Author: Editorial Team

Ronnie Romero has built his name over the past several years fronting Ritchie Blackmore‘s Rainbow and playing alongside Michael Schenker, and now he is adding his voice to the ongoing conversation about musicians using A.I. tools to generate melodies, harmonies and lyrics.

Earlier today (Saturday, Aug. 8), Romero posted an A.I.-generated image of himself to social media, accompanying it with a lengthy message reflecting on what artificial intelligence means for music.

“This photo was created with AI. At first glance, it looks amazing… but if you look a little closer, you’ll realize that it’s actually not me. Or it just doesn’t seems ‘right’. And I think something similar happens with music.

“As a tool, I think AI is fantastic. It can be incredibly useful for developing ideas, experimenting, and exploring directions we might not have thought of otherwise. But in my opinion, it will never be exactly the same as something created by a human being.

“Lately, when I work on collaborations, I sometimes receive vocal lines created with AI. And I have no problem with that, sometimes the musician simply doesn’t sing that well. But I always warn them that I’ll probably change a few things: a melody here, an interval there, a few little adjustments…

“Why? Because it simply doesn’t always sound natural.

“There are things a human voice does organically that are extremely difficult to reproduce artificially. And a voice is not just a technically well-written melody. It’s also emotion, feeling, intention… Your mood, your energy, your tiredness, the way you feel in that particular moment, all of it makes a difference.

“That’s why, even if an AI-generated song can sound incredible, I still believe it will never be better than something written and performed with a human heart and mind. Because the voice and soul of a human singer aren’t simply data that can be reproduced on a massive scale. Every voice is different. Every singer is different. Every person is their own world. And somehow, all of that ends up being reflected in the music.

“I’m not against AI. Quite the opposite, I think it’s an incredible tool, and we’re only beginning to discover what it can do. But I believe there’s something technology will never be able to completely replace: the human element.”

Telling the difference between human-made and A.I.-generated music has gotten harder by the day. Last year, The Velvet Sundown, a rock act built entirely with A.I., racked up viral streaming numbers on Spotify with the track “Dust On The Wind.” Around the same time, Breaking Rust‘s A.I.-produced single “Walk My Walk” climbed to the top of Billboard‘s Country Digital Sales chart.

Deezer reported last November that roughly 50,000 A.I.-generated tracks were landing on its platform daily, accounting for more than a third of everything submitted.

Spotify responded earlier this year by rolling out verification badges on artist profiles, giving listeners a way to separate real musicians from the flood of A.I.-made content on the platform.

Ashley Graver, Spotify’s head of global artist partnerships, echoed that sentiment in a video posted to Spotify News’ Instagram, saying fans need confidence that the artists they follow are real people with real careers.

The debate has also drawn in bigger names. Sir Elton John and Dua Lipa are among the musicians who have recently pushed for A.I. regulation, backing petitions aimed at restricting its use in the industry.

Romero, a Chilean native now based in Romania after a long stretch living in Madrid, Spain, stepped into the Rainbow lineup in June 2016, taking the frontman role in the version of the band Blackmore assembled after leaving Deep Purple.

Beyond Rainbow, Romero has recorded or toured with Michael Schenker Group, Lords Of Black, The Ferrymen, Elegant Weapons, Sunstorm and Vandenberg.

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The legendary guitarist Robin Trower will release his new album, Shine, on 25 September via Provogue / Artone Label Group. He has also revealed his new single, “Live Your Time”, to celebrate the announcement.

Ask Robin Trower to explain his late-period creative burst and the legendary British guitarist can only shrug: “I think you’ve either got to keep pushing – or give up.”

Now 81, with a mythology that spans from the clubs of Swinging London, to Procol Harum, through 1974’s gold-selling Bridge Of Sighs and onward into a vital post-millennial solo catalogue, the veteran bluesman’s place amongst the all-time greats is beyond doubt.

Yet while his ’60s peers have long softened into greatest-hits autopilot, this restless artist still starts each morning the same way: stood in his workroom with a battle-scarred signature Strat, hunting down the magic note that will spark his next song. “Then I’ll wake up in the middle of the night,” he smiles, “with a line for the lyric.”

