Author Archives : Dana

ACCEPT GUITARIST WOLF HOFFMANN DISCUSSES “RESTLESS & WILD” DVD

Ruben Mosqueda of Metal Titans spoke with Accept guitarist Wolf Hoffmann. Excerpts from the interview appear below.

Metal Titans: To clarify you have a live DVD titled Restless & Live coming in January [2017], right? I ask this because you also added a live DVD as the bonus to the last album Blind Rage. The bonus DVD on that album was filmed in Chile.

Wolf Hoffmann: I can tell you this; Restless & Live is a package with three round discs! [laughs] One is a complete live performance on DVD; filmed in Germany, multi-camera and it was filmed at a European festival called Bang Your Head. It’s full production, great quality and the full show. The CDs are live material from shows from various shows all across Europe. I think it’s like an addition 27 songs of material.

Metal Titans: Will there be any select U.S. dates to promote Restless & Live or are you aiming to use this as a means to tide fans over between albums?

Wolf Hoffmann: That’s exactly what it is. We did this just for the fans until the next album is released. We toured a lot more behind the Blind Rage album, we have a couple new members and it’s going to be a few months before we have new material released. We felt that Restless & Live was a great release between [studio] records. As I said we are working on new material and the new studio album will be released next year. At the moment we’re looking at July or August [2017].

It should be released then but as you know sometimes things change. After we release the next album we begin our touring cycle which we’re hoping brings us to the U.S. this time around. I’m desperately hoping [to tour the U.S.] because it has been so long.

Metal Titans: That’s right because you were out in the Northwest when you promoted ‘Blood of the Nations’ then again behind ‘Stalingrad’ that was a co-headline with Kreator but nothing for ‘Blind Rage.’ That was a disappointment but that has nothing to do with the band but rather more to do with the promoters who book bands.

Wolf Hoffmann: It is or then there’s a timing issue. If you’re committed to touring somewhere else then it makes it impossible. Touring the U.S. has completely changed; touring the U.S. 6-8 weeks like we have done in the past has become harder and harder to do. There are some markets that just don’t…the ticket sales aren’t there and the promoters don’t want to take the risk.

We are happy to play wherever anyone books us; the last few years we have been concentrating on shows in California and on the East coast. There’s all these other markets that we’d love to play in between too…So we’ll put the feelers out and spread the word and see what happens. Fans ask us why don’t you ever come to Portland? Well it’s not like we can jump on a plane and ‘just play’ in Portland? It doesn’t work that way! [laughs] Fans don’t understand that it needs to be planned out months in advance and it has to coincide with other stuff.

Metal Titans:…has there ever been discussion of recutting some of the classics in studio with Mark? Not as a standalone release but more as bonus cuts?

Wolf Hoffmann: [long pause] It has been discussed but I’m not really sure that it would be a good idea? [long pause] I have heard where other people have done that; it’s been in circumstances where the label owns their masters. The idea is if you re-record it then it’s yours and you can license it for commercial use. I don’t know…I don’t really see the point? I’ll be honest I’d much rather spend my time writing and creating new stuff. I imagine if you really want to hear what the old songs sound performed by this Accept you can pick up Restless & Live and you can do that.

Watch a live clip of Stampede from Restless & Live, here.

Read more at Metal Titans.

source: metaltitans.com

OVERKILL POST LYRIC VIDEO FOR “MEAN, GREEN, KILLING MACHINE”

Overkill have released a lyric video for the song, Mean, Green, Killing Machine. Listen to it below.

The song appears on the band’s forthcoming album, The Grinding Wheel, which is set for release on February 10th, through Nuclear Blast. The band previously released a lyric video for Our Finest Hour. Click here to listen to the song.

Pre-order the album digitally and receive Mean, Green Killing Machine” and Our Finest Hour as instant-grat tracks.

