‘It’s Always Nice To See You’, the split LP from cult indie favorites Kind of Like Spitting and rising stars Warren Franklin & The Founding Fathers, is out today on Topshelf Records. The album is streaming in its entirety on Consequence Of Sound and is available for purchase here and on iTunes. Kind of Like read more
MikeJamesRockShow.com conducted an interview with bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker of British extreme metal pioneers CARCASS at this year's edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival, which is being held August 7-10 at Catton Hall, Walton-On-Trent, West Midlands, United Kingdom. You can now watch the chat below. In a recent interview with AndrewHaug.com, CARCASS guitarist Bill Steer stated about whether he has begun thinking ahead to the band's follow-up to last year's "Surgical Steel" album: "There's plenty of incentive there. Speaking for myself, I would love to do another record. I've heard Jeff [Walker, bass/vocals] say similar things, and I know Dan [Wilding, drums] would love to. We're just gonna take it as it comes, really, 'cause, obviously, we're still some way into our touring schedule. We're not really gonna be done with that until… I don't know… towards the end of November, I think. So we can't realistically even look at new material until December. We'll take it from there. All I know is we would the next record to be very strong indeed, so as long as it takes, that's all I can say. Not that I am anticipating a long time in the studio, but we'll spend as long writing as we need to. You get very conscious of the passing of time, especially when you're at the age that Jeff and myself are at, so you don't wanna waste your time, or the audience's, with something that is mediocre." "Surgical Steel" sold around 8,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 41 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was released on September 16, 2013 in the U.K., September 13, 2013 in the rest of Europe and September 17, 2013 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records. The effort was produced by Colin Richardson (FEAR FACTORY, MACHINE HEAD, NAPALM DEATH, SLIPKNOT, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE) and mixed by Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, ACCEPT, EXODUS, ARCH ENEMY). Joining Steer and Walker in CARCASS' current incarnation are Wilding (ABORTED, TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED) and guitarist Ben Ash (PIG IRON, DESOLATION, LIQUEFIED SKELETON). CARCASS recently took part in Decibel magazine's third cross-country domination alongside melodeath powerhouse THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, technical death metal heroes GORGUTS and emerging death/thrash squad NOISEM.
DISTURBED frontman David Draiman has slammed "the mainstream media" for its "biased, libelous, and often erroneous portrayal of Israel" in the current conflict in Gaza and has accused a number of the world's biggest news organizations of "set[ting] the stage for a new Holocaust." Draiman — who has extensive family in Israel, including his brother, Jerusalem-based folk rock and ambient musician Ben Draiman, as well as his grandmother — took to his Twitter account on Friday (August 8) to write: "The mainstream media's biased, libelous, and often erroneous portrayal of Israel in the current conflict has fueled a wave of anti-Semitism, the likes of which I have not witnessed in my lifetime. Well done, CNN, BBC, Reuters [and] MSNBC, you've set the stage for a new Holocaust. Maybe you'd be happy/satisfied when the extremist nutbags you defend so much, who eagerly martyr their own children who chant for the death of all Jews, not just the Israeli's, and whose ethics, morals and values stand diametrically opposed to your own liberal views of freedom of religion, gay marriage, pro choice, and even democracy itself, strip the region of the only bastion of true liberty that exists in the region. Well, guess what? Never again. Jews aren't so easy to fuck with anymore." The Israel-Gaza conflict that began on July 8 has claimed more than 1,800 Palestinian lives as as well as 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians. Both of Draiman's maternal grandparents were survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, while many others on his mother's side were wiped out by the Nazis. The DISTURBED song "Never Again", from 2010's "Asylum" album, was written about the Holocaust and calls out people who deny it. The United States Holocaust Museum has featured Draiman in its "Voices On Anti-Semitism" podcasts. In January 2011, Draiman gave a lengthy interview to the Jerusalem Post in which he spoke in detail about his Jewish upbringing, spending part of his childhood and teen years in Israel, and how he confronts anti-Semitism among rock fans. Draiman recalled, "I came [to Israel] many times as a kid with my family. I think the first time I was six. I used to come here for summer camp a couple times in my childhood, and I spent the year after high school here studying at Neve Zion yeshiva." Draiman told The Pulse Of Radio that during his year of religious study, his life could have taken a very different course. "The level of study that I was at, I was probably only about two or three years away from being ordained as a rabbi, so I really needed to figure out in my head where I wanted to go with things," he said. "And I just couldn't do it habitually anymore. I grew a very strong dislike for the organized aspect of religion over the course of time." Draiman also told the Jerusalem Post that he attended five different Jewish day schools as a teenager, including the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study in Milwaukee — where he was asked to leave after the first year. The singer admitted that the strict religious code at the school led him to rebel, revealing, "I'd set my friends up on dates with girls that I knew, in defiance of the school… Or I'd smoke a little bit of weed here and there, I'd get my buddies high, so I was the drug dealer on campus even though that's not what I was doing." Asked by the Post about running into heavy metal fans who are anti-Semitic or sometimes even neo-Nazis, Draiman replied, "I'm incredibly defiant against neo-Nazis and skinheads," adding that he convinced one fan who used to come to the band's early shows in Chicago to get a swastika tattoo removed from his head after he learned that Draiman was Jewish. DISTURBED went on an open-ended hiatus in 2011, with Draiman saying at the time that all four members wanted some time to pursue other endeavors. DISTURBED has not indicated when it plans to return, although all four members say they're likely to come back.
THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA'S BIASED, LIBELOUS, AND OFTEN ERRONEOUS PORTRAYAL OF ISRAEL IN THE CURRENT CONFLICT HAS FUELED A WAVE OF -(CONT)
— DAVID DRAIMAN (@DAVIDMDRAIMAN) August 8, 2014-ANTI SEMITISM, THE LIKES OF WHICH I HAVE NOT WITNESSED IN MY LIFETIME. WELL DONE @CNN @BBC @Reuters @MSNBC, YOU'VE SET THE STAGE FOR-(CONT)
— DAVID DRAIMAN (@DAVIDMDRAIMAN) August 9, 2014-A NEW HOLOCAUST. MAYBE YOU'D BE HAPPY/SATISFIED WHEN THE EXTREMIST NUTBAGS YOU DEFEND SO MUCH, WHO EAGERLY MARTYR THEIR OWN CHILDREN-(CONT)
— DAVID DRAIMAN (@DAVIDMDRAIMAN) August 9, 2014-WHO CHANT FOR THE DEATH OF ALL JEWS, NOT JUST THE ISRAELI'S, AND WHO'S ETHICS, MORALS, & VALUES STAND DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO YOUR-(CONT)
— DAVID DRAIMAN (@DAVIDMDRAIMAN) August 9, 2014-OWN LIBERAL VIEWS OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION, GAY MARRIAGE, PRO CHOICE, AND EVEN DEMOCRACY ITSELF, STRIP THE REGION OF THE ONLY BASTION-(CONT)
— DAVID DRAIMAN (@DAVIDMDRAIMAN) August 9, 2014-OF TRUE LIBERTY THAT EXISTS IN THE REGION. WELL GUESS WHAT? NEVER AGAIN. JEWS ARENT SO EASY TO FUCK WITH ANYMORE pic.twitter.com/7luU6YQq6w
— DAVID DRAIMAN (@DAVIDMDRAIMAN) August 9, 2014
In a brand new interview with Pop-Break.com, QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield was asked how the band managed to stay positive and successfully bounce back from spending much of the past two years embroiled in a legal battle with the group's former singer, Geoff Tate, over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name. "The conflict started years ago, but prior to it, when we were all still working together in the 'old band,' so to speak… we had been in a dark place for a long time," he said. "It wasn't going well, the years were stacking up on us, we weren't making the music that we were passionate about and were being forced to do a lot of things that we didn't want to do. We weren't being allowed to play all of the music that we wanted to play live, and to give our fans what we thought was important. The darker the hole we kept falling into, the faster we wanted to get out of it. That's what happens, you kind of hit the bottom of a hole, and there's only one way to go: up and out of there. I guess my point with all of that is rolling forward to the present right now and what we've had to go through the past couple of years… it was a huge defining moment, you know? In the end, it was exactly what we needed to do and now we just feel so good about where we're at. It was meant to be; it was the right decision. We're happier, the fans are happier, they're certainly enjoying the music we play live, and have certainly given us great feedback on the record we put out last year. So overall, everything worked out really well. The morale, for us, just kind of became perfect. I mean, the second we transitioned and got Todd [La Torre, vocals] in the band, the morale just went through the roof for us, you know? There was no weird dark clouds for us, and we just don't have that anymore. We're really close to each other. We have the same common interests, we're energetic, and we're happy! We're all working together as a team, and it's not just one person saying, 'you have to do it like this,' it's all of us making the decisions together and making the music together. Long story short: the morale is really high, we're having a great time, and we all really know what we want to do and why we want to do it. I think that's why the fans like what we're doing now — they can see that we're happy and that we're being honest again." Scott also spoke about what fans can expect to hear on QUEENSRŸCHE's follow-up to last year's self-titled album, tentatively due in early 2015 via Century Media. "Our old sound was kind of our thing, and I think we just found what QUEENSRŸCHE was good at, and we really wanted to do that [on 'Queensrÿche']. I think it really bought us back to the essence of some of that old material that we did together. It was honest material, and I think that record was one of the most honest records we've made. It really shows just 'us' all around, and our fans' response and the press's response… people all over the world listened was happy, and it was quite overwhelming! So, I think it's a great thing, for us to find that. As for