With rumors circling that original KISS members PAUL STANLEY, GENE SIMMONS, PETER CRISS and ACE FREHLEY are set to reunite for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April of 2014 when they are inducted, Paul Stanley sets things straight with the following brief message:
“Gotta laugh. Some people want to seem important by talking like they know what we’ll be doing at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. THEY KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!”
Joining KISS in the 2014 class of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees are NIRVANA, PETER GABRIEL, HALL AND OATES, CAT STEVENS, LINDA RONSTADT, ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM, BRIAN EPSTEIN, and THE E STREET BAND.
The artists’ induction ceremony into the Hall Of Fame will take place April 10th at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
MAGNUM OPUM ROCKESTRA (under conductor Marcel Heijnen), a 32-piece orchestra accompanied by the METALFORCE 1 rock band and led by vocalists which decisively influenced the metal scene in recent years and decades, kicked off the Christmas Metal Symphony European Tour on December 13th in Trollhättan, Sweden. Vocalists on the bill include Joey Belladonna (ANTHRAX), Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT), UdoDirkschneider (UDO, ex-ACCEPT), Joacim Cans (HAMMERFALL) and Floor Jansen (NIGHTWISH).
Fan-filmed video from the December 18th show in Bochum, Germany can be viewed below:
Remaining tour dates include:
December
20 – Oberstraubing, Germany – Airport – Great Hall
21 – Balingen, Germany – Volksbank Fair
22 – Milan, Italy – Live Club
Source: Bravewords.com MANOWAR have announced their first-ever show in Poland, on Saturday, May 17th at Spodek in Katowice. Tickets are available here.
“Our wait is over. Manowar will finally come to Poland! We will honor the faith of our Polish fans, who have traveled all over the world to see us by bringing our special Kings Of Metal anniversary tour! This tour will be packed with favorite classics, and with many surprises!”, said Manowar bassist Joey DeMaio.
Manowar will perform the full Kings Of Metal MMXIV album along with a “best of” set of other immortal metal hymns in a completely new stage production. And if that’s not enough, this will be the band’s one and only performance in Poland in 2014.
Manowar will return to Germany with the Kings Of Metal MMXIV World Tour for an exclusive headlining summer festival performance and a series of indoor shows, including Legacy Open Air at Waldstadion in Weismain, Germany (Friday, June 13th to Sunday, June 15th).
This headlining show at Legacy Open Air will be Manowar’s one and only, exclusive performance in Germany in 2014. Tickets are available here or at Legacy-Open-Air.de.
Manowar will then return to Germany in January of 2015 for a series of indoor shows:
“We are thrilled to return to Germany! The German Manowarriors’ loyalty and support from the first time we set foot on German ground is legendary. Returning for this special celebration of Kings Of Metal will reunite us with the greatest fans in Germany,” said Manowar bassist Joey DeMaio. “We are calling our Manowarriors in Germany, but also those in the nearby countries, to join us for some unforgettable shows of unparalleled and face-melting metal!”
Manowar’s Kings Of Metal album, a milestone in metal history, was first released on November 18th, 1988, followed by a world tour in 1989. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of these events, Manowar will release a brand new special version of the album, Kings Of Metal MMXIV, followed by the Kings Of Metal MMXIV World Tour.
Kings Of Metal MMXIV World Tour dates:
February
7 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Theatre
8 – Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall
9 – Minneapolis, MN – Mill City
13 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
15 – Houston, TX – House Of Blues
16 – Dallas, TX – House Of Blues
18 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
20 – San Francisco, CA – Regency Theatre
22 – Pomona, CA – Fox Theatre
March
18 – Krasnodar, Russia – Olymp Palace Of Sports
21 – Moscow, Russia – Luzhniki Palace Of Sports
23 – St. Petersburg, Russia – Yubileyny Sports Palace
25 – Tallinn, Estonia – Rock Café
27 – Tallinn, Estonia – Rock Café
29 – Vilnius, Lithuania – Teatro Arena
May
17 – Katowice, Poland – Spodek
21 – Tel Aviv, Israel – Hangar 11
24 – Istanbul, Turkey – Metal Summer Festival
June
13-15 – Weismain, Germany – Legacy Open Air
July
25-26 – Helsinki, Finland – Magic Circle Festival
URIAH HEEP have announce a very special one-off show at Koko, in Camden, London on March 4. This show will be filmed and released as a live DVD on Frontiers Records in later 2014/early 2015. As well as a host of Heep classics, the set will also include some new songs that will be taken from the material that the band is writing for the forthcoming 2014 album, following 2011’s Into the Wild which was the band’s highest charting album since the 1970s in worldwide territories.
Fans attending the show will be in with a chance of being filmed themselves, not only as part of the audience, but also for some special bonus features to be included on the DVD! The band is inviting their fans from around the world to be a part of this experience; this is a chance to be part of Heep history.
Mick Box said, “After playing in 54 countries around the world promoting Into the Wild it’s great to be coming back to London where it all began!”
2014 is set to be yet another big one for Mick Box and the band as they work on the new material, and of course keep on touring; Heep has been round the world several times in the last 24 months visiting South Africa, Australia, Asia, North America, South America and East & West Russia. The band headlined the first ever Planet Rock Stock in December. Heep will play the prestigious Sweden Rock Festival in the summer.
The Koko show will follow a set of intimate UK February dates and another headliner at the Giants of Rock Festival on February 9.
IRON SAVIOR frontman Piet Sielck has checked in with another studio update:
“Done! Just delivered the finals to AFM! Stay tuned for some upcoming samples. You can’t believe, how relieved I am. I’m totally happy with the sound, production and – most important – with the songs. All the best to you all…”
Iron Savior have also announced a special release show for their new album, Rise Of The Hero. It is slated for February 27th in Hard Rock Café St. Pauli in their home town of Hamburg, Germany. More details will be revealed soon.