The Grinding Wheel track listing:

1. Mean, Green, Killing Machine
2. Goddamn Trouble
3. Our Finest Hour
4. Shine On
5. The Long Road
6. Let’s All Go To Hades
7. Come Heavy
8. Red White And Blue
9. The Wheel
10. The Grinding Wheel

SINGER PHIL ANSELMO OPENS UP AND REVEALS THAT HE WAS MOLESTED AS A CHILD

Kory Grow of Rolling Stone reports:

…[While talking with former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo], he says he…identifies with marginalized people because of his upbringing. He grew up in New Orleans’ French Quarter – “That’s a diverse f–king crowd of people,” he says – and he was raised by a single mother who “dated black men and whatever and they were in my house that I lived in – they spent the night and all that – and all I had was f–king love for them.” His nanny when he was young, he says, was a transgender woman who was assigned male at birth named Wilma. “I loved her,” he says repeatedly. He points out that he uses the past tense when talking about her not because he no longer loves her, but because she is now dead.

“This is shit I’ve never f–king opened up about until now,” he says. “But when people constantly talk about being a victim or something, there are going to be certain points where I have to step back and go, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ Especially when people shout and scream about us living in a rape culture and men are this evil product. … Guess who was molested his entire child-f–king-hood by numerous people, both men and women. … ” He pauses, and lowers his chin to make eye contact. “Me.” He pauses again and sharpens his glare. “Me.”

Anselmo resituates himself, closing the bathroom door to let the heat build back up. “I’ve never told the world this, but I am now maybe because I’m almost 50 and I don’t give a f–k anymore,” he says. “But it happened. I never blamed the world for it like I’m seeing kids today do, putting everybody in one box. And the same thing goes for race and all this s–t.”

In addition to the scrutiny of the world at large, Anselmo also faced derision in the press from one of his former Pantera bandmates, drummer Vinnie Paul. A rift grew between them as the band broke up in the early 2000s and it has widened since an insane fan gunned down Dimebag Darrell at a 2004 concert by Darrell and Paul’s post-Pantera band Damageplan, as Paul alluded that Anselmo had stoked the killer by comments he made in the press. Paul has claimed he hasn’t seen Anselmo in person since 2001.

Earlier this year, when Paul was asked for a comment on Anselmo’s white-power salute, he was dismissive. “I can’t speak for him,” he said. “He’s done a lot of things that tarnish the image of what Pantera was back then and what it stood for and what it was all about. And it’s sad.”

Anselmo recoils at first when thinking about Paul’s comments, but soon turns dismissive. “Yeah, I saw that he said that but anything out of that dude’s mouth is … ugh … it seems sour,” he says. “I don’t have anything in common with that guy at all.” He pauses to find his words. “But Vince better be caref– …” He stops mid-word and seamlessly switches sentiments. “One day I’m really not gonna care about whatever the legacy of Pantera [is]. It’s great that we had such an awesome fan base and still continue to have this awesome fan base, but there will be probably be a whole lot of ’em that would be perhaps a little disappointed in my assessment of the whole situation. So I’ll just leave it at that. And that’s why I’m not going to speak out about it, even though I know when this interview comes out, people are going to say, ‘Well, you almost went off on that.’ And yeah, almost. Operative word.”

He says he’s careful with his words because he wonders about Paul’s mental well-being, even more than a decade after the fatal concert. “You have to worry about Vince’s state of mind, just like you have to worry about all of our states of mind,” he says. “I know in my heart I have to accept what happened to Dimebag because it’s just real. He’s gone. He was murdered. But there’s a giant chunk of me that will never understand it. I’ve spoken to the police about it. I’ve spoken to the cop that was on hand that ended things, murdered the murderer. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand it…”

…Anselmo has since resumed a regular working pace. He’s played live with Superjoint and they have a tour planned for next year. And he has announced the release of the Bill and Phil record, Songs of Darkness and Despair, which comes out January 20th and is a departure musically for him. The music, for which Anselmo plays guitar, straddles blues-rock and avant-rock with synthy detours, as Moseley – whose film credits include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Army of Darkness and The Devil’s Rejects – sings somewhat bizarre words.

“We’ve been friends for years, and we had a three-day weekend so we said we want to come up with six ridiculous songs,” Anselmo says. “The dude can sing. He’s got a great range. He’d come in with lyrics and I’d look at the title and say, ‘This is a ridiculous title, Bill…'”

…Anselmo also has many other releases he would like to put out in the coming year that range from sounds you would expect from him to what he calls “un-metal,” mellow songs which he will release under the name Illegals in Minor. “That stuff is heavy in its own right,” he says. “Extremities come in all genres. Like, there isn’t anybody alive that’s going to convince me that Björk ain’t extreme. So if it helps the project by using a cello or stand-up piano or a waterphone, then so be it. I’m going to use it.”

