VENOM Inc. vocalist and bass player Tony Dolan AKA The Demolition Man has received a thinly veiled death threat from someone who obviously is not a fan of the band! We spoke to Tony who is taking it all in his stride, but we feel these idiotic comments should be shared and can be seen below:
VENOM Inc. have just finished their “Welcome To Hell Latin America Tour 2015” before Christmas and all the blogs from their tour can be seen exclusively on Metal Shock Finland. VENOM Inc. features the original VENOM members Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn, Anthony ‘Abaddon’ Bray and Tony ‘Demolition Man’ Dolan.
According to Eddie Trunk via his Twitter page, the legendary MOTÖRHEAD frontman Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister has passed away. Lemmy just turned 70 years old on 24th December.
The first statement by Eddie said – “Sorry to report that I have confirmed Lemmy @myMotorhead has passed away just now at the age of 70. RIP to a true original icon of rock.”
Then another was posted fifteen minutes later stating “There will be a release from @myMotorhead management tomorrow if not sooner on Lemmy’s passing. They will reveal details they want to then“.
The official MOTÖRHEADFacebook page has just stated:
“There is no easy way to say this…our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. He had learnt of the disease on December 26th, and was at home, sitting in front of his favorite video game from The Rainbow which had recently made it’s way down the street, with his family.
We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren’t words.
We will say more in the coming days, but for now, please…play Motörhead loud, play Hawkwind loud, play Lemmy’s music LOUD.
Have a drink or few.
Share stories.
Celebrate the LIFE this lovely, wonderful man celebrated so vibrantly himself.
HE WOULD WANT EXACTLY THAT.
Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister
1945 -2015
Born to lose, lived to win.”
Tributes are already pouring in for Lemmy. Ozzy Osbourne said “Lost one of my best friends, Lemmy, today. He will be sadly missed. He was a warrior and a legend. I will see you on the other side.”
It was an exciting time mixed with nostalgia, when back in March of this year heavy rock giants WHITESNAKE and DEF LEPPARD announced a joint headlining tour, along with special guests BLACK STAR RIDERS. I hadn’t seen either headliner for years and as both bands featured predominantly in my musical formative years, you could say that I was looking forward to the show in Sheffield!
This date on Saturday 19th December was the last of a run of ten shows in Ireland and the UK, fittingly of course ending in DEF LEPPARD‘s home town, where they formed way back in 1977. The Arena was packed, being a sold out show and the atmosphere buzzed! I must mention, as I was there with my friend Di, also my Metal Shock Finland team mate, that we used the facilities for disabled people – from the car parking to the help received from staff, especially a member of the Showsec security team, was brilliant, nothing was too much trouble.
BLACK STAR RIDERS released “The Killer Instinct” album back in February and have had a busy year, as have all the bands on the bill. The last time I saw them was a few years ago in Manchester, just before they changed from THIN LIZZY and this performance was just as great, going down well very with the crowd. It was fantastic of course to hear some Lizzy tunes in the set and guitar legend Scott Gorham looked in very relaxed mode, whilst frontman Ricky Warwick jumped around the stage full of energy! Naturally, the last song just had to be the ultimate classic ‘Whiskey In The Jar’, which sent shivers down my spine and got the whole crowd moving and singing!
Following an interval, one of my all time favourite bands were up next, WHITESNAKE! Kicking off their hour and twenty five minute set with the DEEP PURPLE classic ‘Burn’, the band exploded onto the stage in fine form, looking extremely at home as you would expect with a band of this calibre, plus their longevity thrown in for good measure. Guitarist Joel Hoekstra who joined the band in time to record their latest release, “The Purple Album”, fits into his role like a glove. Joel is an extremely accomplished guitarist who looked as if he was having a whale of a time through the whole performance, judging by the wide grin on his face! Keyboardist Michele Luppi was introduced by David Coverdale singing the opening lines from the Dean Martin classic ‘That’s Amore’ to rapturous applause! We were treated to many hits spanning the career of ‘Lord Coverdale’ (as described by Joe Elliott) – classics such as ‘Fool For Your Loving’, ‘Give Me All Your Love Tonight’, ‘Love Ain’t No Stranger’, ‘Is This Love’ and many more rang around the arena, rolling back the years!
DEF LEPPARD‘s and of course ex-WHITESNAKE guitarist Vivian Campbell appeared on stage to join in with ‘Still Of The Night’, which was a real crowd pleaser! David Coverdale is showing no signs of letting up, which is great news for the fans! Of course as any reasonable person would expect, after extensive touring and with advancing years there’s the odd bit of strain in some vocals, but that said, there is still that deep rich voice belting out the songs, and the genuine big friendly personality shines through on stage as it always has done. On the whole Mr Coverdale still has what it takes and the band delivered one hell of a show, complete with a stunning drum solo from Tommy Aldridge. WHITESNAKE closed their show with David telling fans “don’t let anyone scare you”. My favourite band of the night!