Source: Bravewords.com
A video for ‘Dangerous’, the second single from WITHIN TEMPTATION‘s upcoming Hydra album will be released this Friday (December 20th). A preview of the video, featuring Howard Jones (ex-KILLSWITCH ENGAGE / DEVIL YOU KNOW), can be seen below:
The exclusive digital premium iTunes edition of Hydra (ten album tracks, eight bonus tracks with digi-booklet plus the ‘Paradise (What About Us?)’ music video) is now available for pre-order at this location.
Anyone pre-ordering Hydra will automatically receive two instant download tracks: ‘Paradise (What About Us?)’ featuring TARJA TURUNEN and ‘Dangerous’ featuring Howard Jones. (Note: The ‘Dangerous’ instant download will be available on iTunes Europe starting December 20th).
The Hydra, a mythological serpent creature from ancient Greece, couldn’t be killed. When one of its many heads was cut off, two more grew in its place…
“It’s like us – undefinable!” laughs Within Temptation guitarist and songwriter Robert Westerholt. “What’s more, Hydra is a perfect title for our new album, because like the monster itself, the record represents the many different sides of our music.”
Check out the special guests on Hydra: Finnish operatic metal diva Tarja Turunen (ex-NIGHTWISH), acclaimed singer-songwriter Dave Pirner of SOUL ASYLUM and metalcore hero Howard Jones, formerly of Killswitch Engage as well as US hip-hop icon XZIBIT.
Asked to describe Xzibit’s performance on the song ‘And We Run’, Westerholt laughs: “Xzibit is amazing. This song is about how you’ve got to live your life now. He’s rapping at full force on this song, it’s really heavy.” Sharon adds: “Xzibit brings a new element to our music that we’ve never had before! It’s a new cross-over and we love it! “As for the mighty Tarja, den Adel recalls: “The way she delivers those high melody lines left us all speechless. We had a great time, and the fans responded beyond our expectations.”
One of the album heaviest tracks, ‘Dangerous’ was recorded with the former Killswitch Engage singer Howard Jones, whose epic vocals are a perfect fit for Sharon’s. “I always loved Howard’s voice,” she says. “He makes the song even heavier than it already is. That song is one of my favorite songs on the record and one of the fastest we’ve ever written. It has the most bass drums we’ve ever used, too, and a very fast riff which we doubled with synths. It’s not a typical synthesizer, though – it’s distorted like a guitar, and it’s very aggressive.”
Hydra goes from strength to strength with ‘Whole World Is Watching’, featuring Soul Asylum’s golden-voiced singer Dave Pirner. “When we wrote ‘Whole World Is Watching’, Dave was at the very top of our list. He has such a captivating voice: it made the song exactly how it needed to be.”
The band’s sixth studio album, Hydra, will be released on January 31st in Europe, and February 4th in North America.
Available initially as a digital premium album and a luxury box set, Hydra features stunning, neoclassical artwork by concept artist Romano Molenaar (X-men, Batman) who worked with Within Temptation on the artwork of the band’s previous album and comic, the Top 5 ‘The Unforgiving’ from 2011.
The digital premium album, complete with digi-booklet, will be available on iTunes and includes 18 audio tracks and a music video. Fans will love the bonus ‘Evolution Versions’ of four new songs, which contain audio commentary from den Adel and Westerholt and give the listener unique access into the development of the songs, their lyrical inspiration and the sound of the initial demos and vocals. This innovative approach gives these versions unprecedented value for the Within Temptation disciple.
If you think that’s innovative, take a look at the amazing, luxury box set version of Hydra. This contains a CD-sized, 18-track Media book, including a 100-page booklet with unique photos and an embossed cover, and a double gatefold black vinyl version of the album with all 18 tracks above. As if that isn’t enough, there’s also an instrumental version of the whole of ‘Hydra’, as requested by fans, guitar picks and a songbook with all the sheet music from the album. Finally, all these elements come securely packaged in a beautifully-designed, LP-sized box.
Hydra will also be available as a Special Edition double CD with the Media book, featuring 10 tracks on disc one and eight bonus tracks on disc two. There will be a double vinyl LP and a jewel-case CD version to complete the product range.
Hydra album configurations (tracklisting by format):
iTunes (premium version)
‘Let Us Burn’
‘Dangerous’ featuring Howard Jones
‘And We Run’ featuring Xzibit
‘Paradise (What About Us?)’ featuring Tarja
‘Edge Of The World’
‘Silver Moonlight’
‘Covered By Roses’
‘Dog Days’
‘Tell Me Why’
‘Whole World Is Watching’ featuring Dave Pirner
‘Radioactive’ (originally performed by Imagine Dragons)
‘Summertime Sadness’ (originally performed by Lana del Ray)
‘Let Her Go’ (originally performed by Passenger)
‘Dirty Dancer’ (originally performed by Enrique Iglesias)
‘And We Run’ – evolution track
‘Silver Moonlight’ – evolution track
‘Covered By Roses’ – evolution track
‘Tell Me Why’ – evolution track
‘Paradise (What About Us?)’ featuring Tarja – Music Video (exclusive to iTunes premium version)
Formats:
2 CD Mediabook (premium version) (100 page booklet)
CD Jewel Case (standard version)
Digital Album (standard version)
Vinyl Gatefold
Deluxe Boxset Content:
2CD Mediabook (premium version)
Do Vinyl Gatefold
Hydra Songbook
Hydra Instrumental CD
Within Temptation Guitar Pick
Packaged in LP size Deluxe Boxset
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
