Mike Inez, William DuVall, Lou Brutus, Jerry (Hairy) Cantrell and Sean Kinney.
Well, starting today out with news on our friends Alice In Chains! Seems the band loved working with Nick Raskulinecz so much, they are hiring him again, altho this time, it’ll be on their home turf of Seattle at X Studios, which was formerly owned by the Queens and Rock Legends of Seattle, Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart.
The band plans to start work later this month, apparently just after ole busy boy Nick completes work with Halestorm! Nick, as you may recall, also produced Alice’s last two albums, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here and 2009’s Black Gives Way To Blue. The new disc is tentatively due out in early 2018.
The album will mark the band’s return to a Seattle recording studio for the first time in decades. Bassist Mike Inez told the “Let There Be Talk” podcast, “The last two were [(recorded) in L.A., and they were cool. I just feel in 2017, it’s time for Alice In Chains to go back to Seattle — drink that water, breathe that air . . . There’s just such a history — every street corner for us is a memory; crazy s**t happened or some beautiful stuff. Seattle’s a really special place, especially this time of year. It’s the best.” Inez added that Alice In Chains does not have a record deal at the moment and will partner with a new label, having completed its two-record contract with Universal Music Group.
Guitarist Jerry Cantrell told us a while back Alice In Chains didn’t initially fit in with the Seattle music scene, which centered around the Sub Pop label: “We definitely didn’t fit into the Sub Pop scene. We were non-existent in that. I guess we were too rock (laughs). We kind of just did our own thing, and we were always kind of outside that whole vibe of what later turned into what was going on with the Seattle sound or whatever. Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, they were all associated at one point, you know, with Sub Pop and that whole scene.”
The new disc will be Alice In Chains’ sixth full-length studio album and will be its third with singer/guitarist William DuVall, who joined the band in 2006 following the death of Layne Staley four years earlier. (Thanks Pulse Of Radio.)
Ah, it’s the age-old question: at when will Metallica (or any band, for that matter) decide to pull the plug? It hasn’t made a difference to the Rolling Stones, who are all in the their early to late 70’s, and Mick Jagger still has the same pep and vitality and appearance as he had had for decades. But I guess with metal music, it’s a little more, well, head-banging. Just look at recent surgeries Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and Jim Root and Tom Araya of Slayer have undergone. Jerry Cantrell has had double shoulder surgery. Munky from Korn suffers from a really bad back, and bandmate Jonathan Davis also has neck and back issues. It’s just the way it is if you’ve been head-banging for decades!
But Metallica’s bassist Robert Trujillo told 50-year old classic rock station KSHE in St Louis if he could see himself still playing with the band when he is in his 70s. The 52-year-old musician said, “We always say, okay, with Metallica’s music, there’s a certain physicality to it, and the stages are big, so there’s more (likelihood of) an injury. I mean James (Hetfield, Metallica frontman) has already had surgery on his neck and his back.” Trujillo noted that other musicians have had similar operations on their necks, adding, “Heavy metal will take you down (laughs). You’ve gotta be ready for that.”
Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett told us not long ago that Metallica has to be in better than average shape to play their songs: “There’s a physicality to our music that we cannot ignore, so we just kind of have to keep ourselves in a certain sort of physical sort of state where that, you know, we can’t let ourselves get to a point where we can’t play these songs, you know. That’s just not allowed. You know, when we write this music, we have to make sure that we can play it and play it, you know, when we need to play it.”
James Hetfield told Billboard that his role models for endurance included the Rolling Stones, the late Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead, Bruce Springsteen and especially AC/DC‘s Angus Young, saying, “That guy blows my mind. That guy sweats so much every night. I can’t believe his head is still on his body.”
The North American leg of Metallica’s “WorldWired” 2017 tour kicked off last month and hits the Iowa Speedway in Newton, IA on Friday (Jun 9th) which is a special charity event Metallica is a part of. See our Road Rage page and check Metallica’s summer tour dates there.
Speaking of Korn, they just posted their new music video for “Black Is The Soul.” It’s from their great album, The Serenity of Suffering.
And our friends Papa Roach just posted the music video for this track with Skylar Grey, Take a peek. “Periscope” is off their newly released Crooked Teeth cd.
And since I mentioned Slipknot earlier, Blabbermouth reporting this:
Slipknot is teasing a June 9 announcement which is expected to include details of the band’s new concert DVD. The set will apparently contain footage of the group’s December 5, 2015 performance at Knotfest México which was part of Slipknot‘s tour in support of its latest album, 2014’s .5: The Gray Chapter.
Three teaser videos have been released thus far with each clip representing one of the three colors (green, white and red) of the Mexican flag. (See Slipknot’s Facebook page.)
Here’s the setlist for the 2015 Knotfest México show was as follows:
01. Sarcastrophe
02. The Heretic Anthem
03. Psychosocial
04. The Devil In I
05. Me Inside
06. Vermilion
07. Wait And Bleed
08. Prosthetics
09. Before I Forget
10. Eeyore
11. Duality
12. Custer
13. Spit It Out
14. Metabolic
Encore:
15. (Sic)
16. People = Shit
17. Surfacing
Frontman Corey Taylor told Dallas radio station 97.1 The Eagle radio station last month the band was “not really doing anything right now.” He explained: “I know we’re kind of slowly starting to write some music. Other than that, we’re just kind of taking some time off. Clown‘s gonna direct some movies, Sid‘s gonna do some stuff… We’re all kind of doing our own thing… But that’s it. I mean, really. Next year is everybody kind of doing their own thing, and then probably after that, we will slowly but surely start to get together to do some Slipknot stuff.”
Have a great day!