Kicking off the sessions at his favoured Studio 91 in Newbury – then moving to engineer Sam Winfield’s new facility The Pines to fix the holes – Trower’s thumbprint is all over a powerful, intimate new album where molten guitar solos drive songs urging us to meet the modern world head-on. “I agree with people that it’s a very dark time. But I don’t want to make gloomy music. I think that most of these songs are positive.”

Shine is worthy of the name: an album that shimmers with possibility and crackles with vintage Trower power. “It’s great to get that energy back off an audience,” he considers, “but I just love recording too. It’s always fun, you know? Playing guitar: that’s what I do, and that’s what I love.”

Self-producing while handling guitar and bass, the veteran was confident enough to delegate key duties to his trusty studio band, with drummer Chris Taggart driving the new material and long-standing vocalist Richard Watts articulating each emotion. “The strength of his vocals, the beauty of his vocal tone – he’s so musical,” considers Trower. “I usually write with Richard in mind. I can hear it all in my head.”
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The first single “Live Your Time”’s soul-funk riffing heats the valves in Trower’s Marshall stack. “The opening riff of “Live Your Time” is one of the best things I’ve ever come up with,” he says. “ It’s always very loud in the studio, and that’s how you get the tone, by cranking the amp. That’s another song where I’m saying, ‘Calm down, it’s all going to work out. Just get the most out of your life.’”
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Trower’s back catalogue is fast closing in on 30 releases (not to count collaborations with Jack Bruce, Bryan Ferry, Maxi Priest and more). Nor that the past decade alone has yielded no less than eight studio albums. “Trower is to be treasured,” wrote Classic Rock of 2025’s Come And Find Me, while even the self-effacing bluesman allows himself a flash of satisfaction: “I think, over the past few years, I have set quite a high standard. Now I’m determined to keep that going. To still have the energy to work, that is a real blessing.”

Keep pushing or give up? It should be obvious which path Robin Trower has taken – and Shine is the latest thrilling evidence of a songwriter who chooses to forge ahead rather than rest on his laurels. “Really, if I have a gift,” he concludes, “it’s probably that I come up with ideas. Ideas for songs, ideas for lead work. Certainly, that’s what keeps me going. It’s just so exciting to see something blossoming into a new song.

Shine is available for pre-order here.

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Progressive art-rockers The Pineapple Thief are excited to announce that their brand new studio album Far and Wide will be released via InsideOutMusic on the 9th October 2026. On this latest record, The Pineapple Thief feel more like a rock band than ever. Still progressive. Still masters of spine-tingling atmosphere. Still attuned to the strange, troubled world around us. And now, a decade and seven albums on from the arrival of Gavin Harrison on drums – and newly signed to InsideOut Records – they capture the chemistry, road miles and bigger stages of the last few years.

Coinciding with this announcement is the launch of the hard-hitting single “New World Order”, complete with a striking video by longtime collaborator George Laycock at Black Tide Productions.

Far and Wide is the sound of a group with dreamlike complexity at their fingertips, channelling it into hard-hitting, incisive songs.

“We realised, for instance, that you don’t need more than two guitar parts at any one time,” frontman/founder Bruce Soord says. “You know, ’why have we got four or five guitars? Why have we got six-part harmonies when there’s only three of us singing?’ We deliberately created those constraints, because we thought, ‘we’re a rock band, there’s five of us on stage, this is what we should be about in the studio.’”

“You do start to imagine what a song would look like on a stage, and sometimes that does influence the arrangement,” Harrison adds. “Like, ‘this would be amazing live when we do this, if this section just went into this other thing’, and you can picture it with the lights and the atmosphere on stage.”

It’s a fitting mindset for Far And Wide’s powerful, immersive tracklist. You’ll find vignettes of a society in turmoil here. Moral courage in the face of adversity. Personal loss and its ripples. Points that intensify the foundations laid by 2024’s It Leads To This, in which the band contemplated all that the next generation stood to inherit.

Far and Wide will arrive on several formats, including a Ltd 2CD & Blu-ray artbook which includes the bonus track ‘Daylight’, as well as a second CD of instrumentals and a blu-ray featuring Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD 5.1 Surround Sound & 24/48 Stereo Mixes. The album will also be available as a Special Edition CD Digipak, Gatefold LP (in several colour variants) & digitally as both stereo & Dolby Atmos. All formats feature the striking cover image of an abstract sculpture by the late Michael Schoenholtz, father of Harrison’s longtime partner Hannah.