what's coming next, I don't really have a defined answer for you because we never really know. We tend to not really define it until it's done, but we've been working on it quite a bit, so it will soon kind of lay itself out. But it's going to be us… it's just going to be us. It's gonna be what we do in the best fashion possible. I think you can say that there will be a lot of the elements from the last record in it. The energy and the chemistry and the honesty and the unity… all of that stuff will be in it, and hopefully the icing on the cake will be that we wrote really great songs and people enjoy what they listen to. I don't think they're not going to, to be honest. We're really good salesmen now because we feel so good about it! [laughs] Now we just have to do it! I think we'll have it done within the next four to six months, after we get through putting it all together and stuff. It's a great blessing, and it's really a lot of fun for us." QUEENSRŸCHE's self-titled album sold around 13,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 23 on The Billboard 200 chart. The record arrived in stores on June 25, 2013 via Century Media Records. "Queensrÿche" marked the debut release from the lineup comprised of La Torre (vocals; ex-CRIMSON GLORY), Michael Wilton (guitar), Parker Lundgren (guitar), Eddie Jackson (bass) and Scott Rockenfield (drums).
Ozzy Osbourne headlined the Hyundai Card Citybreak music festival in Seoul, South Korea earlier tonight. The two-day event, which is being held August 9-10 at Seoul World Cup Stadium, also includes performances by the alternative rock band HOOBASTANK, ...
The fourth in a series of webisodes featuring footage of the recording sessions for "First Of The Five Elements", the fifth studio album from WARMEN, the brainchild of CHILDREN OF BODOM keyboardist Janne Wirman, can be seen below. "First Of The Five Elements" will be released later in the year. The track listing for the CD is as follows: 01. Intromental 02. The Race (feat. Pasi Rantanen) 03. The Red Letter (feat. Jonna Geagea) 04. Ruler Of Your World (feat. Pasi Rantanen) 05. Suck My Attitude (feat. Alexi Laiho) 06. When Worlds Collide (feat. Pasi Rantanen) 07. First Of The Five Elements 08. Devil In Disguise (feat. Pasi Rantanen) 09. Like A Virgin (MADONNA cover) (feat. Jonna Geagea) 10. Anger (feat. Pasi Rantanen) 11. Human Race (feat. Pasi Rantanen) 12. Man Behind The Mask (ALICE COOPER cover) (feat. Alexi Laiho) WARMEN started out in 2000 as Wirman's solo project with a bunch of hired guns helping him to put his musical inspiration to life. The band's debut album, "Unknown Soldier" (2000) was exactly that, but already on the group's second effort, "Beyond Abilities" (2002), WARMEN was becoming more like a real band. Now after a five-year gap, Janne and WARMEN have completed work on a slamming fifth studio album, "First Of The Five Elements", which takes the listener from the potent vibrating rock of "The Race" to a straight punch in the face with "Suck My Attitude". Also included is a visit to some traditional WARMEN instrumental fury in he shape of the title track, "First Of The Five Elements", and, as always, they have managed to squeeze in a couple signature WARMEN-styled covers, ALICE COOPER's "Man Behind The Mask" and MADONNA's "Like A Virgin". The song "The Race" from "First Of The Five Elements" can be streamed at PledgeMusic.com. WARMEN celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a concert during the Helsinki Metal Meeting weekend in February 2010 at Dante's Highlight in Helsinki, Finland. The band's third live performance ever included guest appearances by Alexi Laiho (CHILDREN OF BODOM) on a cover version of ROCKWELL's "Somebody's Watching Me", Timo Kotipelto (STRATOVARIUS), Finnish pop/rock queen Jonna Kosonen (JONNA'S PROBLEM) and Pasi Rantanen (ex-THUNDERSTONE). Spinefarm Records released a WARMEN compilation album entitled "The Evil That Warmen Do" on January 27, 2010. WARMEN's fourth album, "Japanese Hospitality", entered the Finnish chart at position No. 36. The 10-song effort included two cover versions — "Separate Ways", originally recorded by JOURNEY, and "Black Cat" by JANET JACKSON, featuring a guest appearance by Jonna Kosonen. Other guest musicians that appear on the CD include Laiho, Rantanen, Kotipelto and Marko Vaara.
