Author: Editorial Team

Today, the acclaimed American hard rock band Tesla is proud to unveil their new single, “Never Alone,” taken from their upcoming album, Homage, set for release on July 17, 2026, via Frontiers Music Srl. Marking a full-circle moment in their storied career, the album finds the band returning to their roots with a collection of covers honoring some of rock’s most timeless hits.

On the creation of the new original track, Brian Wheat shares: “‘Never Alone’ is a new song that we wrote in the 11th hour of recording the album Homage. It started out as a simple guitar riff. I was at my friends Rachael Ray and John Cusimano‘s house filming an episode for her TV show, I had some time to kill, so I went into their studio in the house, picked up John’s acoustic guitar and started strumming these chords to kill some time. When I listened back to it, it sounded like a Tesla song. I thought maybe it was gonna be a song for one of my other projects, but it sounded like Tesla. So I sent it to Jeff and he said it’s definitely Tesla. Out of that, he came up with the title “Never Alone”, we worked on it together, writing the lyrics, the music, switching the chorus around a little bit, and as a result, I think it turned out pretty good. I hope you enjoy it. This is our new song ‘Never Alone’ because we’re never alone.”

It is remarkable to reflect on the more than 40 years since Tesla began as a cover band performing in California nightclubs before going on to write and record original material and sell millions of albums.

Much like their musical heroes — The Beatles and The Rolling Stones—artists who honed their craft by performing songs from those who came before them, Tesla followed a similar path in their early years and continues to embrace the tradition of paying tribute through cover songs today.

Homage, the band’s upcoming album, not only honors legendary artists but also provides an opportunity to showcase lead singer Jeff Keith‘s vocal diversity. The album stands as a thank-you expressed through music, an offering to the iconic voices and songs that shaped the band’s influences and, ultimately, their own songwriting.

Homage is not about imitation, but acknowledgment, tracing the line from influence to identity, from listening to becoming. The project also arrives more than 20 years after the Real to Reel series, a release that helped inspire the creation of a new original Tesla song, “Never Alone.”

The selected songs on Homage were chosen for a variety of reasons, primarily representing some of the greatest vocalists of all time, including Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Sam Cooke, David Ruffin, Etta James, and James Brown. Additional selections reflect songs the band grew up hearing on the radio and on their turntables.

On the upcoming album, Tesla shares: “Our new album Homage is a thank-you note written in sound. An offering to the great singers and songs that shaped the music we grew up listening to, and the songs we would eventually write. We hope you all enjoy this as much as we did making it. Thank you for all the years – Keep it Real and Keep On Rockin’!”

Tesla is excited to be hitting the road this summer on The Return of the Carnival of Sins Tour with Motley Crue and Extreme. The tour begins on July 17th in Burgettstown, PA, and winds its way through the United States before concluding in Ridgefield, WA on September 26th. For a full list of dates, please see below.

The Return of the Carnival of Sins Tour with Motley Crue and Extreme Dates:

Jul 17 – Burgettstown, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake
Jul 18 – Buffalo, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
Jul 20 – Clarkson, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
Jul 22 – Toronto, ON @ RBC Amphitheatre
Jul 24 – Gilford, NH @ BankNH Pavilion
Jul 25 – Bangor, ME @ Maine Savings Amphitheater
Jul 27 – Camden, NJ @ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
Jul 29 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Jul 31 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
Aug 1 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
Aug 3 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
Aug 12 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Aug 14 – West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre
Aug 15 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
Aug 17 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
Aug 19 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
Aug 21 – Shakopee, MN @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Aug 22 – Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Aug 24 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
Aug 25 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
Aug 27 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Acrisure Amphitheater
Aug 28 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center
Sep 8 – Kansas City, MO @ Morton Amphitheater
Sep 10 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
Sep 11 – Houston, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Sep 13 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
Sep 16 – Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
Sep 18 – Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Sep 19 – Long Beach, CA @ Long Beach Amphitheater
Sep 21 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
Sep 23 – Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheatre
Sep 24 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheater
Sep 26 – Ridgefield, WA @ Cascades Amphitheater

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More than six years after the death of Neil Peart, Rush members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are still sharing stories about the drummer’s unique personality and the role he played in shaping one of progressive rock’s most influential bands.

In a new interview with PROG, the two musicians reflected on their longtime friend and bandmate, who passed away on January 7, 2020 after battling glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. While the conversation carried an obvious sense of loss, both musicians also recalled the lighter moments that defined their decades together.

Looking back at Neil Peart‘s arrival in Rush in 1974 following the departure of John Rutsey, Geddy Lee admitted that the young drummer initially seemed very different from the rest of the group.