The band will follow the release of the album with a headline North American tour to take place in late 2026. The full list of dates is as follows:

Nov. 17th Washington DC – Howard Theater
Nov. 19th Philadelphia PA – Theatre of Living Arts
Nov. 20th New York City NY – Gramercy Theatre
Nov. 21st Somerville MA – Somerville Theater
Nov. 22nd Quebec City QC – Capitole
Nov. 24th Montreal QC – Beanfield Theatre
Nov. 25th Toronto ON – Danforth Music Hall
Nov. 27th Chicago IL – House of Blues
Nov. 28th Cleveland OH – House of Blues
Nov. 29th St. Louis MO – Delmar Hall
Dec. 1st Dallas TX – The Bomb Factory
Dec. 3rd Denver CO – Summit
Dec. 5th Phoenix AZ – Crescent Ballroom
Dec. 6th San Diego CA – The Observatory North Park
Dec. 8th Los Angeles CA – The Bellwether
Dec. 9th San Francisco CA – August Hall
Dec. 11th Seattle WA – Neptune Theater
Dec. 12th Portland OR – Revolution Hall
Dec. 13th Vancouver BC – Hollywood Theater

Founded in 1999 by Bruce Soord, the band has long been one of the genre’s most successful and accomplished outfits, releasing 16 studio albums and touring worldwide. The band consists of Soord on vocals and guitars, Jon Sykes on bass, Steve Kitch on keyboards, and Gavin Harrison on drums.

Far and Wide is available for pre-order here.

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Hamburg’s Iron Savior is gearing up to drop a new studio record, Deathbringer, out November 13 via Frontiers Music Srl.

Marking the announcement, Iron Savior has dropped the album’s lead single, “Back From The Fires Of Hell,” backed by an official visualizer available below.

Frontman Piet Sielck opened up about just how personal the new song is for him. Its title alone draws a direct line to “Through The Fires Of Hell,” a cut from the band’s previous record, Firestar.

“I wrote the first lyrics before I received my cancer diagnosis… Then poetry turned into bitter reality… Although in a different way than I had originally imagined,” Sielck said. “We went through this together… ‘Through The Fires Of Hell’ is therefore more like poetry dedicated to my wife, while ‘Back From The Fires Of Hell’ is more of a reflection on actual events.”

On the move to Frontiers, Sielck added, “I’m extremely excited to announce that Iron Savior has joined the Frontiers Music family. After all these years in the metal world, it feels truly special to start this new journey with a new partner by our side. Even more special is the fact that this step also means reconnecting with longtime friends and companions from the past — people I have shared many years of musical experiences with and who share the same passion for honest, powerful heavy metal.”

“With Frontiers behind us, we are looking forward to celebrating 30 years of Iron Savior and the release of our new album, with great energy and excitement, and a lot more to come with Frontiers by our side,” he continued. “A huge thank you to all the fans who have supported Iron Savior throughout the years. Your passion keeps the fire burning. Heavy metal never dies \m/”.

Iron Savior has built a reputation as one of Europe’s steadiest and most productive power metal outfits, and with Deathbringer on the way, the band led by Sielck has plenty to mark the occasion. The new album follows the third chapter of the Reforged series, which saw the band fully re-record its Noise Records-era catalog, along with a covers record. Now the group returns with a full slate of original material.

Deathbringer finds Iron Savior sounding energized, punchy and full of the anthemic hooks that have defined the band for decades. The record also lines up with a co-headline run alongside Mystic Prophecy, and it doubles as a celebration of the band’s 30th anniversary.

As always, Sielck handled production himself at his own Powerhouse Studio, a facility long tied to the band’s sound. With Deathbringer, Iron Savior delivers a natural follow-up to 2023’s Firestar.

Every track on the new record leans into the anthemic style that’s long been one of Iron Savior‘s biggest strengths. “Climbing Higher” brings a big motivational push, “Light In The Dark” dips into melodic speed metal territory, and the title track, “Deathbringer,” hits fast and hard right out of the gate. The stomping “Creature’s Tale” stands out as another standout cut.

