An EPK (Electronic Press Kit) for Sacrifice, the new album from Saxon, can be seen below.
Sacrifice will be released on March 1st in Europe, March4th in the U.K. and March 26th in North America through UDR.
Sacrifice track listing:
1. Procession
2. Sacrifice
3. Made In Belfast
4. Warriors Of The Road
5. Guardians Of The Tomb
6. Stand Up And Fight
7. Walking The Steel
8. Night Of The Wolf
9. Wheels Of Terror
10. Standing In A Queue
Bonus track:
* Luck Of The Draw (on iTunes only)
1. Crusader (orchestrated version)
2. Just Let Me Rock (re-recorded version)
3. Requiem (acoustic version)
4. Frozen Rainbow (acoustic version)
5. Forever Free (re-recorded version)
Phil Anselmo has discussed his current feelings for former Pantera bandmate and brother of Dimebag Darrell, Vinnie Paul, who has continued to refuse a reconciliation with his former singer since Dimebag’s tragic death in 2004.
“I feel bad for Vince,” Phil tells Revolver. “People should pity the guy. I wasn’t there when Dimebag was murdered, but he sure as fuck was. That’s his flesh and blood, murdered right in front of him. It’s a shame that Vince never reached out to Rex [Brown, former Pantera/Down bassist] and I. I think the healing process would have been beneficial to him, instead of his knee-jerk reaction to fear, and his therapy through tit bars and whiskey.”
“One guy can’t break up a band,” he adds of Pantera’s demise. “After we broke up, why was Rex with me and not with Dimebag and Vince? You have to understand, it goes all four ways when a band breaks up. Yes, I made mistakes. Yes, there was a lack of communication on both sides and some of it is my fault — a lot of it is my fault.”
“Two mornings ago, the first thing I thought of when I woke up was Dimebag. I think about Dime a lot. Last year was very rough. I don’t know what it was about last year, but I got into a severe depression about the loss of Darrell and what it meant and how huge it is. How heinous it is for him not to be here and to go out the way he did.”
“Dimebag was a lifer,” Anselmo continues. “He was meant to be this guitar hero. He was born for it. We would have made amends. I would like to think he would be proud of me for pulling myself out of the muck, the abyss. I’m not a believer in the afterlife. I think this is our shot. But I guess, in an atavistic way, you hope that the fallen one’s mighty spirit is looking down and smiling on you. I just choose to remember the positive things. He was almost like the perfect counterpoint to me. We may have clashed to a certain extent, but we would always find a happy medium, It was a vital relationship that I miss greatly.”
“Pantera had an almost supernatural freakin’ alchemic chemistry, not of this world,” he added. “I have not felt it since. Down has its own chemistry, but it’s not Pantera.”
Ruben Mosqueda of the Oregon Music News spoke with Black N’ Blue frontman Jamie St. James. Sections from the interview appear below.
OMN:You had a KISS tribute band with Tommy Thayer years ago called Cold Gin. You were the drummer in the band and Tommy was ‘Ace’ in the band. How weird is it to see him wearing the ‘Space Ace’ paint?
JSJ: That’s right! It doesn’t surprise me that he’s doing that. Early on when we started playing in and around the LA area some of the articles that were written were very favorable. We’d have an article written about us in the LA Times and LA Weekly saying something to the affect, “it’s really sad when the best band in LA is a KISS tribute band.” That was the truth. We packed every place that we performed in. It was during the early days of tribute bands and you didn’t see them very often, unlike today. [KISS’] Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley] would come to our shows and they’d hang out with us. Tommy was working for KISS as a tour manager. I knew he knew all the parts perfectly and it was surprising when he wound up in the band. It was Ace’s [Frehley] job to lose, but I knew that Tommy would fall into it at some point.
OMN: [Gene] Simmons ripped [Black N’ Blue] off on the Revenge album that KISS recorded. How do you feel about that?
