Hard Rock
Rammstein Announce Rescheduled North American Tour Dates for 2021
Rammstein have just unveiled the rescheduled dates for their highly anticipated North American tour, following the postponement of their 2020 outing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The stadium tour originally was set to kick off this summer in late August, but will now take place in late summer / early fall of 2021. While the outing will still be comprised of 10 dates, the band has canceled its Washington, D.C. show outright due to scheduling issues, adding a second show in Mexico City instead. The 2021 tour kicks off August 22nd in Montreal, and hits Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, East Rutherford, N.J. (New York City area), Los Angeles, and San Antonio, before wrapping up with the aforementioned two-night stand in Mexico City. When the North American tour finally does commence, the dyn...
Trapt’s New Album Only Sells 600 Copies in First Week, Band Says It’s Fake News
Lately, it seems like dubious nu-metal dinosaurs Trapt will do anything to trudge up publicity, mostly at their own expense. Unfortunately for them, it doesn’t look like all that press did much to move copies of their new album. According to Nielsen SoundScan data, only 600 copies of Trapt’s Shadow Work were sold in the first week of its release. How could the “Headstrong” band sell so few copies of their zero-acclaim new album? Well, for all intents and purposes, the album release and rollout were a complete mess. Without any semblance of a proper promotional cycle — unless you count singer Chris Brown’s racist Twitter rants and being shamed in an e-beatdown delivered by Power Trip frontman Riley Gale — there is confusion as to when Shadow Work even came out. Whil...
David Lee Roth Casts Doubt on Eddie Van Halen Ever Touring Again
David Lee Roth believes that his Van Halen bandmate Eddie Van Halen is likely done touring, doubting that the guitarist will be willing to endure “rigors of the road again.” Van Halen, the band, have not toured since 2015, and reports surfaced last October that Eddie Van Halen was battling throat cancer for the past five years. A month later, the guitarist was reportedly hospitalized for complications from drugs he was taking to combat the disease. Eddie had previously battled tongue cancer in the early 2000s. Just prior to the reports on Eddie’s health, Roth told radio station WRIF, “I think Van Halen is finished” and that “Eddie’s got his own story to tell.” Now, in an interview with the New York Times, Roth expressed doubt that Eddie would ever return to the road, in any capacity. “I do...
Alice Cooper Is Getting His Own … Chocolate Milk
Alice Cooper has been delivering shock-rock creepiness for 50 years, beheading himself thousands of times onstage along the way. Now, he’s ready to take a slice out of the chocolate milk business. That’s right, Alice Cooper is getting his own chocolate milk, and it’s all for a good cause. Proceeds from the sale of the chocolate milk will benefit the rocker’s nonprofit Solid Rock. The organization operates the Rock Teen Center in Phoenix, Arizona, providing free instruction in music and other creative arts to local teenagers. The rock legend is teaming up with Danzeisen Dairy to produce the chocolate milk, which bears Coopers’ image on the bottle. The milk will be sold at retailers and via home delivery across Arizona beginning this fall. The Solid Rock organization also mentioned in a Face...
Rob Halford, Dave Grohl, Jack Black, and More Honor Ronnie James Dio in Video Marking Late Singer’s Birthday
Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler, Jack Black and several more artists are featured in a new compilation video honoring singer Ronnie James Dio. The late metal icon would have turned 78 years on Friday (July 10th). Many of the testimonials in the video are taken from the red carpet of various Dio-related charity events over the years, but it’s bookended by newly filmed clips from Halford and Butler paying respect to their fellow metal legend. “We connect all the time with [Ronnie’s] unbelievable voice and music,” says Halford in the video. “He was and always will be my friend, my mentor, and my hero.” Grohl calls Dio “one of the greatest singers of all time” and remembers watching him perform on TV as a kid. He recalls being so inspired by ...
Static-X’s Project Regeneration Vol. 1 Properly Cements Wayne Static’s Legacy: Review
The Lowdown: In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Static-X were one of the bands the helped define that industrial/nu-metal era. Their debut album Wisconsin Death Trip went platinum with the video for “Push It” earning rotation on MTV (back when the channel still played videos). Over the next decade, Static X would release five more albums before drifting apart in 2009. When the band’s singer Wayne Static tragically passed away in 2014, it seemed to signal the end of Static-X forever; that was until original bassist Tony Campos uncovered demos of material that Wayne had been working on. Campos got together with fellow original members Ken Jay (drums) and Koichi Fukuda (guitar), and reworked the unearthed demos along with outtakes from previous albums. While there was an initial plan to recrui...
