Author: Editorial Team

Recent Relapse Records signees Left To Die will unleash their debut full-length, Initium Mortis, on July 17th. Today, the band shares the album’s third single and opening track, “Legion Of Doom,” which originates back to the original Mantas and Death Death By Metal demos!

Comments Terry Butler (Obituary, ex-Death), “‘Legion Of Doom’ is heavy as hell. One of the best and earliest knuckle-dragging riffs out there. So heavy in fact, that Death brought the main riff back out of retirement for the song ‘Spiritual Healing!’”

Initium Mortis sees the supergroup – including original Death members Terry Butler (Obituary) and Rick Rozz (Massacre) – joining gore metal pioneer Matt Harvey (Exhumed, Gruesome) and Gus Rios (Gruesome) to capture the morbid depths of Death’s early catalog.

Initium Mortis will be released on CD, LP, cassette, and digital formats. Find pre-orders here.

Members of Left To Die comment on the new album: Matt Harvey: “After Gus and I performed Spiritual Healing in its entirety with Terry and James [Murphy], Rick wondered if people might want to hear something similar, but with him joining the three of us to perform Leprosy. Of course, I leapt at the chance to do it, and we quickly threw together a tour which surpassed everyone’s expectations, especially in terms of how much fun we were having playing together. As we continued to tour throughout the US, Europe, Latin America, Australia, and Asia, people kept asking if we were going to record or write anything. After going back and forth on the topic, we felt that (ahem) exhuming some of these old tracks made the most sense for us, after all, we’re not gonna top Leprosy.

“I gleefully combed through the myriad Death/Mantas demos and rehearsals looking for stuff that would make sense for a record, and we ended up going with tunes that we felt would make the most cohesive album, hence why ‘Skill To Kill’ and ‘Back From The Dead’ sadly didn’t make the cut. I look at Initium Mortis as a kind of ‘alternate-universe’ version of the Scream Bloody Gore track list, as so many of these tunes were circling around the many Death lineups and rehearsals from ’83-’87. In fact, Chuck [Schuldiner] and Chris [Reifert] recorded a version of “Legion Of Doom” for SBG that never got completed. In revisiting these songs, it was crystal-clear to me that Rick’s fingerprints are all over the Mantas stuff and tunes like ‘Slaughterhouse,’ so with that connection, the songs where his style really shone through immediately made sense to include on Initium Mortis.”

Terry Butler: “Left To Die went from a thought to doing a full US tour in about three months! Pretty remarkable. We wanted to play the early material for the fans that couldn’t see the first albums in a live setting. There are many young fans at our shows that are hearing the foundation that Death stands on to this day live for the first time! With Matt channeling the best Chuck Schuldiner out there and Gus playing the material perfectly and respectfully we hit the road and haven’t looked back!

“For Initium Mortis, we wanted Death fans who never heard these demo songs to hear them with good production. Most of these early demos were recorded on a boom box, so by the time someone got their demo through tape trading it was almost inaudible! We think these tracks are a good representation of the birth of Mantas/Death. This is ground zero – where it all started: three 15-year-old kids creating death metal history, and even within these choice cuts from the demo days you can hear the evolution of the music.”

Rick Rozz: “First, I would like to thank Gus, Matt, and Terry for making Left To Die happen. It’s been an honor and a pleasure working with them for the past few years and beyond. It’s really cool to be able to hear these tunes from 1984 properly! The old-school Death fans are going to dig this release.”

Gus Rios: “The band started simply because Rick called me and asked if I’d be into it… Which I very promptly replied by referencing bears, shit, and woods. I then called Matt and Terry, and the rest is history. Death’s Leprosy record is my favorite death metal album, let alone Death album. To be given this unbelievable opportunity to play those songs with Rick and Terry across the globe is an honor and a blessing I find hard to put in words. Matt and I are living our 14-year-old selves’ death metal fantasy!

“And now, to make an album with the guys, is flat out surreal. I’m a pretty solid Death fan if I do say so myself, and yet these songs were all new to me. I never really gave the Mantas stuff much of a listen because I’m just not a ‘demo’ production fan. To hear these songs with clean and solid, yet classic analog style production for me is like getting new Death songs… Which rules!”

