Rock News

JIZZY PEARL'S LOVE/HATE has inked a deal with Golden Robot Records. The band's new record is due our later this year. Pearl has been a fixture on the world-famous Hollywood Sunset Strip since his edgy street rock band LOVE/HATE released its debut album, "Blackout In The Red Room", in 1990. "Blackout In The Red Room" received "Album Of The Year" honors from Kerrang! and Metal Hammer in addition to being a fan and critics favorite. It Their second LP, "Wasted In America", followed in 1992, and the band hit the road with the likes of SKID ROW, DIO, AC/DC and OZZY OSBOURNE. Since then, Jizzy has played, recorded and toured with platinum artists like RATT and L.A. GUNS, including a stint with GUNS N' ROSES drummer Steven Adler in ADLER'S APPETITE, while currently fronting the legendary QUIET RIOT. Jizzy has also released several critically acclaimed solo albums, the most recent being 2018's "All You Need Is Soul" on Frontiers Music Srl. Later this year, JIZZY PEARL'S LOVE/HATE will celebrate the 30th anniversary of "Blackout In The Red Room" by playing the album in full.

Former GUNS N' ROSES drummer has uploaded a video of him performing the band's classic song "Patience". The six-minute clip opens with Sorum telling his Instagram followers: "Here I am again with my guitar. I'm out in the backyard here in the desert. You see my palm trees. It's getting a little chilly, so I put on this wooly hat in tribute to Izzy Stradlin, one of the writers of this next song. I was very fortunate to play with my old bandmates on this song. Obviously, I was on the drums. I'm gonna play it for you tonight on the guitar and sing it. I hope you enjoy my version. This one's called 'Patience'." As previously reported, Chicago Review Press has pushed back the release date of Matt''s book, "Double Talkin' Jive: True Rock 'N' Roll Stories From The Drummer Of Guns N' Roses, The Cult, And Velvet Revolver", to July 7 from the previously announced April 7. Back in March 2018, Sorum told the "2 Hours With Matt Pinfield" podcast about his upcoming autobiography: "It's going to be the juiciest of the juiciest of the GN'R books, for sure, plus all the other crap I've done. I'm being really truthful about everything that happened. I'm not a jaded individual; I'm not a bitter guy. There's a lot of bad shit that went down, but I just want to tell the story straightforward, and I don't want to, like, hold back. I will edit some things — my wife's got to look at it. [Laughs] I've had such an amazing life, and I go, 'Wow, man. If I don't write it down now, I don't want to forget.' There's a lot of good shit in the book that doesn't pertain to GN'R." Sorum, who replaced Steven Adler in GUNS N' ROSES, recorded the highly successful albums "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II" (both 1991) and "The Spaghetti Incident" (1994). He also supported the group on the "Use Your Illusion" tour and can be heard on GUNS N' ROSES' "Live Era: '87-'93" (1999) and "Greatest Hits" (2004). Sorum has said in the past that a GUNS reunion tour should have included both him and Adler, with each playing the songs they recorded with the group. Sorum was inducted as a member of the band into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April 2012. View this post on Instagram

Cover of Guns N Roses

A post shared by Matt Sorum (@mattsorum) on Mar 28, 2020 at 9:05pm PDT

PAPA ROACH frontman Jacoby Shaddix spoke to Matt Pinfield of We Are Hear about how he is spending his time in quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic. The singer said (see video below): "As far as being at home and what's going on here, I really have to be mindful of how much news I intake, how much other people's opinions I intake and really just be mindful of, 'How can I serve somebody else?' And it's tough when you're in the isolation of your home, so it's really got me focused in on, 'All right. I've gotta be able to serve my family and be the best person I can be for them while I've got this time.' "It's a trip, 'cause we were out on tour, and we were having an ill tour — we were killing it in Europe — and the tour got cut short," Jacoby continued. "And we were, like, 'We've gotta go home to our families.' And part of me was, like, 'Oh, I'm so bummed about this tour ending.' But then I was, like, 'Oh, I get to go spend time with my family. This is kind of exciting,' 'cause I'm on the go a lot, right? "And so this whole experience of kind of slowing down and really taking a long, hard look at just my life — where I've been; what's going on next with my family," he added. "My oldest son is going away to college next year, so to be able to have this time where I'm confined in the house with my family… It's messed up and it's sad — the circumstances — and we're losing people, and that bums me out, but… I'm trying to find a silver lining, and the silver lining is that I get to spend some more time with my family. I get to slow my whole pace of my life down and kind of try some new things. I've been doing some breathing exercises, where when I'm getting into a fear, panic, aggressive, angry mode, I do these breathing exercises, bro… You know when you do a hard reset on your cell phone 'cause it's all acting ridiculous? It's like a hard reset for my soul power, dude." Shaddix recently confirmed that PAPA ROACH has special plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its breakthrough album, "Infest", this year. PAPA ROACH's second full-length record and first major label release, "Infest" peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart and has been certified triple platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) for sales in excess of three million copies in the U.S. alone. PAPA ROACH has spent the last year touring in support of its tenth studio album, "Who Do You Trust?", which was released in January 2019 via Eleven Seven Music. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd7dxp8T268&w=638&h=359]

TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider has once again said that he strongly disapproves of President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has been criticized by some parts of the media for downplaying fears about COVID-19 or actively spreading misinformation about its repercussions. The president has since notably dramatically changed his tune about the seriousness of the crisis has been forced to soberly address the coronavirus outbreak. Asked by Paulo Baron, owner of Top Link Music, a producer of rock concerts in Latin America, how he feels about the Trump administration's response to the situation, Snider — who got to know Trump personally after appearing more than once on "The Celebrity Apprentice" — said: "Well, I wanna make something clear: not everybody in the United States had been denying this virus. It's pretty much split down the center, down the middle — half denying, half not denying — and it does start with the president. And yes, I'm extremely disappointed with the way he handled this thing. "We as a country are going to be paying for this for a very long time in a lot of different ways, and not just with the deaths of so many people, to be expected from this virus, but financially, economically. And a lot of this could have been avoided. I mean, certain things were inevitable — the virus was coming, sickness was coming, death was coming. That was inevitable, but the way it was handled, many deaths could have been prevented and we could have been ahead of things instead of behind things. Right now, it feels like, in my country, that we're constantly trying to catch up to the virus as it does what it does. This could have been very different, but we didn't learn from the lessons of others, unfortunately." Snider also talked about the coronavirus's impact on the music business, especially as it relates to concerts and artists' ability to make a living from performing live. "This virus, this time in history will change everything forever," he said. "It will take us a long time to be comfortable again with going to large gatherings and things like that. This is really scary. And I do think that people will explore other alternatives for getting their art out there. "Now, me personally, I didn't announce it in a big way that I was retiring last year, but I may not go back to live playing," he revealed. "I've got a live album coming out. I don't know if I'll do any more new music. But I'm writing books, I'm going into directing and things like that. "As far as concerts go, I think that people will look to find other ways to entertain their audience without going to a concert venue where thousands, or tens of thousands, of people are crowded together in potentially dangerous situations." Last month, Trump said that he knew that COVID-19 was a pandemic before it was declared as such by the World Health Organization, despite his previous rhetoric downplaying the severity of the virus. More than 1.3 million coronavirus cases have been reported worldwide and more than 74,000 deaths so far, putting public health systems and emergency services under immense pressure. Back in November 2017, Snider said that he could no longer be friends with Trump because he did not share the president's views on important issues, including the Trump administration's harsh immigration policy. Snider found himself in the middle of controversy in 2016 when he asked Trump to stop using the 1984 TWISTED SISTER anthem "We're Not Gonna Take It" in his campaign. The singer said at the time that Trump was very gracious about the request. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0R5WGH6hKo&w=638&h=359]

DARKANE guitarist Christofer Malmström has shared a video of him playing a cover of the SLAYER song "Angel Of Death" while accompanied his daughter Amanda on vocals. The two-and-a-half-minute clip, which can be seen below, opens with Christofer running through the opening riff of DIO's "The Last In Line" before abruptly stopping and switching gears by launching into the aforementioned "Reign In Blood" classic. Last year, DARKANE celebrated the 20th anniversary of its debut album, "Rusted Angel", by performing the LP in its entirety at select European shows. DARKANE's latest album, "The Sinister Supremacy", was released in summer 2013 via Massacre Records. Vocalist Jens Broman left DARKANE in August 2011 due to "personal issues" and was replaced by Lawrence Mackrory, who previously sang on DARKANE's debut album, "Rusted Angel" (1999), and made a guest appearance on the song "Chaos vs. Order" on the band's 2002 effort "Expanding Senses". For the last few years, Christofer has been a member of the Swedish tribute band HARDROCK HOUNDS, which performs "covers of the best hard rock tunes you remember from the '80s." Amanda och jag blev lite sugna på att slänga ihop en ny video, än en gång på temat "barn sjunger hårdrock", men denna gången blev det en cover på Angel of death med Slayer. Så klart en utmaning för en tolvårig flicka att försöka sjunga som en gammal thrash metal-gubbe. =) Posted by Christofer Malmström on Sunday, April 5, 2020

HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta has blasted President Donald Trump as a "fake tan freak" who is "worse" than Joe Biden at "stringing together a sentence." Jasta made his comments after apparently watching one of Trump's daily White House briefings about the country's fight against coronavirus. On Sunday (April 5), Jamey took to his Twitter to write: "Holy shit I've avoided watching this fake tan freak for a long time I thought Biden was bad at stringing together a sentence but man he's worse. Get Andrew Yang back in it!! We're fucked lol" In a 2016 interview with Metal Insider, Jasta stated about that years' presidential election: "When I was growing up, it was always it'll be Democrats for four or eight years, and then the Republicans can try, and for me, under a Republican presidency, heavy metal and hardcore did very well… It's like, okay, as someone who's self-employed and paying all sorts of entertainment taxes, and various bills because I'm self-employed — maybe I would make more money under a Republican presidency, and talking to a guy like Jake from CONVERGE, and he said that depending on how much you're making in which state, you might want to think about a candidate like Bernie [Sanders]. It might be better for the next generation. Yeah, I might feel it in the wallet for the next four to eight years, but this kid might have a better opportunity or education that he wouldn't have under somebody who might shake things up." Asked what made him get more interested in politics, Jasta said: "The laws in Connecticut don't protect the self-employed and the musicians and independent contractors, and seeing my grandmother deal with insurance laws. Like, I want to take my grandmother down a natural path, and not have her be on some pharmaceutical drug the rest of her life. Let's go the natural path, not for something serious. Obviously, big pharma is good for a lot of serious ailments. There's a lot of good pharmaceutical drugs that can save people's lives. But depending on the price, especially for seniors — they get jerked around by pharmaceutical companies a lot for natural paths. Insurance companies in the state of Connecticut do not cover natural paths. But that's something that can be changed by voting locally. These are the reasons that I will look into voting locally and see who's going to back the bill to get natural paths covered by insurance companies." As previously reported, HATEBREED's new album, which was expected later this year, has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic that is spreading across the globe. This past February, HATEBREED released its first new single in four years, "When The Blade Drops". At the time, Jasta described the track as "just a taste of what's to come… The speed, intensity, and brutality that people have come to expect from us is on full display." HATEBREED's previously announced European tour with PARKWAY DRIVE will now take place in November/December.

Holy shit I’ve avoided watching this fake tan freak for a long time I thought Biden was bad at stringing together a sentence but man he’s worse. Get Andrew Yang back in it!! We’re fucked lol

NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen has checked in from her home in Sweden that she shares with her husband, SABATON drummer Hannes Van Dahl. In a four-minute video message posted to her official YouTube channel, she said, in part: "Hey to you. A little video message from my little place here in Sweden. I guess everybody's pretty quarantined, more or less. I think the coronavirus situation is really affecting most of us in our daily lives. Of course, the world's a big place, so it's affecting us all differently. But the rules here in Sweden are not as tight as, for instance, in the Netherlands, where I'm from, but my husband Hannes and my [three-year-old] daughter Freja and I have been keeping ourselves in quarantine for a bit now, because Hannes had been traveling. He had to come back earlier from a SABATON tour in Russia, and I'd been sick for about two weeks with a bit of a fever and just general exhaustion. I'm not sure if I had the coronavirus or something else, but it was bugging me enough. However, I wasn't really 'sick sick,' which is quite something in these days. "I should have been traveling now," she added. "I should have already done my [solo] show in Amsterdam. I should have been rehearsing already with NIGHTWISH. Many cool things that had to be canceled or postponed. Yeah, [it's] shit — pardon my French — but at the same time, I've been gardening, I've been riding my horse, I've been playing a lot with my daughter. I'm getting time for things I usually don't have time for. So I'm trying to see this as a positive thing as much as possible and trying to keep healthy. Keeping track of everybody I love. [There are] a few people in my family who had the virus, and it's a horrible disease." Jansen made her live debut as the frontwoman of NIGHTWISH on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington following the abrupt departure of the band's lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon. Jansen officially joined NIGHTWISH in 2013 and made her recording debut with the group on 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" album. NIGHTWISH's ninth studio album, "Human. :II: Nature.", will be released on April 10 via Nuclear Blast. The long-awaited follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" will be a double album containing nine tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters on CD 2. "Human. :II: Nature." was recorded from August to October 2019 at Röskö campsite, Petrax Studios and Troykington castle, as well as Finnvox Studios, by Tero Kinnunen, Mikko Karmila and Troy Donockley. The mixing was done by Mikko Karmila at Finnvox, with Tuomas Holopainen and Tero Kinnunen. Mastering was done by Mika Jussila at Finnvox. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWGeqVGXzOo&w=638&h=359]