“Oh yeah,” said Geddy Lee. “We’d talk about him all the time like he was an alien, ’cos he seemed kind of like an alien. He was very different to anyone else we hung around with. His hair was too short, and he would talk about things we never talked about – big, weighty subjects. And he was reading all the time.”

According to Geddy Lee: “We read things like Lord Of The Rings. We read the fun shit. He read everything.”

Alex Lifeson added: “He was deep, all the time.”

Geddy Lee continued: “He was so verbose. He could talk about anything. And that’s when me and Al said, [conspiratorial whisper], ‘Hey, he reads books. Let’s make him do lyrics.’”

Alex Lifeson recalled Neil Peart‘s response: “He was a little reluctant, but then he said, ‘Yeah, OK, I’ll give it a try.’”

Geddy Lee concluded with a laugh: “It worked out OK, I think!”

The decision proved to be a defining moment for Rush. Beyond his reputation as one of rock’s most respected drummers, Neil Peart became the band’s primary lyricist, helping establish the identity that carried the group through decades of success. His contributions extended far beyond the drum kit, becoming an essential part of the chemistry between Peart, Lee, and Lifeson.

While Rush officially ended with Neil Peart‘s passing, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have launched their Fifty Something world tour on June 7 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, joined by German drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold.

The band also shared a message with fans alongside a new photo captured by renowned rock photographer Ross Halfin, marking another chapter for the surviving members as they continue moving forward while honoring the legacy of their late friend.

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In September 2025, shortly after performing at The Town festival in São Paulo, Brazil, Bruce Dickinson teamed up with directors Leo Liberti and Antoine De Montremy to create a cinematic companion piece for a newly reworked version of “Tears Of The Dragon”. The updated track appears on More Balls To Picasso, the revamped edition of Bruce Dickinson‘s 1994 solo album Balls To Picasso.

Filmed inside a disused brewery in São Paulo, the production brought together Bruce Dickinson, his House Band Of Hell, and the Almai Orchestra under the direction of Antonio Teoli. The orchestra had already contributed to the studio recording of the new version of “Tears Of The Dragon”, helping reshape the song with a broader orchestral arrangement.

The finished film also features Brazilian ballet dancer Renata Bardazi, whose performance adds another visual layer to the song’s emotional themes. The project has already made an impact on the film festival circuit, collecting several awards and nominations before its public release. Behind-the-scenes footage from the production has also been made available.

Discussing the project, Bruce Dickinson said: “When we reimagined the whole More Balls To Picasso album, we always wanted to do an orchestral version of “Tears Of The Dragon”. Antonio Teoli scored it and we recorded it, then we called up the filmmaker Leo Liberti who previously shot a load of live stuff for me in Brazil that was fabulous. We found this amazing location, an enormous old-school brewery that was almost like a renaissance building, and we made up the orchestra so they looked slightly zombified. All the HOUSE BAND OF HELL band members are in the video and I gave them all instruments to play. The whole thing was brilliant madness. Leo Liberti also came up with the idea of having a ballet dancer interpreting the song, and she was amazing, poetic, and that adds an incredible extra-emotional dimension to the video.”

The video has already collected a number of honors, including several Best Music Video awards across international film festivals.

“Tears Of The Dragon” Video Awards (2026)

• Los Angeles Film Festival IAF — Best Music Video
• Los Angeles Film Awards — Best Music Video
• New York International Film Awards — Best Music Video
• Eastern Europe Film Festival — Best Music Video
• Sweden Luleå International Film Festival — Best Music Video
• World Premiere Films Awards — Best Music Video / Best Editing
• Asian Independent Film Festival — Best Music Video
• Berlin Music Video Awards — Bronze

While Balls To Picasso received a positive response when it was originally released, the album never fully reflected Bruce Dickinson‘s complete vision for the material. Following the success of The Mandrake Project in 2024, he revisited the record, resulting in More Balls To Picasso, a release featuring partial re-recordings, fresh mixes and new mastering work. The updated version presents the songs with a more expansive approach while preserving the spirit of the original album.

More Balls To Picasso also adds two previously unreleased live-in-the-studio recordings, “Gods Of War” and “Shoot All The Clowns”. The album is available as a splatter vinyl double LP and a tri-panel digisleeve CD edition.

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Following the arrival of their latest album An Ending In Itself, Sleeping With Sirens have revealed plans for a headlining North American tour this fall. The run will feature support from Rain City Drive and Shyeye and begins after the band’s scheduled appearance at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California on October 3.

