Glam rockers Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper made history onstage at the B'Estival in Bucharest, Romania on Sunday when they played together for the first time. The colourful duo performed together for the first time as part of Manson's headlining set. They teamed up for a cover of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams.
The duet put reports the two stars don't get along to rest.
Prior to the show, Cooper told Romania's Hotnews.ro, "We invented the shock on stage. Manson re-invented it for another generation."
EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt has issued the following update: "Sorry about the total lack of communication, but I've been staying in the Bay Area at my parents' house (I live three hours north nowadays) and have had no Internet, nor the time since we have been locked away with Mr. Sneap for up to 14 hours a day, just killing ourselves. But all that's left are Lee's [Altus] solos and then the mix and it's finished. And I know you hear this shit all the time, which is why I've stay pretty silent through all this, but this record is like nothing you've ever heard. A genre-defining record, a career-defining record — simply put, the baddest fucking slab of metal recorded in years. Epic, crushing, huge in scope, and at times brutally simple, and at time massively complex. I am sooo stoked! You can't wipe the smile off of my face when I am listening to it. Proudest moment, for sure. Solos are off the hook, Lee is adding a ton more shred as I am typing this, Tom [Hunting] raised the bar on drumm
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Former Korn star Brian 'Head' Welch can't forgive himself for introducing young rockers to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. The heavy rocker-turned-born-again Christian admits he and his bandmates were responsible for turning many innocent young rockers onto a life of hedonism.
He tells the Bakersfield Californian newspaper, "We went at it. It seemed that everybody did. Some bands we provoked to party, like Incubus. (Former Korn bandmate) Fieldy got the guitar player to drink for the first time in his life. We saw them after that and they were drinking all the time."
Welch insists he has turned his back on the wild life, two years after quitting Korn to follow his religious calling - and now he'll never be tempted to drink alcohol or take drugs.
He adds, "You could put me in a room with anything: pills, beer, meth, and I wouldn't touch any of it. I'm totally set free and I will never do drugs again."
Japanese promoter Creativeman has announced that the opening act for all five of GUNS N' ROSES' upcoming Japanese dates will be a local band called MUCC.
MUCC (sometimes referred to as 69, which is pronounced "muku" in Japanese) is a Japanese rock band formed in 1997. Supposedly named after a character from the Japanese children's program "Ponkickies", the band has, as of 2007, released seven studio albums, along with several live albums, EPs, singles and DVDs, some of which were also released in Europe.
GUNS N' ROSES / MUCC tour dates:
July 14 - Chiba, Japan - Makuhari Messe July 15 - Chiba, Japan - Makuhari Messe July 17 - Nagoya, Japan - Nippon Gaishi Hall July 18 - Tokyo, Japan - Nippon Budokan July 21 - Osaka, Japan - Intex Osaka
After 14 failed attempts at joining the United Nations using media campaigns and presidential appeals, Taiwan is turning to a local Goth-style Rock band backed by Ozzy Osbourne in its quest for membership to the world body.
The band, named CHTHONIC, will travel to at least 80 cities in four countries by the end of the year, supported in part by the Taiwan government, which is providing pro-U.N. literature and a slogan-painted truck.
The band will visit Canada, Germany, Britain and the United States.
CHTHONIC has also recorded a song urging the United Nations to let Taiwan join, even though its bid for membership keeps getting knocked down because of objections from Beijing.
"I'm not for any political party, but I'm for my poor country's joining the United Nations," band lyricist Freddy Lim told reporters on Wednesday at the tour's launch.
Ozzy Osbourne, a satanic-theme rocker known for biting heads off bats on stage, is helping se
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Better Motörhead than Dead: Live at Hammersmith", a double live CD recorded at MOTÖRHEAD's 30th-anniversary show on June 16, 2005 at London's Hammersmith Appollo/Odeon, is available for streaming in its entirety. Due on July 16 via SPV, the set will be released in digipak form and is available for pre-order from www.play.com.