Deathbringer also marks a return to concept-album territory for the band. Set 200 years after a period of peace, the story finds the galaxy under threat again as the Shadows, an insectoid species and longtime enemy of humanity, resurface. Aboard their massive Deathbringer vessel, an immortal Queen keeps the last of her kind alive inside a digital hive powered by the life force of entire worlds. Iron Savior and its allies must now face down a threat unlike anything they’ve encountered before.

Between the music and the story, Deathbringer pulls together everything Iron Savior has represented across three decades: big power metal hooks, massive choruses and sci-fi world-building, delivered by a band that shows no signs of slowing down after 30 years.

Deathbringer was produced, mixed, and mastered by Piet Sielck. All songs written by Piet Sielck. It is available for pre-order here.

Iron Savior is:

Piet Sielck / Lead Vocals and Guitars
Joachim “Piesel” Küstner / Guitars
Patrick Opitz / Bass
Patrick Klose / Drums

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With Bloodstock 2026 still underway and tracking toward another record year, festival organizers have already pulled back the curtain on the first names booked for 2027, breaking the news from the Ronnie James Dio stage right after Municipal Waste wrapped its set. Mark the calendar for Aug. 5-8, 2027, at Catton Park in Derbyshire, United Kingdom.

Friday’s Ronnie James Dio main stage closes out with Mercyful Fate, the Danish outfit credited with helping invent heavy metal’s theatrical side, with King Diamond‘s falsetto still fully intact. Corpse paint, inverted crosses and an occult-drenched stage show remain the calling card, and a lot of extreme metal’s roots trace directly back here. King Diamond shared the news himself, saying, “Mercyful Fate is honored and looking extremely forward to playing Bloodstock again, last time was awesome, and this time with a brand new album out, FINALLY!!!”

Saturday night flips the script entirely as Electric Callboy takes its first-ever Bloodstock headline slot. The German group’s blend of metalcore, EDM and outright comedy makes for one of modern metal’s most unpredictable live shows, and Catton Park should look more like a rave that stumbled into a mosh pit. The band says, “Our first-ever Bloodstock. Heavy music, questionable outfits, and thousands of metalheads? Sounds like a perfect fit to us. We’re in. See you there!”

Sunday brings another first-time headliner in gothic-industrial metalcore act Motionless In White, now two decades deep and still delivering full theatrical spectacle. Frontman Chris Motionless leads the charge, turning every track into something you could mosh to and watch like a horror film at once. Having just come off a strong tour run, the band shows no signs of slowing, and this headline slot promises to raise the bar further. Motionless put it this way: “Bloodstock! We were told that we are one of the most requested bands to perform at your legendary festival, so it is with great honor to announce that we are answering the call and will be seeing you next year for our first ever European festival headlining show, and only U.K. show of 2027! Thank you so much! Let the countdown begin.”

Over on the Sophie Lancaster stage, Thursday’s headline slot belongs to Madball, bringing more than 35 years of straight-up New York hardcore to open the festival. Freddy Cricien and company still hit exactly as hard as they did back in ’89. Friday’s closing set on that stage goes to the enigmatic Gaerea, whose black metal has only grown more cinematic and punishing with each release. Kanonenfieber takes Saturday’s top spot, turning WWI diaries into blackened death metal that plays like trench warfare set to sound. Closing the entire festival is Dethklok, the band born out of the animated series Metalocalypse that’s since become a legitimately heavy live act, cartoon origins aside.

A few more names round out the Ronnie James Dio stage bill. Friday special guests Acid Bath bring Louisiana sludge metal steeped in doom, blues, and southern gothic dread. Saturday special guests Green Lung deliver folk-horror occult rock soaked in Hammer-film atmosphere and fuzzed-out riffage. Sunday special guests Children Of Bodom return to honor the melodic death metal legacy built by the late Alexi Laiho.

Elsewhere on the bill, DevilDriver finally makes its way back with Dez Fafara‘s groove-heavy California metal built for big circle pits. Corrosion Of Conformity, more than 40 years into blending hardcore punk with Black Sabbath-indebted southern metal, also joins the lineup. Imminence brings Swedish alternative metalcore built around soaring choruses and crushing breakdowns, while Wind Rose offers up Italian folk-power metal tailor-made for beer-hall singalongs. Sylosis brings U.K. thrash sharpened with melodic death metal precision courtesy of Josh Middleton‘s riffing, and Decapitated delivers Polish technical death metal built to impress even the genre’s harshest critics.

