In a new interview with Billboard, Mick Mars talks about his upcoming solo album, which he hopes to release in early 2020. The effort is being recorded in Nashville, where Mars has lived for about six years, with producer Michael Wagener at... More

In a new interview with Billboard, Mick Mars talks about his upcoming solo album, which he hopes to release in early 2020. The effort is being recorded in Nashville, where Mars has lived for about six years, with producer Michael Wagener at Blackbird Studio. Speaking about the musical direction of his new music, Mars said: “It’s not like today’s music, which to me is pretty much pop-metal and more growly guys. It’s all cool and it’s all good, and I’m just searching for something that’s just a little different than that. “I [also] don’t want to be living in ’85. It’s hard to reinvent yourself, but that’s what I’m doing now. I’m trying to reinvent the way that I approach music writing. I’ve got a lot of cr*p, and I’ve got a lot of good stuff too.”   Mars said that he has been working with a vocalist named Jacob on some of his new material. He added: “[He] can be a lot of different voices, and it’s pretty amazing,” “I go, ‘I want this kind of voice here,’ and he’ll pull it straight off.” Via MetalWani Less

Nikki Sixx has once again called on lawmakers to enact tougher guns laws following mass shootings across the United States that killed at least 35 in August. Speaking to Billboard magazine, the MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist said: "People are, like, 'You're... More

Nikki Sixx has once again called on lawmakers to enact tougher guns laws following mass shootings across the United States that killed at least 35 in August. Speaking to Billboard magazine, the MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist said: "People are, like, 'You're not going to take my guns away.' We're not saying that. We're saying with all these shootings, with all this access to military weaponry, we need to have better laws in place. It's so polarizing. You have to sit in that uncomfortable position, whether it's in social media or in a meeting, and just understand that there are two sides to the coin. We're trying to find the best solution." Right after the recent El Paso shooting, Sixx accused President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell via Twitter of "enabling these violent acts by obstructing common-sense legislation that would make it more difficult for would-be mass shooters to obtain weapons designed to mass kill human beings." He later added: "I don't know about you, but I'm fucking sick of hearing about innocent people being slaughtered city after city because the politicians chose money over passing stricter gun control laws." After one of Sixx's Twitter followers pointed out that "Australia's last mass shooting was in 1996 and nothing since due to harsh gun reforms..America's 'gun toting' attitude needs to change...", Sixx responded: "We refer to this often when talking about change and saving people lives.Imagine how many thousands of lives would have been saved if the politicians ( aka NRA puppets) would of followed suit." Several other high-profile musicians have called on lawmakers to take action when it comes to gun laws in the United States, including Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT), Paul Stanley (KISS), Sebastian Bach (SKID ROW), Dee Snider (TWISTED SISTER) and Alex Skolnick (TESTAMENT). According to ABC News, 58 percent of Americans express confidence that stricter gun laws would reduce mass shootings; 41 percent are skeptical. Via Blabbermouth Less

Tapped as one of the opening acts on SLAYER's "The Final Campaign", the seventh and final leg of the thrash legends farewell world tour, Philip Anselmo and his band THE ILLEGALS will perform a special set of PANTERA classics only. Since the June... More

Tapped as one of the opening acts on SLAYER's "The Final Campaign", the seventh and final leg of the thrash legends farewell world tour, Philip Anselmo and his band THE ILLEGALS will perform a special set of PANTERA classics only. Since the June 2018 death of drummer Vinnie Paul, Anselmo and THE ILLEGALS have been working in various PANTERA songs into their live set. In a recent interview with the "Talk Toomey" podcast, Anselmo discussed the reasoning and timing behind the PANTERA sets, and what the band's songs mean to those who missed out on seeing the band when they were active. "It seemed like after Vince died — Vinnie Paul died — there was a big, big, big contingency, I'll say, of people that were, like, 'Man, you should really play some PANTERA songs in tribute. You should really do it. Fuck what everybody else says. Don't worry about what the critics are gonna say about it. Just do it in total tribute,'" he said. "And that's what we've done. "Gosh, it's like when you do that stuff and you tour — when we're out there, it's either we're gonna do an ILLEGALS set or we're gonna mix it up a little bit, do some ILLEGALS, do some PANTERA, or it's just a straight-up PANTERA set. And it seems like — heck, case in point, would be Warsaw, Poland. We had never played there — PANTERA, I mean. [We] never had a chance to freaking play there. And there's been more than a couple of handful of shows like that where PANTERA had never played these particular cities. So, I guess for the people that live in these cities like Warsaw, it's a chance to see something, at least similar, that they've never seen before. Of course, it's not the classic Dimebag [Darrell, guitar], Vinnie Paul, Rex [Brown, bass] PANTERA. It's not that, and we, of course, we all know that. "It amazes me — it amazes me, the energy that I see from these audiences," he continued. "And I've gotta touch on the fact that we're playing a lot of these gigs for the younger crowd that grew up listening to PANTERA through their freaking parents. So that's an awesome influx of people, man. It's crazy, man — it really is. "I never thought I'd do this. I never thought it would come to this. The fact that we've done it I have zero regrets about. "I look into that audience and see the love people have for these songs, man. And it's sobering. It'll shake you to the core sometimes, but honestly, what gets me through is just seeing how much of a good time people are having, really." Up until his death in June 2018, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo, whom the drummer indirectly blamed for the death of "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, who was his brother. Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts. Vinnie Paul died of dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, as well as severe coronary artery disease. His death was the result of chronic weakening of the heart muscle — basically meaning his heart couldn't pump blood as well as a healthy heart. Vinnie was buried on June 30, 2018 next to his brother and their mother, Carolyn, at Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas. Talk Toomey Ep. 225 Phil Anselmo Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Subscribe with iTunes Subscribe with RSS Download this episode September 19, 2019 Joshua Toomey Via Blabbermouth [jrEmbed module="jrYouTube" youtube_id="Rzoj2VzQOqg"] Less