BackstageAxxess.com recently conducted an interview with TESLA guitarist Frank Hannon. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. TESLA's new studio album, "Simplicity", sold around 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 24 on The Billboard 200 chart. The record arrived in stores on June 10 via Tesla Electric Company Recording's arrangement with Entertainment One Music and distribution. The Sacramento rockers are back with 14 new songs offering a ride of energy that doesn't come easy for a band of rookies much less a band whose been doing this for over 20 years. "Simplicity" is TESLA's seventh all-original studio album which follows a six-year creative break from the release of the previous album, "Forever More". After a string of shows in the USA in 2013, the band went back into the studio in early 2014 and came out with a new album, which goes straight back to the TESLA roots. The bandmembers produced it themselves, as they did with "Into The Now", their successful comeback effort from 2004. Helped by the legendary Tom Zutaut, who was the man behind the best TESLA albums, this new CD rocks from start to finish, showing a variety of emotions where each song has its own twist — not sounding like another. In a recent interview with NI Rocks, TESLA singer Jeff Keith stated about the band's approach while writing and recording the new album: "We wanted to keep it simple. With so much of today's technology, Pro Tools and all that stuff, it's very easy to overdo it and oversaturate the record, because there is an endless amount of tracks you can do and there are so many ways you can cheat and stuff. We like to make records that we can keep simple and reproduce live you know." He continued: "'Simplicity', we thought, was a great name for the record because we wanted to keep it simple and we're a simple blue-collar rock 'n' roll band. We always like to make records, like I said, that we can play live." "Simplicity" was mixed by legendary producer Michael Wagener (SKID ROW, OZZY OSBOURNE, METALLICA, DOKKEN, ACCEPT, MÖTLEY CRÜE, WHITE LION, EXTREME, POISON, MEGADETH, OVERKILL, TESTAMENT). TESLA is: Jeff Keith: Lead Vocals Frank Hannon: Guitars, Vocals, Piano, Bass Brian Wheat: Bass, Vocals, Piano Troy Luccketta: Drums and Percussion Dave Rude: Guitars, Vocals, Bass
"Two Faces Of Evil", the new video from BLUE CROSS BAND, the blues-rock act featuring GODSMACK drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola, can be seen below. BLUE CROSS BAND formed the group with frontman Ray Cerbone and bassist Brian Carpenter. Larkin told News-Press.com, "I see myself doing the BLUE CROSS BAND after GODSMACK. This is a style of music I can see myself playing well into my 60s." Larkin added that his style of playing in the new band will enable him to extend his career, explaining, "When I hit the drums in GODSMACK, I'm trying to kill 'em. In THE CROSS, I shut my eyes and I'm into the lyrics and the song and Tony's guitar playing and Brian's bass. It's a band thing, whereas in GODSMACK, it's like a gang thing. We're out to pummel." Rombola said about the project, "I've spent my life playing different styles . . . (with the BLUE CROSS BAND), I get to play all the stuff I've learned with the blues and apply it to these songs. It's a lot of fun." BLUE CROSS BAND made its live debut in June, with plans to record and release an album after the current GODSMACK album and touring cycle is over. Although the GODSMACK offshoot ANOTHER ANIMAL did not sit well with frontman Sully Erna when his bandmates launched that project a few years ago, Erna told The Pulse Of Radio that the members of GODSMACK are in a much better place with each other these days. "You know, I think we're finally to that place now where everybody just has so much respect for each other and we've gotten over the really tough moments and really understand our place as a band now, not only with the fans and in this industry, but amongst each other — you know, getting through all those tough spots and coming back to a place where we really have regained our brotherhood and we're getting along better now than ever, " he said. GODSMACK's new album, "1000hp" (One Thousand Horsepower), was released on August 5 via Republic Records. The band's sixth studio effort will follow up 2010's "The Oracle" and follows a two-year hiatus. GODSMACK will lead the lineup of the fifth annual Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival, which kicks off on August 15 in Clarkston, Michigan. Also on the bill are SEETHER, SKILLET, BUCKCHERRY, POP EVIL, ESCAPE THE FATE, REDLIGHT KING and others.
