Well, my BF forgot to bring me the Halloween costume he got me. Left it at his house up in White Plains. So now, I have NO HALLOWEEN COSTUME! I am not happy. BOO!….On to the news: Congrats to the “core members” Corey, Jim, Clown, Chris, Mick and Craig. Slipknot‘s fifth studio album and first in six years, .5: The Gray Chapter, sold approximately 132,000 copies in its first week of release to debut at Number One on the Billboard 200 album sales chart yesterday (Oct 29th). This is Slipknot’s second straight chart-topper following its predecessor, 2008’s All Hope Is Gone, which moved just under 240,000 copies in its first week. Singer Corey Taylor told us why he’s especially proud of .5: The Gray Chapter: “I think it hits on so many different levels, not only aggressively and heavy-wise, but melodically, artistically, atmospherically, lyrically, sonically — it’s our best sounding album. I just think that there’s a whole journey here that I’m really proud of.” The new disc is the first by the band since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray and the 2013 dismissal of drummer Joey Jordison. Both men were charter members and key songwriters in the group. Although the identities of their replacements have not been officially revealed, they are believed to be drummer Jay Weinberg and bassist Alessandro “Vman” Venturella. The new lineup made its live debut last weekend at Slipknot’s Knotfest festival in California. The band kicked off a North American tour with special guests Korn last night in El Paso and will next stop in Dallas on Halloween! Little known fact: When Slipknot’s All Hope Is Gone topped the Billboard chart in 2008, it was due to an extraordinary and unprecedented SoundScan recount. The album was initially announced as a Number Two debut, just 13 copies behind The Game‘s LAX at Number One, marking the closest margin in SoundScan history. With such a small margin, Slipknot’s label, Roadrunner Records, requested an historic recount that put the band on top by a margin of 1,134 copies. ….Speaking of Korn, I see they’ve added a solo date, Dec 8th, at the Paramount in Huntington, NY…. Pulse of Radio reports Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has told Studio Brussel in a new interview that a track on the band’s upcoming Sonic Highways album and HBO series, called “Subterranean,” was inspired by the end of his previous band, Nirvana. Grohl explained the first music he recorded under the Foo Fighters banner after the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was done in the same studio where Nirvana had recorded its last complete song. Grohl recalled, “I didn’t want to make music any more after Nirvana, then time went on and I thought wait a minute, music is the one thing that’s going to help me start over, it’s going to heal me, so that’s what I have to keep doing. So I went back to that same studio, and recorded again, and my life started over again, so that becomes the theme of the episode, and that also becomes the theme of the song.” That final Nirvana song was called “You Know You’re Right” and Grohl recalled the sessions: “We had some time off before a tour, and Kurt wanted to go in and demo some stuff, so I said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do it at this studio down the street from my house.’ And we went down there, and we had three days booked. Kurt came in the last day and we were like, ‘Okay, what do you wanna do?’ And Kurt said, ‘Well, why don’t we do that song we’ve been doing at soundcheck?’ And so we rehearsed it, I think, once, and then recorded it. Kurt did three or four vocal takes, and that was it.” The Seattle episode of the HBO documentary series on the making of the album, also called Sonic Highways, will premiere on Friday night, Nov 28th. Have you been watching these episodes! They really are a great music history lesson…Blabbermouth said .Metallica has confirmed they’ve been booked to spend an entire week in November as the musical guests on CBS-TV’s The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. The band said in a statement, “We’re excited to celebrate Craig Ferguson‘s final season on CBS as he has asked us to join him for an entire week of performances starting Monday, November 17th. We’ll be playing every night that week and on the first night (Monday) we’ll sit down with Craig to chat about all things ‘Talllica.” Members of Metallica’s official fan club, Met Club, should log in to the band’s web site for information about how they can be guests in the studio audience during the filming of the show in Los Angeles. The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson airs weeknights at 12:35 a.m. EST. Ferguson announced his exit from the program in April, shortly after he was passed over