JSJ: When I heard the song Domino I was like “Oh come on!” [laughs] I talked to him about that. I said to him, “I know where you got that riff.” He looked at me and said, “I absolutely ripped you guys off, 100%. No question about it! Yes I did.” That’s pretty much where we left it. That was Tommy’s riff on the tune Nasty, Nasty. Turnaround is fair play, though, because there’s a song on Nasty, Nasty that I’ve been told sounds like a song on KISS’ album The Elder. I’m not familiar with that album very well at all so I couldn’t tell you. It’s a part that Gene wrote so he ripped himself off! It’s kind of a messed up thing! [laughs] Actually I know what that was. It was the middle section of the song Nasty, Nasty, check that out.
OMN: I’m looking at all the great music you’ve recorded and the great producers that you’ve worked with including your A&R guy John Kalodner. Black ‘n Blue busted their ass trying to make this thing break big. Obviously, Black ‘n Blue along with a handful of some other great bands didn’t reach Bon Jovi status but it wasn’t because the talent level wasn’t there?
JSJ: [pauses] Listen, I agree that we didn’t get what we deserved. The reason is really unclear to me. It just wasn’t meant for us to be as huge as a band can get. I went into this band with a determination to make this band break. I think that is why you hear a lot of quality there, heart and soul for the music that we did. Sometimes you have the wrong management, you have problems related to certain decisions that have been made—maybe they could have been made differently. At the end of the day there are millions of dudes playing music and I’ve done pretty damn well for myself. It’s a different musical climate these days. I’m just glad to have lived during the time that I did. What am I saying? I’m not dead yet! [laughs].
Black Sabbath have released another teaser clip for their upcoming album , the first with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978′s Never Say Die. View it below.
In the video guitarist Tony Iommi discusses the band’s new material saying, “It’s different altogether now. We’ve got much more of a thing going than what it was in them days. The new material’s really good – we’ve got some good stuff going. Rick’s looking for a raw Sabbath and that’s what we’re looking for. We like what we’re doing.”
The guitarist adds jokingly “We can’t leave it any longer – we’ll all be dead soon.”
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has plans for riffs album” with Queen guitarist Brian May that would allow fans to build their own songs around the musicians’ unused material.
Word of the project slipped out in an interview May did with Kerrang! magazine. As reported by NME, Iommi asked, “When are we going to get to work on that album of riffs together? You know what I’m talking about.” May replied, “Yes, I do know what he’s talking about, and I’m very, very keen. The record he’s talking about [was] supposed to be a secret, but I guess he’s blown it now.”
May got the idea for the album while visiting Iommi’s studio, where he was struck by the amount of unreleased material the guitarist has amassed over the years.
“I thought it would be great to make a compilation out of them,” May said. “The idea was to put all these riffs out in some form so that people could build their own songs from them. You could make your own music with Tony Iommi on guitar!”
There’s no word on a possible release date, or whether the album will actually happen. Iommi is busy for now working on Black Sabbath’s new album, which will be the band’s first with singer Ozzy Osbourne in 35 years, is due in June.
While in Las Vegas for their residency at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel, Def Leppard have reportedly signed on for a special edition of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp that will take place April 4th-7th.
The band will serve as mentors and instructors, guiding campers through their songs as well as general playing and performing techniques.
Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, who along with fellow guitarist Vivian Campbell have participated in previous Camps, tells Billboard he’s looking forward to putting the group’s stamp on the program.
“It was actually really cool, although I lost my voice the last time,” Collen recalls. “You’d go work with the different bands they have there and it’d be like, ‘Can you sing this?’ It was Pour Some Sugar on Me‘in one room, Fallen in the next room. I came away from there kind of beat-up, actually, but it was actually really fun. So I’m looking forward to that as well. I know what’s in store. I know the hard work the mentors do.”
Collen add it’s the camp’s diversity that he found most appealing. “It was like that Bruce Lee movie, Game of Death. There were literally 10 different rooms, and each one you’d go into was very different. Ronnie Montrose would treat it in a different way than George Lynch. That was really the exciting part for me.”
 for Sacrifice, the new album from Saxon, can be seen below. Sacrifice will be released on March 1st in Europe, March4th in the ... )