Witch Club Satan, an all-female Norwegian black metal act with roots in theater training, could be a breakout discovery for many attendees. HammerFall brings anthemic Swedish power metal, while fellow Swedes Hypocrisy continue delivering after three decades in the death metal game. The Halo Effect, made up of former In Flames members, revisits the classic Gothenburg melodic death metal sound. Tortured Demon returns for another round of pedigree thrash after previously breaking out on a Bloodstock stage. Czech goregrind act Gutalax brings its signature blend of toilet humor and blast beats, Humanity’s Last Breath delivers Swedish deathcore built around a crushing, low-tuned sound, and Liverpool’s self-described “caveman battle doom” act Conan rounds things out with riffs heavy enough to have their own gravitational pull.

The Sophie Lancaster stage tent has plenty more in store, too. Dool brings a candlelit haze of dark rock and post-rock out of Rotterdam, with a new album already finished. Pig Destroyer delivers Virginia grindcore built on blast beats and JR Hayes‘s nightmarish lyrics, and Fulci rounds things out with old-school death metal soaked in zombie-movie gore, paying tribute to horror director Lucio Fulci with every release.

Roughly 100 more bands are still to be announced.

Early bird standard weekend tickets are available at the festival’s main entrance box office for £210, no booking fee attached, while supplies last. Once they sell out on-site, prices jump to £235 plus booking fee, with general on-sale starting Monday, Aug. 10, at 9 a.m., meaning early birds could save roughly £34 per ticket.

Wednesday early access returns for select campsites in 2027, alongside child tickets, and kids under four get in free. The installment payment plan for select ticket types also returns, going live Wednesday, Aug. 12. Coach packages open Monday, Aug. 10, while VIP and campervan tickets go on sale Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 9 a.m.

New for 2027, Bloodstock is adding a second luxury VIP option. Fans can pitch a tent (or book a pre-erected one) in the Serpent’s Lair VIP campsite, or opt for one of the deluxe pod pads in the newly added Serpent’s Lair VIP Sanctuary. Tucked into a series of glades just a five-minute walk from both the VIP campsite and the main arena, the Sanctuary offers a quieter retreat without straying far from the action.

Full ticket packages and additional details are available at the official Bloodstock website.

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A trailer has landed for Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear, a warts-and-all look at the life of drummer, producer and rock fixture Travis Barker. The documentary drops August 13 on Hulu and Disney+ bundle for U.S. subscribers, with a Disney+ release for international viewers.

The film has Barker walking through the 2008 plane crash that claimed the lives of his assistant, Chris “Lil Chris” Baker, his bodyguard, Charles “Che” Still, and both the pilot and co-pilot. Barker and Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein made it out alive but suffered severe burns. Goldstein was found dead in his New York City apartment roughly a year afterward.

Interviews in the trailer include Barker‘s Blink-182 bandmates, Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge, plus appearances from Mötley Crüe‘s Tommy Lee and the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Louder Than Fear premiered this past June at the Tribeca Festival, with the screening followed by a live conversation featuring Barker.

The film’s synopsis frames it as the story of a drummer who survived a near-fatal plane crash and came out the other side changed. Before Barker ever sat behind a kit for Blink-182, he was collecting trash in Laguna Beach; stepping in as the band’s replacement drummer set off a rise that would make him one of the most recognizable players of his generation. Underneath that success, the documentary digs into a man wrestling with grief, pain and the fine line between pushing through and giving in, told through the people who know him best.

Louder Than Fear comes from Media Weaver Entertainment, directed by Justin Krook and Michael Dwyer, and produced by Matthew Weaver and Nick Stern. Lawrence Vavra and John Janick serve as executive producers.

Barker‘s résumé spans hip hop, alternative rock, pop and country. Beyond his main gig, he’s a member of rap-rock outfit Transplants, co-founded +44, and has played with Box Car Racer, Antemasque and Goldfinger. He handled drums on Avril Lavigne‘s The Best Damn Thing and Love Sux, as well as Machine Gun Kelly‘s Tickets To My Downfall and Mainstream Sellout. His solo record, Give The Drummer Some, shows off range that goes well beyond any single genre or band.