to replace David Letterman, who also revealed that he would retire next year. Metallica is reportedly getting back to work this fall on its 10th studio album, due out sometime in 2015, although we don’t know when they’ll find the time for it….My friend Slash is in the news. He’s the subject of a two-part documentary and live concert event presented by Guitar Center and Direct TV. The life and music of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will be examined via a 90-minute live show filmed recently at the Roxy nightclub in Hollywood, followed by a 90-minute documentary that takes viewers into the studio with Slash while combining new and archival footage with interviews from the artists and colleagues who have influenced his career. The documentary, called Slash: Raised On The Sunset Strip, covers his childhood in both England and Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon, his discovery of the guitar and arrival on the Sunset Strip, his meteoric rise with Guns N’ Roses, the evolution of Velvet Revolver, his solo career and his current band, Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators. Artists interviewed for the documentary include Dave Grohl, Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler, Matt Sorum, Jerry Cantrell, Lemmy, Slash’s wife Perla Hudson and more. Check out these trailers. Here and here…..Avenged Sevenfold is taking the rest of 2014 off and will spend some of that time working on a brand new DVD. Singer M. Shadows said the band is dealing with mixes and editing and artwork for the disc, which should come out sometime early next year. He told us the documentary uses the 2009 death of drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan as a starting point: “The DVD will take place right before we lose Jimmy, and then it’s gonna basically take you all the way through to now. So it’ll be mixed in with some live performances, but there will also be a very strong story arc to what our story is and what’s going on with us.” The singer added that the DVD will contain performances from the band’s sets at key events like the Download Festival, Rock In Rio, Rock On The Range and others. Avenged Sevenfold will tour Southeast Asia and China in January and will tentatively start writing music for the follow-up to last year’s Hail To The King next summer….Spoke with Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach yesterday just before the band’s gig with In Flames in Berlin. He told me all about the making of the new album. F.E.A.R., the single and talked about some of the other tunes, including “Gravity,” which features Maria Brink of In This Moment. The opportunity to work with her arose when both bands were in Chophouse Studios in Las Vegas working with the Churkos (Kevin and son Kane.) The song is heavy, about the trials and tribulations of Jacoby’s relationship with his wife Kelly. He said Maria went into the booth and free-styled the woman’s side of the story. Can’t wait to hear that. Meanwhile, seems Coby has embraced not only his sobriety, but his new found spirituality on this one. Hey, in this world, it ain’t a bad thing! Also happy that guitarist Jerry Horton has really come into his own as his photography will be the album artwork! Coby also told me he co-directed the music video for the new single “Face Everything And Rise.” It was shot in the desert in Southern Cali. Hot, dry and “painful,” as quoted by Jerry! And now I have to find a way for Lou Brutus and I to get over to Germany! The band has invited us to be their guests on the band’s bus when they play Rock Im Park and Rock Am Ring! So listeners of GONG 97.1, you may get to meet the one and only Lou Brutus in June! Stay tuned. We may have to start a crowd-funding campaign for this trip!…..Nickelback will make a major announcement (I believe it will be their 2015 tour) and give a special live performance next Wednesday (Nov 5th) at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. All proceeds from the sale of tickets, which go on sale Thursday (October 30th), will be donated to the International House Of Blues Foundation Action For The Arts grants programs. Nickelback’s new album, No Fixed Address, comes out November 17th…..Halestorm will release a vinyl edition of both of their previously released covers EPs, titled ReAniMate: The CoVeRs Collection (2011-2014) on Dec 2nd via the band’s webstore. Halestorm will take a break from the studio for a string of headlining shows starting on Nov 11th in Chattanooga, TN, followed by a run of shows with country rocker Eric Church which begin Jan 8th in New Orleans…. Monday, big announcement from the Linkin Park camp! Keep your eyes peeled for news. Also news coming on Nothing More…Happy 49th today to Gavin Rossdale of Bush!