Loudwire recently asked JUDAS PRIEST frontman Rob Halford for his thoughts on the now-defunct Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) and the infamous subliminal message accusations against PRIEST.
In 1990, JUDAS PRIEST became the focus of a high-profile lawsuit that charged the band with hiding subliminal messages in its music that led to the deaths of two fans.
According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, other lawsuits at that time sought damages because of violent lyrics in music, but the JUDAS PRIEST case was one of the first to claim that subliminal messages hidden behind those lyrics caused the deaths of two young men.
On December 23, 1985, after an afternoon spent drinking beer, smoking marijuana and allegedly listening to music by JUDAS PRIEST for several hours, Raymond Belknap, 18, and his friend, James Vance, 20, went to a church playground in Sparks. There, Belknap put a 12-gauge shotgun under his chin and pulled the trigger, dying instantly. Vance tried to follow suit but, possibly because the weapon was slippery with blood, the shot blew away the lower half of his face. He survived, his face severely deformed.
Vance underwent more than 140 hours of surgery and lived in constant pain. Three years later, he slipped into a coma and died before the trial began.
At the heart of the lawsuit filed against the band was the claim that their "Stained Class" album's songs contained messages that, when played backwards, said "try suicide" and "let's be dead." Lawyers said it was the song "Better By You, Better Than Me" with its subliminal command of "do it, do it, do it" that pushed the two men over the line to end their troubled lives.
"It was a peculiar time, wasn't it? PRIEST, OZZY, W.A.S.P. — that was just a very unfortunate time for music in general," Halford told Loudwire. "It's always been there in rock 'n' roll; it's like when Elvis shook his hips and they tried to ban him being filmed from the waist-down. It's unfortunate because firstly the subliminal message accusations were a lie. All of the allegations were based on non-truths. We really had to stand up for ourselves and prove that these accusations were false. We really hope it doesn't ever happen again — the only person that it happened to most recently was Marilyn Manson with the horrible Columbine thing. Here's the fact: A song never killed anybody, a film never killed anybody, a book never killed anybody, so just back off, you know? It's got nothing to do with us."
When asked why he thinks we never see trials like those anymore, Halford said, "Well you've got one now with Michael Jackson, but that's linked to drugs. I think the world has grown up and probably realized that we've got way more important things to worry about like giving people a job. But it wouldn't surprise me if it happened again at some point. People mistakenly abuse what we do for their own agenda. The whole PMRC was a politically based idea. Do they still put those [parental advisory] stickers on records? I think there's some value to that. I'm totally against censorship, but I think if you take your kid to the movies you want to go, "I need to know is that an R-rated movie or a PG-movie or is it a kids movie?" You do need some guidance. I'm all for guidance but not for censorship."
On May 20 and May 21, 1985, 40 artists from the metal community gathered at A&M Records Studios in Hollywood, California to participate in the making of a record called "Stars" as a part of a very special fundraising project spearheaded by Ronnie James Dio known as HEAR 'N AID. The "Stars" single and a video documentary on the making of the record was used to raise money for famine relief efforts in Africa and around the world. These 40 artists — including members of MÖTLEY CRÜE, JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, QUIET RIOT, TWISTED SISTER, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT and even SPINAL TAP — along with hundreds of other volunteers, donated their time and talent over four months to make HEAR 'N AID a reality. "Stars" was a plea for unity in the fight against world hunger.
Due to contract differences with the labels, the "Stars" song and album weren't released until New Year's Day, 1986, and were only ever made available on vinyl and cassette. But Ronnie's widow/manager Wendy Dio wants to fix that. "I'm going to re-release ['Stars']. So it'll come out on DVD and CD," she tells RollingStone.com. "I have loads of outtakes for the video."
The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund, founded last year in memory of the world-renowned voice of DIO, BLACK SABBATH and HEAVEN & HELL, will host its first Awards Gala today (Tuesday, November 1) at the world-famous Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills, California. Awards will be presented to six distinguished honorees for their contributions to spreading awareness of Fund's important work.
According to Wendy, there will also be a bowling benefit January 31 and a guitar auction in April featuring over 100 donated guitars. Also in the works is a Ronnie James Dio tribute album, which will include artists ranging from Dave Grohl, doing "Mob Rules", to ASIA lead singer John Payne. The double-disc release will also include contributions from Rob Halford and Glenn Hughes, as well as younger bands, such as KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, who were influenced by Dio.
According to the Los Angeles Times, RUSH drummer Neil Peart has bought a home in Santa Monica, California for $4.95 million.
The 6,200-square-foot, two-story house was built in 2001. The step-down living room adjoins a music room. French doors off the dining room lead to an outside courtyard. A double-sided fireplace in the master suite opens to both the bedroom and bathroom. The basement includes a media room, a wine cellar and a wet bar. There are a total of five bedrooms and 61/2 bathrooms.
ThinkFlash conducted an interview with METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammer prior to the band's first-ever live appearance in the United Arab Emirates on October 25, at Yas Arena in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE.
"I think it's important for us to just do different things, just to keep the music alive and moving," Hammett says in the clip, which can be seen below. "For us, music is like water — if it flows, it stays fresh; if it stays in one spot, it gets stagnant. And that's pretty much been our philosophy since the beginning."
METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo told GulfNews.com that no one in the band had ever been to the UAE before, saying, "This is where it turns into a gig, adventure and holiday — we have been very busy, so for us to go to a place like the UAE, it becomes an adventure. And it makes it all that much more exciting because we get to perform. It's something different, and we love to explore."
Trujillo was also asked about the band's plans to record its next official album, to which he replied, "We've been busy writing and recording. We've got a couple of new songs we have been working on the past couple of weeks . . . We've been in the studio with (producer) Rick Rubin, working on a couple of things, and we're going to be recording during the most of next year. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. But the great thing is that we have sort of already jumped off the launch pad and we're swimming."
METALLICA flew to the UAE from New York, where the band attended a listening party for its joint album with Lou Reed, called "Lulu", which arrives on Tuesday (November 1).
