Author Archives : Dana

QUEENSRYCHE STARTS THE WRITING PROCESS FOR THEIR NEW ALBUM, TENTATIVELY DUE EARLY SUMMER 2015

Queensryche guitarist Michael Wilton posted the following press release on his Facebook page:

With the Queensrÿche canvas wiped completely clean and the band’s easel the strongest and most stable it’s been in years, Eddie Jackson, Todd LaTorre, Parker Lundgren, Scott Rockenfield and Michael Wilton forge ahead to create yet another QR masterpiece. The band has already begun writing new material for the follow up to their critically acclaimed self-titled 2013 Century Media Records release, Queensrÿche. The new album is tentatively scheduled for release in early summer 2015.

“The Queensrÿche internal dynamic has certainly changed in terms of musicianship. It’s more of a cohesive team and the chemistry we have now is making what we can do creatively limitless. For Queensrÿche, it was always about being able to write together as a band. We didn’t have that for a long time but now that it’s back, we feel extremely liberated,” states founding guitarist Michael Wilton. “We’ve already begun the writing process for the next album and have a few songs demoed that we feel really good about. We’re taking the songs in the classic Queensrÿche direction but maybe a little more progressive and heavier at times. The thing is, you never know what you really have until it’s complete. We can’t wait for the final outcome. Writing with such a dynamic group of individuals has been nothing short of amazing.”

Queensrÿche recently reached a settlement in their dispute over the ownership of the Queensrÿche name and brand. Century Media is pleased to announce that Eddie Jackson, Scott Rockenfield and Michael Wilton have successfully agreed to purchase Geoff Tate’s portion of the Queensrÿche name. The band will buy out their former lead singer’s share of the Queensrÿche corporation while allowing him the ability to be the only one to perform Operation: Mindcrime and Operation: Mindcrime II in their entirety. He will no longer have use of the TriRyche logo or any other album images aside from the Mindcrime releases. He can only refer to himself as the “Original Lead Singer of Queensrÿche or “Formerly of Queensrÿche” for a period of two years and that text must be at least 50% smaller than his name in all materials. After this two year period passes, he can only refer to himself as Geoff Tate with no mention of Queensrÿche at all. Geoff Tate will be able to finish any confirmed dates billed for his Queensrÿche lineup scheduled to terminate on August 31st, 2014. As of September 1st, there will be only one Queensrÿche entity and that will consist of Eddie Jackson, Todd LaTorre, Parker Lundgren, Scott Rockenfield and Michael Wilton. This lineup will continue to perform selections from their entire musical catalog including songs from Operation: Mindcrime. The band will be able to use all TriRyche logos and previous album artwork for any purposes as needed by the corporation.

Queensrÿche is:

Todd La Torre – Vocals
Michael Wilton – Guitars
Parker Lundgren – Guitars
Eddie Jackson – Bass
Scott Rockenfield – Drums

TRACK LISTING FOR JUDAS PRIEST’S “REDEEMER OF SOULS” REVEALED

There are only a select number of bands that have accomplished what Judas Priest has throughout their career (as well as having served as a stylistic influence on such a wide variety of bands). Soon the group – singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis – will be offering up more classic Judas Priest metal with the release of Redeemer of Souls.

To be released in the US on July 8th, 2014 through Epic Records (as a standard version and a deluxe edition with five bonus tracks), Redeemer of Souls is Judas Priest’s latest collection of epic metal – “raising the bar is consistent for us and Redeemer hits the ground running” – it matches up perfectly to earlier Priest classics as evidenced by the album’s lead off single March of the Damned (“we are forging ahead, slamming the pedal to the metal!”) – the band mean business once again.

“We feel Redeemer of Souls reinforces our passion for what we believe in from the Judas Priest style heavy metal.” The album also marks Richie Faulkner’s studio debut with Priest and is the co-writer of the material along with Glenn Tipton and Rob Halford.

And while fans are undoubtedly starved for more Priest (their last studio album Nostradamus was released in 2008) the band themselves are eager for the world to hear their latest studio triumph. “Classic combination of all the statements we love to create with raging guitar riffs and solos, thundering drums, thick grooves of bass and vocals tearing it all up!”