Featuring tracks like “Archangel,” “Witch Of Hell,” and “Legion Of Doom” expertly executed in the now, Initium Mortis is a must-have for Death fans and collectors alike. Ultimately, Left To Die celebrates a seminal band and the camaraderie of the genre’s most extreme corner of music.

The post LEFT TO DIE Shares “Legion Of Doom” Single From Debut Full-Length “Initium Mortis” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Corrosion Of Conformity has released the official music video for “Baad Man”, a track that opens the second disc of the band’s latest double album, Good God / Baad Man. The album arrived in April through Nuclear Blast.

Directed by Jeffrey Sisson and Jason Cantu, the clip was filmed overnight while the band was on the road in Kansas City, Missouri.

Guitarist and vocalist Pepper Keenan said: “Well, well, well… Here comes the man with the fists on fire. I think they ‘bout to turn him loose! Lemme hear ya saaaayyy….!”

Good God / Baad Man was produced by Grammy Award winner Warren Riker, whose previous credits include Fugees, Down, and Cathedral. The album artwork was created by New Orleans artist Scott Guion.

Recording sessions took place at Blak Shak Studios in Riffissippi, USA, Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana, and at Barry Gibb‘s home studio in Miami, Florida.

Following a recent European run, Corrosion Of Conformity has returned to North America for the second leg of its headlining tour with Whores and Crobot. The trek kicks off tonight, July 6, in Houston, Texas, and continues through July 22, finishing in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The band heads back to Europe in August for more concerts and festival appearances before returning to the U.S. in October for a performance at this year’s Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California.

The current lineup also includes the band’s newest members, bassist Bobby “Rock” Landgraf and drummer Nick Shabatura.

The post CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Shares Music Video For “Baad Man” From Upcoming Album “Good God / Baad Man” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Asia will release its new studio album, Indigo, on November 6, 2026, through Frontiers Music Srl. The record features the band’s current lineup of Geoff Downes on keyboards, Virgil Donati on drums, John Mitchell on guitar, and Harry Whitley handling bass and lead vocals.

Ahead of the album’s arrival, Asia has unveiled the first single, “The Traveller (Into The Light)”, accompanied by its official music video.

Geoff Downes said: “The first track off the album is a high-power-energy piece with a few elements of prog trickery but retaining the accessible-chorus block, which was always a signature of Asia‘s music from the very beginning.

“Harry and I started working on this as one of the early ideas that seemed to come together very organically. Virgil’s dynamic and innovative drum parts drive the piece along, while John’s soaring guitars keep the momentum. Harry’s vocals are commanding, and my keyboard parts hold the wall of sound together. It’s a song of great optimism, mainly about looking forward to the future and travelling ‘into the light’. Play it loud!”

More than 40 years after establishing itself as one of melodic progressive rock’s defining names, Asia returns with Indigo, an album that connects the band’s history with its current chapter.

With Geoff Downes leading a refreshed lineup, the group continues its legacy while moving forward with new material that reflects both its past and present.

Speaking about how the album came together, Downes explained: “The initial writing period began in 2015, following the release of our previous album Gravitas in 2014. John Wetton and I started putting our ideas together, aiming to get into the studio once more. It was with great sadness that John became seriously ill during this time, and we had put on hold our plans, and sadly John passed away before we could continue and complete it. So, it was always in my mind that at some point it would be a shame not to finish off some of these songs and finally release them as part of an Asia album.”

Recorded during 2025, Indigo was produced by Geoff Downes together with the band, while John Mitchell handled both mixing and mastering.

The album also carries a strong connection to John Wetton‘s legacy. Two of his final compositions, “Tattoo Indigo (Parts 2 & 3)” and “Chesapeake Bay”, appear on the record, linking the band’s present lineup with one of its most important creative voices. Harry Whitley‘s vocal performance also reflects elements of Wetton‘s style, giving those songs added emotional weight.

Musically, Indigo builds on Asia‘s later-era releases while bringing back the melodic approach that defined the band’s early years. The album combines memorable hooks with layered arrangements in the tradition of songs such as “Heat Of The Moment” and “Only Time Will Tell”.

The record also includes contributions from notable guests. Steve Howe performs acoustic guitar on “Chesapeake Bay”, while Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy appears on the bonus track “Tattoo Indigo (Part 3)”.