The group's last collection of all-new studio material was 2008's "Death Magnetic".
The band will play four gigs to celebrate its 30th anniversary at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore in early December.
Already polarizing fans around the world and earning some of the most scathing reviews of their career, METALLICA's collaborative album with Lou Reed, titled "Lulu", arrives on Tuesday (November 1) in North America after coming out one day earlier (October 31) worldwide. A concept album based on two early 20th century plays by German author Frank Wedekind, "Lulu" features the former THE VELVET UNDERGROUND frontman's spoken-word poetry and lyrics combined with METALLICA's musical assault for a jarring experience that doesn't sound like anything METALLICA has ever attempted before
METALLICA frontman James Hetfield told The Pulse Of Radio that he had no interest in learning the storyline of "Lulu" and simply followed Reed's lead. "We saw his vision through him. I didn't want to look at the play, I didn't want to read anything, look at the movies, 'Pandora's Box', or read any of the books. I wanted to just feel it through Lou because he basically digested all of that information and it seemed pretty convoluted. There was about three or four different versions of it, and he put together his modern poet version of it."
The two plays that "Lulu" is based on are called "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box". The latter was made into a silent movie in 1929.
The collaboration between METALLICA and Reed was sparked by their performance together of Reed's "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" at the 25th anniversary of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at Madison Square Garden in October of 2009.
The songs were all written by Reed with extensive arrangement contributions by METALLICA.
Only two songs on the album are under five minutes in length, while two are more than 11 minutes long and the closing cut, "Junior Dad", clocks in at 19 minutes.
Reed and METALLICA will perform selections from the album on several European TV programs but has yet to announce any live dates or U.S. appearances.
News of an alliance between Bay Area heavy metal giant Metallica and New York avant-garde rocker Lou Reed raised eyebrows, then hackles.
Bay Area heavy metal giant Metallica and New York avant-garde rocker Lou Reed teamed up to produce a concept album out Wednesday.
Anton Corbjin
Bay Area heavy metal giant Metallica and New York avant-garde rocker Lou Reed teamed up to produce a concept album out Wednesday.
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Anton Corbjin
Bay Area heavy metal giant Metallica and New York avant-garde rocker Lou Reed teamed up to produce a concept album out Wednesday.
The pairing produced the concept album Lulu, out today amid rave notices, stinging denunciations and noisy disapproval from the metal band's fans. It's a rock Rashomon.
Rolling Stone awarded four stars to single The View. Webzine Drowned In Sound dubs Lulu Metallica's "most interesting and engaging album in ages." London's The Telegraph hedges cryptically: "It's the sheer sense of unrestrained folly throughout that makes Lulu feel like an important album." Chicago Sun-Times pronounces it "repellent." And author/columnist Chuck Klosterman writes on the sports and pop culture site Grantland, "It might be a successful simulation of how it feels to develop schizophrenia while suffering from a migraine, although slightly less melodic."
MORE: Fans still passionate after 30 years
REVIEW: 'Lulu' is arty sludge
Whatever it is, don't call it a Metallica album.
"No, no, no, not even," says drummer Lars Ulrich, 47. "This is a one-off project. It's a new collective."
Reed's dark and bloody lyrics, inspired by the femme fatale in German dramatist Frank Wedekind's plays Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora's Box (1904), overlay Metallica's thunderous bedrock on 10 lengthy tracks. The strange bedfellows first performed together at 2009's 25th anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts in New York.
Afterward, Reed proposed teaming on covers of his rarer tracks, then switched gears after composing tunes for director Robert Wilson's Lulu production in Berlin. Ulrich and guitarist James Hetfield agreed after listening to those versions.
"No drums, no guitars, no recognizable rhythms or keys," Ulrich recalls. "Just these soundscapes, incredibly beautiful. And Lou reciting these potent words. It was so deep. I called Lou and said, 'I don't know where this is going, but we're in.' Lou came out a week later with (producer) Hal Willner to see our studio. Within one hour, we were recording."
Reed found working with Ulrich, Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Rob Trujillo exhilarating.
"They are my metal blood brothers," says Reed, 69. "They're very brave, and they can play. I'm not easy to play with. Some of (Lulu) that sounds easy is actually really hard. A lot of cool players can't do that. Academia drove it out of them."
He was also impressed by the band's facilities.
"If I had the money, I would build a studio exactly like theirs, where everyone sits in a circle," he says, noting that he constantly fights New York engineers to limit pristine methodology. "If I had my way, they'd all be shot and dumped in the Hudson. They put everyone in isolation booths. That's why digital records sound like jigsaw puzzles made of sound. Just record it and leave me alone."
Metallica took a spontaneous and impulsive approach to the project, declining to research the material and resisting an urge to hone and tinker.
"You don't want to overthink it," he says. "For those of us who agonize over details, the dare was to jump without the safety net. There was a song we were starting to nail after two takes, and Lou said, 'We got it. I'm never singing that again.'"
The fan uproar doesn't faze Reed, who is accustomed to modest sales and sneering reviews since 1967's Velvet Underground debut.
Metallica's fans "are threatening to shoot me, and that's only because I showed up," he say. "They haven't even heard the record yet, and they're recommending various forms of torture and death.
"I don't have any fans left. After Metal Machine Music (1975), they all fled. Who cares? I'm essentially in this for the fun of it."
The negative fallout doesn't surprise Ulrich.
"In 1984, when hard-core Metallica fans heard acoustic guitars on Fade to Black, there was a nuclear meltdown in the heavy-metal community," Ulrich says. "There have been many more since then.
"This is something they've never heard. Nobody hears rhythms or delivers poetry the way Lou does. It's not for everyone, but I think it's a fantastic record."
Reed goes a step further, declaring Lulu his best work, on par with 2003's The Raven, his spoken/sung album of Edgar Allan Poe interpretations.
"It vanished like the foam in the wind," he says.
