Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star, the company which creates “beautiful lullaby versions of your favorite artists,” has just released “Lullaby Versions Of Pantera” via Roma Music Group.
“Lullaby Versions Of Pantera” track listing:
01. Hollow
02. Planet Caravan
03. Cemetery Gates
04. Cowboys From Hell
05. This Love
06. Domination
07. Revolution Is My Name
08. 5 Minutes Alone
09. A New Level
10. Mouth For War
11. I’m Broken
12. Walk
“Metal continues to be one of our most popular and requested genres,” says Paul Modiano of Roma Music Group. “More than any other genre, it’s music that little ears aren’t quite ready for, so parents seem to appreciate this option.
“When you look at the metal landscape, PANTERA ranks among the giants. We are proud to add this to our metal offering alongside SLAYER, IRON MAIDEN, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, METALLICA and DREAM THEATER.”
Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star is the premier pop music lullaby line, with 56 titles to choose from across soundtracks, pop, rock, metal, country, alternative and more.
In its mission statement, Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star says, “We feel our lullaby line fills a vacant musical niche. There are other lines of pop music lullabies but we decided to take the approach of being high end musically rather than simply doing these as a novelty. After all, just because the music is for a baby it doesn’t have to sound unsophisticated. We feel we owe it to the artists that we are covering to do their music justice and our standard of quality transcends the lullaby genre. In fact, in addition to soothing babies our fans use our music for yoga, massage and sleep therapy or just general relaxation. We like to call them ‘lullabies for all ages’ and the diversity of use is testament to that.”
Today it is eight years since the world lost one of its most innovative guitarists, “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. He was aged 38 and killed whilst onstage with his band DAMAGEPLAN in Ohio, USA.
Dimebag formed PANTERA in 1981 with his brother Vinnie Paul and in 1990 the band had their first commercial success with the album “Cowboys From Hell.” The band went on to even bigger success with their distinctive sounding southern groove style metal offering “Vulgar Display Of Power” in 1992.
The brothers later went on to form DAMAGEPLAN after much tension within PANTERA. They released their debut album “New Found Power” in 2004 before Darrell was shot and killed while performing with the band onstage, along with three more people.
Dimebag left his mark and also a huge gap in the metal world, but the legacy of his music lives on. He was ranked 92 in Rolling Stone‘s “100 Greatest Guitarists” and number 1 in UK metal magazine Metal Hammer and frequently appeared in polls and guitar magazines, as well as writing his own column in Guitar World magazine. He endorsed Dean guitars and had co-designed his own signature guitar just months before his death called the Razorback.
MusikUniverse.net conducted an interview with former PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN and current HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott before HELLYEAH‘s November 10 concert at Club Soda in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Asked about how he deals with constant rumors and talk of a possible reunion of the classic PANTERA lineup, with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE) filling in for the late “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (Vinnie‘s brother) on guitar, Vinnie said, “It’s easy, man. I don’t live in the past, man. I wanna look forward, I wanna keep moving forward. I understand [fans] wanting to see it, especially people who’ve never had an opportunity to see PANTERA, but without my brother being part of it, it just doesn’t make any sense. I’m not gonna trample on his legacy to make some people happy. We had 14 amazing years together and we sold nearly 40 million records around the world. That’s some pretty amazing stuff. And the band is, actually, to me, bigger today than it was then. I mean, it really is; it’s really grown and grown and grown. There’s plenty of DVDs and videos out there for them to watch. And I would highly suggest you come and see me play with HELLYEAH, ’cause that’s what I do.”
He added, “[It’s just] rumors, man. That’s all I got to say. And you heard that AEROSMITH song, [singing] ‘Dream on, dream on.’ It ain’t gonna happen, man. I have no interest in playing with those guys. I love [HELLYEAH]; I’m really into it. And I really believe if I stick with it long enough, it will see the same kind of success eventually.”
Dimebag was shot to death along with three others during a DAMAGEPLAN performance at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio in December 2004.