The post ASIA Returns With New Album “Indigo” & Shares Music Video For “The Traveller (Into The Light)” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Former Supertramp co-frontman Roger Hodgson’s first two solo albums — 1984’s In the Eye of the Storm and 1987’s Hai Hai — have been remastered at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios and will be reissued through Universal Records on August 21. Both releases feature artwork faithful to the originals, following on from the recent Supertramp series of vinyl reissues.

Hodgson departed Supertramp after their 1983 world tour in support of …Famous Last Words…, choosing to spend more time with his family following his relocation from Los Angeles to Northern California. He had already recorded a solo album titled Sleeping With the Enemy before…Famous Last Words…, but chose not to release it.

In the Eye of the Storm, released in 1984, became Hodgson’s debut solo album and remains his best-selling solo release, having sold over two million copies. Hai Hai followed three years later in 1987, though its promotion was hampered when Hodgson broke both wrists in a fall from a loft at his home before the album’s release. The record featured “Land Ho,” a song Hodgson and former Supertramp co-writer Rick Davies had composed together in 1974 but never used.

In 1990, Hodgson worked with Trevor Rabin to co-write the Yes song “Walls,” which appeared on that band’s 1994 album Talk. He declined an invitation to replace Jon Anderson in the group. Since Hai Hai, Hodgson has released one further studio album, Open the Door (2000), and two live releases — Rites of Passage (1997), which featured five previously unrecorded songs and a rare guest appearance from Supertramp’s John Helliwell, and Classics Live (2010).

Pre-order links for both reissues are available at this location.

The post SUPERTRAMP’s ROGER HODGSON’s First Two Solo Albums To Receive Half-Speed Remaster Treatment appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Black Sabbath and Rufus Publications have officially unveiled the first authorized book dedicated to the legendary band. Scheduled for release in October 2026, The Masters Of Reality – Why Black Sabbath Matter was produced by renowned photographer Ross Halfin in close collaboration with Black Sabbath, documenting the group’s story from its origins in the late 1960s through its farewell performance, “Back To The Beginning”, staged in July 2025.

Spanning more than 500 pages, the book follows the evolution of Black Sabbath with an extensive collection of rare photographs and memorabilia, including many items that have never been published before. It also explores the band’s classic lineup—Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward—while featuring new essays by Geoff Barton and Dave Ling, both of whom conducted fresh interviews with all four members specifically for the project.

Work on The Masters Of Reality – Why Black Sabbath Matter began two years ago. Although the original plan was to announce the book shortly after the band’s final concert in 2025, the schedule changed following Ozzy Osbourne‘s passing.

Ross Halfin explained: “Ozzy and Sharon wanted the book out soon after the final show in Birmingham but Ozzy’s sudden passing away caused the music world to stop. Ozzy was fully involved with the book, and he signed the bookplates months before the final show, as did all the band members. So now we all thought the time was right, one year after ‘Back To The Beginning’, to announce the project. A book we all feel celebrates both Black Sabbath and Ozzy and illustrates just how important they are. I hope fans enjoy it.”

The book will be released in three different editions.

The Super Deluxe Signed Metal Edition is limited to 200 numbered copies. Measuring 303mm by 426mm and printed on silk art paper across more than 500 pages, it features a hand-tooled brushed metal cover, a recycled leather spine with purple-and-white foil embossing, and a recycled leather clamshell case. Buyers will also receive two exclusive limited-edition giclée prints. Every copy includes a unique book plate signed by Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. The price is £950, plus worldwide shipping.

The Super Deluxe Signed Edition is limited to 300 numbered copies. It shares the same oversized dimensions and silk art paper, with a black recycled leather cover featuring purple-and-white foil debossing and an inlaid 1970 band photograph. The edition comes housed in a recycled leather clamshell box with a white foiled “Henry” the flying devil on the front, along with a limited-edition giclée print. Each copy also contains a unique book plate signed by Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. It is priced at £650, plus worldwide shipping.

The Standard Edition measures 246mm by 346mm and comes with a printed and foiled cover housed in a cloth slipcase featuring a white foiled “Henry” on the front. It will retail for £99, plus worldwide shipping.

The Masters Of Reality – Why Black Sabbath Matter can be pre-ordered here.

The post BLACK SABBATH And RUFUS PUBLICATIONS Reveal Official Authorized Book Covering The Band’s Entire Career appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Tesla guitarist Dave Rude has explained why the band is unlikely to release another full-length album of original material, pointing to the practical realities of a catalog-heavy setlist and the diminishing returns of studio albums for a band at Tesla’s career stage.