Lulu may do likewise, Reed acknowledges. "No one wants Lulu Part 2, but on Radio Lou, in my head where I hear these songs, I want more of it."
METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich spoke to USA Today about the band's collaborative album with Lou Reed, titled "Lulu".
Reaction worldwide to the record has been a mix of confusion, hostility and disappointment, with fans cautiously lauding METALLICA for daring to experiment but also saying that this project was perhaps the wrong combination of artists.
Explorations will continue, regardless of fan expectations, Ulrich says.
"People would like us not to stray beyond certain boundaries," he tells USA Today. "That would kill METALLICA. We feed on freedom. We love coming back to metal, but we need to turn over rocks or we'd suffocate. That's our DNA."
METALLICA will celebrate it 30th anniversary by performing sold-out shows December 5, 7, 9 and 10 at the Fillmore in San Francisco for fan-club members only — at 1981 prices: $6 each or $19.81 for all four. The guest-heavy shows will be taped for possible release.
"When you've been around this long, you can find an anniversary in almost anything," Ulrich says. "It becomes a little ridiculous. So we decided to do something intimate rather than chest-beating."
Former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash dressed up in an "Old West" costume (photo) while attending an adults-only private Halloween party at the Roosevelt Hotel with wife and friends this past Saturday night (October 29). Also seen at the event were Jayde Nicole, Derek Hough, Jessica Lowndes, Lindsey Lohan and Joe Francis, among many others. Check out video footage from Hollywood TV below.
Slash has finished the first phase of recording for his second solo album. The disc, which will follow up last year's acclaimed solo debut, will tentatively arrive next April.
Slash and his band have been working on the new record at Barefoot Recording in Hollywood, California.
While Slash's self-titled debut featured a different guest vocalist on each track, as well as various other musicians, the new record is being laid down with his touring band.
The lineup includes singer Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE, guitarist Bobby Schneck, bassist Todd Kerns and ex-THEORY OF A DEADMAN drummer Brent Fitz.
Megadeth's latest CD, TH1RT3EN, is in stores today (get it on iTunes or in your local Best Buy). It's singer/guitarist/songwriter Dave Mustaine's 13th studio release since forming the band, and it comes on the heels of a series of dates with thrash's Big Four (Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax make up the other three), a headlining slot on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival Tour...and extensive back surgery. Mustaine's thoughts fly as fast as his guitar work, and often take hard left turns from the actual question. So, in the interest of presenting a coherent set of statements from the metal legend, we have chosen to pull select quotes from a longer conversation and present them in context.
On the straw that broke the camel's back:
Well, when we were out on tour the beginning of last summer, we had the opportunity to do some more Big Four dates, and it was pretty exciting for us. Who doesn't want to do Big Four dates? So we were out doing those, and we have the opportunity to do this great tour with the Rockstar Mayhem Tour, this Disturbed and Godsmack tour, and that had confirmed prior to the Big Four dates coming in. So we weren't going to say, we aren't going to do the Big Four dates because we've got these Mayhem dates, but we certainly weren't going to blow them off. By the same token, being able to get out of the talent pool that we've been in – and rightly so, there's no harm in being there with the bands we've played with over our career – and go out with some bands that are a little bit different, that was great for us for the reach, being able to see some different fans. And man, did we. I remember when we did the first Mayhem dates, we did a concert in Paris, and that was a Big Four show, and then went straight to an airport hotel, woke up in the morning, got on a plane and flew straight from Paris straight to San Francisco, drove straight from the airport, and got on stage that day and played a Mayhem show. And that was the beginning of the last lap, so to speak, for me with what was going on with my health out on the road.
On pain:
This morning, I was doing something and I rammed my head into something, and my wife thinks it's funny to bring up my training, and whenever I get hurt she's like "You're a black belt, you can take it." If you're looking around unsuspectingly and you ram your head into the cowling of the stove over your breakfast, that doesn't take away the fact that it hurts. So I'm looking at my whole body and waiting for it to not only heal itself but also for my threshold of pain to increase again, because of all these other areas that have been under severe inflammation from the headbanging.
On the use of Megadeth songs in video games:
I like playing video games and stuff like that, but I have such a highly addictive personality. I remember when video games first came out, when I was just a kid, I used to go to Chuck E Cheese and play Tron. I remember just spending exorbitant amounts of cash on that stupid game. And then the first PlayStation thing came home, that was called Atari, I didn't get my own actual game until a game called The Punisher came out, because I loved the Punisher comic. I thought, that's for [former Megadeth drummer Nick] Menza, he likes doing these videogames, [Dave] Ellefson likes doing these video games. I'm a snob, I'm not going to do that stuff. And then I got the Punisher game and I was so addicted to it I could not stop. And I swore to my wife, as soon as I beat this game, honey, I'm never going to do another one. And I beat it, and I never bought another game after that because I was so addicted to it. It was insane.
On the Internet:
Even the guys who come to our website and act like tough guys, I know that that's just part of the culture now, acting like a tough guy on the Internet. I don't do that that much anymore. I used to be kind of a wiseguy, liked to shoot zingers and stuff, but maybe in my old age I've just changed a little bit. I think that for us, with our site, we've got one of the coolest websites because fans can actually come there and say, "Hey, we don't like this song," and they can actually say they don't like that song and were not going to ban them. And I think that's cool, because it helps us to be able to find out what's on the pulse of our fans, which I think helped us make the right decisions on this new record and choose the right songs.
