Finally Friday! Yes! Bring on the weekend!
The Pulse Of Radio announced Avenged Sevenfold has confirmed not only does the band have a new drummer, but it has been working with that person for over a year already following the departure of Arin Ilejay. A statement from the group read, “It has been brought to our attention that a lot of videos have been posted online from some pretty amazing drummers who want to try out for Avenged Sevenfold. While we appreciate the overwhelming interest and support, we thought it would be the right thing to do to let everyone know that we already have someone. In fact, we have been working with this person for over a year now to make sure that it was a correct fit before making any sudden changes. When we have more to share, we will be sure to do that.”
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Avenged Sevenfold revealed it already has a new drummer in place: A U.S. Army soldier named Chris Hawkins has petitioned the band for a chance to become its new drummer. Hawkins, a member of the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry based out of Fort Drum in Jefferson County, New York, even made a video of himself playing a bunch of Avenged Sevenfold tracks to help his cause.
Meanwhile, A7X is taking it’s time working on new material, but I would imagine they will be ready to drop something by next summer.
Royal Blood frontman Mike Kerr recently constructed a makeshift studio in the back of their tour bus to work on new music, but admitted to NME the conditions for writing have not been ideal. He explained, “It’s very hard to write when everything keeps falling over because the driver’s taken a massive corner. It was our writing den — we’d have Clint Eastwood movies playing with the volume down.”
Kerr told us gathering material for the band’s sophomore album while still on the road has been a challenge: “We’ve been nonstop, you know. We haven’t stopped playing live shows and filling our days up with press. And then if we’re not doing that, we’re either on a bus going to the next town to do the same thing, you know. We don’t have time to write. But having said that, amongst that we’ve always been collecting our ideas over the past couple of years, but until we get into a room together and figure out exactly what it is we want to do on our next record, then it’s still to be done.”
If you’ve never seen Royal Blood perform live, here is a front row seat courtesy of their Reading Festival performance in England in August. You’re welcome.
Today all my friends are headed to the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, KY, including two of our hardDrive Live Tour bands, Tremonti and Trivium. And congrats to Trivium, as today their killer new Silence In The Snow album is also released. And not to be overlooked, the new Sevendust Kill The Flaw is out (if you missed Part 1 of their webisodes, click here), as well as new albums from Clutch, Collective Soul, Eagles of Death Metal and New Year’s Day. I think most of these bands are also at Louder Than Life tomorrow too! Enjoy! I hear the bourbon and gourmet man food offerings will be off the hook awesome!
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan‘s biography will be published in the fall of 2016 via Backbeat Books. The book will be written by Sarah Jensen and is authorized by Keenan, who will collaborate with Jenson on the book. Jensen wrote online, “Lots of work still to be done, but today’s top priority: feeling grateful to everybody who’s been there for us throughout this project. That means you.” Keenan’s other band, Puscifer, will release its third studio album, Money Shot, on October 30th. A six-week tour in support of the record will kick off on November 1st at the Monster Mash festival in Phoenix, winding down on December 12th in Las Vegas. Tool will also appear at the Monster Mash event, but will play the day before on October 31st. Tool guitarist Adam Jones revealed in March that the band had finally settled a complicated lawsuit that had dragged on for eight years, setting back the band’s recording plans. The group is now reportedly working at a faster pace on music for its first new studio set since 2006. Hard to believe it has been THAT long, eh?
Celebrating life this wekeend! Today: Jim Root of Slipknot is 44. Saturday, Tommy Lee is 53 (that rhymes, yo) and Sunday, my man Liev Schrieber of Ray Donovan turns 48!