During a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, GHOST leader Tobias Forge talked about his plans for the band's next studio album, which will mark the follow-up to 2018's "Prequelle". He said: "I'm still yet to start the real process. The real... More

During a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, GHOST leader Tobias Forge talked about his plans for the band's next studio album, which will mark the follow-up to 2018's "Prequelle". He said: "I'm still yet to start the real process. The real process being: in January, I go into the studio, Monday through Friday, every week, just finishing tracks. That's how it works. So up until then, I don't know, there might be a song in my head but it's not finished until it's recorded. I've only recorded, so far, a demo of one track, just to get my rocks off and feel that I've started doing something. So one track is sort of listenable and then I have maybe 50 ideas for tracks, but generally, in order to make a song, you need about three ideas to be put together into a song. So I feel that four months from now, [there will be a] pile of ideas — riffs, vignettes, lyric ideas, and all these different things. "'From The Pinnacle To The Pit' [from GHOST's third album, 2015's 'Meliora'] was written on bass. That's why it sounds like that. Some are written as a drum idea, like 'Death Knell' [from GHOST's 2010 debut 'Opus Eponymous'] was written as a drum idea. So there are so many different angles that the songs can start from. "But now, knowing that I have one song I can listen to and the pile of ideas, I feel very confident that [I can get a new album done] from January to September [2020]. That's the production window — January is starting and September is mastering, basically. I feel as prepared now as I have going in to make any of the previous albums." GHOST spent the bulk of its summer as special guest on METALLICA's four-leg "WorldWired" European stadium tour. Leg one saw GHOST playing to more than a quarter-million fans; leg two kicked off on June 8, and legs three and four took place in July and August. GHOST kicked off its North American "Ultimate Tour Named Death" headline arena tour on September 13. "Prequelle" debuted in June 2018 at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. It has yielded the chart-topping "Rats" and "Dance Macabre", a well as the latest single, "Faith". Via Blabbermouth Less

Michael Denner says that he has no desire to speak with King Diamond and Hank Shermann now that they have decided to exclude him from MERCYFUL FATE's upcoming reunion. When it was announced last month that the influential Danish heavy metal act... More

Michael Denner says that he has no desire to speak with King Diamond and Hank Shermann now that they have decided to exclude him from MERCYFUL FATE's upcoming reunion. When it was announced last month that the influential Danish heavy metal act would reunite for an unspecified number of concerts throughout Europe during the summer of 2020, it was revealed that MERCYFUL FATE's lineup for the shows would consist of King on vocals, Hank on guitar, Bjarne T. Holm on drums, Mike Wead on guitar and Joey Vera (ARMORED SAINT, FATES WARNING) on bass. Denner, who was a member of MERCYFUL FATE's classic lineup, addressed his absence from the band's reunion in a brand new interview with Italy's "Heavy Demons" radio show. He said (hear audio below): "It came as a big shock for me that they left me out. So I haven't talked to them since. Now there's nothing really to talk about. Of course, I was disappointed. They left me out, so that's the end of it, really. I will concentrate on my own stuff now." Denner also once again said that he was especially surprised by the fact that Shermann didn't inform him of MERCYFUL FATE's reunion plans, especially considering the fact that they had remained friends, even collaborating on several other projects over the years. "I'm sad to say, because the two records we did were absolutely brilliant," he said. "And I had the pleasure to work with the best metal drummer in the world, Snowy Shaw, who's also one of my closest friends. So that was a big pleasure. And also with the Americans, Sean [Peck] and Marc [Grabowski], who did a marvelous job on [the DENNER/SHERMANN] records. So that was a great experience. But that was the only two records we did. Because there will be nothing more after this. That was the end of it. Sad to say." MERCYFUL FATE's last studio album, "9", was released in 1999. MERCYFUL FATE will be remembered for its unquestionable mark on the history of metal with its innovative sound, complex arrangements, memorable melody, and its influence on bands that later took the genre to new heights. In 1998, METALLICA paid tribute to MERCYFUL FATE by recording a medley of classic MERCYFUL FATE songs on the album "Garage Inc." Titled "Mercyful Fate", the medley included parts from "Satan's Fall", "Curse of the Pharaohs", "A Corpse Without Soul", "Into the Coven" and "Evil". Lars Ulrich of METALLICA (a fellow Dane) played drums on a new version of MERCYFUL FATE's "Return of the Vampire" on the "In the Shadows" album, which came out in 1993. Michael's new band DENNER'S INFERNO, will release its debut album, "In Amber", on November 15 through Mighty Music. MERCYFUL FATE bassist Timi Hansen recently announced that he is not taking part in the band's reunion because he is battling cancer. Via Blabbermouth Less