Queensrÿche singer Todd La Torre and Rock/metal long time producer Zeuss join The Metal Voice and ‘Weigh in’ on entertainment topics such as: sitting or standing during metal shows; filming at concerts and should bands self produce or hire a real producer?
Zeuss is best known in the worlds of hard rock, heavy metal music, hardcore punk, and metalcore. He has engineered, produced, mixed, and mastered albums by a number of high-profile acts, including Rob Zombie, Queensrÿche, Demon Hunter,Suicide Silence, Suffocation,Municipal Waste, Soulfly, Chimaira, Throwdown, Whitechapel, Bleeding Through, Kataklysm, and God Forbid.
He’s made over a half dozen records each with Shadows Fall (including the band’s most commercially successful album, The War Within) and Hatebreed. His relationship with Hatebreed extends to affiliated projects, including Kingdom of Sorrow,[Jasta, and numerous artists signed to singer Jamey Jasta’s Stillborn Records.
Rob Zombie, Joey Jordison, and Max Cavalera are among the musicians who have complimented Zeuss in the press. Wikipedia
Todd La Torre is the lead singer for band Queensrÿche, and a former lead vocalist of the bands Crimson Glory and Rising West.
The Dead Daisies Guitarist Doug Aldrich recently spoke to Jimmy Kay of Canada’s The Metal Voice about the band’s upcoming greatest Hits album and North American tour. Plus he talks about how an unreleased Dio track that he has possession of, will potentially see the light of day in 2024 through Wendy Dio.
Aldrich told The Metal Voice,” Prior to ‘Electra’ (Released in 2012), he Ronnie James Dio) had another song. I had that track, and I put a solo on it. It didn’t have a title, Years went on. And then I ended up doing a renovation at my house and I took those hard drives and I put them in storage (with that track on one of the drives). So at the moment, there’s talk that Wendy wants to put out some stuff, some unreleased stuff next year, in ’24, with Ronnie, including a remake of the track that he sent me, which I’m still in the process of finding it. And Wendy texted me last week and said, ‘Any luck?’ And I said, ‘I’ll get it, Wendy.’ I just have dozens of hard drives I need to go through to find it. And once I do, I’ll give her the track and I’ll either record it with her and them or somebody else will. But it was haunting, because it was Ronnie playing bass and playing rhythm guitar with a drum machine and singing, and the vocal was just, it was haunting, man; really crazy.”
Doug Aldrich played with Dio from 2002-2006.
The Dead Daisies upcoming “Best Of” Album release will include two previously unreleased tracks from the last recording session. It will be available on double CD & Vinyl on August 18th.
Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to former Quiet Riot guitarist and now King Kobra guitarist Carlos Cavazo. In the chat Calvazo talked about King Kobra’s new album ‘We are Warriors’ (That will be released on Aug 11, 2023 via Cleopatra Records) as well as his time in Quiet Riot and Ratt
When asked how he got involved in King Kobra “I’ve done a things with these guys before in the past I’ve done a few records with Paul Shortino obviously and I’ve done a lot of gigs with Carmine Appice here and there. We never did a record together but I’ve always admired Carmine he’s a great drummer, great musician, great person to work with and Paul’s a great person to work with, I always enjoyed working with him. So they contacted me one day and asked me if I’d be interested in maybe doing a song or two on the record and I said yeah. And then they ended up wanting me to do the whole record so I ended up bringing some songs as well. They had about half the record written before I joined and I liked their material. So I quickly jumped on the opportunity. I figured they’re all nice guys, I’m sitting around not doing anything right now. I didn’t really even want to be in a band anymore or even tour anymore but they kind of dragged me into it but uh we’ll see what happens.”
When asked about the musical direction of the new King Kobra Album ‘We are Warriors’ “It sort of like 80’s style Rock. Anthemic sort of choruses and a lot of guitar shredding here and there. Bluesy-based Edge and some of the songs. There’s a couple fast tracks like one or two Up Tempo and there’s double bass drumming and a lot of vocals and harmonies.”
