Good morning all! Wish the rain we are getting on the east coast could magically appear over to our friends on the west coast. We need the rain, but Mother Nature, you are going a little overboard here, girlfriend! Hope the weather doesn’t jeopardize
News today about one of my other favorite bands! Pulse Of Radio says Korn guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer told Billboard the band is now at work on the follow-up to its 2013 album, The Paradigm Shift. Shaffer said the prolific group is about a third of the way through the writing process: “We went in, we wrote about 20 songs and about 10 of those we’ve kept and made better. So I think we’re gonna need to go back in and write another batch of songs and then fine-tune those into maybe four, five really great songs. There’s no rush, which feels great.”
A producer has already been selected for Korn’s 12th studio effort, but Shaffer said that the band “is gonna wait a couple more weeks before we announce that.” Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch said in a recent interview with You Don’t Know Jack the band’s new music is “heavier than anyone’s heard Korn in a long time . . . just the beginning stages are proof of that to me.” Welch added touring with Slipknot last year inspired Korn to get back to a heavier side, saying, “I think it sparked and reminded everybody in the band what Korn started out to be.” Korn kicks off a fall North American tour tomorrow (Oct 1st) in Chicago. The band will perform its self-titled 1994 debut in its entirety at every stop, finishing up on Oct 30th in Oakland. I hope I am well enough to get out to see them Monday night. Of course, here in NYC, it’s feast or famine because that same night, Bring Me The Horizon are playing in town. Oh man! Decisions, decisions! I’ll have to clone myself!
Sweden’s Ghost is looking for women in the cities that the group is hitting on its current tour to dress as nuns and serve alcoholic beverages. A post from the band read, “Ladies of the World! We are looking for females to serve as nuns at every gig, since we usually rely on local talent everywhere we go. So if this is something for you, send your name, picture, date of birth (which we will need since you will be handing out alcohol, so you have to be 21 years old) to nunsjustwannahavefun@gmail.com.” Applicants must write the name of their city in the email’s subject line. The members of Ghost do not reveal their true identities or faces. The singer is known as Papa Emeritus III and the other five members of the band are Nameless Ghouls.
A Nameless Ghoul told us the members of Ghost knew early on that they would be a very theatrical act: “This is not just like a T-shirt band. This sounds like something that would be theatrical and, you know, over the top, so this must be like a theater band — yeah, and then we started like, very quickly it was like, there should be a pope, and it should be like a nameless band that should be in it, big church, and it quickly ramped up to where we had to make a decision where this is not just something that we can just wing at a bar.” Ghost is touring North America on its Black To The Future Tour, which stops in Montreal tonight (Sep 30th.)
Check out a Deezer studio performance of “From The Pinnacle To The Pit,” “Cirice” & “Absolution” here.
Slipknot and Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor has told the Des Moines Register that he plans to submit a rough outline of his next book to his publisher soon, saying, “As long as I can keep getting away with it, why not? That’s what it’s all about for me. I’ve got quite a few ideas, actually.” Taylor has said in the past that he would eventually like to tackle a novel. Taylor published his third book, You’re Making Me Hate You: A Cantankerous Look At The Common Misconception That Humans Have Any Common Sense Left, on July 7th. The book is a commentary on society and pop culture in the style of the late George Carlin. Taylor’s second book, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Heaven, was published in the summer of 2013 and debuted at Number 23 on the New York Times “Hardcover Non-Fiction” best sellers list, while his first book, 2011’s Seven Deadly Sins: Settling The Argument Between Born Bad And Damaged Good, landed at Number 26. The singer has gone out on speaking and solo acoustic tours to promote each of his books so far. Slipknot has been on tour behind its first album in six years, .5: The Gray Chapter. The group will launch a new round of dates on Oct 13th in Bismarck, ND.
It’s been just over a year since Hellyeah released its most recent studio album, Blood For Blood, but the band is back in the studio to begin work on its fifth effort. Guitarist Tom Maxwell posted some in-studio footage online, with the record likely to arrive next spring or summer. (Noisecreep)
Former My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way stopped by the studio for a guest appearance on the debut solo album from Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack. Other guests have included Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump and The Used guitarist Quinn Allman. Biersack has not revealed a release date for the project, which he will release as Andy Black.