Whitesnake, Sheffield Arena, December 2015
Another interval, then last but not least, the final band of the night, Sheffield’s own DEF LEPPARD. The band received a tremendous welcome from their home crowd, running onto the stage with their trademark various adornments of the Union Jack flag. Vocalist Joe Elliott showed plenty of enthusiasm about being back on home turf, telling the crowd stories from back when the band started out in the 1970’s. Again, it was brilliant to see their big hits such as ‘Rock Of Ages’, ‘Animal’, ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’, ‘Armageddon It’ and ‘Love Bites’ performed in the same venue I last saw them in quite a few years ago! DEF LEPPARD also released a new self-titled album in October and have been touring the world since April, though the performance was as fresh as ever.
Plenty of stunning lights complimented the sets of nostalgic old band pictures shown on the screens throughout some of the songs, with tributes to the departed Steve Clark. Drummer Rick Allen was close to tears with the fans’ reaction at Joe‘s request to give him a cheer, the request was met with an overwhelming response. About an hour and a quarter after hit following massive hit, DEF LEPPARD concluded their set with one of their best known hits from the early days, the archetypal ‘Photograph’.
So came to a close what felt like a huge Christmas party for rockers – even in a place as large as Sheffield Arena, if you have the right mix of a friendly atmosphere and excellent bands, the camaraderie can prevail! A fantastic night! Check out a gallery of photos from the night below.
Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators VOIVOD, who recently toured Europe as part of the “Deathcrusher 2015” tour alongside Carcass, Obituary and Napalm Death, are pleased to announce the release of the “Post Society – EP” Mini-CD. This special release will be available in Digipak CD format as well as Digital Download on February 26th, 2016 via Century Media Records.
The “Post Society – EP”, with artwork by VOIVOD drummer Michel “Away” Langevin, contains 5 studio tracks, including the previously vinyl-only new VOIVOD songs from the split 7” EP’s with label-mates At The Gates and Napalm Death, two brand new songs and a Hawkwind cover (“’Silver Machine’) total playing time of 30 minutes. Here is the track-listing:
VOIVOD – “Post Society – EP”
Post Society (06:17)
Forever Mountain (05:12)
Fall (06:42)
We Are Connected (07:26)
Silver Machine (04:48)
Michel “Away” Langevin checked in to comment on the release as follows: “More songs from out in the woods! In between tours, we are steadily finding our way through recording the next album at RadicArt studio. Many riffs were composed on the bus but until the North American tour with Vektor in 2016, we will spend most of wintertime in Montreal writing another batch of material. Meanwhile, we hope you will enjoy this EP of good old thrash-prog-punk-metal or whatever people want to call Voïvod nowadays :)”
VOIVOD’s previously announced first leg of their next US tour in February/March 2016 with support by Vektor, as well as Eight Bells from February 6th – 287h and Black Fast from February 28th – March 5th, has recently been expanded for a few dates. Here is the updated schedule (Recent changes marked *):
VOIVOD & Vektor – US Tour 2016:
06.02.2016 Providence, RI – Fete Ballroom
07.02.2016 New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre
08.02.2016 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts *
09.02.2016 Morgantown, WV – Mainstage
10.02.2016 Pittsburgh, PA – Altar Bar
11.02.2016 Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony
12.02.2016 Lancaster, PA – Chameleon Club
13.02.2016 Washington, DC – Black Cat
14.02.2016 Richmond, VA – Strange Matter
16.02.2016 Raleigh, NC – Kings
18.02.2016 Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre
19.02.2016 Sanford, FL – West End Trading Co.
20.02.2016 Ybor City, FL – The Orpheum
21.02.2016 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
22.02.2016 Knoxville, TN – The Concourse 23.02.2016 Newport, KY – Southgate House Revival *
24.02.2016 Chicago, IL – The Abbey Pub
25.02.2016 Cudahy, WI – The Metal Grill
26.02.2016 St Paul, MN – The Amsterdam
27.02.2016 Omaha, NE – Waiting Room
28.02.2016 St. Louis, MO – Firebird
29.02.2016 Louisville, KY – Zanzabar *
02.03.2016 Columbus, OH – A&R Music Bar *
03.02.2016 Ferndale, MI – The Loving Touch 04.03.2016 Toronto, ON – Mod Club * 05.03.2016 Hamilton, ON – This Ain’t Hollywood *
For the recent “Deathcrusher” tour, VOIVOD released a Split 7” EP with label-mates Napalm Death with the track ‘Forever Mountain’ as well as Napalm Death’s exclusive track ‘Phonetics For The Stupefied’. This special vinyl-only release, which followed up VOIVOD’s Split 7” EP of the song “We Are Connected” with At The Gates from earlier in the year, is limited to 2.500 copies (Black: 1200x, Solid White: 300x, Transparent Red: 700x and Neon Yellow: 300x) is selling out quickly, so check for the last available copies here.
WHITESNAKE frontman David Coverdale says that he has changed his mind about retiring, explaining that the last few months of being on the road with his current band have “re-energized” him and inspired him to work on new music, according to blabbermouth.net.