The tour will take Sleeping With Sirens across the United States and Canada before wrapping up with an appearance at Vans Warped Tour Orlando on November 14.

Members of the Sirens Club can access pre-sale tickets beginning today at noon local time, while general ticket sales start on Thursday, June 18 at 10 a.m. local time. VIP meet-and-greet packages will also be available.

Produced by Will Yip, whose previous work includes Turnstile, Circa Survive, and Movements, An Ending In Itself finds Sleeping With Sirens reconnecting with elements of their earlier sound while incorporating the experience gained throughout recent releases. Since arriving last week, the album has drawn positive attention from several music outlets. Kerrang! described the effort as “expectation-defeating” and stated the band has found the best versions of themselves, while CaliberTV called it Sleeping With Sirens’ “best album since 2011.”

Frontman Kellin Quinn views An Ending In Itself as both a closing chapter and a new beginning. According to Quinn, the album completes the emotional and thematic journey established by How It Feels To Be Lost and Complete Collapse while reconnecting with the energy and identity that originally pushed the band forward.

Among the album’s featured tracks are “An Ending In Itself”, “Forever/Always” and “Paralyzed”, which the group describes as the heaviest song in its catalog so far. Fans can also pick up exclusive colored vinyl editions featuring signed inserts, as well as a zine CD package containing behind-the-scenes photographs and handwritten lyrics.

The release marks the band’s first album with Rise Records since Feel, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Previous releases through the label include With Ears To See And Eyes To Hear and the gold-certified Let’s Cheers To This, the latter featuring the platinum-selling single “If You Can’t Hang”.

Over a career spanning more than fifteen years, Sleeping With Sirens have released seven studio albums, an EP and a live album while performing thousands of shows worldwide. Their influence helped shape the Warped Tour generation, and their music continues to find new listeners as younger fans discover the band’s catalog.

The current lineup consists of Kellin Quinn on vocals, Nick Martin on guitar, Justin Hills on bass, Matty Best on drums and guitarist Tony Pizzuti, the newest addition to the group. As they continue to evolve creatively, Sleeping With Sirens remain one of the most recognizable names in modern alternative rock.

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Black Sabbath bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler appeared alongside Foo Fighters’ Nate Mendel in episode two of Fender’s “Lowdown on the Low End” video series, a forum for bass players to trade stories about the Fender Precision Bass and their lives in bands.

Butler recalled (transcribed by Blabbermouth) the moment that inspired him to take up the bass: “The one player that totally showed me what you could do with a bass was Jack Bruce. When I went to see Cream, everybody was going, ‘You’ve gotta see this incredible guitarist. His name’s Eric Clapton.’ And back then, it was like they used to play little clubs around Birmingham. I stood right at the front of the stage. Jack came out with his Fender, and it was like, ‘What the hell?’ I couldn’t believe that people could do that with a bass. And that was it. I went, ‘That’s what I wanna do. I wanna play bass.’”

Asked by Mendel what drew him to the Fender Precision Bass specifically, Butler recounted the origin of Black Sabbath: “I was a rhythm guitarist at first. When I was 15, I had a group called The Rare Breed, and I used to think I was John Lennon and play rhythm guitar. Then the singer left, so we looked around and got this guy called Ozzy Osbourne in the band. And we did a few gigs with Ozzy, and he says, ‘This is terrible. I’m leaving the band.’ We wanted to form a different band, and we both lived around the corner from each other in Aston. And Ozzy says, ‘Well, I know this guitarist called Tony Iommi. I used to go to school with him. Let’s go and see what he’s doing.’ Well, actually, we were looking for a drummer. We didn’t really think about bassists back then. And we asked Tony if he knew any drummers, and he says, ‘Well, it just happens Bill Ward’s here in the house.’ So Bill Ward came out, and me and Ozzy told him what we were doing, and he says, ‘Well, I’ll join you if Tony comes along.’ So Tony says, ‘Yeah, I’ll give it a go.’ He says, ‘But I’m not playing with a rhythm guitarist.’ So I said, ‘Well, I’ll switch to bass then.’ And, of course, I didn’t have a bass. I only had a Fender Telecaster. I swapped me Fender Telecaster for a Precision bass. I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got a Fender, so the next thing I wanna get is another Fender.’ Nothing had the balance of a P-Bass. It had perfect balance. A lot of other basses, the neck was too heavy. So this was perfect ‘cause I got fat fingers as well, so the wider neck is great for me… Plus there’s only two knobs, which is great for me.”