Jägermeister U.K. conducted an interview with vocalist Cristina Scabbia of Italian heavy rockers LACUNA COIL at this year's edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival, which is being held August 7-10 at Catton Hall, Walton-On-Trent, West Midlands, United Kingdom. You can now watch the chat below. Asked how she got her start as a vocalist, Scabbia said: "I always loved to sing. As far as I can remember, I've always been singing, like in the family, like recording stuff. Even when I was a little girl, I have tapes of when I was four and I was just humming everything I could. But I didn't want to be in the spot, so I was not the kid that wanted to be the center of attention, with all the parents, like, 'Hey, look at me.' I just loved to sing. So if I think about all my life, it's like life put me in the musical path in the way that friends asked me to sing for them, because they had projects, because they knew that I loved to sing. Or DJs were, like, 'Hey, why don't you come to the studio and record something and we can pick some parts up and we can play with them?' And then I met the guys in LACUNA COIL and they asked me to be in the band. And I was enjoying it, I was enjoying it." She continued: "I don't really need to be in the spot, I don't really care about it, but I love to be in the band, I love to be in a musical project. And that's how it happened. But I didn't have the dream of, 'Oh, I'm gonna be a rock star one day.' I didn't really think about that. I just started to enjoy it along the way. And I'm really happy because now it's my life, I love it, I couldn't think my life to be different than that. "I was not a shy kid. I loved to interact with people, I loved to play with other kids, and when I became, like, an adolescent, I was loving to go out, and I wasn't shy. But to perform in front of people is completely different. Even now, if I have to perform in front of a hundred thousand people, I have no problem, but if friends ask me, 'Hey, why don't you sing us this song?' I [will be] like, 'No, I don't want to.' It's kind of weird, but I heard that it happens to a lot of people, a lot of other artists. I do remember that the first gigs that we played, I was literally hiding behind the microphone stands 'cause I didn't really want to be in the spot. Now I'm more comfortable with it, but I'm still, like, 'OK, I've gotta do it.' I mean, I love to interact with people, but I really wish we could do it in front of a coffee and not from a stage." LACUNA COIL's latest studio album, "Broken Crown Halo", sold around 13,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on April 1 via Century Media. "Broken Crown Halo" was recorded Italy by producer Jay Baumgardner (P.O.D., SEVENDUST, EVANESCENCE, PAPA ROACH) and engineer Kyle Hoffmann (P.O.D., BUSH, ZEBRAHEAD). The effort was mastered by Howie Weinberg, whose credits include RAMMSTEIN, SOUNDGARDEN, NIRVANA, DEFTONES and SHERYL CROW. LACUNA COIL in February hit the road as a quintet as part of "The Hottest Chicks In Hard Rock Tour" following the departures of guitarist Cris "Pizza" Migliore and drummer Cristiano "Criz" Mozzati. Marco "Maus" Biazzi handled all guitar duties on the trek while drummer Ryan Blake Folden once again sat behind the kit.