Violent Motion has uploaded professionally filmed video footage of NAPALM DEATH's entire February 28 performance at the Nantes Deathfist festival at the Warehouse in Nantes, France. Check it out below. Featured songs: 00:00 - I Abstain 05:18 - Silence Is Deafening 09:04 - The Wolf I Feed 13:05 - Can't Play, Won't Pay 16:46 - Social Sterility 18:10 - Scum 22:04 - Fatalist 26:50 - Logic Ravaged By Brute Force 31:15 - Suffer The Children 35:35 - If The Truth Be Known 40:20 - Human Garbage 42:11 - When All Is Said And Done 45:45 - Mass Appeal Madness 49:30 - Unchallenged Hate 51:32 - You Suffer 53:01 - Smash A Single Digit 54:58 - Cleanse Impure 58:06 - Dead 59:13 - Nazi Punks Fuck Off (DEAD KENNEDYS Cover) 1:01:44 - White Kross (SONIC YOUTH cover) This past Febraury, NAPALM DEATH released a new seven-inch / digital EP via Century Media Records. The EP titled "Logic Ravaged By Brute Force" includes the brand-new title track, which can be heard below, as well as a freshly recorded cover version of "White Kross", originally performed by SONIC YOUTH. This double-A-side EP is yet another NAPALM DEATH collectible item and is also meant as first teaser for the band's upcoming studio album, expected for release later in 2020. NAPALM DEATH's frontman Mark "Barney" Greenway states about the EP: "In keeping with NAPALM DEATH custom, we had a vast swathe of new songs with many different flavors. So then naturally we moved into single territory and opted for 'Logic Ravaged By Brute Force'. It's the coldness and desperation of the guitar chords and voice that swung it. And then, seeing as SONIC YOUTH mash chords like few others, this cover of 'White Kross' just seemed to lift itself beyond the constraints of cover — or filler — song into a bit of a rumbling wall-of-sound epic". The "Logic Ravaged By Brute Force" seven-inch EP is available in the following versions: * Black vinyl - Unlimited * Blue vinyl - 200x copies via CM distro Europe * Light Green vinyl - 100x copies via CM webshop Europe * Neon Yellow vinyl - 100x copies via CM webshop USA (out February 28!) * Orange vinyl - 600x exclusively from the band on the road! NAPALM DEATH's upcoming follow-up to 2015's "Apex Predator - Easy Meat" will feature an appearance by guitarist Mitch Harris, who has been taking a leave of absence from NAPALM DEATH since late 2014 to focus on his family life. Barney recently told Metal Mad TV that the "theme" of the upcoming NAPALM DEATH album is "the other." He explained: "One good example of people being treated as the other is this whole thing about immigrants. Not everybody, but there is a certain percentage of the population that looks at them as something different — like, not human, almost. I wanted to challenge that way of thinking. Not only is it the other immigrants or whatever you want to call people that migrate. There's other things as well — other people who are treated as 'the other.' I would suggest simply, generally, that it's not necessary to treat people differently." [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzy66tVP-MA&w=638&h=359]

