Crowbar frontman and guitarist Kirk Windstein has announced via social media that the New Orleans sludge metal band will play a free hometown show on July 17 at Southport Music Hall in New Orleans. The concert will be filmed for a future live album release.
The announcement comes at a moment of renewed and expanded visibility for Crowbar, a band nearly four decades into its career. Viral interest — particularly within the bodybuilding community, where Crowbar‘s music has become widely associated with training and powerlifting culture — propelled the band past one million monthly listeners on Spotify in February 2026.
Crowbar was formed in New Orleans in the early 1990s and has remained one of the defining acts in sludge and doom metal, known for a catalog that balances crushing heaviness with raw emotional directness. Windstein has led the band continuously across more than a dozen studio albums.
Violet Breed has released “Sing,” the project’s fifth single. The band is a collaboration between Brian Wheat, founder and bassist of the multi-platinum rock band Tesla, and Alex Gonzato, an emerging U.K. singer-songwriter. Wheat handled production and engineering on the track, which he and Gonzato co-wrote. The prior four singles — “Awake,” “10 Years Sober,” “Endless Days” and “Stay Away” — have accumulated more than 960,000 combined music video views.
“Sing” is described as a rock anthem built around a chant-like hook, an anthemic chorus layered in melodic vocal harmonies, gritty guitars and thunderous drums. Lyrically, the song is about using your voice as a rallying cry — speaking up for yourself and others as an act of defiance against the restrictions of everyday life. Wheat and Gonzato have spent five years developing material for a debut album that draws from their own life experiences. Shared musical touchstones include The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Queen and My Chemical Romance.
Wheat has spent more than four decades in the music industry as the founder and bassist of Tesla, managing the band alongside his own recording work with side projects including Soul Motor and now Violet Breed. He is also the author of the autobiography Son of a Milkman.
Avatar has announced the “Don’t Go In The Forest ’26” European headline tour — 23 dates running from November 20 through December 19, 2026, with Danish death metal band Neckbreakker in support on all dates. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, May 26 at 10 a.m. local time here. The tour follows a summer that sees the Swedish theatrical metal band supporting Metallica on their global run and playing major European festival stages before heading to Australia.
Vocalist Johannes Eckerström said: “A Europe in November. A Europe in December. Cold, wet and dark. We all know what it’s like, and we know exactly what you’ll need. The first European leg made us feel very lucky to be doing this. This time around, we will do everything within our power to make you feel lucky to participate. We live by but one ethos: Better than ever. I really want to see you, and you really don’t want to miss this.”
Avatar released its tenth studio album, Don’t Go In The Forest, in October 2025 via Black Waltz Records. The follow-up to 2023’s Dance Devil Dance was produced by Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with Anthrax, Steel Panther and Uriah Heep, among others. Ruston first worked with Avatar mixing Hail the Apocalypse and has since produced Avatar Country and Hunter Gatherer. Dance Devil Dance featured a guest appearance by Lzzy Hale of Halestorm on “Violence No Matter What” and included the single “The Dirt I’m Buried In,” which reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Eckerström founded Avatar in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2001, and the band’s lineup has remained largely unchanged since — save for guitarist Tim Öhrström, who joined roughly a decade later. The current lineup is Eckerström (vocals), Jonas Jarlsby (guitar), Öhrström (guitar), Henrik Sandelin (bass) and John Alfredsson (drums).
