Musical evolution comes at various points throughout a band’s career, even those who have been creating music for over 18 years together. Sevendust are the living embodiment of this fact and their new album Kill The Flaw is the next step forward. Kill The Flaw is the band’s 11th studio album and is slated for release on October 2nd via 7Bros. Records with ADA/Warner Brothers Distribution. Sevendust is comprised of iconic vocalist Lajon Witherspoon, the dual-guitar attack of John Connolly and Clint Lowery, and the driving rhythm section of Vince Hornsby on bass and Morgan Rose on drums. Kill The Flaw was self-produced by Sevendust and recorded at Architekt Music in Butler, New Jersey with engineer/mixer Mike Ferretti.
“We took some time off from the heavy side of Sevendust and when it came time to record some new music; Clint, John, Vinnie, Morgan and I put everything we had in to what became Kill The Flaw,” states vocalist Lajon Witherspoon. “We love this new music and we can’t wait to share it with our amazing Sevendust family! God bless y’all!!!”
The album opener and first single Thank You shows that Sevendust is back and better than ever. The song can be heard below.
as well as streaming partners like Spotify and Apple Music. Tracks like Death Dance, Cease and Desist and Not Today exemplify the growth of the band as songwriters. Throughout the album, the musical development flourishes while never losing the signature sound that has garnered the band fans worldwide. Kill The Flaw is available for digital pre-order at Tunes. Fans who order the album will receive an instant download of the first single, “Thank You.” The physical CD is available for pre-order in various bundles through Sevendust.com.
The track listing for Kill The Flaw is:
1. Thank You
2. Death Dance
3. Forget
4. Letters
5. Cease and Desist
6. Not Today
7. Chop
8. Kill The Flaw
9. Silly Beast
10. Peace and Destruction
11. Torched
Sevendust was recently announced as direct support on the upcoming Godsmack tour. The tour begins September 23rd in Detroit, MI and will run throughout October where it wraps on October 19th in Ottawa, ON. The tour will be making stops in Kansas City, Huntsville and Poughkeepsie to name a few. Sevendust is also playing at the Food Truck & Rock Carnival on September 19th in Clark, NJ; the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, KY and the Monster Energy Aftershock Festival in Elverta, CA. They are also playing with Breaking Benjamin on September 18th in PA.
Sevendust tour dates:
September:
18 # Scranton, PA The Pavilion at Montage Mountain
19 Clark, NJ Oak Ridge Park (Food Truck & Rock Carnival)
23 * Detroit, MI The Fillmore Detroit
27 * Springfield, IL Prairie Capital Convention Center
29 * Kansas City, MO Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland
October:
1 * Shreveport, LA Municipal Auditorium
2 * Huntsville, AL Von Braun Center
3 * Louisville, KY Louder Than Life Festival
13 * Wallingford, CT Toyota Presents Oakdale
14 * Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Center
16 * Halifax, Canada Scotiabank Centre
17 * Moncton, Canada Moncton Coliseum
19 * Ottawa, Canada TD Place
25 Elverta, CA Aftershock Festival
* More Dates To Be Announced *
# – Playing with Breaking Benjamin
* – Playing with Godsmack
Charlie Benante says Anthrax’s 11th studio album can’t be released this year – because he’s focusing on a 30th anniversary edition of Spreading The Disease.
The revamp of their breakthrough record is set to appear later in 2015, pushing the follow-up to 2011’s Worship Music into 2016.
Benante tells the Examiner, I’ve been working on this anniversary thing, where I’m putting a bunch of bonus material on the second disc. It’s going to be really good.”
Spreading The Disease was originally released in 1985. It was their first to feature vocalist Joey Belladonna and bassist Frank Bello, and the last to include writing credited to former frontman Neil Turbin.
The band are currently recording fresh music – but when pressed for a release date, Benante said, “Probably [the] beginning of next year. Because if we do the Spreading The Disease release at the end of this year, we don’t want to put two things out at the same time.”
Guitarist Scott Ian previously said they wouldn’t be rushed into a release.