"Dream Deceivers", the 1992 documentary about the infamous trial in which JUDAS PRIEST was accused of inserting subliminal messages into its music, was finally released on DVD and digital on August 5. Film synopsis: "Just before Christmas, 1985, 19-year-old James Vance watched his best friend Ray Belknap shoot himself to death with a .12 gauge shotgun in a churchyard outside Reno, Nevada. Then Vance pulled the trigger on himself. He survived but was severely disfigured. Vance later claimed his actions had been influenced by the heavy metal music of JUDAS PRIEST, prompting his family to sue the band. The drama of the ensuing trial provides the framework for David Van Taylor's disturbing look at teenagers today." According to Center For Media & Social Impact, the reason it took so long for the documentary to be officially released on home video is "the fair use revolution." Specifically, because the music and lyrics of JUDAS PRIEST was heavily featured in "Dream Deceivers", the documentary maker David Van Taylor was unable to get clearance from Sony to release the film on DVD. However, since the creation of the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in 2005, there has been an increased acceptance of the law's limited right to employ copyrighted material without licensing, when repurposing and using appropriate amounts. "So much of what I cleared back in 1992 was absurd to clear," Van Taylor told Center For Media & Social Impact, "and now the film seems like such a slam dunk for fair use. We have no qualms." According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, at the heart of the lawsuit was the claim that JUDAS PRIEST's "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. Vance told attorneys that he and Belknap were listening to JUDAS PRIEST when "all of a sudden we got a suicide message, and we got tired of life." In a letter to Belknap's mother, he later wrote, "I believe that alcohol and heavy-metal music such as JUDAS PRIEST led us to be mesmerized." "JUDAS PRIEST and CBS pander this stuff to alienated teenagers," the Belknaps' attorney argued. "The members of the chess club, the math and science majors don't listen to this stuff. It's the dropouts, the drug and alcohol abusers. So our argument is you have a duty to be more cautious when you're dealing with a population susceptible to this stuff." JUDAS PRIEST's manager, Bill Curbishley, stated before the trial began: "I don't know what subliminals are, but I do know there's nothing like that in this music. If we were going to do that, I'd be saying, 'Buy seven copies,' not telling a couple of screwed-up kids to kill themselves." "It's a fact that if you play speech backwards, some of it will seem to make sense," JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Glenn Tipton said. "So I asked permission to go into a studio and find some perfectly innocent phonetic flukes. The lawyers didn't want to do it, but I insisted. We bought a copy of the 'Stained Class' album in a local record shop, went into the studio, recorded it to tape, turned it over and played it backwards. Right away we found, 'Hey ma, my chair's broken' and 'Give me a peppermint' and 'Help me keep a job.'" Speaking about the case in a 2007 interview, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford said: "The American reaction was phenomenal — the support we had from the fans every day, to and from the courthouse. But it was very difficult to sit there and listen to the attorney basically saying: 'These guys over there killed these kids.' [We thought] 'What are you talking about?' It was surreal, but we knew we had to stand up for what we believed in: We had absolutely no association with their death. We kept them alive for a good period of their lives. We were a lifeline (from) the shit life that they were living." Halford went a step further in a 2008 interview with RockBand.com, telling the site: "We flatly refute any accusation or allegations that music of any thought or style can have the power to take someone's life. At the end of the day, that's the individual's choice, and if you're messed up on booze or drugs — or you have some kind of mental instability — that's got to be addressed. But music in and of itself can't kill you and never will." "It tore us up emotionally hearing someone say to the judge and the cameras that this is a band that creates music that kills young people," Halford later admitted. "We accept that some people don't like heavy metal, but we can't let them convince us that it's negative and destructive. Heavy metal is a friend that gives people great pleasure and enjoyment and helps them through hard times." 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 young men. "It was the first time there had been a judicial determination of whether subliminal messages were or were not protected speech under the First Amendment," former Washoe District Judge Jerry Whitehead told the Reno Gazette-Journal in 2005. Whitehead, who heard the case after the lawyers agreed not to have the civil suit decided by a jury, ruled it was not. "Because speech is basically the expression of thoughts and ideas that a person can reflect upon and accept or reject, but a subliminal message is a surreptitious attempt to influence the subconscious and, therefore, is not something you could reflect upon and accept or reject," he said. His final decision: There was no conclusive evidence of subliminal messages, Whitehead dismissed the case against JUDAS PRIEST...