A founding member of Black Sabbath and the lyricist behind such classics as “War Pigs,” “Iron Man” and “Paranoid,” Butler and the original Sabbath lineup — Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward — made their final appearance together at last year’s “Back to the Beginning” charity concert at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. In a tribute article for The Sunday Times following Osbourne’s death on July 22, 2025, Butler wrote: “Nobody knew he’d be gone from us little more than two weeks after the final show. But I am so grateful we got to play one last time together in front of his beloved fans. God bless, Oz, it has been one hell of a ride! Love you!”

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Yngwie Malmsteen has announced that his new studio album, Hell or High Water, is finished and slated for a November release. He discussed the record in a new interview with Jimmy Kay of The Metal Voice.

“It’s done,” Malmsteen said (transcribed by Blabbermouth). “It’s in the can. I’m really happy with it. I think it’s really, really good.” The album contains nine songs plus one bonus track and runs exactly 46 minutes — a length Malmsteen said he engineered deliberately: “I made it so that it fits on vinyl. I had a lot more ideas, a lot more songs, but I made it so it’s exactly that.” Four of the tracks feature vocals; the rest are instrumental. “The instrumental stuff,” he said, “is really, really nuts.”

On the album’s overall character, Malmsteen said: “This is gonna be very neoclassical. I go in when I’m inspired, I come up with maybe a hundred ideas and I use nine or ten — and this particular album is gonna be very neoclassical. I feel very, very strongly about that.” He invoked Niccolò Paganini’s philosophy on creative expression as a parallel: “If you feel strongly, if you feel something, then it will come across. It’s not a matter of how many notes you play, but of what you feel.”

Asked how to approach the record as a listener, Malmsteen was emphatic: “You can’t just take one song and say, ‘Oh yeah, this is a good track.’ You have to hear it as an album — it’s made as an album, like a movie. I think about tempos and key signatures… they all complement each other, and I’m really happy with it.” He added that while the record is not a concept album in the traditional sense, “you could probably make a concept out of it if you analyze it.”

Malmsteen first teased the project at the 2026 Monsters of Rock festival in São Paulo in April, telling interviewers he had “just finished recording a new album” after spending “almost five months straight” in the studio. He confirmed at the time that the record would be four vocal tracks plus instrumentals and was designed to run exactly 46 minutes for a vinyl format.

Touring plans for the remainder of 2026 include European dates in June and July, Asia in September, and North America in October and November. Malmsteen’s current live band features Nick Marino (keyboards), Emilio Martinez (bass) and Kevin Klingenschmid (drums). Hell or High Water will follow his 2021 studio album Parabellum and his 2025 live release Tokyo Live (Music Theories Recordings), recorded at Zepp DiverCity, Tokyo in May 2024 during his 40th anniversary world tour.

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Coal Chamber has announced the cancellation of its Louder Than Life festival appearance to allow drummer Mikey Cox to undergo cancer surgery. Cox revealed in a social media statement that he has passed the necessary medical tests and has received clearance to proceed.

In his statement, Cox wrote: “I’m going to be vulnerable and open about my situation as it directly impacts our fans and family. I’ve been going through a battery of tests to determine whether the cancer has spread to other areas of my body, and I’m grateful to report that all of those tests have come back clean. That has allowed our doctors to finally give us the green light to schedule what we hope will be my final cancer surgery. Out of an abundance of caution and for the sake of my long-term health and recovery, this surgery is going to take me out for the next few weeks, which means we will no longer be able to make our Louder Than Life appearance. As gutted as I am, I know this is the right choice for me and the best choice for the band and our future.”

Cox was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer on April 1, 2025. In a separate statement, vocalist Dez Fafara addressed fans on his KillerTube channel: “Anytime I’m talking to Mikey, I always end the conversation with, ‘Everything’s gonna be all right.’ The recovery is going to be difficult but we’re ready to support him in every way. We fully expect him to come through this stronger than ever, and then we are going to be back on that stage, I promise you that.” Fafara noted that Coal Chamber’s return to stages at Sick New World 2023 and Inkcarceration 2023 — the band’s first shows in eight years — was an emotionally overwhelming experience: “It was one of the greatest moments of my life. I was not prepared for the emotion of it. I literally cried on stage.”

Coal Chamber was formed in Los Angeles in 1993. The band’s classic lineup features Fafara, guitarists Miguel “Meegs” Rascon and Nadja Peulen, bassist Rayna Foss and Cox. Their four studio albums — Coal Chamber (1997), Chamber Music (1999), Dark Days (2002) and Rivals (2015) — were all released via Roadrunner Records.