IRON MAIDEN has been forced to cancel its previously announced Japanese tour due to the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the globe. The British heavy metal legends announced the cancelation in a social media post earlier today. The group wrote: "We have been informed by our Japanese Promoter, Creativeman Productions that they are cancelling all their International Artists' shows in Japan up to May 31. The IRON MAIDEN shows will therefore not be taking place in Tokyo on May 19 & 20, and in Osaka on May 22. "Please see the full statement from the Promoter below. We send our best wishes to the people of Japan and to all our fans there." Creativeman Productions' statement reads as follows: "Announcement about all international Artists' shows scheduled up until May 31st 2020. "Amid COVID-19 outbreak, all international artists' shows scheduled up until May 31st 2020 will be either cancelled or postponed. "Some of the tours during April through May period that have not been officially announced the status yet, will still not happen during the said period. And for those without status, we will soon be able to announce whether it it’s cancelled or postponed. We are in discussion right now, and we apologize for the inconvenience caused. In any case, please hold on to your tickets, as you will need them for refund. "Our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. "Please be safe and stay alert." Last month, IRON MAIDEN announced the cancelation of its concerts in Australia and New Zealand. MAIDEN's Australian tour with special guests KILLSWITCH ENGAGE was scheduled to kick off on May 1 in Perth and conclude on May 11 in Melbourne. IRON MAIDEN is rumored to have completed work on a new studio album, to be released later this year. The British heavy metal legends haven't issued any fresh music since 2015's "The Book Of Souls" LP, which was recorded in late 2014 in Paris, France with longtime producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley. If the reports of a new MAIDEN album are true, it will mark the band's 17th studio effort and the sixth to be produced by Shirley, who has worked with MAIDEN for the past two decades. "The Book Of Souls" was the longest MAIDEN album, clocking in at 92 minutes, with lyrics heavily based in the themes of death, reincarnation, the soul and mortality. We have been informed by our Japanese Promoter, Creativeman Productions that they are cancelling all their International... Posted by Iron Maiden on Monday, April 6, 2020

PEARL JAM's "Gigaton" has been hailed "superb", "fascinating and ambitious", "inspiring and engaging", "their finest studio hour" and "PEARL JAM's best in a generation." The critics and fans alike have praised the bands latest release and it has now bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart this week. Additionally, it landed in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200. Internationally, the album debuted No. 1 in Italy and Austria, Top 5 in Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Canada, and Finland and Top 10 in the U.K., Ireland, and New Zealand. At Metacritic, "Gigaton" registered the group's second highest cumulative critical score — only bested by their diamond-certified 1991 debut, "Ten". Among numerous positive reactions, Associated Press exclaimed, "PEARL JAM come roaring back with superb new album." In a four-out-of-five star review, Rolling Stone wrote, "The group has blended the miasmic angst of 'Jeremy' and 'Alive' with a sense of tenderness and even flashes of hope." UPROXX promised, "PEARL JAM is reliable on 'Gigaton' at a moment when nothing else is," and Spin christened it "Their best album since the late nineties." Opening up about the album, Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament appeared on "The Bill Simmons Podcast" for a marathon two-hour interview. Speaking on their eagerness to return to the road, Vedder said: "We're kind of reclusive by nature. So, in some ways it feels normal to be away from people, that's not necessarily out of my wheelhouse… but I just keep thinking that first time we'll be in front of people, it's even hard to imagine when or how, it's going to be different. It's not like we didn't appreciate it before, it's just even tenfold." Regarding the seven-year creative journey to "Gigaton", Vedder revealed: "It grew on its own. It just started different, and it ended different, and everything that happened in the middle was different, and that's what felt great about it. At some point, we had to finish. At some point, we zeroed in and thought, 'Okay, I think we got this and now let's nail these bits and pieces" …This last fall, we really leaned in heavy and hard and gave ourselves a little bit of a deadline finally, which was cool, I thought it was very mature and grown-up of us to say, 'Okay, now let's actually finish! That can be the hard part'… After all of that fun, now we have to set it down in concrete." In terms of the full sequence and final vision, he related it to a formative childhood memory: "Certain things find their spot. It's like a setlist. I think that's why they maybe let me take a first crack at some of that stuff, because of the whole setlist thing. We still make records to be listened to — not that everyone will listen to a record track one to twelve in a row or side A or Side B — but we still make 'em in case somebody does want to listen to it like that, that's how we make em…In a way, it's also like a live show, we put the songs together in a way that have a flow and an energy, the one song passes the torch to the next…Really I think a lot of comes back to keeping score when I was a little kid in baseball games…Obviously, I wasn't good at math and didn't go to school for acounting, but what I did do was stare at the scoreboard at Wrigley Field and I think that really helped me." "Gigaton" represents PEARL JAM at the peak of progression. From moments of guitar-fueled catharsis such as "Who Ever Said" through the icy absolution of "River Cross", the lyrics, riffs, and rhythms transmit a message of hope, culminating on Eddie Vedder's final words, "Here and now…won't hold us down…share the light…won't hold us down." Produced by Josh Evans and PEARL JAM, "Gigaton" marks the band's first studio album since Grammy Award-winning "Lightning Bolt", which was released in October 2013. Internationally, the album is available and distributed by Universal Music Group. Photo credit: Danny Clinch [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSlDBfXiSls&w=638&h=359]