Joe Dolan of JoeDolanPR.com has uploaded video footage of Geoff Tate's QUEENSRŸCHE performing on August 3 at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California can be seen below. The setlist was as follows: 01. Best I Can 02. Breakdown 03. Another Rainy Night 04. Cold 05. Real World 06. I Am I 07. The Needle Lies 08. Della Brown 09. The Thin Line 10. Breaking The Silence 11. I Don't Believe In Love 12. Silent Lucidity 13. Jet City Woman 14. Empire 15. Eyes Of A Stranger On July 30, Tate and his bandmates launched a 22-date trek of what are Geoff's final performances as QUEENSRŸCHE Starring Geoff Tate – The Farewell Tour. Tate last week announced that his current version of QUEENSRŸCHE will forge ahead as OPERATION: MINDCRIME after the current tour ends. Named after QUEENSRŸCHE's epic concept album from 1988, "Operation: Mindcrime" — a band consisting of Geoff Tate, Rudy Sarzo (OZZY OSBOURNE, WHITESNAKE), Simon Wright (AC/DC, DIO), Randy Gane (MYTH) and Kelly Gray (QUEENSRYCHE 1998 - 2001, 2012 - present) — will enter the studio in September to begin recording a trilogy project that Geoff's been working on for the past two years. Tate, who has always enjoyed telling stories through music, considers the creation of the forthcoming trilogy one of his biggest and most ambitious works to date. "I tried to reduce the story and eventually got it down to 37 ideas that needed representing to complete the story," comments Geoff. "I knew that one record wouldn't cover it and that it would have to be a trilogy. It's an exciting project and one we'd like to release the first part of sometime next spring." With the evolution of his band, Geof would like to concentrate on concept and story albums in the years to come. Fans like to call it, "Thinking Man's Metal" and Geoff plans to continue expanding the musical dimensions of your mind. "It doesn't seem that long ago when I first brought the 'Mindcrime' story to the band… they were, initially, against it. Chris DeGarmo was the first one to get on board and, once he did, we were able to move forward with what became one of our greatest achievements as a band." Tate is looking forward to what lies ahead with his trilogy project. "It is so refreshing to be able to concentrate on the many stories and ideas that I have been working on with no boundaries or restrictions," states Geoff, further adding, "With the newly named band, I think fans will continue to enjoy the music we create and perform together and hope they share this new musical journey with us."
Jo Schüftan of Horns Up Rocks! took part in a roundtable interview with KORN guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer and drummer Ray Luzier at the July 27 stop of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival in Hartford, Connecticut. You can now watch the question-and-answer session below. Speaking about KORN's plans for the band's next album, Munky said: "Where we are now, I think, is a good combination, with Brian ['Head' Welch, guitar] returning to the band and having all five of us in a room writing. That's the page we're on, and that's kind of from where we started on 'The Paradigm Shift' and I think it's a good wave and we're still riding it. It feels like a good place for us to be, with the organic way of writing, like I said, all five of us a in a room together, and then including some of those techniques, with the tools of recording that are available to everybody now on their laptop. But using it the right way is what you've gotta be able to know. I think… I don't know. It's gonna be interesting to see what we do on the next record. I kind of feel like it's gonna lean towards a bit more funk… so it's a little more funk metal." The deluxe reissue of KORN's 2013 album, "The Paradigm Shift: World Tour Edition" (Prospect Park) was made available at Best Buy stores in North America starting July 15. For the "World Tour Edition", the Bakersfield quintet lock and load last year's critically acclaimed "The Paradigm Shift", with three brand new songs including their just-released single "Hater", plus "The Game Is Over" and "So Unfair". In addition, it's been beefed up with a bevy of live tracks recorded all over the globe and expanded artwork. It's the ultimate way to experience "The Paradigm Shift". Among the other unreleased material, Davis opens up about his young son Zeppelin's battle with diabetes on the powerful "So Unfair", while "The Game Is Over" slams with the intense catharsis fans worldwide expect from these legends. KORN frontman Jonathan Davis told The Pulse Of Radio that "Hater" is a direct rebuttal to the kind of person described in the title of the song. "Everybody has a hater," he said. "Everybody has someone that hates on you because you have something they want. And it's really, like, the first empowering song I've ever wrote where it's just blatantly telling you — I mean, the lyrics are: 'You can't bring me down/I've already had my life turned upside down/I ride a downward spiral round and round/But I keep flying, I keep fighting/You'll never bring me down.' That's like the most positive shit I've ever wrote. And it's so different. Everyone that's heard it loves it."