As the excitement for the upcoming debut album by Metal Allegiance continues to grow, the album pre-order launches tomorrow via iTunes worldwide. The self-titled album contains appearances by Philip H. Anselmo, Charlie Benante, Chuck Billy, D. Randall Blythe, Rex Brown, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Phil Demmel, David Ellefson, Alissa White-Gluz, Matthew K. Heafy, Gary Holt, Jamey Jasta, Chris Jericho, Andreas Kisser, Misha Mansoor, Mark Osegueda, Tim “Ripper” Owens, dUg Pinnick, Mike Portnoy, Troy Sanders, Cristina Scabbia, Alex Skolnick, Steve “Zetro” Souza and Ben Weinman. Fans can go to iTunes and all orders will receive an instant download of the recently released track, “Can’t Kill The Devil.” The song features Chuck Billy on vocals; Alex Skolnick, Phil Demmel & Andreas Kisser on guitars; David Ellefson on bass; and Mike Portnoy on drums.
The standard edition CD of Metal Allegiance will feature the 9 original songs. A digipak edition will be available that features an all-star tribute to Ronnie James Dio with a cover of his classic song “We Rock” as well as a 45 minute behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the album. A double vinyl version will also be available that will feature all 10 songs. Physical CD bundles are available through the Nuclear Blast store.
Metal Allegiance recently announced that they will be having a record release concert on September 17th in New York City at the Best Buy Theater. The show, presented by D’Addario, will feature the following confirmed participants: Frank Bello (Anthrax), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), Chuck Billy (Testament), David Ellefson (Metal Allegiance/Megadeth), Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), Gary Holt (Slayer/Exodus), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Mark Menghi (Metal Allegiance), Mark Osegueda (Death Angel), Mike Portnoy (Metal Allegiance/The Winery Dogs), Troy Sanders (Mastodon), Alex Skolnick (Metal Allegiance/Testament) along with a few special guests. Space Born Killers have been tapped to open the show. Tickets for the show are $25.00 and can be purchased via Axs.com by clicking here.
Metal Allegiance will be airing weekly webisodes every Wednesday up until the album’s release date. The webisodes offer fans an inside look at the creation of Metal Allegiance and the unique collaboration by hard rock and heavy metal’s most notable performers. The first webisode features a look at album opener “Gift Of Pain” and webisode #2 showcasing “Let Darkness Fall” can both be seen below.
Stemming from an initial idea in 2011, Metal Allegiance was born as a way to unite a collection of hard rock and heavy metal’s most notable musicians in a setting born under one ideal- a love of music and performing. In 2015, that ideal still holds true and has become the foundation for everything Metal Allegiance; furthered with the release of the upcoming debut album. While the lineup may change, the passion, the energy and the emotion all remain the same. Metal Allegiance is more than just a record or a concert, it’s an experience and a lifestyle.
Heart Of Storm–the internationally acclaimed one-of-a-kind live rock concert and Russian ballet experience–will make its premiere in Los Angeles on Friday, July 24th and Saturday, July 25yh at the Orpheum Theatre, 8pm (842 S. Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90014).
In celebration of its U.S. debut, Heart Of Storm is offering fans the chance to view these shows with complimentary tickets, only on July 24 and July 25. For complimentary tickets email: tickets@redrockballet.com.
In this in-depth interview below, Heart Of Storm’s Derek Sherinian [keyboardist]and Gregg Bissonette [drummer], Doug Aldrich [lead guitar] and Tony Franklin [The Firm, Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers] discuss how the show was born, its evolution from premiering in Europe last year in Mayto kicking off its U.S. debut this Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles and what fans can expect when they come to see this one-of-a-kind rock concert and ballet experience.
Q: When did this whole idea for Heart Of Storm evolve from? What sparked it for you?
Derek Sherinian: The creator Alex Semenov approached me in late 2013 to produce and play on a rock instrumental record. Alex decided to have choreographed ballet performing live along with a rock band, he found Stas Tsoy a talented Russian-Korean choreographer and this sounded like an exciting, unique opportunity to me.
Q: What was your vision for this artistically? What message do you guys want to get across? What should people walk away with?
Doug Aldrich: Artistically, I thought this was a cool fusion of arts and I wanted an opportunity to push myself in some new directions after Whitesnake. This was really something interesting and obviously with a great bunch of friends that also happen to be at the top level as musicians. I hope to have people walk away feeling happy to see and hear something fresh that is a new idea.
Derek Sherinian: Heart Of Storm is Alex Semenov’s vision. My job is to help him see his vision through on the musical end.
Tony Franklin: Heart Of Storm is part rock show, part Russian ballet–with a killer band, featuring top name rock musicians–and world class Russian ballet. ‘Storm’ is the main character, and the storyline follows his tumultuous journey of love, anger, jealousy and death. But this is not just a dance show with accompanying rock music. Both the band and ballet are interwoven into a unique, powerful and emotional performance. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Q: How did the idea of fusing the music with ballet come about? How did you create the songs to fit with the ballet choreography?