When asked about the indecent of abandoning Kevin DuBrow in the hotel room in Hawaii at the end of the QR 3 tour in the late 80’s “It was my fault indirectly, I didn’t mean to do this but we’re in the hotel and our tour manager came to me and he goes here’s your airline ticket everybody leaves at 12 noon. I go oh please can you get me home earlier I just want to get the hell out of here, can you get me an eight 8 A.M flight or 7am and he goes okay. So he switched me earlier and then everybody else got word of it and wanted to go home early too, we all wanted to get the hell out of there. And so everybody switched and I think he (Tour manager) switched Kevin but Kevin was passed out and he didn’t get the memo and he (tour manager) put his tickets under the door he didn’t get it and he was like maybe he had a hangover or something. He woke up and everybody was gone. It wasn’t intentional, we wouldn’t do that to him even though we had a little falling out whatever, we’re not gonna leave somebody behind.”
When asked if he was asked to rejoin Quiet Riot “They haven’t asked. That’s a political thing. I don’t think I would do it anyways. I don’t even want to be in a band anymore to be honest with you. I’m still recording and writing songs with people but as far as touring and being in a band I don’t know about that anymore I’m just kind of over as far as being in that band (Quiet Riot). I mean I already jumped off that crazy train once I’m not gonna get on it again.”
When asked about his time in Ratt “We toured in 2017, we did all kinds of festivals and stuff and then they decided to fire Warren (DeMartini) for whatever reason and I said I can’t do this without Warren. I don’t want to be in a band with a revolving door of musicians like Quiet Riot, I’m not going to do that again so I left. “
When asked if he participated in the making of the Quiet Riot Documentary “I didn’t. I was out of the band and they called me up and it’s like those guys kind of screwed me over a little bit and after that I was like you know what I didn’t want nothing to do with these people or this band anymore. I vowed to myself I’m not gonna ever do anything for that band and I haven’t for 20 years. People still think I’m in the Band. I’ve been out of the band for more than 20 years. It’s like being married. Sometimes the marriage breaks up in a bad way and it’s a bad divorce and sometimes it’s an amicable divorce if you don’t know what you’re going to get. “
When asked if he would ever return to Quiet Riot “If Frankie and Kevin were around today I would come back but without them I think it’s a no for me.”
When asked about Kevin DuBrow’s Character “Kevinwas a really nice guy. He really was a great person but he had a dark side that would come out occasionally and he had a substance abuse problem, I’m sure everybody knows that. I have to say that Frankie was his bad medicine when Frankie (Banali) wasn’t around Kevin (DuBrow) was a good guy but when Frankie would come around also he ‘d get evil you know. Well on that note I don’t think I’ve ever said that in an interview before.”
A new King Kobra line-up of the band, perhaps their strongest gathering yet, is ready to announce the release of We Are Warriors, the band’s hard-hitting 7th studio album. KK founder Appice is joined once again by longtime bassist Johnny Rod, and vocalist Paul Shortino who welcome to the den the newest vipers, Quiet Riot guitarist Carlos Cavazo and former Dio member Rowan Robertson. With these two talented virtuosos aboard, We Are Warriors is bound to be one of the band’s most celebrated albums!
Check out below the first single, the supercharged title track, which is being released today on all digital platforms. The band even recorded a captivating performance music video that proves these veteran rockers still have what it takes to bring the rock!
TRACK LIST: 1. Music Is A Piece Of Art 2. Turn Up The Music 3. Secrets And Lies 4. Drownin’ 5. One More Night 6. Love Hurts 7. Dance 8. Darkness 9. We Are Warriors 10. Drive Like Lightning 11. Trouble [CD ONLY] 12. Side By Side [CD ONLY]
Former Iron Maiden Drummer Doug Sampson (Airforce) does a walk though and talks about the legacy of East London’s Cart and Horses club where Iron Maiden played in the very early years. Also in the video Cart and Horses manager Kasto Perjoini does a quick history of the club as well.