He opens the bathroom door so he can smoke again and likens the vibe of that music to Nick Cave, David Bowie and the Smiths and says he sings in his natural baritone. The lyrics deal with his lack of fear of death, something he says he knows about as he’s been declared medically dead more than once. “As a guy who’s croaked a few times, I’ll let you know straight up, there wasn’t much there,” he says with a laugh. “And if there was, it ain’t memorable. It was pretty peaceful from what I remember. The best way I could put it is if you could have memories of the safety of a womb, so to speak, it was something like that. But being resuscitated medically – the hecticness of that – it makes you think, ‘Damn, being dead was sure a lot easier than dealing with all this shit, man.'” He laughs.

Read more at Rolling Stone.

source: rollingstone.com

METAL BLADE RECORDS, SCORPIONS, AND THE RAINBOW JUST NOMINATED TO THE HALL OF HEAVY METAL HISTORY

Metal Blade Records (celebrating their 35th Anniversary), Scorpions, and the Rainbow Bar and Grill have just joined the list of Metal Royalty who have been nominated for induction into the the 2017 Hall of Heavy Metal History. The All-Star Induction Ceremony will take place on Wednesday, January 18th, 2017 at the Anaheim Expo Center, Anaheim CA. Television and radio legend Eddie Trunk will host the event.

Performing at the Ceremony will be Dio Disciples featuring Craig Goldy, Simon Wright Scott Warren, Bjorn Englen, Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, and Joe Retta. Ross “The Boss” (band), will also be performing, which features Iconic guitarist Ross ‘The Boss’ Friedman, Rhino (Formerly of Manowar), vocalist Marc Lopes, and Mike LePond (Symphony X). Surprise artists will also take part in the event. Supporting bands include Budderside, and LA rockers Diamond Lane.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund. To read more about this event, please click here.

RIOT V RELEASE VIDEO FOR “BRING THE HAMMER DOWN”

Riot V, the band featuring the remaining members of the band Riot, released their debut album, Unleash The Fire, in October 2014 via SPV/Steamhammer. The band has released a video for the song, Bring The Hammer Down, from the album, and which can be viewed below.

Unleash The Fire is the band’s first release from without founding guitarist Mark Reale, who passed away in early 2012.

SEBASTIAN BACH DISCUSSES KISS, EDDIE TRUNK AND THE POSSIBLE SKID ROW REUNION, WHICH HE NOW SAYS “UNFORTUNATELY, [MAY NOT HAPPEN]

Michael Christopher of Vanyaland spoke with Sebastian Bach. Portions of the interview appear below.

Michael Christopher: When you started writing this book [18 and Life on Skid Row], what did you want to do to make yours different from all the other rock star memoirs out there?

Sebastian Bach: I wasn’t necessarily out to make it different,I just wanted to make it good, and I wanted it to be a book that you could read and think it was a good, well-written book, regardless of whether you’re a Skid Row fan or not. A lot of the reviews start off saying exactly that. It’s a good book. And maybe I haven’t said this in an interview yet, but taking calls and talking about my second book [laughs]. It’s amazing [laughs].

Michael Christopher: What was it like revisiting a lot of those stories; what sort of memories did it bring up?

Sebastian Bach: Well, it made me change my setlist. Writing about all these times made think about the records that came out; most notably the first Skid Row record. I’m always out on tour, so I was thinking about them songs and I’ve added songs into the set that I haven’t done in years like Sweet Little Sister and Rattlesnake Shake and Quicksand Jesus, Breakin’ Down. Writing about those albums and tours made me reminisce for those songs.

Michael Christopher: I’ve interviewed people that I’m a huge fan of, and sometimes — and it’s extremely rare — they pull an attitude or act like a dick, I mean, maybe they are having a bad day, but it taints my opinion of them a little bit. You talk in the book about how bummed you were that Paul Stanley didn’t stick around when he came to see Jekyll & Hyde and in fact left mid-performance. Did that do anything to dim your love of KISS?