Barker‘s recovery from the 2008 crash was extensive: burns across 65% of his body, 11 weeks in the hospital and close to 30 surgeries. After treatment that included multiple operations and PTSD therapy, he returned to Blink-182. He wrote about the experience in his memoir, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, And Drums, Drums, Drums.

Outside music, Barker built the clothing brand Famous Stars And Straps and launched two record labels, LaSalle Records and DTA Records, alongside partnerships with DC Shoes and Zildjian on signature gear. He also drummed for Post Malone‘s Nirvana tribute set, staged as a fundraiser for the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Between the technical skill, genre-hopping collaborations and personal comeback story, Barker has carved out a lasting spot in modern rock.

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Topeka, a major player in the U.S. destination-vacation music scene, has unveiled fresh additions to this year’s “Rockin’ In Paradise With Styx & Friends” beach weekend, set to return to Miramar Beach, Florida, October 8-10.

New for 2026, the three-day getaway brings in three yacht rock legends: Peter Beckett of Player, Elliot Lurie of Looking Glass and Walter Egan. The trio will team up with Yacht Rock Revue for a one-off collaborative set built around some of the genre’s most beloved songs.

Organizers have also rolled out single-day ticket options, giving fans more flexibility in how they attend.

The lineup once again centers on two full headlining sets from Styx, backed by a stacked bill featuring Tesla, The Marshall Tucker Band, Yacht Rock Revue, Don Felder, Edwin McCain, The Band Feel, 38 Special, Jefferson Starship, The Outlaws, The Velcro Pygmies, Jay Psaros, School Of Rock and exclusive guest segments hosted by rock radio fixture Eddie Trunk.

Friday night’s already-buzzy Yacht Rock Revue headline set just got bigger with three special guests added to the bill:

• Peter Beckett (Player) — the voice behind “Baby Come Back”
• Elliot Lurie (Looking Glass) — known for “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)”
• Walter Egan — the man behind “Magnet And Steel”

The collaborative performance will run through a batch of classic rock’s most familiar hits in a beachside setting built for the occasion.

New ticket tiers give fans more ways to take in the weekend:

• Day Pass Cove — reserved seated cove, $119 per person, per day
• Grand Lawn Pass — $68 per person, per day, open lawn seating with room to stand, sit or dance; blankets allowed
• Pit Pass — $345 per person, per day for standing-room space right up front

Beyond the two nightly Styx sets, attendees get an exclusive Styx Q&A hosted by Trunk, daytime beach activities and Topeka‘s signature hospitality touches.

The 5,500-capacity venue was built to skip the usual festival headaches, with guests relaxing in their own reserved cove while food, drinks and merch get delivered straight to their seats. Air-conditioned restrooms and easy walks from nearby beach lodging round out the setup.

Full schedule and vacation package details are available here.

Recording new music remains central to the band’s identity, and Styx backs that up with Circling From Above, its 18th studio album, out now via Alpha Dog 2T/UMe. The 13-track record explores the tension between technology and nature through the lens of the human experience. Critics have called it the band’s third straight “masterpiece,” following 2021’s Crash Of The Crown and 2017’s The Mission. All seven current members appear on the record: founding guitarist/vocalist James “JY” Young, guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, original bassist Chuck Panozzo, longtime drummer Todd Sucherman, keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan, guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich and bassist Terry Gowan.

All seven members remain committed to bringing their A-game to Paradise and beyond, drawing from five-plus decades of hits, singalongs and deep cuts. A typical Styx set moves through the sweeping ambition of “The Grand Illusion,” the blue-collar grit of “Blue Collar Man,” the devotion of “Lady,” the pointed jab of “Miss America,” the isolation of “Man In The Wilderness,” the searching drive of “Crystal Ball,” the soaring reach of “Come Sail Away” and the rough-and-tumble swagger of “Renegade.”

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The second installment of the Foo Fighters‘ Are Playing Where??? live EP series is finally here.

Are Playing Where??? Vol. II collects six blistering performances recorded earlier this year during the band’s packed, sweat-drenched underplay shows at Irving Plaza in New York City and Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. The EP is up now on Bandcamp for whatever price fans want to pay, with proceeds benefiting local charities tied to both cities. Worth digging around the page while you’re there, too, since it’s a good spot to find other artists worth a listen.