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The Warning, the rock trio of sisters Daniela “Dany,” Paulina “Pau” and Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal from Monterrey, Mexico, has announced their fourth studio album, Everything’s Falling, due August 28 via Lava/Republic Records. The announcement arrives alongside “Ritual,” the third single from the record, following “Kerosene” and “Ego.”

The band describes “Ritual” as an exploration of the pull of anxious thought patterns. In a press statement, The Warning said: “‘Ritual’ is about getting trapped in those thoughts and letting them keep you from actually living in the moment. It’s one of those songs that just kind of wrote itself — there was something really automatic about the process, which felt fitting for a song about falling into patterns.” On the album as a whole, the band added: “Everything’s Falling is a snapshot of where we are in our lives right now — the chaos, the beauty, the uncertainty. We’ve never made a record that felt this immediate or this personal.”

The Warning formed in 2013 and broke through internationally with their 2022 album Error (Lava/Republic), followed by Keep Me Fed in 2024. The band has accumulated more than 710 million streams and received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song for “Qué Más Quieres.” Their most recent release before Everything’s Falling was a live album recorded at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City in 2025.

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Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar has offered his take on what he sees as a loss of individual identity in modern metal, in a new interview with Pipeman of the “Music Feeds the Soul” podcast.

On the diversity that defined the Bay Area thrash scene, Aguilar said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “The cool thing about the Bay Area is that every band was different. Anthrax sounded different from Overkill, Death Angel sounded different from Testament. Even the vocalists sounded different — Mark [Osegueda] doesn’t sound like Chuck Billy. Chuck Billy doesn’t sound like Sean Killian, and no one sounds like Zetro [Steve “Zetro” Souza of Exodus]. All the vocalists were very unique on their own.”

That distinctiveness, Aguilar said, is what he finds lacking in much of today’s metal: “There’s some incredible players out there. They could run circles around us. But I’m talking about identity — I can’t tell who from who. You know, it’s oversaturated with a lot of bands that basically sound the same. Some of it may be YouTube and social media, where everyone is trying to follow a template of what they think works. Back in our day, you had to figure things out. You had to be a band together, in a room with everyone learning from each other, bouncing ideas. There’s something about that organic chemistry that comes through in the music.”

Death Angel is currently on the second leg of their “Act III” 35th anniversary U.S. tour, which launched May 1 in Phoenix, Arizona with support from Vio-lence and Incite. The run wraps June 21 in Santa Cruz, California.

Death Angel was formed in 1982 in Daly City, California by members of the Pilipino-American Galeon family. The current lineup features vocalist Mark Osegueda, guitarists Rob Cavestany and Aguilar, bassist Damien Sisson and drummer Will Carroll. The band received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance for the song “Humanicide” (2019). Their most recent studio album is Humanicide (2019, Nuclear Blast).

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Godsmack has recruited former Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini to complete the remainder of the band’s “The Rise of Rock” tour, following the abrupt departure of Wade Murff. Mangini made his live debut with the band June 12 at the Morton Amphitheater in Riverside, Missouri, joining vocalist/guitarist Sully Erna, bassist Robbie Merrill, and guitarist Sam Koltun.

In an Instagram post following the show, Mangini wrote: “Taking this all in today with show 1 done. And just like that, I finally get to play these dream venues in the USA with my Boston brothers in Godsmack. I need to thank a lot of people for putting this together so quickly. I can’t even express how grateful I am to Sully, Robbie, Sam, and the entire organization for trusting me with no rehearsal.”

Murff had joined Godsmack this past spring, playing more than a dozen shows from May 8 at the Welcome to Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, FL, through May 30 in Houston. On June 6, it was announced that Murff would fill in for Black Veil Brides drummer Christian “CC” Coma for the remainder of that band’s 2026 European tour due to what was described as “an unfortunate personal and private matter.” Hours before his last show with Godsmack, Murff had written on social media: “What a great start to the tour! Thank you to everyone who came out and saw ‘The Rise of Rock’ show.” He played his first show with Black Veil Brides on June 10 in Munich, Germany.

Mike Mangini was dismissed from Dream Theater in October 2023 after 13 years to make way for the return of the group’s original drummer, Mike Portnoy. Mangini had joined Dream Theater in late 2010 following a widely publicized open audition in which he bested six other candidates — Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer, and Derek Roddy — a process documented in the reality series “The Spirit Carries On.”

Prior to Dream Theater, Mangini played with Extreme in the mid-1990s and joined Steve Vai’s band in 1996. He later became a full-time instructor at Berklee College of Music. His solo debut, Invisible Signs, arrived in November 2023; in February 2025, he launched a new band, Monolith, with Hernán “Motley” Rodríguez (bass/vocals) and Andy Barrow (guitar).

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