Speaking with Scott Itter of Dr. Music (transcribed by Blabbermouth), Rude described the setlist constraints that make new material a hard sell: “There’s 85% of that set — they’re all songs that we can’t not play. We kind of have to do a lot of the set. So when we look at the set now, there’s kind of two or three spots, maybe four, [where] we can swap out songs. And even just one change is, like, ‘Whoo, it was so different tonight. That three and a half minutes where we did something a little different was cool.’”

Rude went further, arguing that the quality of a new record is almost beside the point: “We could make the next Black Album [Metallica] right now, the best album of all time — you can make the next Appetite For Destruction [Guns N’ Roses], it doesn’t matter. People aren’t gonna wanna hear the new songs — they wanna hear the stuff they grew up with, which I totally get. I’m the same way. So more than one or two songs in the set that are new is kind of overkill. And then it’s not really worth all the time and effort of making a full 12-song album. You’re gonna get less Tesla shows. We’re gonna earn less money. Our crew won’t be working. And at the end of the day, people wanna hear those old songs anyway, so why not just keep touring?”

Rude said the single-by-single model has proven a more sustainable alternative: “Doing one song, a single, whether it’s a cover or an original, that’s pretty doable. We can find the time to write one song. We can find the time to record it, and then we press it up on vinyl, maybe make a video, make some new T-shirts. It kind of makes it fun. It refreshes it for us, refreshes it for the fans enough.”

He added that the inability to release full records as a band has fueled each member’s solo output: “There’s just no money and it’s very difficult — on paper, it’s pointless to put out new music, but it’s not for us. It’s just because we need to. When I was doing those shows on the [2026 Monsters Of Rock] cruise a couple months ago, it was the funnest thing. It had been so long since I’d done any solo shows, and it was so reinvigorating and it felt so good.”

Rude’s comments echo those of his bandmate, guitarist Frank Hannon, who told the Talk Louder podcast last month: “We have gotten into doing the one-song-at-a-time thing. And at our age now and where we are, it seems to be working for us better to just not put the pressure of trying to fabricate 10 or 12 songs all at once.”

Bassist Brian Wheat offered a related thought to Radio Bypass in February 2025, centering the question of Tesla’s future on vocalist Jeff Keith: “When Jeff can’t sing to the level he does now, there won’t be Tesla. I’m not up for getting an Arnel [Pineda]-style soundalike or somebody else to sing with Tesla. Jeff’s voice is Tesla. When he can’t sing anymore, we owe it to ourselves and to the fans to call it a day.”

Tesla’s forthcoming release, Homage — a covers album honoring timeless rock hits associated with Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Sam Cooke, Etta James, James Brown, and others — is due July 17, 2026, via Frontiers Music Srl. Previously released singles from the project include the band’s cover of Climax Blues Band’s “I Love You” and Queen’s 1977 classic “Spread Your Wings.”

Tesla is Jeff Keith on vocals, Frank Hannon on guitar, Dave Rude on guitar, Brian Wheat on bass, and Steve Brown on drums.

The post TESLA’s DAVE RUDE: “People Aren’t Gonna Wanna Hear the New Songs — They Wanna Hear the Stuff They Grew Up With” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick sat down with Ultimate Guitar ahead of the band’s European summer festival run to discuss his new book, Jazz-Rock Guitar Improvisation — published by Hal Leonard and co-authored with Dave Rubin — and why rock guitarists who fixate on speed and technique are limiting themselves as players, drawing on Miles Davis as the defining counterexample.

On the shape of the summer schedule, he said: “Yeah. The first show is a festival headlined by Iron Maiden, which is exciting, and we’re doing a number of these European festivals. That’s a great thing about doing metal guitar in the 2020s — there’s this festival circuit that didn’t exist when we first started. So we have festivals in July, then I come back for a couple of weeks, then I’m back in August. These are mostly metal festivals, but occasionally we get put on these pop festivals that have a token metal band. I think Rihanna is headlining one of them, which is really interesting. Riot Fest in Chicago is like that — they have pop and stuff you’d never think to place together.”