“Don’t Go In The Forest ’26” European tour dates with Neckbreakker:
Nov. 20 — Wolverhampton, England — KK’s Steelmill
Nov. 21 — Southampton, England — O2 Guildhall
Nov. 22 — Cardiff, Wales — Depot
Nov. 24 — Dublin, Ireland — National Stadium
Nov. 25 — Belfast, Northern Ireland — Limelight
Nov. 27 — Norwich, England — UEA
Nov. 28 — Newcastle, England — Northumbria University
Nov. 29 — Edinburgh, Scotland — Corn Exchange
Dec. 1 — Amsterdam, Netherlands — Gashouder
Dec. 3 — Oberhausen, Germany — Turbinenhalle
Dec. 5 — Budapest, Hungary — Barba Negra Red
Dec. 6 — Prague, Czechia — Sasazu
Dec. 8 — Innsbruck, Austria — Musichall
Dec. 9 — Linz, Austria — Posthof
Dec. 10 — Ulm, Germany — Roxy
Dec. 11 — Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg — Rockhal
Dec. 12 — Zürich, Switzerland — Komplex
Dec. 13 — Frankfurt, Germany — Zoom
Dec. 15 — Padova, Italy — Hall
Dec. 16 — Ljubljana, Slovenia — Cvetlicarna
Dec. 17 — Zagreb, Croatia — Boogaloo
Dec. 18 — Bratislava, Slovakia — Majestic Music Club
President has announced Blood of Your Empire, the masked British rock band’s debut full-length, due Sept. 4 via Atlantic Records. The announcement is accompanied by a video for the album’s latest single, “Doom Loop.” President, which launched in 2025, operating under a deliberate cloak of anonymity, is rumored to be fronted by Charlie Simpson of pop-punk act Busted and post-hardcore outfit Fightstar. The band’s debut EP, “King of Terrors,” was released in the fall of 2025.
The band’s frontman said of “Doom Loop”: “The song is really about the strange tragedy of time — how we spend our lives chasing it, wasting it, and fearing it — only to realize its value once a moment is gone. It’s a reminder for people to be present while they are actually living their lives, not just remembering them afterwards.”
On the album, the frontman said: “‘Blood of Your Empire’ was born out of my own struggle with existential crisis and trying to make sense of belief, mortality, and humanity’s relationship with faith. Religion has inspired incredible compassion, purpose, and beauty in the world — but it has also been responsible for unimaginable suffering and bloodshed throughout history. This album lives in the tension between those two truths. Writing it became a way for me to confront the fear, confusion, and questions I’ve carried for years, and turn them into something I’m truly proud of.”
The album cover reproduces “The Battle of Poitiers,” a painting by Eugène Delacroix that hangs in the Louvre. Fresh off its first U.S. run supporting Bad Omens, President will return to North America this fall for a sold-out headline tour promoted by Live Nation. The run kicks off Sept. 4 at Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville and makes stops in Chicago, New York, Toronto, Boston, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle and Los Angeles before wrapping Oct. 14 at House of Blues in Dallas. Cenobia and Showing Teeth will support on select dates.
According to License Global, Jack and Sharon Osbourne confirmed at Licensing Expo 2026 in Las Vegas that the Osbourne family has partnered with a company called Hyperreal to create what Jack described as “the digital DNA of Ozzy Osbourne — voice, image [and] movement.” The expo took place May 19 through 21 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Sharon said of the project: “The things that you can do with that are just endless.”
Jack elaborated: “It’s kind of scary how it’s really very accurate. He will exist digitally as himself for as long as we have computers. Technology has come such a long way to where it’s almost drag and drop. You could shoot a template for a commercial… literally prompt what you want digital Ozzy to do in that commercial and you just drop it in. It’s that simple now.” Sharon added: “You can ask Ozzy anything, and he will answer you in his own voice — and the answers will be what Ozzy would have said. We’re going to take it all around the world. People can talk to him and he will talk back.”
Hyperreal describes itself as “powering ownership, control, performance, and monetization of identity across digital ecosystems.” The company previously created a life-sized A.I.-powered avatar of late comic book legend Stan Lee that interacted with attendees at the 2025 Los Angeles Comic Con, where visitors could pay $15 to speak to the holographic Lee and receive responses in his recognizable voice. Hyperreal has also developed digital avatars of Paul McCartney, the Notorious B.I.G. and Mike Tyson.
Sharon and Jack Osbourne appeared at a session titled “The Enduring Legacy of a Rock Icon and His Family: Ozzy Osbourne and the Osbournes” on May 20, moderated by Jens Drinkwater, head of licensing at Global Merchandising Services, and Lisa Streff, senior vice president of licensing and brand development at Global Merchandising Services.
Ozzy Osbourne, known globally as the Prince of Darkness, died July 22, 2025 of a heart attack. He built his legacy redefining heavy metal with Black Sabbath before launching a solo career that became a global phenomenon. Upcoming projects tied to his name include an Ozzy Osbourne biopic, the “Back to the Beginning” Ozzy and Black Sabbath theatrical project and the return of Ozzfest in 2027.
