PLAY BALL! Opening Day of MLB! Ah, summer is in the air! …..Tomorrow night, get ready America! Lou Brutus will be doing a LIVE chat in the INTERACT LIVE section of the new hardDriveRadio APP! Start posting your questions now to make sure to get in on the action!…..Today, Halestorm enter the hardDriveRadio studios and I am so psyched to talk to them about their new album, Into The Wild Life. It is brimming with dynamic, whisper to a scream, intensely crafted songs.They wanted this record to capture how they are live in a recorded setting and mission accomplished! But when it came to doing her vocals, Lzzy strapped on her guitar and sang them until they were perfect. And boy, it shows. More on this tomorrow…..I am sort of bummed Wolfgang Van Halen isn’t going to be touring with Tremonti. Seems the Van Halen camp, which is launching a tour Jul 2 through Oct 2, plan to record a new album when they come off the road. Oh well. At least that’s not stopping Mark. He has hired his friend, Tanner Keegan from a local Orlando band, to play with Tremonti on their upcoming gigs. And then after that, it appears Mark will start work on the next Alter Bridge album. Per an interview with HNGN, Mark stated “I think we’ll probably get together this year and get the ball rolling songwriting-wise, and 2016 is when we plan to hit the studio. We’ve got some offers for some shows later this year, but our schedules are so all over the place that I don’t know if that’s going to happen.” He also shared insight into his second album, Cauterize, from solo project Tremonti: “The biggest difference [between Cauterize and 2012’s All I Was] was the time we were able to put into the album. We had a very shoestring budget on the first one, a very small amount of time to get it done, whereas with this record we wanted to record a giant amount of songs; it’s the most music I’ve ever recorded in one sitting. So if you compared it to even Fortress, the last Alter Bridge record, we spent about a week, me and Myles [Kennedy, Alter Bridge’s lead singer], putting together the outline of the album and then got right into pre-production, whereas with this album we spent 40 days writing before getting into pre-production, so there’s a big difference.” Tremonti’s Cauterize is scheduled for release June 09. Alter Bridge’s last studio effort, Fortress, was released in 2013. (Thanks Pulse Of Radio)….Pulse also reports In This Moment is scheduled to release Rise of the Blood Legion – Greatest Hits (Chapter 1) on May 5 in celebration of their first decade of work. The album will include material from their first four studio albums, including “Prayers,” “The Promise,” “Blood” and “Adrenalize.” Material from the band’s recent Black Widow album will not appear. Says Maria Brink of the collection: “Rise of the Blood Legion – Greatest Hits (Chapter 1) is a tribute dedicated to everyone who has risen with us through the blood, the sweat, the thick and the thin. We are honored to have such a beautiful connection with our Blood Legion family, It’s amazing that Century Media Records is releasing this compilation so everyone can hear our personal favorites over the last 10 years. We love you all and the journey has just begun. Stay the course with us. We are immortal. We rise from the wraith. We are eternal. You are my blood legion, my faith. This is for you.” Chris Howorth adds, “This compilation is for the ‘Blood Legion’ our die hard fans, We wouldn’t be doing any of this without our fans. This album is for them. The songs were hand picked by Maria and myself and we feel they show the growth of our band over the last 10 years. I hope everyone enjoys this. Thanks again for joining us on this incredible journey!” In addition, the album will come with a DVD featuring some of their greatest video hits….Oh boy! He’s at it again! I saw a post over the weekend where Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd had yet another meltdown, this time in Scottsdale, AZ on Apr 2. He needs help. Scantlin reportedly smashed his guitar, microphones and some of the drummer’s kit. Friends and family have tried to do interventions. He won’t listen to anyone. Maybe his fans need to boycott his shows ’til he gets some help! What do you think? I mean, this isn’t the first case of stage rage for Scantlin. On April 18, 2014, he threw a microphone into the crowd in Dallas, injuring a fan. Scantlin has also exhibited some signs of trouble offstage. In 2012, he was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and in a separate incident got into a drunken altercation on a plane. In 2013 he allegedly attacked his ex-wife, stole her car, and then got in trouble for vandalism of a neighbor’s property. He was arrested back in January for going on a joyride around an airport baggage carousel. And the hits just keep on comin’!….. Wha whoa! Jack Osbourne is suing over The Osbournes ‘reboot.’ There appears to be a slight hiccup in VH1’s planned reboot of The Osbournes. Jack has filed several lawsuits against companies he partially owns for trying to claim revenue for his participation in the new show. He is part of a production company called JOKS who is suing Schweet Entertainment because they are claiming to be the sole owners of interest in the show. The new episodes of The Osbournes are expected to premiere later this year. We have to wonder, why?….. Blabbermouth reports 2013 hardDrive Live Tour headliners Bullet For My Valentine recently entered the studio with producer Colin Richardson (Carcass, Fear Factory, Machine Head) and producer/engineer Carl Bown to begin recording their fifth album for a tentative summer release. Speaking about the band’s mindset going into the songwriting process for the new CD, guitarist/vocalist Matt Tuck told U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine: “What we really wanted to capture was the feeling of that excitement, that angst and that anger, that you finally get in that moment to let the world know who you are and what you want to say. Then, as the albums go on, and you get a bit older, that goes away. So we’re like, ‘Let’s recapture that angst of that younger, feisty Bullet that we used to be,’ and f-ing reignite that fire. And we totally have. We’ve just been writing stuff, and if it’s not cool, we’ve been filtering it out. We’ve cut, like, 10 songs. That’s a lot of effort and time and shit put into those songs, but it didn’t feel right, so we put them in the bin.” Asked about the slightly less aggressive musical direction of the band’s fourth album, Temper Temper, compared to some of the group’s earlier efforts, Tuck said: “I think, for me, it was just about letting your f-ing hair down a bit. It always felt like we were being channelled towards something like radio and massive shows, and stuff like that — which is great, because that’s obviously what we want, but it was like a diluted version of what we were. I don’t think it’s a bad album at all. I just think our fanbase wanted something a bit more feisty. It basically comes down to that. So this time around, we’re f-ing giving it to them, tenfold.” Bullet For My Valentine recently parted ways with bassist Jason James. The group will announce his replacement “when we feel the time is right,” adding, “Until then we’re gonna be busy and focused recording our next record and making sure its the best album we’ve ever made.“….Smash or Crash this week has a UK match up: TREMONTI vs OF MICE & MEN! Get over and start the voting tonight!…. Sad news last week of the passing of the mother of Tom Araya of Slayer. We are very sorry for your loss, Tom and family. It is especially sad because we were excited Tom was going to stop by the hardDriveRadio studios tomorrow as he and Kerry King were coming to town for the NY Auto Show to be with their Slayer inspired Scion auto. Rest in peace, Mrs Tina Araya Diaz.