PureGrainAudio‘s Mitch Lafon conducted an interview with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE) on October 20 at Le Métropolis in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. You can now watch the chat below.
Asked about a hypothetical PANTERA reunion with him filling in for the late “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott on guitar, Zakk said, “I’m friends with all the [former PANTERA members]. Phil [Anselmo, former PANTERA singer] called me up when they did that ‘Metal Masters’ thing. [A guy] who does security with us, he came over and said, ‘Phil just wanted to say ‘Hey.’ He wanted to give you a call.’ So I said, ‘Yeah, tell Phil to call me whenever he wants.’ So I got on the phone with Phil and I was just shooting the shit with him. He goes, ‘Zakk, everyone thinks there’s a rift [between us].’ I said, ‘Phil, I get along with everybody.’ He said, ‘I wish I could talk with Vin [former PANTERA drummer and Dimebag‘s brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott]’ and this and that. So I said, ‘Dude, just pour your heart out and talk to him.'”
He added, “It’s up to the guys [if they ever want to play together again]. Put it this way: If they were, like, ‘We’re gonna do this and they asked me to play Dime‘s guitar parts, I’d be honored. I was a pallbearer for him, so he was my brother, man. And I know if he was on the side of the stage watching me play, he’d be laughing his balls off — that’s just a fact. He’d go, ‘Hey, jackass, you missed a couple of notes over here. You botched this one up,’ or whatever. He’d love every second of it. But, of course, I’d be beyond honored to do that; why wouldn’t I? But that’s a call the guys [have to] make.”
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY‘s long-talked-about “Unblackened” DVD, which was previously scheduled to be filmed in late August at The Mayan in Los Angeles, California, will now be shot in January. The set is expected to contain stripped-down versions of some of the band’s most popular cuts. “We’re gonna do the whole thing with a four-piece string section, a pedal steel guy, and I’m gonna have some of my musician buddies sit in on some of the songs and stuff like that,” Wylde said a few months ago. “We’re gonna have two solid weeks of rehearsal and then we’re gonna knock this thing out. [It will be an] acoustic/electric type of thing. Kinda like how the Christmas record is or like how we did ‘The Song Remains Not The Same’ where you’ve got an acoustic and then you can put a rippin’ solo something. So I’ll still have the Marshalls going with the acoustic stuff. It’d be almost kinda like if PINK FLOYD was doing an unplugged thing and they did ‘Comfortably Numb’ but Dave [Gilmour] will be sitting down but he’ll still rip that solo out. It’ll still be electric and then we’ll have the string section behind it and the whole band and it’ll be killer.”
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY‘s “The Song Remains Not The Same” sold around 12,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 41 on The Billboard 200 chart. Released on May 10, 2011 via Entertainment One Music, the offering featured unplugged versions of material from BLACK LABEL SOCIETY‘s latest album, “Order Of The Black”, as well as additional material recorded during the “Order Of The Black” sessions. “The Song Remains Not The Same” was conceived, created and compiled by Wylde himself and the title is, of course, a nod to one of Wylde‘s favorite bands, LED ZEPPELIN.
“Order Of The Black” was released in North America in August 2010 via E1 Music. The CD featured four unique covers designed by Zakk Wylde himself — one for each territory: North America, Europe, Asia and Australia/New Zealand.
Three of the leading gear/technology companies for both musicians and consumers alike returned with their successful “Metal Masters” clinic series. Partnering up with Guitar Center, “Metal Masters 4” took place earlier last night (Friday, September 7) at the Gramercy Theater in New York City .
“Metal Masters 4” brought back some of the classic “masters” while adding a few new members to the list. Tonight’s main band comprised of Philip Anselmo (DOWN, ex-PANTERA), Kerry King (SLAYER), Dave Lombardo (SLAYER), Scott Ian (ANTHRAX), Charlie Benante (ANTHRAX), Frank Bello (ANTHRAX) and newly added masters Billy Sheehan (MR. BIG, DAVID LEE ROTH) and Gary Holt (EXODUS, SLAYER).
