window that begins today, March 14th.
Unlike most artist fan clubs, Deathbat Nation doesn’t require an annual fee. The band (vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman) sees it as an opportunity to thank A7X diehards by offering them free membership and the opportunity to be part of a community participating in unique multi-layered band/fan experiences. By registering here, members will have access to fan club only ticket pre-sales, opportunities to win VIP upgrades, rare and exclusive prizes, early venue access, early access to premium content, exclusive videos and photos, fan club only merchandise designs, opportunities to win access to meet & greets and special “members only” events and more. The band asked fans to name the club and received over 10,000 submissions within the first few hours of posting.
Fans attending the upcoming dates will experience a setlist packed with favorites old and new, including material from the A7X’s critically acclaimed new album The Stage.
Led by its title track, which hit top five at rock radio, and a companion video that’s amassed over 14 million YouTube views, The Stage, hit number one on Billboard’s Rock, Hard Rock and Alternative Albums charts, number four on the Top 200 and debuted top five on iTunes in over 35 countries. Co-produced by A7X and Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool), The Stage, available here, is the band’s 7th studio album and first for Capitol Records.
The band, who are currently on the cover of Revolver magazine, has spent the past month playing to packed-house arena crowds across the UK and drawing rave reviews from fans and media alike. The tour included two nights at London’s 02 Arena, performing to over 80k fans on that leg alone.
Avenged Sevenfold tour dates:
April 22 – Las Vegas, NV – Downtown Las Vegas Events Center**
May 5 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater**
May 7 – Concord, NC – Rock City Campground**
May 9 – Hershey, PA – GIANT Center***
May 10 – Baltimore, MD – M&T Bank Stadium^
May 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Lincoln Financial Field^
May 14 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium^
June 7 – Denver, CO – Sports Authority Field^
June 11 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium^
June 14 – San Antonio, TX – Alamodome
June 16 – Dallas, TX – AT&T Stadium
June 18 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
June 19 – Mt. Pleasant, MI – Soaring Eagle Casino Resort**
July 5 – Orlando, FL – Camping World Stadium^
July 7 – Miami, FL – Hard Rock Stadium^
July 9 – Atlanta, GA – SunTrust Park^
July 10 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center***
July 12 – Detroit, MI – Comercia Park^
July 13 – Oshkosh, WI – Ford Festival Park
July 14 – Cadott, WI – Rock Fest Amphitheater**
July 16 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre^
July 18 – Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion***
July 19 – Montreal, QB – Parc Jean-Drapeau^
July 28 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre+++
July 29 – Los Angeles, CA – Rose Bowl+
July 31 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center+++
August 3 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater+++
August 4 – Phoenix, AZ – University of Phoenix Stadium+
August 6 – San Diego, CA – Petco Park+
August 9 – Seattle, WA – CenturyLink Field+
August 11 – Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre+++
August 12 – Nampa (Boise), ID – Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater+++
August 14 – Vancouver, BC – BC Place+
August 16 – Edmonton, AB – Commonwealth Stadium+
** A7X headline show or festival date
*** A7X headline show with Volbeat opening
+++A7X headline show with A Day To Remember opening
^With Metallica + Volbeat
+With Metallica + Gojira
Sammy Hagar wants it known that he’ll mean business when he attends his first South By Southwest conference this week in Austin, Texas — and not just hawking Chickenfoot’s new album.
“To be honest with you, I want to get re-inspired,” Hagar tells Billboard…”I want to get my finger back on the pulse. I’m a smart enough guy where if I saw something great I could identify it.”
Hagar may even go beyond that. “I may want to grab one of these young bands and say, ‘Hey, I want to sponsor you. I want to help you out. I’m not your manager, but I’ll be your sponsor. I’ll give you enough money to make it.'” Hagar says that scenario could very well play out, as once he has an idea he takes action…
…Aside from hypotheticals, Hagar will definitely be doing work down in Austin. For Rock & Roll Road Trip with Sammy Hagar he’ll take a crew to the city’s streets to film for a future episode. “I’m going to be putting some microphones in people’s faces, some younger artists, asking them what they think about the event and if they think they’re going to get anywhere from it,” Hagar says…
…Naturally, Hagar has his sleeves rolled up in other endeavors, too. Chickenfoot — the all-star band he fronts with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, Joe Satriani and Michael Anthony — just released a Best + Live collection with one brand new song, the gritty Divine Termination. It’s the first new Chickenfoot material in five years, but despite fans clamoring for more, Hagar doesn’t think anything is likely soon.
“I love the band. I love those guys,” he says. “But the commitment it takes to go in and make a great record is six months, for me to shut my world down for that is hard, as much as I love it.”
