Good morning Radicals! Let’s get you started with the latest news from the world of rock and roll:
Tool‘s long-awaited new LP, Fear Inoculum, has debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 album chart. The band’s first effort in 13 years shifted approximately 270,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release, with 248,000 of those in traditional album sales.
According to Billboard, those numbers are particularly impressive since Tool achieved them “without the assistance of a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer, any sort of album pre-order/pre-sale access code promotion, or a single merchandise/album bundle — all of which have become the norm for most major albums in recent years as artists struggle to sell albums through more old-fashioned or traditional methods.”
Fear Inoculum also denied Taylor Swift‘s Lover a second week at Number One after the pop singer’s new set debuted in the top spot last week. Lover fell to Number Two this week, with 178,000 album units moved and millions of Swift fans trolled by the prog-metal act.
Fear Inoculum‘s impressive debut comes amid news stories of the album release being met by lengthy lines at retailers as music lovers clamored to get a copy of the limited edition, physical version of the CD. The spectacular, groundbreaking packaging boasts a four-inch HD rechargeable screen with exclusive video footage, charging cable, two-watt speaker, a 36-page booklet and a digital download card.
According to anecdotal reports, buyers have now started reselling the physical limited edition online at exorbitant prices, with the $39 package going for prices in the $95 to $100 range. Tool has announced a smaller second pressing of the limited edition.
Korn has announced a “groundbreaking” dramatized anthology podcast series, “The Nothing,” written and created by Adam Mason and Simon Boyes with Korn. The official visualizer for the band’s new song “Can You Hear Me” doubles as a trailer for the upcoming podcast series and can be seen online. The podcast shares the same title as Korn’s new studio album, which arrives on Friday, September 13th.
“The Nothing” is a six-part dramatized series that tells the story of journalist Matt Singer, who travels to the small town of Wellden, Kansas to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl. He soon discovers not everything is as it seems in the rural community. Additional information on the podcast, including air dates, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Korn’s The Nothing LP is the band’s 13th studio offering and follows up 2016’s The Serenity Of Suffering. Bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu told us who decides a new album’s title: “I think lately it’s been more towards Jonathan (Davis, singer) because it ties onto what he’s writing about. Before, it would be a group decision; the titles weren’t that important. But now it kind of ties into the whole, what he wrote about, and it makes sense to give that to him because he wrote all the lyrics and it’s like, ‘What’s your story?’”
Korn and Alice In Chains recently completed a North American co-headlining amphitheater tour. Korn will play a string of “Ticket To Rock” shows over the course of the next few months.
Muse will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its debut LP Showbiz with a mammoth box set that collects the band’s first two albums, along with their early EPs, demos, live recordings and B-sides from the era.
The nine-CD, four-LP set, titled Origin Of Muse, is due out December 6th and features remastered editions of 1999’s Showbiz and 2001’s Origin Of Symmetry, plus the Muse and Muscle MuseumEPs and a large assemblage of demos, many of which are unreleased.
The box set also compiles all of the B-sides from the era as well as two discs showcasing live recordings, including Muse’s 10th anniversary full-album performance of Origin Of Symmetry at the 2011 Reading Festival. The four LPs will feature Showbiz and Origin Of Symmetry pressed onto 180-gram colored vinyl.
The whole package is housed in a 48-page casebound book which contains an interview with Muse’s Matt Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme discussing the early years of the band. Howard told us a while back that the three musicians have always had a strong bond: “We’ve known each other for so many years, you know, so we’ve grown up together. We’ve seen lots of different changes in each other and seen lots of different, you know, physical, personality changes — this whole thing about growing up, you know. But we’ve always stuck together, which is quite unique, really, because not too many people have friends from when they were, like, 10.”
The book also boasts original posters, setlists, photographs and contact sheets from the era, while the reissued albums themselves faithfully reproduce the original release’s artwork.
Dirty Honey is among the acts that will open for Guns N’ Roses as the latter band resumes live work later this month, with the tour starting on September 25th in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Dirty Honey will actually warm up for the Gunners on the two last gigs of the trek, a two-night stand at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on November 1st and 2nd. Artists appearing earlier on the tour include Blackberry Smoke, Bishop Gunn, Shooter Jennings and others.
The Los Angeles-based act has already opened for Guns, as well as other legendary acts like The Who, during its brief existence. Singer Marc LaBelle told us that performing in front of The Who was especially overwhelming: “The Who was definitely like a pinch yourself…watching them soundcheck, and like the slide show of their entire band life is playing as they’re soundchecking and like these guys — these icons — are right there and, like, coming offstage and walking right next to you and talking to you, and you’re just like, what is going on? I didn’t expect it, but it was very emotional.”
Prior to the Guns shows, Dirty Honey will hit the road as support for Alter Bridge and Skillet later this month, starting on September 19th in Raleigh, North Carolina.
A new song from Greta Van Fleet titled “Always There” has now surfaced online. The track was originally recorded for inclusion on the band’s 2018 debut album, Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, but it was ultimately decided it didn’t fit the tone of the album. The song has now found a home on the soundtrack of the movie A Million Little Pieces, which is based on the best-selling 2003 novel and will open in U.S. theaters this December.
Prophets Of Rage have shared a new track and video, “Pop Goes The Weapon,” which focuses on America’s epidemic of gun violence. The clip features scenes from gun culture as well as a comprehensive list of 2019’s mass shootings to date, including the date, location and number of those killed and injured. “Pop Goes The Weapon” is the first new music from Prophets Of Rage since a song called “Made With Hate” emerged last June.
Ozzy Osbourne‘s collaboration with rapper Post Malone is now available online. Titled “Take What You Want,” the track is from Post Malone’s new album, Hollywood’s Bleeding, which arrived on Friday (September 6th). Travis Scott also appears on the tune. Post Malone’s younger fans are apparently impressed with the 70-year-old Ozzy’s performance, with one writing on YouTube, “I seriously wasn’t expecting this to sound so LIT, Ozzy still got it.” Damn right he does!
Fozzy has shared a video for “Nowhere To Run,” the band’s recently released new single. The track is taken from the group’s upcoming follow-up to 2017’s Judas album, tentatively due in the spring of 2020. Singer Chris Jericho said that the band is in no hurry to release the new LP, explaining, “(Judas) was a huge breakthrough for us — it really took us to the next level. Your next record has to be better — not as good; it has to be better. And so there’s no reason to rush it.”
Lastly, let’s wish a Happy Birthday today to P.O.D. guitarist Marcos Curiel and Like a Storm drummer Zach Wood! Have a great day!