Avatar Unveil Video for Dark New Song “Colossus”: Stream
Avatar have released another song off their upcoming album, Hunter Gatherer. The new track, “Colossus”, comes with chugging riffs and rhythms, plus a disturbing music video. Vocalist Johannes Eckerström starts the clip off with a haunting prologue, stating, “The human soul can be found within a single cell. It’s like how the essence of a painting can be seen in a single brushstroke. Our drive to force our will upon the world is in shackles, as no thought is truly free.” As he ends his prologue, the band launches in with groovy rhythms, choppy guitars, and a mile-high chorus, making this a solid metal anthem. Visually, the music video depicts a body-less robot frustratingly trying to assemble some items, as a tiny human becomes a casualty of the process. “The accompanying video for ‘Colossu...
Tommy Lee Drums on Remix of “Tommy Lee” Song by Tyla Yaweh and Post Malone: Stream
Last month, rapper Tyla Yaweh released a track called “Tommy Lee”, featuring Post Malone. Now, the pair have teamed up with the Mötley Crüe drummer himself on a remix of the song. Tommy Lee initially spoke of his involvement prior to the release of the original track, which caused some confusion as to whether he appeared on that version. However, it was obvious upon first listen that Lee’s drumming wasn’t on the original song. Now, the remix comes along with a music video that features Lee and Yaweh performing the song in the Mötley Crüe drummer’s studio. Along with Lee’s drumming, Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 was called in to add guitar and bass, turning the laid-back hip-hop original into a heavy banger. “I was humbled that Tyla and Post chose to name a song after me,” says Lee in a press...
Axl Rose’s Worst Nightmare: Maskless Revelers Dance to “Sweet Child O’ Mine” at Packed Michigan Lake Party
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Axl Rose has been one of the staunchest proponents of social distancing, even getting into Twitter spats with government officials who’ve seemingly downplayed the protective practice. Now, the singer’s worst nightmare has manifested itself: a sea of unmasked revelers dancing to the Guns N’ Roses hit “Sweet Child O’ Mine” at a Fourth of July lake party in Michigan. In recent weeks, Rose has ripped into Sen. Rand Paul, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams after each made statements that seemed to contradict recommendations by the CDC and health leaders to practice social distancing. Mnuchin and Adams even replied to Rose’s tweets, leading to the GN’R singer further condemning their comments. Mnuchin was dubbed an “asshole...
The Sword’s J.D. Cronise Talks New Compilations, Bootlegging Rare Clutch Tracks, and His Band’s Future
Modern stoner rock owes a major debt to The Sword. Formed in 2003 in Austin, the band’s propensity for Black Sabbath-influenced doom and desert grooves predated the subculture that suddenly emerged from the stoner rock scene in the 2010s. Suddenly, remote fans of bands like Sleep and Electric Wizard were connected by the familiar churning sounds of these bands. The Sword played a vital role in this movement, with their 2006 debut album, Age of Winters, and its lead single, the now legendary “Freya”, cementing their place in doom metal lore. It was a time of resurgence for classic rock, a new era of teenagers were discovering Led Zeppelin and Sabbath, and “Freya” garnered The Sword a cult audience of eager rock fans. Their music even reached Lars Ulrich of Metallica, who would eventually ta...
Video Surfaces of Zack de la Rocha Playing Guitar in His Pre-Rage Against the Machine Band: Watch
Just a few years before becoming the electrifying frontman of Rage Against the Machine, Zack de la Rocha was cutting his teeth as the guitarist in the hardcore band Hard Stance. Now, 30 years later, video footage of a young Zack playing guitar with Hard Stance at a show in March 1990 has surfaced. Hard Stance formed in 1987 as a straight-edge hardcore band, with Zack on guitar and Eric Ernst on vocals. At one point, Ernst left Hard Stance, and de la Rocha took over lead vocals, eventually leading to the formation of the band Inside Out. The gig in question took place March 4th, 1990, and was apparently Hard Stance’s final concert. According to Zack’s Wikipedia page, by 1990 he would have been fronting Inside Out, so the show could have been a one-off farewell with Hard Stance. Nonetheless,...
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan: Black Lives Matter “Never Had Legitimacy”
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan has condemned Black Lives Matter in a new Instagram post, insisting the movement “never had legitimacy” and calling it a “propaganda tool” for the Democratic Party. Dolmayan has been making headlines for the past few months with his right-wing sociopolitical commentary. On Monday night, he posted a picture of Secoreia Turner, an 8-year-old black girl who was killed over the weekend in Atlanta amid a wave of gun violence in the city. Upon her death, Secoreia’s father exclaimed, “They say Black Lives Matter. You killed your own this time.” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms added, “You can’t blame this on a police officer; you can’t say this is about criminal justice reform. This is about some people carrying some weapons who shot up a car with an 8-yea...