Here is the "Better Motörhead than Dead: Live at Hammersmith" track listing:
Disc 1
01. Dr. Rock 02. Stay Clean 03. Shoot You In The Back 04. Love Me Like A Reptile 05. Killers 06. Metropolis 07. Love For Sale 08. Over The Top 09. No Class 10. I Got Mine 11. In The Name Of Tragedy 12. Dancing On Your Grave
Disc 2
01. R.A.M.O.N.E.S. 02. Sacrifice 03. Just 'Cos You Got The Power 04. (We Are) The Road Crew 05. Going To Brazil 06. Killed By Death 07. Iron Fist 08. Whorehouse Blues 09. Bomber 10. Ace Of Spades <
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Patrick Douglas of The Culture Shock recently conducted an interview with BEHEMOTH mainman Adam Michal Darski (a.k.a. Nergal). A few excerpts from the chat follow:
The Culture Shock: Tell me what you're feeling right now with the new album set to come out in the U.S. in a couple of weeks and the start of Ozzfest coming up. Do you feel like this will be a huge step in taking over the U.S. in terms of gaining new fans?
Nergal: Yeah, man. It seems like there's no turning back. This is the only option now. (laughs). We're in such a position that we just have to bite the bullet. We have to make it happen right now. With this record, I'm pretty sure that we can definitely launch everything to the next level. Different things have been going around this record. A different excitement. I'm very positive actually, especially after talking to all these journalists and getting first reviews on our MySpace site from activity on the new song, man. I'm nothing but positive. I think it's gonn
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H.I.M. frontman Ville Valo said in interview that the band's upcoming album, "Venus Doom", is a darker and heavier effort than its previous CD, 2005's "Dark Light". Valo explained, "There's...a lot of SABBATH and old-school METALLICA (in there). I wanted the album to be more aggressive, heavier and more out there."
The new direction also allowed Valo to switch up vocally. "I wanted to sing lower — use my baritone a lot more," he said. "When all those influences come together, it's like, 'I wanna do that [Mark] Lanegan, Leonard Cohen-y type of vibe.'"
Valo added that the disc's tentative first single, "Kiss of Dawn", was inspired by the suicide of one of his best friends. Valo said, "The whole song is a tribute to him. It's also a love song. I love that dude. He was a great friend of mine. We hung out and had great f***ing conversations. It's a celebration of life, rather than death."
H.I.M. will have a chance to see how the new stuff stacks up with METALLICA when they open
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Blasting-Zone.com recently conducted an in-depth interview with MEGADETH bassist James Lomenzo. Several excerpts follow:
Blasting-Zone.com: In hindsight, how would you describe the recording process for "United Abominations"?
James: "It was definitely a labor of love and respect in retrospect looking back at the whole project. We started just before Gigantour last year, which was weird because it meant I had only played three gigs as a member of MEGADETH. We went right into the studio, and Dave already had a whole bunch of material ready to go. I guess he had been preparing for this for a while. So our job was to interpret it and make it sound as MEGADETH-y as possible. It was actually a really cool environment. I was pleasantly surprised and a little shocked by how cool it was to work with Dave Mustaine. After all the things that people had cautioned and warned me about, I found them all to be not true at all. He's actually a cool guy to make music with. So we plodded forth in
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The first part (out of five) of the sequel to the acclaimed Norwegian/Swedish documentary "Cult of Aggression", focusing on the Norwegian black metal pioneers MAYHEM, has been posted on the band's official web site: Stream, Download (Windows Media, 25 MB). Entitled "Pure Fucking Mayhem", the new documentary was financed by the film's director, Stefan Rydehed, and "will be shown at film festivals around the globe," according to Rydehed. "If any company wants to release it, they can contact me; otherwise it will be released through the Internet."
According to the director, "Pure Fucking Mayhem" covers MAYHEM's history from the early days to the present day and it [is] a totally new documentary." Included in the film is a brand new interview with MAYHEM singer Attila Csihar, conducted on February 4, 2007 at a SHINING gig in Halmstad, Sweden. "With the documentary there will also be a soundtrack for it — black metal songs played on piano," Rydehed said.
ARCH ENEMY vocalist Angela Gossow has posted this message on her MySpace page:
"Dear friends,
I am very excited to announce the launch of AngelaGossow.com today, the 4th of July! The site features all my activities with ARCH ENEMY, but also my projects outside ARCH ENEMY, vocal advice, tons of media stuff, etc. If you got cool pictures, wallpapers, magazine scans, online interviews or anything else related to me you want to contribute to this site, please get in contact with my wonderful webmistress Nina, who has also designed (the website).