Derek Sherinian: The music was written first, and then the dancing was choreographed afterwards.
Doug Aldrich: Music has always been in ballet I guess, but this is a fresh approach that the composer felt would be more intense and fit well with the choreography. It could possibly reach a new audience that might otherwise skip ballet. I myself have never been to a ballet, but now I’m interested. The Red Rock Ballet is made up of very talented young dancers from Russia.
Q: Can you elaborate on the band’s chemistry? What’s the dynamic like?
Derek Sherinian: Everyone in this band is not only incredible musicians, but incredible people as well. Tony Franklin and Gregg Bissonette are hands down the nicest rhythm section in rock! I am truly blessed to be working with such a great team of people across the board.
Doug Aldrich: Derek is our fearless leader and has put together a very diverse bunch of people to perform the music. I know Derek had been working on this for some time. Then I happened to be in Moscow for a day and I got a phone call from Brent Woods saying that he and Derek were out at a party in town and asked if I wanted to join. Haha. I was asleep and jetlagged so I didn’t go, but a few months later Derek started to think about this production and called me to play. I have to say, it’s been a huge amount of work for me to get up to speed, but we had so much fun that time has flown by. We are all very different people so it feels unlike any project I’ve been in. Gregg and Brent secretly coordinated wardrobe the entire time showing up with the same shit and shoes or whatever… Tony is truly one of the nicest people you could ever meet. His playing is just astounding… so giant. Like all the guys I reckon. Brandon has just blown me away…with horns and flutes!!! He has been very patient with us as he has not had to deal with a band this loud. But he seriously shreds if that can be deemed a compliment from me. Derek is that bad boy dude with chops that will back it up. Derek and Brent are serious gearheads which of course I can relate to. Derek has more gear than just about anyone I know…. I get it. There is always more room for something new. Brent plays so awesome. I’m really glad to work with him. He is playing solos as well, but also doing acoustic work which is very important with a ballet. Gregg is joking around all the time… always, but he just an insanely talented player. He like all these guys has played with the best of the best cause they are that good.
Gregg Bissonette: The band chemistry is awesome. I’ve been a fan of all of these musicians for many years and have played with everyone before except Brent Woods, but now he’s my new best friend :). The first day I showed up for rehearsal, I was wearing a red Foo Fighters shirt and black jeans and Brent was wearing a red shirt and black jeans. Everyone commented on it, so each morning we decided to mess with the others by calling ahead of time and wearing the same colors. It took them a while to figure it out and they thought we were on the same wave length, but they quickly caught on :).We all really take the music seriously, as a drummer in the band you have two man jobs: the tempo, and controlling the dynamics… bringing it way down and way up when you need to. Brandon is one of the world’s greatest sax players and I’ve played with him at the Baked Potato Jazz club in L.A., on his solo albums, and we were in the house band for the Latin Grammys a few years ago. I was in a band with Derek called Jughead which my brother Matt Bissonette (Elton John’s bassist) and Ty Tabor (Kings X) were also in. Derek and I also played in Italy with Yngwie Malmsteen and Deep Purple, that’s where I played with Doug Aldrich as well. Tony Franklin and I have played a ton together over the years and have been great pals for 20 years. We played years ago on a movie called Endless Summer 2. It was a surf movie. We’ve done a million albums together and toured all over the world. Derek is the glue that brought us all together. He is a great guy, a fantastic musician, and a wonderful producer and band leader. The music we are playing with Heart of Storm is written so well that it lends itself to having a lot of dynamics, (playing at different musical volume levels). It’s very passionate music and when everyone sees the dancers and storyline, they will love it and see that it’s all brilliantly connected.
This hybrid rock concert fused with stunning, young Russian ballet talent–spanning the Bolshoi Theatre, Swan Lake and the Nutcracker–inherits the tradition of classical ballet, while charting new territory into live, emotional theater. Heart Of Storm is an explosive and theatrical rock ballet extravaganza. Watch a clip below.
Queensryche will be releasing their second album with frontman Todd La Torre, entitled Condition Human, on October 2nd through Century Media Records.
Guitarist Michael Wilton has said of the recording, “The label are very positive and happy about it. I know that a lot of people are really anticipating this, so stay tuned and you won’t be disappointed.”