Foo Fighters is currently deep into the North American run of its “Take Cover” stadium tour and just added a batch of South American dates for early 2027.

The band’s most recent full-length, Your Favorite Toy, dropped in April via Roswell Records/RCA Records. The record was co-produced by Foo Fighters and Oliver Roman, with Roman also handling engineering duties and Mark “Spike” Stent on the mix. Its release lined up with the kickoff of the “Take Cover” world tour.

Foo Fighters played its first show with new drummer Ilan Rubin on Sept. 13, 2025, at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California. The band gave just a day’s notice before the surprise all-ages gig at the 900-capacity venue, which marked Rubin‘s official live debut behind the kit. Rubin, formerly of Nine Inch Nails, had joined the Dave Grohl-fronted band earlier that year.

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Anthrax has today (August 7) released the latest single and video, “Everybody’s Got A Plan,” from their long-awaited 12th full-length studio album Cursum Perficio out September 18 via Megaforce Records.

The new video was mostly filmed on July 7 in Lisbon, Portugal, when the multi-Grammy Award-nominated New York hard rock titans—Scott Ian (guitar), Charlie Benante (drums), Frank Bello (bass), Joey Belladonna (vocals), and Jonathan Donais (guitar)—toured with Iron Maiden in Europe. It features live performance footage and behind-the-scenes backstage fun with cutaways to classic B&W boxing footage that underline the song’s central lyrics: “Everybody’s got a plan/That’s until they get punched in the face…”.

“‘Everybody’s Got a Plan” has always been one of my favorite songs on Cursum Perficio”, Benante says. “The video basically shows the band on and off stage in a montage of video clips that kinda matches the velocity of the song. ‘Everybody’s got a plan/That’s until they get punched in the face’ is such a great line, and so true!”

“Most of this video was shot opening for [Iron] Maiden in Lisbon, Portugal at Estádio da Lu on July 7, 2026,” Ian notes. “We wanted to capture us having fun on tour, and what better way to do that? That was a plan that didn’t end up with a punch in the face! Have fun watching my friends!”

Bello adds: “This video is a great representation of a day in the life of Anthrax on tour.”

Anthrax has previously released two singles and videos from Cursum Perficio: “It’s For The Kids” a classic Anthrax ripper locked and loaded with buzzsaw-sharp riffs, explosive drumming, and a howling and head-banging hook. It undoubtedly has all the makings of a future live staple. It was followed by “The Edge Of Perfection,” highlighted by clean guitar echoes and cymbals that gently shake until a blastbeat blows open the doors. Guitars buzz like a motorboat on the River Styx, making waves through the darkness. In their wake, a crushing rhythm trails the melody of lead singer Joey Belladonna’s lament, “My heart breaks…I’m on the edge…I’m on the edge of perfection.”

Meanwhile, the group recently announced they were rolling out uniquely animated short clips based on the album cover, with the first clip shared July 28. The worked with artist Mark Stritzel for the striking cover and the animation was done by Emmanuel Cappellini. Mark initially worked with the band’s Charlie Benante on the characters featured on the album cover. Every Tuesday, the group will unveil the individual stories of each character featured on the album. Beyond the Magician’s story, subsequent weeks will reveal more about the Woman in White, Dog, Winged Skeleton, concluding September 1 with Hands.

Cursum Perficio marks the band’s first record in ten years since 2016’s For All Kings, which debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. The phrase Cursum Perficio is Latin for “My journey has come to an end,” “My journey is over,” or “I complete my journey.” It proves apropos for such a complete body of work. It will be available as a standard CD; Target exclusive CD with a fabric patch of the album cover; standard black double LP with pop-up gatefold; Target exclusive double LP, red zoetrope with pop up gatefold; Amazon exclusive double LP, purple zoetrope LP with pop-up gatefold; merch exclusive lilac vinyl double LP with pop-up gatefold; Metal Injection exclusive white vinyl double LP with pop-up gatefold; Talk Shop Live exclusive signed with red ripple vinyl double LP with pop-up gatefold; Indie exclusive – red, orange yellow vinyl double LP with pop-up gatefold. To pre-order/pre-save, click here.