See you there!
Yours,
Angela"
As reported earlier on METALEATER, ARCH ENEMY's new album, "Rise Of The Tyrant", is scheduled to be released on September 25 through Century Media. Here is the complete track listing:
01. Blood On Your Hands 02. The Last Enemy 03. I Will Live Again 04. In This Shallow Grave 05. Revolution Begins 06. Rise Of The Tyrant 07. The Day You Died 08.
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Right after SONATA ARCTICA's "best of" compilation, "The Collection", going gold, the band's debut album, "Ecliptica", has followed suit by reaching certified Gold status in Finland. More than 20,000 copies were sold since the release of the album. This marks the band's sixth Gold record.
Here are the band's upcoming tour dates:
July 7 - Turku, Finland - Ruisrock July 13 - Vaasa, Finland - Rockperry July 14 - Joensuu - Finland - Ilosaarirock July 19 - Nagoya, Japan - Zepp Nagoya July 20 - Osaka, Japan - Namba Hatch July 21 - Tokyo, Japan - Shibuya-AX July 22 - Tokyo, Japan - Shibuya-AX July 27 - Kuusamo, Finland - Kuusamo Ruka Open Air July 28 - Oulu, Finland - Qstock Festival Aug. 5 - Vantaa, Finland - Ankkarock Sept. 7 - Mexico City, Mexico - Circo Volador Sept. 8 - Monterrey, Mexico - Café Iguana Sept. 9 - Guadalajara, Mexico - HRL Sept. 12 - Ft. Worth, TX - Ridglea Theater Sept
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Billboard.com reports that Kiss will follow up its wildly successful 2006 DVD box set, "Kissology: Volume One, 1974-1977," on Aug. 14 with a second volume chronicling 1978-1991 via VH1 Classic Records.
"It's fantastic that 'Volume One' of 'Kissology' has done huge numbers, but does it surprise me? No, not at all," Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer commented. "This is Kiss in its early raw form, four guys with the hunger and fire, aspiring to take on the world. All this great footage is finally available and it's exciting."
"Volume Two" will be comprised of three DVDs and a fourth disc that will vary by retailer. The first disc will feature a news special on the band from 1978 and an infamous 1979 interview with Tom Snyder, with other elements still pending, according to Kiss' Web site.
One of the more intriguing features in the set is "Kiss in Attack of the Phantoms" on disc one, the previously unseen European theatrical version of the 1978 cult classic film known in the U.S. as
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What do Ministry's Al Jourgensen and President George Dubya Bush have in common? Besides not a whole heck of a lot, both will soon be moving on from their current gigs. The last-ever Ministry studio album, "The Last Sucker," will be released on September 18 (13th Planet/Megaforce) followed by a world tour in 2008, and then, after 11 studio albums and 27 years, including four Grammy nominations ("N.W.O."/1993, "Bad Blood"/2000, "The Great Satan"/2005, the "Rio Grande Blood" track "LiesLiesLies,"/2006), Jourgensen will lay Ministry to rest and focus on expanding his borderland compound, 13th Planet Records.
"I've got a lot of side-projects and new projects I want to focus on," explained Jourgensen. "We have our our own label, 13th Planet Records, we're building, and I want to sign, produce and collaborate with other artists. Being in the studio writing, recording and collaborating is my favorite part of this snake-oil industry. I'd rather be behind the console than behind the mic. Pl
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Rock legends Led Zeppelin will reportedly reunite for a one-off memorial concert in honor of their late record boss.
If true, it would mark the third time that the '70s legends have played since disbanding. The band has only performed a handful of concerts, including Live Aid in 1985, since their split in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham. But singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones will re-group alongside Bonham's son Jason for a special concert in memory of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun in London.
A source says, "Page, Plant and Jones spoke and agreed to do the memorial concert. They are waiting for a definite date."
"And no one can quite believe it, but during discussions about the concert they all gave the green light to a tour if it all does well and they don't all fall out."
"It has been hoped for and denied for years. But this is the closest they have ever come to a reunion tour. The feeling is that this is goi
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