On the music industry:
You know, records have, with the peer to peer transferring and everything, unfortunately the music business has become so changed that records don't even matter anymore. They're like business cards. I remember when I first got my first record contract, being able to pick which four songs were going to be on which side of the record. "Never put more than four songs on there, the grooves are too close together. Can't have that much material, it'll sound terrible. Yes, that's why contracts are like that." "Really? Oh, wow, great." And then the last time we went to the studio, we had a conversation where somebody had said that they wanted to have almost twice that many songs on the record, and I just laughed at how much things have changed, where a man can put almost his entire life's work into a record, and a few years later it doesn't mean anything. And you have to do 100 percent more to make it equivalent. Take for example the first Van Halen record. Now, they say "we don't want these eight songs. We want 15 of these songs." There probably would have been no Van Halen. I don't know that those guys would have had all those guitar pyrotechnics on the record, if it would have just been too much for the fans to digest. I remember listening to records like early Ted Nugent and KISS and stuff like that – you had Kiss Alive, right? You had to have had Kiss Alive. Maybe not, maybe you're too young. I remember listening to those live records – God dang it, if it had too many songs on it, you were like [makes snoring noise]. And now it's like, you have to have songs, and videos, and give away T-shirts, and you can win dinner at my house, and it's like, when did we try so hard? When did music get so crappy that you had to give somebody a back rub with it?
Megadeth's TH1RT3EN is in stores now, click here to download on iTunes or head to your local Best Buy. Exclusively at select independent record stores, pick up TH1RT3EN and get a limited edition collector's card featuring facts from the band and exclusive imagery. Collect them all at mymetalclub.com.
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Gigantour — the critically acclaimed package festival founded in 2005 by esteemed hard rockers MEGADETH — will make its highly anticipated return for the first time since 2008. The multi-artist bill — with metal heavyweights MOTÖRHEAD, VOLBEAT and LACUNA COIL all personally picked by MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine — will kick off January 26 in Camden, NJ. Before wrapping February 28 in Denver, Colorado, the tour will make stops all across the U.S. and Canada including a January 28 show in New York and February 24 in Los Angeles. Tickets are on sale beginning November 4. MEGADETH has also teamed up with VIPNation.com to provide fans with Ultimate VIP packages including premium tickets, meet-and-greets, exclusive gifts and more.
Gigantour is a chance to, as Mustaine says, tour with like-minded artists "that play heavy music in a high-energy environment," with a fan-friendly ticket price. He founded the tour in 2005 and invited such artists as ANTHRAX, DREAM THEATER, FEAR FACTORY, LAMB OF GOD, OPETH, STATIC-X and IN FLAMES to join MEGADETH.
Lemmy, frontman of the legendary MOTÖRHEAD, looks forward to performing at this year's Gigantour amongst all the other talented musicians. "We've done festivals in Europe with LACUNA COIL and they're workaholics as well! VOLBEAT are great, too; the whole bill is pretty diverse and I advise everyone who likes being deaf, and/or can lip-read already, to come out and see what the stuff that doesn't get any MTV Video Awards sounds like! Gigantour is just that!"
He goes on to say, "MEGADETH are one of the greatest bands to tread a stage anywhere and me and Dave have been promising each other we'd tour together ever since we met! VOLBEAT and LACUNA COIL are interesting choices and I think it's gonna be incredible trying to understand each other backstage! Come and see what eclectic means! (look THAT up in your Funk & Wagnall's)! See you!"
VOLBEAT vocalist and guitarist Michael Poulsen said the band couldn't refuse Mustaine's offer to join the tour. "This is something you don't think twice about; it's a must and a blessing," he said. "They [MEGADETH and MOTÖRHEAD] are two of the world's biggest/best and most important bands in heavy rock history. Since the beginning, MEGADETH and MOTÖRHEAD have been a huge inspiration of my/our musical careers. To have the opportunity to go on the road and share the stage with these two legendary rock bands, is another dream come true in the VOLBEAT adventure. We are very thankful and cannot wait to play in front of these two legendary bands' audience for some intense minutes of Volbeat rock!"
LACUNA COIL is eager to return for their second Gigantour; they first performed as part of the 2007 tour. "When we were invited to join Gigantour once again, we were really happy as it seems like the perfect way to start the 'Dark Adrenaline' album cycle in the U.S.," says co-vocalist Andrea Ferro. "Our new album will be released during the tour and it's gonna be great. We will be playing alongside metal legends like MEGADETH and MOTÖRHEAD and it's gonna be awesome. It's a great touring package with two classic bands and two younger bands who each have a unique sound like LACUNA COIL and VOLBEAT. Can't wait!" Co-vocalist Cristina Scabbia agrees. "WOW! Gigantour! I am super excited!! I mean are you kidding me? A tour with MEGADETH, MOTÖRHEAD, VOLBEAT and us? This is going to be so crushing that I think the walls are gonna fall down in some of the venues!! Are you guys ready? I definitely am!"
Gigantour 2012 dates:
Jan. 26 - Camden, NJ - Susquehanna Bank Center
Jan. 27 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
Jan. 28 - New York, NY - Theater at Madison Square Garden
Jan. 29 - Lowell, MA - Tsongas Arena
Feb. 01 - Glens Falls, NY - Glens Falls Civic Center
Feb. 02 - Quebec City, QC - Colisee Pepsi Arena
Feb. 03 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
Feb. 05 - Kingston, ON - K-Rock Centre
Feb. 07 - Oshawa, ON - General Motors Centre
Feb. 08 - Hamilton, ON - Copps Coliseum
Feb. 09 - Auburn Hills, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills
Feb. 10 - Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
Feb. 12 - Milwaukee, WI - Eagles Ballroom
Feb. 14 - St. Paul, MN - Myth
Feb. 16 - Saskatoon, SK - Prairieland
Feb. 17 - Edmonton, AB - Shaw Conference Centre
Feb. 18 - Calgary, AB - Big 4 Building
Feb. 20 - Abbotsford, BC - Abbotsford Ent & Sports Centre
Feb. 21 - Kent, WA - Showare Center
Feb. 23 - San Jose, CA - Events Center
Feb. 24 - Universal City, CA - Gibson Amphitheatre
Feb. 25 - Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
Feb. 26 - Albuquerque, NM - Tingley Coliseum
Feb. 28 - Denver, CO - The Fillmore Auditorium
The third installment of the North American Gigantour officially launched on April 12, 2008 in Denver, Colorado with headliner MEGADETH, Swedish metal band IN FLAMES, Finland's CHILDREN OF BODOM, Arizona's modern extreme act JOB FOR A COWBOY and Oakland, California heavy power trio HIGH ON FIRE. The 29-date trek criss-crossed North America and wrapped May 22, 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona.