Outside of music, Hagar has also recently launched his latest liquor, Santo Mezquila, in partnership with Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. It’s the first-ever blend of mezcal and tequila, an odd couple much like the two men behind it.
“[Levine] moved to Cabo and we ran into each other, and hit it off like crazy,” says Hagar…
…About the only thing not on Hagar’s plate at the moment is anything with Van Halen. Fans were heartened when he exchanged pleasantries with Eddie Van Halen around the guitarist’s birthday in January, though things never went any further.
“Let’s put it like this — when it came to my birthday, I didn’t get a message,” Hagar notes, “so obviously that camp, him and Al, still have some kind of trip against me. I’m certainly not looking to get back in that band when I’ve got Chickenfoot sitting in my lap and I’m scared to grab the reigns of that one. Van Halen would be twice the nightmare of the workload and the anxieties about getting along or being worried about being stabbed in the back again or something. I don’t want to put myself in that situation, that’s for sure.”
Hagar then adds a quick, “but you never know” and throws out the idea of going on the road with the original Van Halen, including David Lee Roth and Anthony back on bass, with the two singers trading off songs they recorded with the group. “That’s really the only way I would be interested in a Van Halen reunion,” Hagar says.
“Everybody’s saying, ‘Well, what would it take?'” Hagar says. “For me, no money, man. I don’t need money. I would do that for the fans and give the money to food banks or something. I’m not sure anybody else would agree with me, but that would interest me enough to sit down across the table from everybody and work that one out.”
Y&T frontman Dave Meniketti posted the following message on his Facebook page :
“It’s with great sadness that I write this today. Y&T’s original rhythm guitarist, Joey Alves, passed away at 7:10 this morning at the age of 63. He suffered from ulcerative colitis and other complications that led to his passing. Joey was one of the finest rock rhythm guitarists, and I’ll always remember playing next to him chunking out those monster chords with his classic red double cutaway ‘59 Les Paul Jr. As Ronnie Montrose once said about Joey, “There are rhythm players, then there’s Joey. A class of his own……
He was a fun guy who always played with attitude and conviction, and was responsible for writing some memorable riffs for Y&T over the years. His friendship and presence will be missed. This is a great loss for all the Y&T family and faithful. He now joins Phil and Leonard in rock and roll heaven.
New Quiet Riot singer James Durbin was a recent guest a Eddie’s Sirius/XM show, Trunk Nation. Portions of the interview appear below (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net).
On the feedback he has received since joining the band:
“I’ve been getting so much positive feedback, and so many people are just super stoked and super pumped about this lineup and about coming to see us. And so it’s all about keeping it on that wave of positivity. Yeah, there’s places where people congregate to be unhappy, but, you know, you can’t please those people, and those aren’t the people coming to our shows to begin with…What’s said is said, and I said what a lot of people have been thinking throughout the years. But, you know, if you wanna read more into that, there’s plenty of gossip sites that keep posting things about me, so they’re still talking. So that’s the name of the game — is press.” (Apparently, Durbin referred to blabbermouth.net posters as “supreme scum” for their critical comments regarding his new position).
Discussing the pros and cons of being on American Idol:
“Yeah, there’s definitely pros and cons to it, but you take the good and you take the bad, you take ’em both and there you have [it]. There’s definitely more good things that outweigh it. Of course, with anything, you’re gonna have people that love it, people that hate it, people that are indifferent, people that just really don’t care. And luckily, there’s much more positivity and much more people that are super stoked about this than the thirty people going back and forth on a gossip site…To hear all these things and have people keep posting things and making attention out of it, I’m getting a lot of support from the hard rock and metal community, from the actual people that are doing it, and have been doing it throughout the years — the entertainers, the artists, the creative minds themselves; not the people that take something that took so much time and so much love and sadness and energy to create, and then just completely s–t all over it. There’s no point to that. I feel like, coming from an artistic stance, you can be indifferent to things and you don’t have to like everything, but if you don’t like it, just shut your mouth. You know? If you like it, fire off. I wanna hear it. If you don’t, go away.”
He continued, “..For me, the whole Idol thing and everything all together, the reason I did was just so that I could be a working musician and play music for a living and support my family. And that’s who I’m in a band with. So it’s pretty cool. It’s come full circle. But nothing in this music industry or the rock and roll world or anything comes without a price to pay, so whatever the ticket price is, I’ll pay it. But you can guaran-damn-tee that I will be there every single night banging my head, making you feel the noise, and I will never phone it in, dial it in, make a gimmick of myself or this band, because they deserve it, Kevin DuBrow’s legacy and memory deserves it, and Quiet Riot deserves it.”
Quiet Riot announced last week that it would delay the release of Road Rage until this summer so that Durbin could replace all the vocals on the album with new lyrics and melodies.
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