ICYMI – Week Ending 2nd August
Welcome to ICYMI, a colossal round up of news, music vidos, album info, tours and streams that was dumped on the world in the past week. We’ve collated, assessed, prioritised and filtered the best information in the world of heavy music. Enjoy.
Barely a day had passed since the news of DJ Ashba’s exit from Guns N’ Roses came the information that fellow axeman, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal is also no longer a part of the veteran hard rock act. In fact, Bumblefoot may have left the band a good year prior to the Ashba news breaking. It seems it’s not only album releases that GNR are slow to react on. The guitarist has been part of Guns N’ Roses since 2006. As yet, there has been no official word from the GNR camp on replacements, or anything for that matter.
In the meantime, Slipknot/Stone Sour front man, Corey Taylor revealed in the last few days to Loudwire‘s “Wikipedia: Fact Or Fiction?” segment, that the music he reportedly wrote and recorded with Velvet Revolver will likely never be released,
“I think it was ten [songs that I recorded with Velvet Revolver]… I think it was… It’s either nine or ten,” Taylor said (see video below). “There was a handful that we wrote, and then there was a handful that I kind of rearranged a little bit based on music that they already had. So it wasn’t music that we kind of wrote together. I mean, there were, like, three… I think there was three songs that we wrote together, which were actually pretty sweet. And then the rest of it was me writing to music that they already had that I thought was pretty cool.”
He continued: “Yeah, the world will probably never hear ’em, which is fine, because, I mean, I would want another crack at kind of working on some of that stuff anyway. But that will never happen, so it’s…. You know, it’s all good.”
Hopefully sanity will prevail and Slash and co will find a way to release the Corey Taylor stuff in the future, maybe as an EP?
Whilst the world waits on the new Metallica album, David Frizell, a rock artist famous for his work with Avenged Sevenfold has immortalised Metallica forever, chronicling their three-and-a-half-decade-long career, into a 28-page illustrated volume entitled Orbit: Metallica. To order the $3.99 (US) print copy, visit Comic Flea Market.
In other news, New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem announced on Wednesday that the group will go on an indefinite hiatus following their current European tour. “We’re all going to do other projects and stay active in some way or another, both in and out of music, but we’d like to step away from the band until we decide what we’d like to do next,” Gaslight Anthem wrote on Facebook. The band, founded in 2006, will play its last show on August 30 at the Reading Festival in England.
A few massive tour announcements in the past week dropped. Our very own, Northlane will follow up with a full national tour in support of #1 album, Node. Not only that, the band will be joined by special guests, August Burns Red, Like Moths To Flames, Buried in Verona and Ocean Grove. Massive! Tickets are selling fast with the Melbourne leg almost a sell out already. Visit the official event page for further info and check out Wall of Sound’s review of the new album here.
Elsewhere, Toronto’s hardcore punks, Cancer Bats are heading out to Australia in September and are towing Australia’s own High Tension around with them. With a reputation for one of the most energetic shows going around, this one is not to be missed. Unfortunately the tour will not hit the west coast, with Perth missing out. Again, hit up the official event page for more info.
If those two massive shows weren’t enough to get you motivated, Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society are touring in November. Without doubt, one of the most decorated guitarist’s in metal history, having performed for over 20 years as Ozzy Osbourne’s lead guitarist which led to a string of multi-platinum albums, including Osbourne’s biggest selling No More Tears’ for which Wylde wrote all the music. Black Label Society returns to our shores for their first appearance since playing their first headline tour since 2006. Official event information here.
Onto the music video releases for the week and we start off heading into some hardcore with Terror’s new video, ‘Mind At War’ from upcoming album, The 25th Hour in stores August 7th.
‘Better Place’, the first video from Saint Asonia the new act featuring ex-Three Days Grace frontman Adam Gontier and Staind guitarist Mike Mushok has been released. Saint Asonia self-titled debut album is out now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAOfEP2OrLU’Time Every Time’, the new video from Art of Anarchy, the new band featuring Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver) on vocals, John Moyer (Disturbed) on bass, Jon and Vince Votta on guitar and drums, and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (Guns ‘N Roses) as co-guitarist and producer, can be seen below. The song is taken from Art of Anarchy’s self-titled debut album, which was released on June 2.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzDnEHSUb74
Ohio’s Miss May I released the music video for ‘Deathless’ during the past week.The song is the title track of the band’s new album, which will be released on August 7.