September is taking shape around jazz rather than metal, with one major exception still to be revealed: “Then September has been up in the air. There was another festival tour in the works, but another tour came up for early 2027 — it hasn’t been announced, so I can’t say who it is, but it’s a very big tour that we’re a support act on. So now September’s open, and I’m going to do more of the jazz-rock thing. I have some dates booked on the West Coast. And I’m actually part of a Jeff Beck tribute — which is fitting, because it’s his birthday today. It’s taking place in September in Northern California with a bunch of musicians, put on by a friend of mine, guitarist Eric Barnett, who’s been doing it for a couple of years now. It’s an all-star thing.”

“And I’m trying to work out a show with Stuart Hamm at the Baked Potato. We played there a couple of months ago — we actually had about three shows there this year, which is pretty good; it doesn’t always work out with my touring schedule. And I think I have another show there with a group I played with earlier this year — it’s still being put together. Somehow, I’m going to be playing the Baked Potato, which is always great. This other group is with Brian Charette, a great organ player. So it’s a nice mix of metal stuff and jazz stuff — these two worlds a lot of us think of as separate.”

Turning to the book, Skolnick described its intended audience: “Well, you’re my target audience, somebody who maybe wasn’t a natural with music theory instantly, but wants to explore it, and explore it in such a way that you’re not hit over the head, with hopefully relatable examples.”

He argued that jazz is more accessible than rock guitarists tend to assume, particularly when approached through jazz-rock as a gateway: “Well, quite a bit, actually. My gateway to exploring jazz was jazz-rock. It really just took having a taste for Miles Davis in the ’80s, and Return to Forever, and Jeff Beck’s instrumentals in the ’70s, and then having it explained to me.”

“Like, all these people Jeff Beck is playing with: ‘Okay, Narada Michael Walden, the drummer and one of the main composers on Jeff Beck’s Wired — he also played for this group called the Mahavishnu Orchestra, you should listen to them.’ And then Mahavishnu Orchestra — ‘oh, that’s led by John McLaughlin, who played for Miles Davis in the ’70s.’ And then you discover that jazz is foundational to a lot of that music. In the same way that blues is a source of much rock, and what led to hard rock, I think jazz is a source for more improvisational ideas — ideas a bit more complex than blues-based ones.”

Skolnick then addressed the book’s dedication to Miles Davis, framing it around the same tension between technique and artistry that the book itself explores: “It’s really interesting, because I discovered him at a time when I was very caught up in the Van Halen revolution — Eddie Van Halen. And then there seemed to be this hierarchy of guitar players that came in the wake of it: Randy Rhoads with Ozzy, Yngwie, all these amazing players. The music was great, and it’s still great, and I think that’s often overlooked, because so much attention gets paid to technique. Eddie Van Halen talked about this in interviews — he was very frustrated by it, because he saw music as a whole and saw technique as just one ingredient in his music.”

“But Miles did not have the most technique. If you put him up against other trumpet players of the day — Dizzy Gillespie, say, or Clifford Brown — he couldn’t outdo them, couldn’t outrun them in speed and dexterity. Instead, he created palettes and colors. He was just a real artist. It wasn’t about technique. It was about creating this sonic image. And he was able to do that decade after decade, each time reinventing himself, and also uplifting these amazing musicians who’d go on to be incredibly influential, including a lot of the ones I mention in the book.”

Jazz-Rock Guitar Improvisation, co-authored by Skolnick and Dave Rubin, is published by Hal Leonard and is available now.

The post TESTAMENT’s ALEX SKOLNICK: “So Much Attention Gets Paid to Technique — EDDIE VAN HALEN Was Very Frustrated by It, Because He Saw Music As A Whole and Saw Technique As Just One Ingredient” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Megadeth‘s mastermind Dave Mustaine has named his all-time favorite guitar players in a new interview, singling out Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, and Ritchie Blackmore as the defining benchmarks from the era that shaped him.

Speaking with Jon Chang of YSOLIFE, a leading music media platform based in Taiwan (transcribed by Blabbermouth), Mustaine began by addressing the landscape of modern guitar playing: “European guitar players, there are so many really fast-picking guys, but ever since Yngwie [Malmsteen] came out, everybody else is just a really fast-picking guy. Before Yngwie, when a really great guitar player came on the scene, you had [Michael] Schenker [UFO and Scorpions], or you had Angus [Young, AC/DC], or you had James [Hetfield, Metallica] or myself, and we were really distinguished guitar players. You had the guys from [Iron] Maiden, but then there was this explosion, and there are so many guitar players now that are really good, especially because of the software that they can learn how to play with.”

