The new 2016 AVENGED SEVENFOLD is here! Syn Gates, Zack Vengeance, M Shadows, Johnny Christ, Brooks Wackermann
Big news yesterday from the Avenged Sevenfold camp! They unveiled more details about the event taking place tomorrow, Thursday (Oct 27th) online, in which the band will give a global, 3D, 360-degree, live-streamed virtual reality performance in partnership with Universal Music Group, Capitol Records and VRLIVE. Fans around the world will be able to view the live stream on Universal’s newly released VRTGO virtual reality platform, powered by VRLIVE’s advanced technology. According to a press statement, fans will be able experience the show “as if they were there.”
VRTGO is freely available on iOS and Android. VRLIVE will also be streaming the event to 50 Samsung Gear VR headsets on the ground level at the event. Fans using the headsets will be able to experience the show from the viewpoint of the stage.
Avenged Sevenfold debuted a new song and video online two weeks ago called “The Stage.” The track is expected to be included on the California band’s seventh studio album, rumored to be called Voltaic Oceans. The disc has no official release date, although it’s likely that more info will arrive on Thursday.
The band launched its campaign for the new album — it first for Capitol Records — with projections or pictures of the band’s mascot, the Deathbat, in cities around the world.
(When searching for picture on Bing of David and his son, this was in the stash captioned David Draiman and wife! LOL)
Our friend Disturbed frontman David Draiman has some advice for his three-year-old son about getting into the music industry: don’t. In an interview with Fresno radio station 105.1 this past weekend, Draiman was asked whether he would ever allow his son to follow his old man into the music business. Draiman replied, “I would allow him to do whatever he wants. I always feel it’s not a parent’s role to either allow or to deny, but merely to guide. So whatever makes him happy. I would strongly suggest he not go that route, just because it’s a very difficult road to travel. But whatever brings him meaning in life.“
Draiman told us a while back how he hoped to raise his son: “Oh, I’m going to raise him on Black Sabbath and Metallica and football and MMA and all things that should matter for a young boy, and discipline and strength and honor and courage and everything that I would hope to instill within my son. I’m very much looking forward to utilizing the wealth of experiences that I’ve gone through in my life to help guide him through the darkness.”
Draiman also said about his son, who was born in Sep 2013, “He’s tenacious, like both me and his mother; stubborn, like both me and his mother. He’s super affectionate and sweet. He’s the happiest little boy. He’s always smiling, he’s always lighting up the room. Thank God. We’re really blessed.”
Disturbed returned to the stage in 2015 after a four-year hiatus with the release of Immortalized, and has kept up a full tour schedule throughout 2016. The band will release a concert album titled Live At Red Rocks on Nov 18th. The 16-song set was recorded at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater on August 15th, and will feature Disturbed classics like “Stupify,” “Down With The Sickness” and “Ten Thousand Fists” alongside Immortalized tracks such as “The Vengeful One,” “The Light” and the band’s cover of “The Sound Of Silence.”
Five Finger Death Punch‘s The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell, Vol. 2 was officially certified gold on Oct 21st by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for sales of more than 500,000 copies. The first volume of The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell, released separately, was certified gold in March 2015. All six of the band’s studio albums have now been certified either gold or platinum. (Blabbermouth)
In other news:
The full list of limited edition releases that will be available on this year’s “Black Friday” version of Record Store Day — a smaller edition of the April event held on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the official start of the Christmas shopping season — has been unveiled. It includes collectible studio or live recordings on vinyl from Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Jack White, Volbeat, In This Moment, Prophets Of Rage, Puscifer and more. “Black Friday” falls this year on Nov 25th. See entire list here. (The PRP)
The Make America Rock Again Tour will be back in 2017. The inaugural edition took place this year and featured Saliva, Trapt, Alien Ant Farm, Crazytown, Tantric, 12 Stones, Drowning Pool, Puddle Of Mudd, V.A.S.T and P.O.D. on select dates. Nearly 60,000 fans attended in 44 cities, with Trapt frontman Chris Brown commenting, “Make America Rock Again was easily one of the most fun tours we’ve done in years . . . The tens of thousands of fans who came out made this tour what is was — awesome. We are looking forward to doing it again in 2017 and making it an even bigger event!” (The PRP)
Reunited and it feels so good!