The following songs were performed:
* “Room For One More” (w/ Frank Bello on lead vocals) (ANTHRAX)
* “Mouth For War” (PANTERA)
* “Five Minutes Alone” (PANTERA)
* “A New Level” (PANTERA)
* “Chemical Warfare” (SLAYER)
* “War Ensemble” (SLAYER)
* “Goddamn Electric” (PANTERA)
* “Sergeant D & The S.O.D.” (STORMTROOPERS OF DEATH)
* “Kill Yourself” (STORMTROOPERS OF DEATH)
* “Angel Of Death” (SLAYER)
* “Strike Of The Beast” (EXODUS)
* “Raining Blood” (SLAYER)
* “Fucking Hostile” (PANTERA)
Speaking to Artisan News earlier this summer, King stated about tonight’s “Metal Masters” event, “The reason I still do it to this day is to get Phil involved, because I think the world misses him. He’s good at what he does and I’m one of the few guys he looks up to to the point where he’d come out and do it. And I’m not blowing sunshine up my ass; it’s just a fact. And everybody wants to see Phil. Everybody loves Phil. When I come out, it’s a huge applause. When Phil comes out, it’s like somebody came back from the dead; they’re not expecting it. And it’s cool.”
Michael Christopher of The Boston Phoenix recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current DOWN frontman Philip Anselmo. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
On how he remembers his time in PANTERA:
Anselmo: “I miss the days, I long for the days, sometimes, and I miss [late PANTERA guitarist] Dimebag very, very much. There’s a plethora of emotions, and to dwell on the past doesn’t feel healthy for me and when I think about those days. It’s not like I try to think of all the good stuff; it kind of comes naturally, especially ‘Vulgar Display Of Power’ and that whole touring cycle and the change in the audience and their perception of us. When we toured ‘Cowboys From Hell’, there was a very lukewarm if not awful response. But when you back it up with a record like ‘Vulgar Display’, that’s when the tide did turn — rapidly, to say the fucking least. There were some extremely educational, memorable, cherishable times in my life.”
On a long-rumored VAN HALEN cover track that was recorded by PANTERA but never released:
Anselmo: “We used to fuck with all kinds of songs. Obviously we did that ridiculous version of ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ for some movie soundtrack [‘Detroit Rock City’], that dickface Ted Nugent. Shit, dude, we would kick into KANSAS and all kinds of shit. What you said does ring a bell; I think it was something like ‘Outta Love Again’, I wonder where that shit is. And here’s another one for ya: I never did sing on the motherfucker, that old Phil Collins [he starts singing ‘I Don’t Care Anymore’], we did a version of that, and it’s somewhere. But there really probably isn’t any original material left, but cover tunes and shit like that. If there was the proper amount of digging, we could find all kinds of shit.”
On the constant media portrayal of metal fans on the whole as uneducated lunkheads:
Anselmo: “We haven’t helped. There’s been a lot of things that have not helped us. I remember being flown into New York when MTV was going through some kind of change-up in the early 2000s, and they wanted me to be the host of ‘Headbangers Ball’. First of all, the name of the show sucks — it fucking sucks, it’s cheesy as fuck. Why don’t you just call it the ‘Extreme Music Hour’ or something like that and give it some fucking credibility — because honestly, there’s great musicians in heavy metal. Look at some of the great guitar players. . . But heavy metal has always gotten the meathead rap, and you know, hey, honestly I haven’t fucking helped. I’ve made more bad decisions than great decisions in my fucking life, and I regret a lot of things I’ve said onstage, a lot of actions I’ve done onstage, and a lot of trouble that I’ve got into, because all it does is bring bad publicity to heavy metal. It kind of makes us, heavy metallers, a sovereign state in a lot of ways. We might not get as much big-time praise from mainstream media, but let them call us meatheads, let them think we’re ignorant, and let them keep writing awful music — and I’ll keep calling it awful and we’ll just be even at that.”
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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