Dave explained how that differs from how his generation had to develop: “When we started off, we didn’t have all these apps. We had to learn by lifting up the stylus on the record and scooting it back a couple grooves and dropping it and hoping it went in the same f***ing spot so we could pick up our guitar and our pick at the right time and play along with the song again, until they started developing cassette decks where you could slow stuff down or back it up real easy. But that was the way we learned stuff.”

Mustaine then gave his definitive answer on favorites: “So, I would have to say probably one of my favorite guitar players has a lot to do with the era that they came in. And I would say for guitar layering and sounds, it would be Jimmy Page [Led Zeppelin]. For excellent note selection, it would be David Gilmour [Pink Floyd]. For being metal as f**k back when there were no metal guitar players, Ritchie Blackmore [Deep Purple and Rainbow]. I am not a fan of the keyboard, so I could have had them be a little bit lighter shade of purple and gotten rid of the keyboard player. But, yeah, he was great. And then, of course, like I said, AC/DC and Angus and UFO with Michael Schenker. That’s my ‘last supper’ kind of thing I’d want, have those guys with me.”

Back in 2018, Mustaine told Heavymetal.dk about his early guitar inspirations: “My inspirations were more along the guidelines of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and the British Invasion. There’s a lot of great bands that are out right now [that] fans look to, a lot of young bands that are really great. For me, I always wanted to know, ‘What were their influences?’ Like with Van Halen — everybody thinks that David Lee Roth was such a great frontman, but what was his influence? It was Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas. It’s like David Lee Roth is a clone of him, except for his voice of course — the black leather pants, real low hip-huggers, big, giant belt buckle, no shirt, tan, muscles… the same thing. For me, when I look at my influences, I try to go back in time. Jimmy Page was a huge influence guitar-wise. Angus was a big guitar influence; so was his brother, Malcolm. Believe it or not, I was probably more influenced by Malcolm than I was by Angus. I liked Angus’s solos a lot, but the rhythm of AC/DC was what did it for me, because there was a hook to it. A very simplistic hook. I think that’s what’s suffering with music nowadays — people are trying to be so f***ing cerebral with their music, and a guy that played music with us at one point came up to me and goes, Hey, ‘I’ve got a new riff,’ and I was listening to it, and it was awful. I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s Megadeth in Morse code.’ I was like [puts head in hands]…”

“How do I go back one more than Eddie Van Halen? What influenced Edward Van Halen? Classical,” Dave continued. “He was a classically trained guitar player growing up as a kid. I looked at some of the really great players — Vivaldi, Paganini, Chopin, Bach, Wagner, although not all of their movements or their pieces are stuff that I like. Vivaldi has ‘The Four Seasons’ — two of them, I like; the other two, they’re a bit long for me, and while I can totally appreciate the songs, I’ve grown up in a kind of pop-radio mentality, so a four-minute song [is] paydirt. Where’s the hook? When you have a song that’s a little bit longer than four minutes for me, I tend to kind of lose the plot.”

Megadeth’s latest and final studio album, the self-titled Megadeth, was released in January 2026 via Mustaine’s Tradecraft imprint on Frontiers Label Group’s BLKIIBLK label. The follow-up to 2022’s The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart, earning 73,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release — 69,000 of which were pure album sales. The album also topped the charts in Australia and Austria, and reached the top five in Finland, Sweden, Belgium, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and New Zealand.

The post These Are MEGADETH’s DAVE MUSTAINE’s All-Time Favorite Guitarists appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Queensrÿche vocalist Todd La Torre has opened up about the band’s work on the follow-up to 2022’s Digital Noise Alliance, revealing that the next album will revisit a concept rooted in the band’s 1983 debut EP and carry a distinctly old-school sonic character.

In a new interview with Marko Syrjala and Arto Lehtinen of Metal-Rules, La Torre described the current state of the sessions: “I have a ton of songs at home that the guys have worked on and written — a lot of really good demo stuff. I’ve already put vocals down on a couple of songs, but I have a lot of material staring me in the face, waiting for me to write lyrics and melodies. The problem is that we play so much”

“Even when we leave Europe, I go home for two days, then I’m out for four days in the States. Then I’m home for another two days, and after that I’m gone all through July. So I only get a little break in August when I can really try to work on stuff, because you need your ears to decompress. You also have things at home to take care of. But yeah, we’re writing a new record,” he added.