Sebastian Bach: No… I won’t let anyone take my love of KISS away from me, not even — anybody — at all [laughs]. I flipped a switch in my head when I was a little kid… I love that, it’s my favorite kind of thing, I collect it. I was just sad because I’m the biggest fan and I just wanted to tell him how much I respected him and looked up to him and all that. But I really think this book, at the end of the day, one of the things about it, it’s like a love letter to KISS. I was really inspired when I saw the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Tom Morello’s speech where he inducted KISS and the way that speech hit me, I was like, electrified and in tears like when I was a kid because he really captured the excitement of that feeling. I said, “Oh my God… I have got to f–king write down and put into words my side of that,” because I was a freak [laughs]. And I know I did, because every time I read that, it’s always emotional and very hard for me to read — there’s a bunch of parts of the book that are like that — that’s how I knew I was done the book.

Michael Christopher: Have you gotten any negative blow-back from people; I mean, that Ted Nugent section is just brutal. It’s honest — but it’s brutal.

Sebastian Bach: Well, Ted can say whatever he wants in life; he has no filter on what he says. He’s not the only one like that — I could say what I want to say. The only blow-back I’ve gotten is from Eddie Trunk [laughs].

Michael Christopher: Is it because you didn’t mention him by name? [Trunk is referred to as “the DJ” while the story is told of how Bach got Axl Rose on the air for what became a legendary radio interview in 2006.]

Sebastian Bach: I actually did mention him by name in a version that somehow didn’t get in the final version…

Michael Christopher: This book’s release has been really high profile, and of course it’s got people talking about the topic of a Skid Row reunion. My question about that, which I haven’t seen asked, is, obviously there is some resentment or anger from certain members preventing it from happening. Would it matter to you if the reunion did happen, but it wasn’t based out of burying the hatchet, but because various managers were able to work it out? I mean, the fans win either way, but personally, would you rather you be on great terms rather than five separate dressing rooms?

Sebastian Bach: I can’t answer that. All I can say is in recent days, when I said before that the managers [of Bach and Skid Row] “are talking,” I have to say now that the managers “were talking” [laughs]. I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. It’s kind of actually… I don’t know really why, but it’s taken a turn in the other direction, unfortunately. You can bust the bad news to everybody. I’m really so busy, that it’s beyond comprehension. I would love to do that, but if it doesn’t happen, I’ve got a lot of other things on my plate to tackle. So whatever happens, happens, but it’s not even up to me whatsoever at all — it has nothing to do with me — it’s just me [laughs].

Michael Christopher: There’s already talk about a second book. Now, some things in the book were left out, for instance you being considered as a replacement singer for both Mötley Crüe and Van Halen. And I know it’s way too early to have even thought about it, but do you think there’s a second book in you?

Sebastian Bach: I know for a fact there’s a second book in me. I could’ve kept going on this one, I could’ve made this one longer, but they cut me off because it’s already pretty f–king long [laughs]. I like to write — I really like it, and I enjoy it. I enjoy making stuff, but the next thing I make will be a record, a vinyl record.That’s the next thing that I’m gonna make. But after that, yes, I’ll do a book, because they want me to and I enjoy it.

Michael Christopher: You just mentioned, and you’ve said this in a bunch of interviews, how you are a fan of rock and roll biographies and memoirs. Is there anyone out there who you’re waiting to put one out?

Sebastian Bach: Yeah, Eddie Van Halen would be good. I would love to read that. I would like to read Eddie Van Halen’s book as much as I would like to see the new [former W.A.S.P. guitarist] Chris Holmes reality show [laughs]; that sounds like a good show to me. To go with his new record Shitting Bricks — that’s a good title [laughs]. That was the title when I saw it on the internet that caught my eye. His record’s called Shitting Bricks? I said, “Damn, I got my work cut out for me, topping that one.” I like that, very catchy [laughs].

Read more at Vanyaland.

18 and Life on Skid Row by Sebastian Bach is out now and can be purchased at Amazon.

source: vanyaland.com