According to Danish newspaper Sjaellandske Nyheder, Rasmus Stavnsborg, 53, from Solrød, Denmark, is the owner of what is believed to be the world’s largest collection of Iron Maiden memorabilia. More than 10,000 items dedicated to the legendary British heavy metal band are spread across six rooms of his villa in Solrød Strand — floor to ceiling with memorabilia, pinball machines, a homemade Iron Maiden bar, drums, incense sticks, and countless other objects, all featuring the band’s iconic mascot, Eddie.
Stavnsborg first dreamed of creating his own version of a Hard Rock Café as a child after visiting the famous restaurant chain — only his would be devoted entirely to Iron Maiden. The collection originally occupied a 100-square-meter basement in the family’s former home in Karlslunde. Around 12 years ago, it outgrew the space, prompting Stavnsborg, his partner, and daughter to move to Solrød Strand, where the collection grew from around 5,000 items to more than 10,000.
Among the most unusual items is a cigarette butt once smoked by former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno. Stavnsborg and his friends retrieved it after meeting Di’Anno at a bar. “He asked what on Earth we were doing and what we were going to use it for. We just said we were going to clone him one day when he died, and then he shook his head and said we were some strange idiots,” Stavnsborg recalls. Di’Anno died in 2024.
The stories behind the objects are as important to Stavnsborg as the objects themselves. “If I just wanted to buy things to plaster the place with Iron Maiden stuff, that would be the easiest thing in the world. But I like that things have a story, whether it’s personal or connected to the band,” he says. “A hunter hangs dead animals on the walls. I hang Iron Maiden things on the walls that I’ve hunted around the world.”
Stavnsborg has attended more than 300 Iron Maiden concerts since first seeing the band at Copenhagen’s KB Hallen in 1988. During the band’s 2006 “A Matter of Life and Death” tour, his dedication earned him an official “Super Fan Pass” granting him free admission to every concert on the tour. “I was completely overwhelmed. It’s an insane recognition to get from a band,” he says.
Stavnsborg appears in the new documentary Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, which premiered in early May and explores the band’s history and the devotion of fans around the world. His plans this year include shows in Sweden, Denmark, Paris, London, Los Angeles, Peru, and Ecuador, with a hike to Machu Picchu also on the itinerary. “We experience the world together, and it brings us closer together as a family,” he says.
Cleopatra Entertainment has announced the theatrical release of Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer, the documentary film directed by Wes Orshoski. The film is opening in U.K. cinemas at Birmingham’s Mockingbird Cinema, followed by screenings in the U.K.’s Light Cinema chain. Its North American theatrical premiere for public audiences is set for June 9 at the Lumiere Music Hall Theater in Beverly Hills, California, at 7 p.m. — the same date as the North American digital VOD and DVD/Blu-ray release.
A question-and-answer session with Orshoski will immediately follow the Beverly Hills screening. In a new interview with Billboard, the director discussed the experience of filming Paul Di’Anno over the course of six years.
“I filmed with him on and off from 2017 to 2023,” Orshoski told Billboard. “Paul could be an absolute sweetheart, a lovely man, and he could be an absolute demon. I tried to show both sides in the film. I enjoyed being around the easy-joking, funny guy quite a lot. When he was in a great mood, he could be super fun and a blast. Zero ego. But when the Mr. Hyde side of him reared its head, it could be ugly for everyone within earshot. And he was sort of unapologetic about that nastiness. That said, several times I would see him blow up, and then I would notice that he would almost immediately feel awful about it.”
“You have to understand, I was filming him during some of the worst times in his life,” Orshoski continued. “I mean, imagine where your mental health would be if you were stuck in a wheelchair for almost a decade, and desperately trying to put your life back together, and you have a camera on you. I know I, for one, could not endure that.”
The director described a specific moment of conflict — and its aftermath: “After the film had dragged on for a few years, I remember filming him in his care center in Croatia, and on this particular day, we really got into it with the camera rolling, just yelling at each other. I watched it a few years later with a different sort of perspective and realized he was absolutely right about everything he was barking at me about. I called him up to apologize. He was in Mexico at the time, and he couldn’t have cared less. He was more interested in what sort of tacos he was going to order for lunch. So as much as he was rightly known as The Beast, there was a certain amount of grace there, too.”