The "Gigantour 2" DVD and CD, which contains footage from the second coming of Gigantour, arrived on April 22, 2008 via Image Entertainment.
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/soulflypremiere/gigan2012.jpg
A photo of the four members of MEGADETH in Halloween costumes hanging out backstage at ABC-TV's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" last night (Monday, October 31) with the TV/movie character Pee-wee Herman (played by comedian Paul Reubens) can be seen below (photo credit: Stephanie Cabral).
MEGADETH performed two songs — "Public Enemy No. 1" and "Symphony Of Destruction" — on last night's episode of ABC-TV's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (which actually aired this morning [Tuesday, November 1]). The quartet played on the show in full Halloween costumes. Check out the footage below.
MEGADETH's new album, "TH1RT3EN", is being released today (Tuesday, November 1) via Roadrunner Records. The CD was recorded at mainman Dave Mustaine's Vic's Garage studio in San Marcos, California with producer Johnny K (full name: John Karkazis), who has previously worked with DISTURBED, SEVENDUST, MACHINE HEAD and STAIND, among others. The artwork was once again created by artist John Lorenzi, who worked on the last two MEGADETH studio albums, 2007's "United Abominations" and 2009's "Endgame", as well as the band's 2007 box set, "Warchest".
"TH1RT3EN" marks the recorded return of bassist David Ellefson who was part of the band's classic lineup from 1983 to 2002. In a move that delighted the band's legion of diehards, Ellefson returned to performing live with MEGADETH in early 2010 and has remained a fixture on the stage ever since. This is the first time Ellefson has played on a MEGADETH record since 2002's "Rude Awakening".
MEGADETH filmed the "Public Enemy No. 1" video on September 17 in Santa Clarita, California. The clip was shot on a movie set where old Westerns are filmed.
Former GUNS N' ROSES drummer Steven Adler will guest on this Wednesday's (November 2) edition of "Inside The Industry" with James Bartholet and Emy Reyes. Also appearing on the show will be adult film star Alia Janine. They will discuss Adler's new book, "My Appetite For Destruction: Sex, And Drugs, And Guns N' Roses", and Janine's adult career and upcoming projects, and they will take calls from listeners nationwide live.
"Inside The Industry" is heard Wednesday nights from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. PST and rebroadcast daily on LA Talk Radio.
"Inside The Industry", hosted and created by James Bartholet, is a unique entertainment news program about the adult film and Internet industries. The program began in 2006 on cable television and the Internet, is now a weekly radio version, heard Wednesday nights on LA Talk Radio. The "Inside The Industry" television program is still on the air, and can be seen locally on cable television, and online 24/7 at www.insidetheindustry.net.
Hibernian fisherman extraordinaire and gentleman Alpinist Mark Eglinton celebrates the 25th anniversary of Reign In Blood, with some help from Phil Anselmo
I was sitting in my parent's kitchen. I was a teenager with an alarming hunger for extreme metal. My mother came down from my bedroom having presumably cleared a path – like Moses parting the Red Sea – through a chaotic pile of underwear and back-issues of KERRANG! She had stumbled across a vinyl copy of Slayer's Reign In Blood.
"What... the hell... is this?" she asked.
Back in 1986, new albums just arrived; there was nothing else for them to do. They weren't leaked, teased, street teamed, twittered about or subject to a weekly studio update; they just came out. In most cases, the only heads-up the metal community got was a few lines in the news section of a metal magazine stating that a band – in this case Slayer – was working on something new: a follow-up to the previous year's Hell Awaits.
Earlier that year, Master Of Puppets arrived with a similar abruptness. In the minds of most Metallica fans and the press it was an instant success, taking over from 1984's Ride The Lightning as their best album to date. And not long after - before the studio amps were given time to cool down properly even - it was roundly being hailed as the best thrash album of all time.
In the months after Metallica released their masterpiece, the pressure was piled on Slayer. One of the only bits of factual information we had ahead of release was that the band were working with Rick Rubin, a producer best known for recording hip hop acts like Run DMC and LL Cool J. The signs did not bode well. Rubin was obviously genuinely interested in the group but when you added his rap background to Slayer's already challenging reputation and lyrics to the fact that Def Jam were owned by the major label Geffen, the signs did not bode well. It was a very conservative period where heavy metal was the national whipping boy, Geffen just weren't people to take those kinds of risks.
In the end Geffen did get Reign In Blood out there of course – but not before the album's release date was delayed due to the graphic cover-art and controversial lyrical content. These were attributes which immediately challenged the record buyer's moral fortitude while no doubt piquing the morbid curiosity of more casual observers.
There is nothing garish or clichéd about Reign In Blood's artwork. In fact, unless you look closely at the images and their careful arrangement, you couldn't say with total confidence what was actually being depicted. On closer inspection however, the vision is a little clearer even if the concept isn't. Whether Reign In Blood's cover art is – as has been often suggested – a snap-shot of Hell itself is irrelevant now. But what the various visages – all of them strangely implacable – do achieve is to offer an unsettling visual parallel to the music itself. These songs, despite often threatening to run off like loose, crazy horses, are delivered with frightening control. There is no hiding place from them. They are presented with almost no reverb and zero self-parody, leaving the listener nowhere to hide.
Gone are the cartoonish satanic lyrics on which both Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits were founded. For the most part Reign's subject matter deals with real life and those subjects within it that we don't like acknowledging. Serial killers, disease, religion and perhaps least palatable, initially and still most commonly misunderstood, the acts of Nazi death camp doctor Josef Mengele - in the once-heard-never-forgotten album opener 'Angel Of Death'. In the face of a shitstorm of pro-Nazi allegations, Slayer were simply holding a mirror up to some of the most appalling acts of humanity in the 20th Century that had rarely been acknowledged before (in popular music at least). Not just that, despite the record's furious velocity, every single syllable emitted from Tom Araya's mouth is clearly distinguishable amid a frighteningly aggressive and at times atonal frenzy, all of which makes the records' many stark messages that little bit more impactful.
