Category: news

Epiphone has unveiled a new signature guitar built with Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale, dubbed the Lzzy Hale Explorer Custom and finished in a glittering Black Diamond Holographic Sparkle. The model marks the latest entry in Hale‘s run of Epiphone signature instruments, a lineup that’s consistently sold out and become a target for collectors. It’s available now through authorized Epiphone dealers, the Gibson Garage locations in Nashville and London, and here.

Built to mirror the intensity Hale brings to the stage, the Explorer Custom leans into bold, high-impact styling paired with a high-output tone suited to heavy riffing and big leads. Epiphone product manager Aljon Go framed the guitar as an extension of Hale‘s stage identity: “Lzzy has always brought a rare combination of power, precision, and unmistakable style to the stage. The Lzzy Hale Explorer Custom captures that same energy in an instrument that looks unforgettable, plays fast, and delivers the clarity and punch players need to own the moment.”

Underneath the sparkle finish sits a mahogany Explorer body with 7-ply top binding and a mirrored single-ply pickguard designed to catch stage lighting. The mahogany neck follows Epiphone‘s SlimTaper 60s C profile, topped with an ebony fretboard, 22 medium jumbo frets and pearloid block inlays. The signature Explorer “hockey stick” headstock carries a raised 3D Epiphone logo, a Graph Tech nut and Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners, while a black truss rod cover engraved with Hale‘s signature and a black stinger on the back of the headstock round out the custom touches.

Tone comes courtesy of a matched pair of Epiphone ProBucker Ignite pickups, each running its own volume control alongside a shared master tone knob and a three-way selector switch. A LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and Stop Bar tailpiece handle intonation and sustain, and the guitar ships with a hardshell case.

Fans hitting Halestorm‘s fall 2026 North American tour can go a step further than the store shelf — a VIP upgrade includes a chance to win a stage-played, Hale-autographed Explorer Custom, plus a pre-show meet-and-greet, photo op, and exclusive merch. Full package details are available here.

A Grammy Award winner and co-founder of Halestorm, Hale has racked up seven No. 1 rock radio hits, more than three billion streams and upward of three million albums sold domestically across her career, along with two Grammy nominations and a win in 2012 for “Love Bites (So Do I)” in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category. This past July, she was honored by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as part of its “Women In Metal: You Will Know My Name” exhibit, where she performed alongside Halestorm guitarist Joe Hottinger. Her band’s current era centers on the album Everest and its single “Rain Your Blood On Me,” which Hale has described as “our ode to women” and “our war cry.” As Gibson‘s first female brand ambassador and a longtime Epiphone signature artist, she continues to expand a catalog of guitars built to match her stage presence.

The post EPIPHONE Unveils “LZZY HALE Signature Explorer Custom” & Offers Fans A Shot At Her Stage-Played Model appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Metal fans still waiting on Ozzfest‘s comeback got a fresh update straight from the family. During an August 19 stop on SiriusXM‘s Page Six Radio hosted by Danny Murphy and Evan Real, Jack Osbourne dug into where things stand on next year’s edition of the festival, set to land at Villa Park — home turf of the Aston Villa Football Club — in Birmingham, U.K.

Asked how the planning has gone so far, Jack Osbourne compared it to reviving an old ride (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “It’s been interesting, ’cause it’s kind of like finding the old car in the shop and being, like, ‘All right, let’s get this engine going.’ But it’s cool. There’s a lot of excitement around it. And we’re gonna announce pretty soon — I think in the next couple of weeks we’re gonna announce kind of who the main headliner is and where we’re doing it. So it’s been nice.”

Jack Osbourne confirmed the 2027 show won’t stretch across multiple days: “not gonna be a multi-day thing. We’re gonna kind of stick to our roots of… We did a couple of two-day Ozzfests years ago, but it’s just gonna be one day.”

Curating the bill hasn’t gotten any easier, Jack Osbourne admitted, given how crowded the festival landscape has become: “I do. It’s just really difficult now. It’s really difficult to kind of, like, ‘All right, who’s doing what?’ Because a lot of huge bands now are doing their own festivals, they’re doing their own thing, so it’s, like, ‘All right, who’s not got their own festival? Who’s available? Who’s reasonably priced?’ Because with all these huge festivals, artists are, like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it for, like, 10 million dollars.’ You’re, like, ‘Eh.’”

He confirmed that finding acts with a genuine tie to his father’s legacy still matters: “100%. Yeah, yeah. And there’s a lot of the huge artists now in the genre; they all kind of were on Ozzfest at a certain point. We had everyone from Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Disturbed, Slipknot. I mean, they all kind of came up… Well, not Rob Zombie and Manson, but Disturbed and Slipknot and System Of A Down.”

Spotlighting newer talent will remain part of the formula too, Jack Osbourne confirmed: “Yeah, that’s still gonna be a big part of the lineup, is new artists. And we’re gonna probably have a spot for at least one unsigned artist.”

Villa Park previously hosted Ozzy Osbourne‘s farewell concert, the star-studded Back To The Beginning, on July 5, 2025.

Ozzfest launched three decades ago as the first national festival built specifically around hard rock. It hasn’t toured the U.S. since a free 2007 run, morphing into a one-off Dallas show in 2008, skipping 2009 entirely and hitting just six cities in 2010. The 2017 edition — merged for a second year with Slipknot‘s Knotfest — drew more than 17,000 fans for a day headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, with Rob Zombie closing out Knotfest‘s bill the following day.

A one-off New Year’s Eve edition followed on Dec. 31, 2018, at the Forum in Los Angeles, pulling in 12,465 fans according to Pollstar, with the Live Nation-produced show grossing $1.2 million on tickets ranging from $59.50 to $179.50. Ozzy Osbourne headlined that night alongside Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, a solo set from Korn‘s Jonathan Davis, and Body Count, while Zakk Sabbath — the Black Sabbath tribute act fronted by Ozzy Osbourne‘s guitarist Zakk Wylde — topped a second stage outside.

The reasons behind the festival’s original hiatus came up during an October 2023 Osbournes episode, where Sharon Osbourne pointed to ballooning demands from managers as the real culprit: “Yeah, it was a very weird beast because all the bands were our mates, but the managers were greedy, and for some reason they thought that we were making billions on it and we weren’t. We made a profit. But it was not like — we couldn’t retire on it. And managers and agents wanted more and more and more, and it just wasn’t cost-effective anymore. We stopped because it just wasn’t cost-effective.”

The post JACK OSBOURNE Confirms 2027 OZZFEST Will Be One-Day Only: “We’re Gonna Stick To Our Roots” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

You can check out their tracks “Static Planet” and “Crowbar” now.

The post Deftones, Foo Fighters, Etc. Producer Nick Raskulinecz Signs Shoegazers Doom Mutual To His Hiss Recordings Label appeared first on Theprp.com.

daine is releasing their highly anticipated debut album In Endless Awe & Agony later this year, but it turns out the hyperpop scene has some drama (who could’ve guessed?). Electronic duo Bassvictim — who are known to be controversial — started it when Ike Clateman made shadey comments about their collab with daine on an Instagram Live.

The post daine Calls Out “Weird AF” Video Of Bassvictim DJ Claiming They Were Desperate For His Remix appeared first on Stereogum.

You can find their (2 month old) brand new album here.

Khemmis are from Denver.  They are:

Phil Pendergast: Vocals, Guitar

Ben Hutcherson: Guitar, Vocals

Zach Coleman: Drums

Dave Small: Bass

W.A.S.P.’s .

The post W.A.S.P.’s ‘1984 To Headless’ 2026 North America Tour with special guests KK’s Priest starts on Sept. 10th first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.