Redeemer of Souls track listing:

Dragonaur
Redeemer Of Souls (listen here)
Halls Of Valhalla
Sword Of Damocles
March Of The Damned
Down In Flames
Hell & Back
Cold Blooded
Metalizer
Crossfire
Secrets Of The Dead
Battle Cry
Beginning Of The End

Bonus tracks:

Snakebite
Tears Of Blood
Creatures
Bring It On
Never Forget

First bursting onto the scene with 1974’s Rocka Rolla Judas Priest is responsible for some of heavy metal’s all-time great albums – 1980’s British Steel, 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance, 1990’s Painkiller etc – and anthems Breaking the Law, Living After Midnight, You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ etc – as well as trailblazing metal’s now instantly identifiable look – leather and studs – 2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the band.

Judas Priest members Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner will be guests on Eddie’s,Trunk Nation show on Sirius/XM, Monday, May 5th.

“AMERICAN IDOL” CONTESTANT CALEB JOHNSON PERFORMS WHITESNAKE’S “STILL OF NIGHT”

On last night’s (April 30th) episode of American Idol, contestant, and resident rocker, Caleb Johnson performed Whitesnake’s Still of the Night. Watch his performance below.

Still of the Night appears on Whitesnake’s 1987 self titled album which sold over eight million copies in the US where the album went platinum eight times. Besides Still of the Night, other singles released from the Whitesnake album included: Here I Go Again, Is This Love?, Crying in the Rain and Give Me All Your Love.

American Idol season 13 is broadcast on the Fox network and features judges Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr..

As per a poster’s suggestion (thanks Gary) I have also included Caleb’s performance of Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused below.

THE SCORPIONS RELEASE A BRIEF STATEMENT REGARDING DRUMMER JAMES KOTTAK’S ARREST IN THE UAE

The Scorpions have released the following statement regarding reports that their American drummer, James Kottak, will spend a month in a Dubai, United Arab Emirates jail after he was convicted on Tuesday morning of insulting Islam.

“Dear fans, when James Kottak arrived in Dubai on April 3th, he ran into problems at immigrations and got busted. Whatever happened is totally out of our control and we don’t know any details about it at this point. For the concerts in Germany, Johan Franzon, a Swedish drummer, will take James’ seat. Please understand, we keep you posted.”

According to the Associated Press, Kottak was convicted of insulting Islam, raising his middle finger, and being under the influence of alcohol while in transit at Dubai airport.

The Scorpions latest double CD was their first MTV Unplugged which was released on November 29th.

SINGER MICHAEL SWEET TALKS ABOUT HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, COLLABORATION WITH GUITARIST GEORGE LYNCH AND STRYPER

Greg Prato of Brave Words spoke with Stryper frontman Michael Sweet. Excerpts from the interview appear below.

BW: Let’s discuss your book, Honestly: My Life and Stryper Revealed. Did things come back to you that you hadn’t thought about in many years?

Michael Sweet: Oh yeah, definitely. And to this day, I’m thinking of things that should have been in the book. There’s so much that’s happened. I tend to focus on one thing at a time. It’s very difficult for me, I’m not a multi-tasker, so it’s hard for me to think of a hundred different stories. I’ll just think of one. But I did my best to just hit all the key points and all the stories that I felt people would want to know and want to hear. A lot of question marks over the years by fans, like, why did Tim not play on To Hell with the Devil and In God We Trust? What happened during Against the Law? We heard the rumors, but what really happened? Why did you leave the band? Why did you remarry so soon? All these things that people have really come at me with serious questions – deep questions – over the years, that I wanted to address. And that’s what I did in the book. But at the same time, tell my life story – from the time I was born until now. I talk about being arrested as a kid and a lot of things that people might not expect to hear from Michael Sweet.

BraveWords: I heard there is going to be an upcoming project with George Lynch, too.

Michael Sweet: It is going to be released on Frontiers. I was really blessed with the opportunity to produce it and to co-write it with George. It’s myself, George Lynch, Brian Tichy, and James Lomenzo. And that will come out roughly this time next year, maybe a little earlier.

BraveWords: And what is the name of that band?

Michael Sweet: We don’t have a name yet. It’s been a real difficult decision for some reason. I can’t tell you why. The good thing is we have probably five or six months to do so, so we’re all good.

BraveWords: Lastly, what is the current status of Stryper?