The album acts quickly and with clinical precision – 28.56 breathless minutes to be precise and when the needle enters the run-out groove after the terminal thunderclap of 'Raining Blood', the only conceivable thing to do is to play the fucking thing again. And again. Everything in between these two book ends – from the bewildering blur of 'Necrophobic' to the agonising splendour of 'Postmortem' is a master-class in a brand of brutal efficiency, the likes of which had previously been unheard of. Its white-knuckle intensity is unmatched in the genre of heavy metal, despite the frequent and often unexpected tempo changes.
While 'Angel Of Death' nauseates with its harrowing narrative and the most intense mid-song breakdown in the history of heavy metal; 'Piece By Piece' stabs, chops and slices, like its title suggests: "There's only one way out of here..." Araya memorably yells, "Piece By Piece!" and with that it's gone, only two minutes after it arrived. And much like an unstoppable, terminal disease, 'Epidemic' methodically takes over from the inside out before rendering the listener utterly helpless and close to death. Then Araya puts us out of our misery by uttering the immortal line: "Death machine infest my corpse to be."
While everyone has their favourites for all kinds of twisted reasons, it's perhaps the stunning 'Reborn' which – a quarter of a century later – leaves the nastiest taste that 2.12 minutes of music possibly could do: "Death means nothing, there's no end, I will be reborn." The defiant parting shot of a convicted witch, underscored by one of the most deranged riffs in Slayer's history.
With such visceral lyrical outlooks populating every track, no wonder the listener is always looking for breathing space – for momentary respite from an aural representation of life so hellishly unforgiving that it surely can't be real. But don't look for comfort somewhere between these grooves. There is simply none to be found. While there is melody buried deep within the deranged guitar howls which only serve to mimic the awful anguish of the song's various victims, it's a twisted and perverse form of melody – the kind we crave when we know that we probably shouldn't.
So, from a metal fan's perspective, Reign In Blood is as important and evocative as it could get in 1986. And this status would only grow, given the scores of bands and genres who drew influence from its terrifying legacy without ever coming close to replicating its impact – including Slayer themselves. In the fabric of heavy metal it is untouchable, a colossal monument to extremity, economy and sheer sonic terror jammed into just half an hour.
As important as Reign In Blood is to music fans, another barometer is to establish where it sits with fellow musicians, so with that in mind, I asked Philip Anselmo for some of his thoughts on the record's impact on heavy metal generally.
Philip, how did you first discover Slayer and how did they fit into what you – as a musician – were doing at the time?
Philip Anselmo: I remember watching heavy metal closely as it evolved. I was about 15 years old or so and Metallica's Kill 'Em All really set the tone for that kind of metal, with the crunchy axe sound. Slayer's Show No Mercy was a great LP but it still posed a lot of questions as to where they'd go next. Then, Haunting The Chapel was a much more relentless offering, but still, it was only an EP. Finally, when Slayer released Hell Awaits, I, like many others, was sold. That record is still my favourite. Very Mercyful Fate influenced riff-wise but the point is: Slayer became more extreme, where bands like Metallica were heading in a more acceptable direction. I was a Slayer kid 100%.
Do you remember when you first heard Reign In Blood? Set the scene and tell us what your first thoughts were...
PA: I bought Reign In Blood on vinyl when it first came out. I really had no cash to do much of anything but getting that record was essential... Shit, I probably would have stolen it if it weren't for a friend lending me the cash to buy it. Anyway, all I had to listen to it on was my buddy's shitty turntable at the apartment I was living in and it skipped constantly – I was furious! But I eventually got the cassette and all was, well, crushing! There wasn't a single show I'd go to where RIB wasn't the talk of the night; it killed everything else even considered 'heavy'.
Which tracks stand out most and why?
PA: Where do I start? 'Angel Of Death', 'Piece By Piece', 'Altar Of Sacrifice', 'Jesus Saves', 'Criminally Insane', 'Raining Blood'. All of them are still brutal masterpieces. Slayer had trimmed down their riffing a tad on RIB, but still, they were complex enough to keep my attention and innovative beyond words. Extreme drumming, extreme vocals, extreme concepts, insane riffing and blistering out of key leads... like Black Flag possessed by a Catholic Satan. Gotta love it...
Did you – consciously or otherwise – take any aspect of RIB forward to Pantera material and if you did, which songs or feels are most heavily influenced?
PA: Of course. But there was a bit of influential magic here. I was the Slayer fan out of the Pantera boys – they were into Metallica, Motorhead and Def Leppard etc, so I was a bit of an outcast. But there was no denying Slayer's power and their popularity was growing, so it was tough for the fellas to ignore. Slayer was playing on a Saturday night in Dallas on the South Of Heaven tour and they'd gotten into town the night before. My great friend and boxing coach, Mad Maxx Hammer at Z-Rock (who was a DJ at that time) suggested to the Slayer guys that they should come to see us play on that Friday. Well, Tom, Kerry and Jeff came out, and to cut a very long story short, Kerry and I hit it off well. Kerry and Jeff even got up and jammed Reign In Blood with us that night. Several months later, Kerry called me and said that he wanted to come hang out (he was in between legs of touring) and jam with us. That jam session... teaching Dimebag Slayer riffs and Dime teaching Kerry our stuff was stupendously influential. Look no further than the end of 'Domination' to hear the Slayer influence, it's fucking obvious!
Slayer supported Pantera in 2001, what were your emotions having them support you given how you felt about their music?
PA: All I knew was that we had better jam our asses off every night. We really had to be on point. Playing after Slayer is no easy chore and dammit, when they'd kick into 'Angel Of Death' or 'Raining Blood'... my adrenaline still gets going just thinking about it! I'd get so pumped-up watching Slayer that I'd have to catch a second (or third) wind just to get up and play our set. It's true! Slayer was the craziest motivator ever... and I mean EVER.