Reporting for The Metal Voice in London/ photographer Fernando Bonenfant
Sampson told The Metal Voice,” I first become aware of it (Cart and Horses) when a band called Slowbone first played here and it was a place to come on a Friday night and it was absolutely packed, people were flocking onto the streets. So that was my first awareness of the Cart. When I was about 17 I joined a band called Smiler that was with Steve Harris and we’ve done our first gig here, that was on a Sunday night and it we went down quite well. So when Slowdown couldn’t couldn’t make the Friday night spot we was asked to fill for them. After about 30- 40 gigs Smiler had disbanded and Steve decided he wanted to go off and form another band (Iron Maiden). Steve asked me if I wanted to join his new band at the time, I didn’t really want to, I wanted to have a break from the music. So I used to come down virtually every week to see him, so I knew the set pretty damn well. I remember them getting such a good crowd, they had to get noticed sooner or later because so many people were coming down it was just amazing. I used to watch him and I always used to think uh yeah I wouldn’t mind playing with this band. The Cart was basically everything for the East end, this Pub is like there’s so many great bands that have started here and some have gone on to bigger things but there’s been some fantastic bands over the years. I mean you could come in here three or four nights a week and see top-notch Talent. “
The Iron Maiden band were originally formed on Christmas Day 1975 by bassist Steve Harris. The band held their first gig at the Cart and Horses Pub and subsequently took up semi-residency in 1976.
Former Megadeth Drummer Shawn Drover joins The Metal Voice and talks about his new band WITHERING SCORN and their debut album “Prophets Of Demise”.
Also in the interview Shawn Drover gives his Top 5 Metal Hard Rock drummers of all time.
WITHERING SCORN features his brother, and fellow ex-MEGADETH member, Glen Drover, along with former FATES WARNING bassist Joe DiBiase and German singer Henning Basse, who has previously played with FIREWIND, METALIUM and MAYAN.
Withering Scorn was formed in 2020 by brothers Glen and Shawn Drover, who have played together previously in heavy metal icons Megadeth as well as in Eidolon. The pair have teamed up once again for their latest musical offering and are joined by Joe DiBiase on bass, who played with Fates Warning for 14 years on multiple records and world tours, and German native Henning Basse on vocals, who is most well-known for his work with Metalium, Firewind, and others. The potent combination of these four incredibly talented musicians joining forces has given birth to an uncompromising heavy metal record in the form of their debut offering, “Prophets Of Demise”.
WITHERING SCORN’s debut album, “Prophets Of Demise”, was released on July 7 via Frontiers Music Srl.
Neil Turbin reporting for Canada’s The Metal Voice in Los Angeles at Book Soup (July13 2023) filmed the fan Q and A/ book signing of Metal Blade RecordsBrian Slagel who launched his new book ‘Swing of the Blade’.
Also at the Q and A was Armored Saint’s John Bush, Betsy Bitch and host Don Jamieson.
Swing of the Blade follows Brian Slagel’s critically acclaimed 2017 book, For the Sake of Heaviness, which delivered a compelling inside look at how a metal-obsessed California teen built Metal Blade Records into the preeminent international home of heavy music. Rabid readers demanded more anecdotes, more bands, and more of Slagel’s musical wisdom. With Swing of the Blade, he delivers. Featuring a foreword by Slayer’s Kerry King, the new book is part memoir, part music-business primer, and all metal – delving deep into scenes and bands that fans worldwide obsess about. Slagel serves up more of his favorite memories about iconic musicians and events, and delves into even greater detail about his long and ongoing relationships with Metallica, Armored Saint, King Diamond and other heavyweights. Swing of the Blade is told in Slagel’s humble but authoritative voice. His view for the last 40 years–from the studio, side-stage and boardroom–offers an unprecedented look into the music, business, and passion that has made both Slagel and Metal Blade champions of discovering and nurturing the best heavy music on the planet. (Bmg Books)
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