On reaching out to Iron Maiden‘s camp, Orshoski said: “The very first thing I did after signing a contract with Cleopatra was call Iron Maiden management. Maiden manager Rod Smallwood was very kind, but immediately told me that neither he nor any of the current band members would be participating. Obviously, it was a massive bummer, but not unexpected. In the end, though, I’m very happy to say that Steve Harris and the rest of the guys do appear in the film.”
The film chronicles two Iron Maiden fans who encounter Di’Anno at a low point in his life and set out to restore his health and relaunch his career. Along with Harris, it features appearances from James Hetfield (Metallica), Gene Simmons (Kiss), and members of Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill, and Sepultura. Metal Hammer described the film as “a harrowing insight into Di’Anno‘s frustration and frailty at a desperately low ebb with an abrasively real, warts-and-all approach to its subject.” At the same time, Metal Talk called it “a raw, dark and intimate documentary detailing the tragic final years of Iron Maiden‘s original singer.” Paul Di’Anno died in 2024.
In a new interview with Andy Guitar, Joe Satriani reflected on taking part in the 2024 “The Best of All Worlds” tour with Sammy Hagar, during which Hagar and his bandmates in The Circle — including Satriani and ex-Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony — performed Van Halen material largely. Satriani discussed how he approached the challenge of learning and reproducing Eddie Van Halen‘s guitar parts.
Satriani told Andy Guitar (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Well, I definitely started with original recordings and just used my ear to get the chords and the arrangement. And that’s the easy part. The hard part is the quirky fingering string choices. Every guitar player we have our own pluses and minuses, and it might be speed, timing, touch, tone, intonation — all kinds of things that certain people have a lot of, and then there are areas where we’re kind of deficient. And so, yeah, you have to kind of come up against that and see, like, ‘Well, how do I measure up in that particular area, and how do I work around it?’ But I think one thing that really helped me was this amazing community — these guitar players of all ages dedicated so many hours to figuring out exactly how Ed played a lot of these songs. And so I would, after I learned the song, I’d go, and I’d spend an hour or two on YouTube just watching how other people address this immense problem of trying to emulate Ed‘s playing. And you can’t capture the magic, but you can get pretty close to the fingering, and some players are better than others.”
He added: “There are players out there like Phil X [Bon Jovi and Triumph] who will play great Van Halen songs without any vibrato bar. And it reminds you that the spirit is sometimes more important than just imitating the part. There are a lot of ways. And then when you go deep into any live clips or if you have memories of seeing Van Halen, as I do, you remember, like, ‘Oh, yeah, [Ed] played it differently every single time.’ He shocked you with how he would just forget about some part or purposely not play it the way it is on the record, and just replace it with something you never expected. And you loved it anyway.”
Satriani also spoke at length about the experience in a separate December 2023 interview with Ultimate Guitar‘s Justin Beckner. He described the particular difficulty of shifting his own deeply ingrained stylistic habits to serve Van Halen‘s music: “The main thing is that for the last five decades I’ve tried so hard to be myself and to be me and not copy anybody. I’ve been lucky, since the late ’80s, to have a solo career, so I really had a job that forced me to be myself as much as possible. So I made a point not to play like anybody.”
Satriani identified three specific areas where Eddie‘s sensibility differed sharply from his own. First, timing: “He plays so on the beat and makes it feel like he’s pushing the beat, but he’s actually not. It’s really amazing how he does it. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s me, sitting on the backbeat as much as I can,’ because I’m playing the melody. When you play the melody, you don’t wanna be on top… And all of a sudden, you go to play a song like ‘I’m the One,’ and it’s like, ‘No, you have to be the guy way in front.’ Every nerve ending in your body is saying, ‘Sit back.’ But to make the song work, you’ve gotta sit forward.”
Second, technique: “Our vibratos aren’t that different. He holds his pick [with his thumb and middle finger], so he’s always got [his index] finger for tapping, and I don’t. The way that he would do the tapping, when he would use it, [was] opposite of the way that I had forced myself to go with it.” Third, right-hand speed: “One of the things that Eddie had was this super-tight swing that was ultrafast with his right hand. I remember hearing for the first time and thinking, ‘Well, I’m gonna have to work on that.’ That’s gonna take me, I thought, three months of 45 minutes a day just working with a metronome to work that into my bag of tricks.”
