The Pulse Of Radio says Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory spoke out in a new interview with Loudwire about frontman Ivan Moody‘s longstanding struggle with alcohol abuse, which seemed to hit bottom in the past couple of years and forced Moody off the road and into rehab at least twice. Bathory explained, “He’s been battling his demons for a long, long time, actually since I’ve known him. He’s always had an issue and sometimes he’s great, sometimes he’s not.”
Bathory added, “It’s a battle. He doesn’t haven’t a substance issue, he’s always had a drinking issue. I started to realize that it was a real misalignment, it’s a real illness. It can’t simply be discarded like, ‘Why can’t you get yourself straight?’ It’s not that simple. So he’s battling this and he’s trying. He’s been in rehab a few times, he’s been in for a longer period of time now.”
Bathory told us that Moody has always been the wild card in the Five Finger Death Punch lineup: [“Ivan is, you know, the hand grenade without the, you know, without the pin (laughs), so you know, he’s straightening out, you know. It’s good to see him getting, you know, getting sober, getting straight.”] SOUNDCUE (:10 OC: . . . sober, getting straight.)
Moody has been on tour with the band this fall and Bathory said that he’s been happy with the singer’s live performances, remarking, “The last three shows were the best shows I’ve seen him do for years. He looked happy and he looked healthier. Obviously, the whole band is around him and everybody’s supporting him and trying to be brothers and understanding and trying to keep him straight . . . I think this is the time when he can do it.”
Both All That Remains’ Phil Labonte and Divine Heresy’s Tommy Vext were recruited to fill Moody’s spot for live shows in the past year.
Five Finger Death Punch has already completed its seventh studio effort and is still waiting to get a release date for it, nearly one year after the disc was finished.The band delivered the new LP to its current label, Prospect Park, several months ago, but a legal battle with the company has delayed its arrival.
Avenged Sevenfold has announced a Dec 15th release date for the deluxe version of their critically acclaimed album, The Stage (Capitol). This new edition features 7 additional studio songs + 4 unreleased live tracks recorded during the band’s recent shows at The O2 arena in London. Among the 7 bonus tracks is the band’s stunning cover of the Pink Floyd classic, “Wish You Were Here,” which was released today and can be heard HERE. The “Wish You Were Here” companion video can be seen HERE. Both the digital and physical deluxe versions of THE STAGE can be pre-ordered HERE (note: the CD and vinyl versions of the album will include a special lenticular cover).
About Avenged Sevenfold’s version of “Wish You Were Here,” lead singer M. Shadows says, “This is the song that started us down the rabbit hole with our recent cover recordings. I’ve always loved this song and though I felt it would be impossible to capture the somberness of the original, we approached it with another purpose. There’s a poignancy to the song that seems appropriate with everything going on in the world today. We put a bit of a modern twist on it to reintroduce it at a time when it might help capture what some of us are feeling.”
The deluxe edition is the latest chapter in an innovative album cycle that began 12 months ago when Avenged Sevenfold “surprise-released” The Stage, becoming the first-ever rock band to drop an unannounced album in digital and physical form. The band (vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman) announced the album’s release to millions of surprised fans who had been watching their live-streamed set from the rooftop of the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, CA. That groundbreaking event saw the quintet give a 3D/360-degree virtual reality performance that enabled fans around the globe to experience Avenged Sevenfold’s electrifying show as if they were there for the first-of-its-kind immersive event.
Months later, the forward-thinking band announced plans to transform The Stage into an evolving body of work by adding a series of new tracks over the course of several months.
Those songs—which began with a scintillating rendition of Mexican folk song “Malagueña Salerosa” —have been previously unavailable for purchase, but fan demand for the tracks brings the album to its current stage as a deluxe release. In addition to the album’s original 11 tracks, the deluxe version features A7X’s reimagining of Mr. Bungle’s “Retrovertigo,” original track “Dose,” a cover of Del Shannon’s 1961 No. 1 hit, “Runaway” (featuring a guest appearance by Vandals’ guitarist Warren Fitzgerald and lead vocals by Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance), the band’s version of The Beach Boys’ 1966 hit, “God Only Knows” and most recently, their rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “As Tears Go By.” The four concert recordings included on the album are title track “The Stage,” “Paradigm,” “Sunny Disposition” and “God Damn.”