Sum up where you think RIB fits into the overall fabric of heavy metal?
PA: It still stands the test of time and still kills – a pure, classic LP. To me, Slayer invented the style of heavy metal I adore: odes to Satan with discordant axe harmonies and thundering drums. They invented the style - that says everything. There may have been other great bands out there – great influential bands – but Slayer stands alone in my heart till I croak, period. And I think history will be kind to them. They're legends under my roof anyway.
Chris Kee of MTUK Metal 'Zine recently conducted an interview with mainman/bassist Conrad "Cronos" Lant, guitarist Stuart "Rage" Dixon and drummer Danny "Danté" Needham of British black metal pioneers VENOM. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
MTUK Metal 'Zine: First things first, I just wanted to say congratulations on the new album ["Fallen Angels"]; it's probably the finest VENOM album in years.
Cronos: Thank you. We feel that. We really feel that. It's the whole way we approached this. We solidified this lineup in May 2009 and we said, "Let's not think of albums, let's not think of labels, deals, money, bullshit, publishing and all that crap. Let's do it the way we did in the early days, as a band. Let's get to know each other, let's get out there and get the gigs done and we'll take it from there." And things have just gone from strength to strength, you know? We get on great and the whole sort of writing process was just so natural — very much like it was in the early days. One of the things that I think has made the album so special is the way we approached the recording as well. From "Resurrection" onwards, we did go down that Pro Tools, drum-triggered thing... you know, just trying to make better productions for the band. I kind of scratched me head and thought, "Let's go back. Let's get the microphones on the drum kit, let's get the Marshalls plugged in, let's get the fuckers cranked up and let's play as we do on stage. Let's play like a fucking live band, like what VENOM's all about and we'll see what we get out of it." And I was blown away by the way these tracks came out.
MTUK Metal 'Zine: One of the most pleasing things about "Fallen Angels" is the way it has captured so much of the old atmosphere and magic compared to recent albums.
Rage: And it's not like we sat there and said 'let's write another "In Nomine..." or stuff like that. It helped us in 2009 when we did the South American stuff, the 30 years of VENOM, you know? Because it wasn't like, "Go and listen to the old albums," the vibe was already there — it was ingrained. It was like, "Let us speak, let the songs speak, let's just write a good fucking VENOM album."
Cronos: I told these guys from day one that VENOM is not a parody. VENOM is a band that changes year after year after year. We're not reliving 1984, VENOM are a different band today than we were back then. I'm not looking for a new Mantas or a new Abaddon — I'm looking for a great VENOM drummer. I'm looking for a great VENOM guitarist who stands up on his own, who's got his own ideas, his own look, his own identity. I've never believed in that parody thing; I think it doesn't work.
MTUK Metal 'Zine: Is it difficult for you to find a balance between progressing and moving on and staying true to your original sound? Especially when there's so much pressure on you to keep sounding like the early days?
Cronos: Yeah, it is a challenge, but I believe the honesty of the songs will tell me if it's right or wrong. Of course, I write things where I think, "That's not fucking VENOM," and in a way that's why I went off and did the CRONOS thing back in the day. I had all this material but I knew it wasn't VENOM so I wasn't going to call it VENOM. It was quite heavy but it wasn't VENOM. I think a VENOM song tells you it's a VENOM song. It's got to have the "X, Y and Z," you know? It's got to jump out at you and punch you in the nose."
MTUK Metal 'Zine: Is it hard fitting new material into the set when there's so much from the past that you have to play?
Cronos: Yeah, because we like to be controversial as well. We are also looking at songs that have never been played live before, songs that have only ever been played in the studio, never made it on to a stage before. We've been rehearsing things like "Manitou"... and I was quite surprised, it sounds alright, you know? I think that might creep in for a gig or two. When we did this thirty years thing we said, "We want to do something off every album and some of the singles and that," so now it's like "At War With Satan" going into "Too Loud (For The Crowd)" going into "Nightmare" going into "Live Like An Angel...", blah, blah, blah. Cutting these songs together is fantastic because you see the look on the kids faces and they're like, "Fucking hell!" At first they're like, "Which one's this?" and then they're like, "Fucking hell!" It's great seeing the anticipation on their faces. And it also just shows you how good the songwriting is as well that they can fit like that, that you can merge such radically different types of songs together really well. You wouldn't think you can put something like "Live Like An Angel..." with "Calm Before The Storm"... but you can.
FIREWOLFE, the band featuring vocalist David Fefolt (HAWK, MASI, ANGELS OF BABYLON), guitarists Paul Kleff and Nick Layton, and drummer Jay Schellen (HURRICANE, ASIA), has tapped Roy Z (JUDAS PRIEST, HALFORD, BRUCE DICKINSON, ROB ROCK, TRIBE OF GYPSIES) to mix the group's forthcoming sophomore album. The follow-up to this year's self-titled debut will be recorded during the coming months for a 2012 release.
"We are extremely happy to be working with Roy," Kleff said. "The new material is very heavy with a melodic side to it and we know that having Roy at the helm will give it that killer metal sound that he is known for. For FIREWOLFE, it doesn't get any better than Roy Z — the albums he has done with JUDAS PRIEST, HALFORD and BRUCE DICKINSON are incredible. It really goes without saying."
Fefolt said that working with Roy is a perfect match for FIREWOLFE. "Roy and I have known each other for a long time, we've worked together in the past and it's great to be working with him again," he said. "Roy is one of the top guys in the metal world and his work speaks for itself. The new material is very strong and Roy's work will put it over the top."
FIREWOLFE's debut album was previously described as "a turbine-powered, twin guitar, screaming eargasm" with overtones of DIO, IRON MAIDEN, SCORPIONS, and JUDAS PRIEST.
For more information, visit the band's official web site.