Wow! This one surprised the crap out of me! I guess that “kiss & make up” meeting last month restarted the ole engines for Ben Bruce & Danny Worsnop! Former Asking Alexandria frontman Denis Stoff issued a terse explanation of why he quit the band just one day after the group announcing that it was reuniting with original singer Danny Worsnop following Stoff’s sudden exit. After the CEO of Asking Alexandria’s record label tweeted that “If Denis denies the truth, emails and texts prove everything,” Stoff countered, “I left because I can’t be in a touring band at this point in my life. There’s no drama & I don’t want to be a part of it.”
KUPD in Phoenix hosted The Pretty Reckless’ Taylor Momsen and Ben Phillips, who did a killer in-studio acoustic version of “Take Me Down.” Their tour kicked off Oct 20th and will run throughout the fall. We’ve got all the dates in Road Rage.
“Take Me Down” recently landed No. 1 on the Rock Radio chart, marking the band’s fourth consecutive No. 1 single. Frontwoman Taylor Momsen told Kerrang! magazine about the song: “It’s a classic rock ‘n’ roll tune, which was inspired by the Robert Johnson story of going to the crossroads and selling his soul for rock ‘n’ roll — which I kind of did in one way. [Laughs] I gave my life to the music; I gave everything else up for it. And it’s a simple story about giving your life to something you love so much and you need it so bad that you’re willing to sell your soul for it.” (Blabbermouth)
Ah football season in full swing, and I happen to know this to be true. Duff McKagan bleeds chartreuse green! He is a die-hard Seattle Seahawks‘ fan. Here he is raising the 12th man flag at the Seattle-Atlanta game on Sunday. And I know Jerry Cantrell was jealous as all hell! LOL! Hopefully he gets to do it at the next home game if he hasn’t already!
And finally today, Blabbermouth also reporting Bring Me The Horizon‘s Oli Sykes has said in a new interview he hopes to “push it a bit weirder” on the band’s next album.
Even though he belives his band took a different direction on its latest release, That’s The Spirit, the frontman admits the group didn’t venture too far outside its comfort zone while making the record. He told NME: “People thought ‘That’s The Spirit’ was a very polished pop rock album. It’s not. I think it’s inventive and unique, but it’s still safe in a way. We knew the songs were going to connect well with people. Next time I think we want to push it a bit weirder. Who knows?”
Sykes said BMTH might experiment with “a darker, dance-y kind of sound” on its next album, namechecking Linkin Park and Massive Attack as influences. He added: “That’s my favorite part — it’s something we do that comes across really well live you know when the song to us has a breakdown or like a heavy dance kind of vibe to it. You know, there’s not many acts like that. If there was some bridge between what we’re doing, somewhere between artists like Prodigy or Massive Attack and stuff like that.”
He continued: “I don’t know especially if we’re thinking like festivals and stuff, then I like that idea like a darker dance-y kind of sound, but I’m literally just… I’m thinking out loud here, ’cause we could go completely opposite to that, you know.”
Oli said BMTH will probably take “at least a good month” off before they begin writing again. He explained: “It’s been an intense year for us, and not just in professional terms but, like, personal too. Some of the band have had a lot on their plates and stuff. We do enjoy writing organically and letting something happen, but we’ve been working pretty relentlessly for the last album.
“We need to maybe take a break. [Keyboardist] Jordan‘s [Fish] got a kid now, people have got families and stuff. We need to take a bit of time to chill out and then really get hungry to write again.
“It’s going to be a tough one, because we never want to write the same album again. I don’t even know what it’s going to sound like, but it’s going to sound different.”
Happy 69th to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Happy 43th to Seth MacFarlane.