Michael Sweet: The current status is we’re very busy. We’re prepping for some touring. We’ve got a live album coming out in October or November on Frontiers. We are starting on a new album next year, I’m already writing for. We’ll start recording that in January/February. That will come out next year. And then the Sweet/Lynch album that’s coming out – that’s being mixed right now. So I’m juggling a lot of different stuff. I’m literally on the phone calling in mix tweaks while I’m going downstairs with a cup of coffee and putting in my in-ears and running through the set with Stryper. They’re all here at the house right now. So it’s just been a little crazy around here. And the biggest thing for me to overcome is I’m OCD, and I’ve got to keep cleaning toilets and picking up after people. I want to definitely get in the ring with some guys in the band right now!

Read more at Brave Words.

SAXON’S BIFF BYFORD DISCUSSES MUSIC, SONGWRITING AND HIS FAVORITE SAXON ALBUM

Greg Prato of Songfacts spoke with Saxon frontman Biff Byford. Portions of the interview appear below.

Songfacts: Let’s start off by talking about the new Saxon album, Unplugged and Strung Up. How did the idea come to do this album?

Biff Byford: Well, it’s a mixture of different projects that we were doing. I had the idea to do an unplugged album, and then we moved off that to more general projects. I just thought it would be a good idea to put all our projects together on one album and try to make it interesting for the fans. I think it’s a good package.

Songfacts: Looking back, how would you say that you write your best songs?

Biff: I’ve usually come in with a couple of ideas. We all play instruments, so we can all write. We have a lot of ideas, and then we’ll just bash them around a bit and I’ll usually take them away and arrange them and put down some melodies, maybe write some lyrics, and we’ll take it from there.

We don’t really consider the guitar riff a song, if you know what I mean. We have to work a lot harder than that. So it’s just basically bouncing around from different members, I suppose.

Songfacts: Something that I’ve always felt about Saxon is that the band is very underrated when it comes to the amount of great guitar riffs, especially songs like Strong Arm of the Law, Wheels of Steel, and Princess of the Night. Were those parts entirely written by Paul [Quinn] and Graham [Oliver] back in the day, or did you ever have a hand in coming up with those melodies for those riffs?

Biff: I wrote some of the stuff in 747. I wrote a few of the riffs. We all play, you know. I think the Strong Arm of the Law riff is Graham Oliver’s originally. But the thing is, when I’m writing melodies, we sometimes change the guitar part to put on a melody. So I suppose it’s a bit more of a group thing. We tend to split the songs into 50/50 melody, lyrics, and usually the melody goes with the lyrics with this band. So that’s usually how we work.

Songfacts: What do you remember about the writing and recording of the song Princess of the Night?

Biff: Well, Princess of the Night, I remember exactly. I had two titles. I had a title of Wheels of Steel and I had a title Princess of the Night. And I didn’t use Princess of the Night on the first two albums. But Paul Quinn came up with a riff and it sort of fit my lyrics. So that song was written very quickly, very quickly indeed. I already had the lyrics and the riff went together so simply, really smooth.

Songfacts: And you just mentioned the song Wheels of Steel.

Biff: I was heavily into AC/DC’s first album, and a few of their bootleg things that we found. I turned the band on to AC/DC. And I think although that track doesn’t sound like AC/DC, it’s a bit more rugged, I suppose. Wheels of Steel has definitely got an AC/DC influence in that.

Songfacts: What about the song Strong Arm of the Law?

Biff: Strong Arm of the Law, I think that was Graham’s riff, the verse riff. We were stopped by the police on numerous occasions when we had this huge American car, and that’s basically what it’s about. It’s a story about the police stopping us on London Bridge in London and it stuck in my head. So I wrote some lyrics about it when I got the opportunity.

Songfacts: You mentioned coming to America. What were your initial impressions of America when Saxon first played there?

Biff: The very first tour we did was with Rush in the ’80s. Which was great, since we’re huge Rush fans. It was a fantastic place to come. It still is, actually.

We were very busy in them days. We were playing with Rush, we were doing the Whiskey A Go Go and we were all over the place, really. We were doing gigs on the West Coast in America. We were flying backwards and forwards all over the place. So it was quite an exciting time, those early ’80s.

Songfacts: From a songwriting perspective, what would you say is your favorite Saxon album and why?

Biff: It’s always got to be the last one, hasn’t it? I think Sacrifice is a great album. I’ll leave you to that, really. [Laughing].

Read more at Songfacts.

source: songfacts.com