Satriani, Hagar, and Anthony previously worked together in the supergroup Chickenfoot, recording two albums between 2009 and 2011 and touring across America — though the group never performed any Van Halen material. Hagar and Anthony had also performed the Van Halen catalog with guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham in Sammy Hagar and the Circle before the “Best of All Worlds” run.
Canada has a strong affinity for rock and roll, and there are plenty of big venues in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver that host the modern era of guitar-wielding superstars.
However, the old guard of rock are more frequently found strutting their stuff at the country’s string of land-based casinos, rather than rattling eardrums at urban stadia.
There are a few reasons behind this slow and steady shift, so let’s look into what’s fueling the trend of heritage rockers wowing crowds at gambling venues.
It’s Safe Money
Casinos have traditionally hosted live events to provide customers with something to do when they’ve had their fill of gambling. That means the financial side of the shows is a little different from a typical gig.
Selling every ticket to a heritage rock group’s tour show simply isn’t necessary, because the casino knows it’ll make money from the fans who show up in many more ways. They’ll see the show, splash out on dinner, spend time enjoying the casino’s table games in person, and play online slots like these while chilling in their rooms.
Because of these multiple revenue streams, casino venues can afford to pay bands competitive fees, with little risk attached. The money’s safe for all parties.
Fans are Affluent
Another upside to casinos booking heritage rock tours for their on-site venues is that they tend to attract an older crowd with much more disposable income. And when people visit casinos with spare cash, they’re much more likely to spend some of it on the gaming floor, even if the main reason they’re at the property is for a show.
This is an upside for casino revenues and reflects that the price of food and drink at these venues can be quite a bit higher than at an equivalent location on a standard city street. Affluent fans are less likely to recoil from a $10 beer than a teenager looking to watch the latest pop act.
The Logistics Make Sense
Canada is a big country, to put it mildly, so touring is a struggle on any scale. Casino venues take the sting out of this by creating a logical series of stopping points from west to east, or whichever direction suits the band best.
Moreover, casino venues are generally smaller-scale than stadiums, so they’re not only easier to sell out and create a good atmosphere, but also don’t require the same level of complexity from a production standpoint. Lighting, sets, and effects needn’t be a burden on the budget, while in-house tech teams iron out any other kinks quickly.
Comfort Sells
Last of all, if you’re an aging heritage rock act, you’ll have had quite enough of staying in sleazy motels and cold tour buses. So the prospect of being put up in a five-star suite by a casino, and only having to get the lift down to the venue where you’re playing, will be tantalizing.
So, from the Fallsview Casino in Niagara to the Hard Rock Live in Ottawa, Canada’s casino venues will continue to be a top pick for heritage rock tours.
As creativity doesn’t move within the confines of specific timelines, it didn’t take Richie Kotzen long to start working on new music. Fresh off a world tour, inspiration struck, and he immediately went into the studio, breathing new life into a track he had been sitting on, patiently waiting for just the right moment to complete.
Today, Richie Kotzen has surprised fans with the digital release of his newly recorded song, “Catch a Star.” Stream it below.
“After coming off the road with Smith/Kotzen, I fully intended to take a long break from live performance and recharge creatively,” says Richie Kotzen. “While going through old archives, I rediscovered “Catch A Star” in a semi-completed form, and for whatever reason, the direction suddenly became obvious to me in a way it hadn’t before. Once that happens as a writer,” Kotzen continues, “you must trust your instincts and follow the momentum. That’s exactly what happened with this song.”
Playing all the instruments on “Catch a Star,” Kotzen digs into his Philly musical roots with soaring verses, soulful melodies and choruses, and driving rhythms, as he pushes both his guitar and bass techniques and style in new and innovative directions.
“What I love about ‘Catch A Star’ is how direct it is,” says Kotzen. “The chorus arrives immediately, the arrangement stays intentionally simple, and the focus is really on the melody, lyric, and atmosphere. This is also one of those recordings where I handled every instrument and vocal myself, layering each part individually in the studio. In the past, I probably would have held onto a song like this until I had enough material to complete a full album, but these days I feel more inspired by releasing music in real time rather than waiting indefinitely for a larger project to materialize.”
While there are currently no immediate touring plans, Richie Kotzen continues to create and wanted to share “Catch A Star” with the people who have supported and accompanied him throughout his musical journey.
“If it eventually leads to a full-length album, great,” states Kotzen, “and if it doesn’t, for now, that’s fine too.”