Clutch premiered ‘X Ray Visions’ last week, the first single from Psychic Warfare, which will be released on October 2 via the band’s own label Weathermaker Music. Words can’t describe how good this…
Brits, The Darkness, have retrurned with ‘Last Of Our Kind’, the title track to their latest release. Not my cup of tea, but you can’t deny the riffs these guys churn out….
Speaking of British rock, Saxon, the heavy metal legends have released details of their forthcoming album, Battering Ram, in what will be the band’s 21st studio album. Battering Ram will be available for pre-order via Amazon and various formats will include CD in ecolbook, 180 gram vinyl, limited edition boxset (containing CD, vinyl and a bonus CD with the band performance of their “Denim & Leather” tour “Saxon Over Sweden 2011”, featuring 18 tracks).
Florida’s Trivium will release their new album, Silence In The Snow, on October 2 via Roadrunner. The follow-up to 2013’s Vengeance Falls was produced by Michael “Elvis” Baskette (Slash) and was mixed by Josh Wilbur (Gojira, Lamb of God). Judging from the title track video, the band may be heading toward a classic metal album with influences Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Dio and Metallica to shine through.Sludge metal outfit Kylesa recently thinned its numbers to become a three-piece unit consisting of Phillip Cope, Laura Pleasants and Carl McGinley. But a smaller band in no way means a smaller sound, as they’ll set out to prove on their follow-up to 2013’s Ultraviolet.
San Francisco Bay Area thrashers Hatchet will release their third studio album, Fear Beyond Lunacy, on October 30 via The End Records. The follow-up to 2013’s Dawn Of The End marks the recording debut of the new Hatchet lineup behind founding member, vocalist and lead guitarist Julz Ramos: Clayton Cagle on guitar, Kody Barba on bass, and Ben Smith on drums.Tool’s front man, Maynard James Keenan electro-rock band, Puscifer have announced a new album. The band’s third full-length album, Money Shot, will be availabvle October 30 via Puscifer Entertainment. The album was produced by guitar player, programmer Mat Mitchell and Keenan, with some additional awesome sauce coming from the one-of-a-kind badass Carina Round.
Finally, Sevendust will release their eleventh studio album, Kill the Flaw, October 2nd. “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!”
Last but not least a bunch of new tracks have been streamed for our aural pleasure this past week…check out these gems….
Swedish cult band, Ghost have their new album Meliora due August 21st and they’ve released the track, ‘Absolution’. With a Blue Oyster Cult kind of vibe, it’ll get you hooked!
Disturbed have showcased another track from the forthcoming Immortalized album, ‘Fire It Up’. It’s not hard to figure out what the guys are blazing about on this track. You can pre-order the new album and get, “Fire It Up,” “Immortalized” and “The Vengeful One” immediately: Exclusive Bundles – http://smarturl.it/DSTImmortalized
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOwB-X6CDbQSomething a bit different, finnish melodic band, Stratovarius have released the official lyric video to ‘Shine in the Dark’ from their new album, Eternal, due on September 11 via the earMUSIC label.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–RFWXDr20I
Continuing the melodic metal coming out of Europe, check out Germany’s Xandria ‘Voyage of the Fallen’. The band’s new 7-Track EP of from the German symphonic metal sensation includes 3 brand-new songs, 2 re-makes & 2 cover songs. This is a pretty cool even if you’re not big on the whole symphonic scene.
Finally, the brutal ‘Sodomites’ from Soulfly‘s new album Archangel has been released as an official lyric video. The track features Todd Jones of the band, Nails. It is pounding brutality…turn it up loud! Read Wall of Sound’s review to get our view on the new album.
Let us know of details of local artists and tours you would like covered in the future!
Until then…get in the pit!
Cheers
@Plugga73
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