Jason Le Miere of Revolver magazine recently conducted an interview with DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Revolver: Has it been hard adjusting to life back at home without the band commitments?
Dan: Yeah. I mean it is definitely a culture shock. It's funny because, just this past weekend, or Monday was Columbus Day, so my daughter was off school. So Sunday night, we decided to go downtown and stay in a hotel. [Laughs] Because I'm so used to that life, you know, and my kids are.
Revolver: What have you got planned for the next few months?
Dan: I've been saying it all along, too, part of what I'm looking forward while taking this break is being that fan in the crowd again. That's gonna inspire me, that's gonna push me. One thing, you know, I wanna make clear is that there's been a little confusion on or misunderstanding on maybe some comments that David [Draiman, vocals] had made to the people who were questioning is, you know, we didn't decide to take this break because we wanna pursue other things. At least I didn't. I don't know really where the other guys heads are at. But within our discussions the plan wasn't, like, we wanna pursue other things so let's take a break. Other than that, it's just a matter of if and when the phone rings, or somebody picks up the phone and says, "Hey, where's your head at? How do you feel about this? Do you wanna…" you know, "Do we miss it enough? Are we on the same page of wanting to write again or to tour again?" I like to think that the longer, as long as we're away from it, it's only gonna make us miss it more , you know, because that's all we know, that's all we've loved and done. So I'd like to think that there's gonna come a point where we're all gonna be, like, I was waiting for somebody to pick up the phone and say, "Hey, let's get going."
Swedish MANOWAR-inspired all-female metal band HYSTERICA will perform at Camden Underworld in London, England on November 19.
HYSTERICA is working on a new album titled "The Art Of Metal". According to a press release, HYSTERICA is planning "something different and unique" for the upcoming CD by "unit[ing] the music with another form of art. The concept for the new album is as follows: By letting different artists interpret each song, a number of art pieces will be created. These will be presented together with each new album track." Several singles will be made available digitally until the album's release. The first single was "Force Of Metal", released on April 11, followed by "Message From The Dark" (May 25), "Heels Of Steel" (June 28) and "Fighters Of The Century" (August 2).
"The Art Of Metal" is reportedly being mixed and mastered by Pontus Norgren (HAMMERFALL) and Marcus Jidell (EVERGREY).
Video footage of HYSTERICA performing the new songs "Force Of Metal" and "Heels Of Steel" can be sen below.
HYSTERICA gained notoriety after the release of its debut album, "Metalwar", which was mixed by Peter Tägtgren (PAIN, HYPOCRISY). In 2010 HYSTERICA was honored with the "Best Newcomer" award at the Swedish Metal Awards.
For more information, visit www.hysterica.se.
No Clean Singing recently conducted an interview with PARADISE LOST guitarist Gregor Mackintosh about Gregor's death metal band VALLENFYRE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
No Clean Singing: You've been quite open in explaining that you created VALLENFYRE's music as a way of dealing with the death of your father John. I don't suppose one ever fully comes to terms with a loss such as that, but do you feel that the process of writing and recording the music helped you? And if so, how did it help you?
Gregor: Initially writing down feelings of grief was better than bottling it up and many of the things I wrote eventually turned into lyrics. This form of therapy only lasted so long however before the act itself became depressing. That's when I hit on the idea of turning it into a real band with friends so as to make it fun to do. This turned out to be a revelation. Having my mates with me whilst knocking the album into shape and recording it was a great joy and really did take something very sad and make it very positive and productive.
No Clean Singing: Your father sounds like he was a rare man, the kind of father who would support his son pursuing the kind of "extreme" music that you began to pursue. I know more musicians who have to fight their parents to do that! Was he actually into metal himself, or was it more simply a matter of supporting his son?
Gregor: He liked rock music but his understanding of metal music came more through me. He was very interested in how things worked and how things came to be and this mindset probably had something to do with why he was always very curious and full of questions about where we were playing and who with. In the latter years, I used to video call him from a venue or a studio so he could see what was going on.
No Clean Singing: You said in the video preview that some of the themes on the album deal with the tendencies of religion to turn people into sheep, to make them pliable to the dictates of other people rather than thinking freely for themselves. Was there a connection between those thoughts and what you were feeling about the death of your dad?
Gregor: I have always abhorred religion. I get very angry about it so it was an easy subject for me. Having said that, while my Dad was ill, I found that I actually envied people who had faith because they had this safety mechanism to deal with death. It's at those moments you realize why religion began. It's still fucked up though.
No Clean Singing: Which of the songs deal most directly with the vices of religion?
Gregor: Well, "Cathedrals Of Dread", "As The World Collapses" and "A Thousand Martyrs" are the main three. "Cathedrals" is a straight-forward rant, really. "As The World Collapses" is more to do with the horrors that religion has forced upon the world and how I see the consequences. "A Thousand Martyrs" sprang from a one-off event when a priest at the hospice my Dad was in was going from bed to bed every day really kind of harrassing these poor dying people into accepting christ. It really confirmed to me that these bastards are calculating people who pray on the vulnerable.
No Clean Singing: What other themes do songs on the album address?
Gregor: "Ravenous Whore" is about a woman I knew who is insanely greedy, driven by consumerism and the need to suck the life out of people. She was only happy when others were miserable. "Humanity Wept" deals with the fact that huge corporations are intrinsically linked to politics and government and how the rich get richer at the expense of the most vulnerable. "My Black Siberia" carries on this premise into the future where these greedy pigs have turned the world into a wasteland and there has to be retribution.
No Clean Singing: Because this project began for you as a form of catharsis for a very personal loss and the music is so connected to that event and those feelings, how do you foresee the music changing (if at all) as VALLENFYRE moves forward? Will you need to find some new inspiration?
Gregor: I haven't thought that far ahead. I have no plans for a follow-up. If, in a couple of years' time, we felt inspired and it was still fun to do, then maybe. The lyrical matter would obviously be different, but I can't see that the music would be any nicer. I don't like to plan, though. It's too depressing. You never know what's around the corner.
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