Rolling Stone called The Stage “epic and adventurous” and “the most aggressively bonkers music of the quintet’s career” and NME, Q, The Guardian, Guitar World, Metal Hammer, Revolver, Metal Injection, Alternative Press, Drum, Total Guitar and Classic Rock are among the myriad press outlets that lauded the album, with the latter calling it “a metal masterpiece.”
Tickets also go on sale today for Avenged Sevenfold’s 2018 North American arena headlining tour, set to kick off January 12th at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville with special guests Breaking Benjamin and Bullet For My Valentine. The band has partnered with CID Entertainment to offer VIP Tour Experiences, including access to a VIP-only viewing area, an official signed show setlist, an invitation to the pre-show lounge featuring Avenged Sevenfold memorabilia and an exclusive A7X tour book including never-before-seen photos. For full package details, please visit CID Entertainment.
The tour will be North America’s introduction to the electrifying Stage spectacle that drew rave reviews in Europe and the UK. After the recent 02 Arena shows, the London Evening Standard lauded Avenged Sevenfold as “a global phenomenon” and wrote that the band “specialized in preposterous fun,” calling the show “royally entertaining.” The Guardian ran a 4-star review of the show in Glasgow, writing, “Underneath retina-scorching screens and giant cosmic cube broadcasting spiraling starfields, the five-piece methodically discharge booming, arena-filling songs…these industrial assemblages of growing riffs and fret-melting solos have a default minor-key menace, yet the overall atmosphere is surprisingly joyous.” But Kerrang! best summed up Avenged Sevenfold’s new live show: “you’ve never seen anything like it.” (Taken from band’s press release.)
An episode of Carpool Karaoke: The Series featuring Linkin Park will be made available on Facebook “this time next week,” according to a post on the band’s Facebook page. Linkin Park got together with actor Ken Jeong to film their episode for the James Corden-created series on Jul 14th — less than a week before singer Chester Bennington took his own life in his Southern California home.
After Bennington’s death, Jeong paid tribute to the singer on Twitter, writing, “I am in shock and heartbroken. All my thoughts and prayers go out to Chester and his family and friends at this time.” Corden, meanwhile, said in August that the show would “approach it in whichever manner his family, or the people (who) were involved in that episode, would like it to be handled.” Talinda Bennington, Chester’s widow, responded on Twitter, saying: “Thank you @JKCorden.”
Carpool Karaoke: The Series — a 16-episode spinoff of Corden’s popular Late, Late Show sketch premiered on August 8th on Apple Music. Celebrities that have appeared on the program include John Legend, Alicia Keys, Metallica, Queen Latifah and others.
Meanwhile, Linkin Park is scheduled to take the stage at a memorial concert for its fallen singer on Oct 27th at the Hollywood Bowl, with members of Korn, System Of A Down, Blink-182, Avenged Sevenfold and others all scheduled to appear as well. Proceeds from the show will go to Music For Relief’s One More Light Fund in memory of Bennington.
With Halloween just around the corner, Slipknot has unveiled a new line of costumes! See the new Slipknot jumpsuit costumes below and order both outfits and masks here. The officially licensed outfits are 83 percent polyester and 17 percent cotton with a front zipper, several printed decals and appliques and six different band member numbers. The same company also has a variety of Slipknot masks available as well.
Wow. Blabbermouth reporting Guns N’ Roses “Not In This Lifetime” reunion tour continues to be one of the most popular and lucrative in the world. With just 15 North American stadium shows this past summer, the band added $53 million in ticket sales to the trek’s overall gross, which is now believed to have passed the $300 million mark since its April 2016 launch. Pollstar reported earlier in the year that the trek was the most popular and highest-grossing global tour of 2017.
Over the summer I got to hear a bunch of new Pop Evil songs from their next album. Now comes news a single is coming on Halloween with the album in February. Kato Khandwalla (The Pretty Reckless) produced this one, the first with Hayley Cramer in the band, and all I can say is this is all Next Level Stuff! Pretty excited for the new stuff to get on the air!
Have a great weekend! And some of you get Monday off, too! Lucky!