On conceptual direction, La Torre confirmed the album will not continue from where Digital Noise Alliance left off: “This is going to touch on a subject that Queensrÿche hasn’t talked about since the very first record. This album is going to be based around a concept that happens on the first album but is never talked about again in Queensrÿche’s history. So it has nothing to do with ‘Operation: Mindcrime.’ This is a whole different thing. Musically, I’d say everything I’m hearing sounds much more old school — more like the EP, Warning and Rage for Order, maybe with a little newer flavor — but it definitely sounds like classic Queensrÿche.”

Regarding the album’s structural approach, La Torre described a non-linear storytelling method more akin to film than traditional concept records: “Writing a concept album where every song leads directly into the next one isn’t really what I’m interested in. It’s more like when you watch a movie. Sometimes the beginning starts where the ending is, and then they add pieces throughout the story in different parts of the movie until it all comes together. You could literally move one song over here, and another song over there, and it still works.”

He suggested the thematic scope may extend beyond a single release: “There’s no way you can tell everything in one album. If this were the last record the band ever wrote, there would still be storytelling there — and maybe that could be enough. But it would always be open to evolving further. It won’t be just a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s a story that can go on and on.”

Guitarist Michael Wilton addressed the timeline separately, telling Finland’s Kasarin Lapset: “In between our rigorous touring schedule, we’ve managed to get a lot of really great demos recorded. At some point we’re gonna not tour as much and really concentrate on the album — but the band will determine when it’s finished.” He told Mark Strigl in February that the band is “pushing the envelope,” retaining “the progressive element, the melodic element, the heavy metal element,” and targeting somewhere between 15 and 20 songs before narrowing the record down.

The album will again be produced by Zeuss, who previously worked with Queensrÿche on 2015’s Condition Hüman, 2019’s The Verdict, and Digital Noise Alliance. Drummer Casey Grillo continues to handle live and recording duties in the continued absence of original drummer Scott Rockenfield, who stepped away from touring in early 2017. Guitarist Mike Stone, who rejoined in 2021, contributes second guitar and solos.

Queensrÿche is Todd La Torre (vocals), Michael Wilton (guitars), Mike Stone (guitars), Eddie Jackson (bass), and Casey Grillo (drums).

The post QUEENSRŸCHE’s TODD LA TORRE Says Band’s New Album “Is Going To Be Based Around A Concept That Happens On The First Album” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson has drawn a parallel between life on the road and military service, reflecting on the personal cost of decades of touring and the dislocation from family it entails.

Speaking with the Pad Wives Unfiltered podcast during appearances ahead of the U.K.’s Armed Forces Day on June 27, the 67-year-old said: “I have three grown-up kids now, who, mercifully, have all ended up as fantastic individuals. And I’d love to say it was all down to me — but for half of their [lives] I was not there, because I was on tour. Part of me will always regret that. But it’s a price you pay — and we’re closer now than we ever were. So I think that would be my biggest regret — the dislocation from what most people perceive to be a normal life.”

That reflection then prompted Dickinson to question whether a conventional life offers any real advantage: “Having a normal life — I’m not sure you’re any better off — because that’s full of so many uncertainties. At least in the military, if you have a problem, generally somebody’s always got your back.”

On the significance of Armed Forces Day, Dickinson said: “The armed forces operate largely unseen. So it seems distant — and these things are distant because we keep them distant, to protect this country. Armed Forces Day opens the book. I think they do a great job and I think they deserve a day where the great British public can meet them.”

Dickinson, an experienced pilot, was made an honorary group captain of the Royal Air Force in 2020. Iron Maiden is currently in the midst of the “Run For Your Lives” world tour. The band is set to headline Eddfest — their 50th anniversary celebration at Knebworth — on July 11, where they will also complete filming for their forthcoming cinematic tour documentary after a power outage cut their June 22 Paris concert short.

The post IRON MAIDEN’s BRUCE DICKINSON Compares Life On Tour To Military Service: “Half Of My Children’s Lives I Was Not There, Because I Was On Tour” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.