WHITESNAKE is touring in support of its twelfth studio album, “The Purple Album”, which was released in May via Frontiers Music Srl. The effort is billed as “a re-imagination of classic songs from Coverdale‘s time as the lead singer for DEEP PURPLE‘s Mark III and Mark IV studio albums.” Coverdale was DEEP PURPLE‘s frontman from late 1973 to early 1976 and sang on the albums “Burn”, “Stormbringer” and “Come Taste The Band”.
Speaking to Macedonia’s Metropolis Radio, Coverdale stated about what it has been like to perform classic PURPLE material after so many years (hear audio below): “The songs don’t feel old when we perform them. Yesterday, I was listening to some of the live recordings from the U.S. tour, and they’re fucking amazing. This band is great. They play WHITESNAKE music, of course, fantastic, but they play DEEP PURPLE music fantastic. It’s definitely even more so than on the record. It’s very powerful and you can tell the musicians are enjoying themselves and you can see it and you can hear it. And hopefully you can feel it too.”
David went on to explain that “The Purple Album” was originally going to mark the end of his recording career but has since turned out to be the catalyst for the new WHITESNAKE band to work on new material. He said: “Well, it’s interesting, because when I was mixing ‘The Purple Album’ with my co-producer Michael McIntyre and Reb [Beach, WHITESNAKE guitarist], it felt to me…You know, I was 63 years old, and I’m going, ‘Man, how long do I have to do this? This would be a perfect closure for me — to finish as I started.’ But it’s just kind of… In essence, it’s re-energized me. I still write new music. We’ll be recording some new music next year. But it’s just revitalized me… re-renergized. That’s all I can say. So any ideas that I had six months ago of retiring… I was totally honest, when I was making interviews, that I thought, you know, ‘This is probably it.’ But I had an incredibly good time on this U.S. tour with my musicians. It was incredible.”
He continued: “It was very important to us not just to… An amazing discovery for me, when I rediscovered this music, was how fucking incredible DEEP PURPLE was. ‘Cause I’m not a nostalgic guy. I don’t listen to this music all the time; not at all. I had to reintroduce myself to these songs. And it wasn’t a situation of just recreating them; it was a situation of reinventing some of them. There was not one moment that I said to any of my musicians, ‘I want you to play this like Ian Paice.’ ‘I want you to play this like Tommy Bolin or Glenn Hughes.’ The musicians, starting with Tommy Aldridge on drums, came in and made their individual statement on these songs. Everybody contributed to this project in the most positive way, and even now that we’ve been performing these songs, it’s even better than when we were recording them. And it just makes it more inspiring to look at the future for new stuff, with these guys. They are fabulous musicians, great people. I have no desire to hang up my rock and roll sneakers just yet.”
WHITESNAKE‘s new touring lineup — David Coverdale (vocals), Joel Hoekstra (guitar), Reb Beach (guitar), Michael Devin (bass), Tommy Aldridge (drums) and Michele Luppi (keyboards) — made its live debut on May 28 at Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights, Washington.
PURPLE classics revamped for “The Purple Album” include “Stormbringer”, “Lady Double Dealer”, “Soldier Of Fortune” and “Sail Away”.
The deluxe edition of “The Purple Album” features two bonus tracks, four music videos and a “Behind The Scenes” featurette on the recording of the album.
Scotland’s top rock and metal weekend and Metal Shock Finland’s Utilifest Project partners, Wildfire Festival, brings two late additions to the event as organisers end 2015 in league with the devil. Joining the already massive recent announcements of “Ripper” Owens, Riot V, Gormathon, Vardis and Forever Never, are DEMONS OF OLD METAL. Their new record “Dominion” released on December 7th 2015, is a groove laden masterpiece and having the band warm up the crowd for our main event on Friday is a great fit for the 5th anniversary event.
They will be joined by one of the UK’s prime up and coming Heavy Metal bands, DENDERA, combining classic metal with an aggressive modern edge, they are another killer and very welcome addition to one of the countries finest rock and metal events.
With a line up that now comprises:
All Consumed, Altered Sky, Apriori, Avenford, Bad Touch, Banshee, The Broken Chords, Chasing Dragons, Colour of Noise, Crowsaw, The Deep, The Demons of Old Metal, Dendera, Die No More, Excellent Cadaver, Forever Never, Gormathon, Halo Tora, Hellbound Hearts, Hell’s Addiction, Immersion, The King Lot, Mad Hatter 2.0, Massive Wagons, Maverick, Nest Of Vipers, One Last Run, Orangefall, Riot (V), RSJ, Screaming Eagles, Serpentine, Sinocence, Sky Valley Mistress, Soldier, Solitary, Spartan Warrior, Stone Broken, Thirteen Stars, Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, Turbyne, Vardis, Vice, Winter Storm and Wretched Soul.
With three stages and many more bands still to be announced, Wildfire Festival has now become a “must-do”on the Summer Festival Circuit.
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
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