The band dove into recording Cursum Perficio in earnest during 2022, working out of Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in Los Angeles. They carefully pieced together what would be this magnum opus, mining their history with reverence, delivering on fan expectations tenfold, and broadening the scope of their signature sound. Produced by Jay Ruston and Anthrax, the result is an album that’s as angry, aggressive, and alive as their most celebrated fare.

Their journey has brought them to Cursum Perficio —a powerful, pummeling, and poetic milestone in Anthrax’s 45-year career.

The post ANTHRAX Releases New Single And Video For “Everybody’s Got A Plan” From Their Upcoming Album “Cursum Perficio” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Rush fans have two reasons to circle October 2 on the calendar, as the UMe/Mercury and Anthem Records camps keep the band’s resurgence rolling with a pair of vinyl releases timed to the ongoing “Fifty Something” tour.

Leading the charge is a 50th-anniversary liquid vinyl pressing of Rush‘s 1976 breakthrough 2112, an album that’s since gone quadruple platinum. A limited batch first hit shelves exclusively at the UMusic Shop in New York City in late July, coinciding with Rush‘s run of four sold-out Madison Square Garden shows. The liquid vinyl edition draws its look from the record’s iconic artwork, with a die-cut sleeve that lets the swirling vinyl itself become part of the cover. It’s now up for pre-order as a Sound Of Vinyl exclusive.

Producer Terry Brown was back behind the board for 2112, and the sprawling, seven-part title track that dominates side one cemented Rush as one of the era’s most ambitious bands. Clocking in past 20 minutes, “2112” follows one man’s fight against a controlling system, a theme that hasn’t lost any of its bite five decades on.

Side two spreads the writing credits around. Neil Peart penned both “A Passage To Bangkok,” a travelogue of highs and lows on the road, and “The Twilight Zone,” a tip of the hat to a pair of episodes from Rod Serling‘s classic anthology series. Alex Lifeson‘s slide-guitar showcase “Lessons” sets up Geddy Lee‘s tender “Tears,” before “Something For Nothing” closes things out with Peart‘s take on choices and consequences.

The second release marks the first-ever vinyl pressing of the band’s 2003 compilation The Spirit Of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987, wrapped in artwork from longtime creative director Hugh Syme. The set arrives in two forms: a full 16-track 2LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl, and a trimmed-down, retailer-exclusive 10-track single LP. The two share nine songs, but “Finding My Way,” the opener from Rush‘s self-titled 1974 debut, only shows up on the single-disc version. Both are open for pre-order now.

The Spirit Of Radio runs through a heavy stretch of Rush staples, opening with the muscle of “Working Man,” the homesick sprawl of “Fly By Night,” the us-versus-them framework of “2112: Overture / The Temples Of Syrinx” and the emotionally bare “Closer To The Heart.” From there it moves into the character study of “The Trees,” the radio-static joy of “The Spirit Of Radio,” the odd-meter workout “Freewill” and the quietly prophetic “Limelight,” a meditation on artists guarding their privacy while chasing the spotlight.

The tracklist also pulls in the concert warhorse “Tom Sawyer” and the high-speed backroads thriller “Red Barchetta,” along with the reggae-inflected “New World Man,” which topped Canadian charts and gave Rush its only U.S. Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. The synth-heavy “Subdivisions” rounds things out with its portrait of restless suburban youth.

Later cuts include “Distant Early Warning” from 1984’s Grace Under Pressure, the Top 50 single “The Big Money” and 1987’s “Force Ten,” which hit No. 3 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Closing both versions is “Time Stand Still,” notable for featuring one of the rare outside voices on a Rush record: ‘Til Tuesday’s Aimee Mann, whose haunting counter-vocal plays off Lee‘s lead. Mann joined the band onstage at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles back in June, singing the track live with Rush for the first time during the tour’s opening dates.

Rush‘s widely praised “Fifty Something” tour continues across North America through the rest of 2026, with South American and European legs planned for 2027. Founders Lee and Lifeson, joined by drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold, launched the trek in Los Angeles, marking the band’s first tour in 11 years. Each stop features two sets pulled from a rotating 40-song pool spanning the band’s five-decade catalog.

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