Richie Kotzen has released a new solo track, “Big Money Club,” and the official video is available below.
The song is a character study of a type of person Kotzen kept running into after he settled in Los Angeles. He explains, “It isn’t about one specific person. It’s this character I kept encountering over the years. Everybody knows him, everybody likes him, he’s at the private party, the expensive restaurant, backstage, behind the velvet rope — but nobody really knows what he does.”
What hooked Kotzen was the fog around the guy’s money and the way doors swung open for him without anyone asking why.
“There was always a story about where the money came from,” Kotzen says. “Family money, some huge publishing deal, tech money, some business connection. But the story had a way of changing depending on who was telling it. The funny thing was, nobody really questioned it. Somehow every door opened and everybody just accepted that he belonged there.”
That vagueness drives the whole song. “Big Money Club” never settles whether its subject inherited his spot, earned it, made it up, or simply got so woven into the scene that nobody cares to check anymore.
Kotzen adds, “That was the interesting part to me. Everybody seems to know this guy, but nobody actually knows him. You hear all these stories and eventually the mythology becomes more interesting than whatever the truth might be.”
Sonically, the track steps away from heavy guitar rock and goes for a clean, groove-based feel. It draws on classic rock, pop rock and the Philly soul that helped shape Kotzen‘s early musical vocabulary.
“I didn’t want to explain who he is because I don’t know who he is,” Kotzen says. “That’s really the whole point. He’s the kid from the Big Money Club.”
“Big Money Club” is Kotzen‘s third single of 2026, following “Catch A Star” in May and “Ivory Queen” in August.
Kotzen has long been a man on a mission, and songwriting is the part of his craft he refuses to let slide. The guitarist is celebrated worldwide for his playing, his soulful voice and his ferocious live shows, yet he keeps a close watch on the writing. He has released more than 20 solo albums over the years, hopping between genres as he goes. His stints with Poison and Mr. Big put him on the international map, and in 2012 he co-founded the supergroup The Winery Dogs, whose albums mix hard rock with a bluesy streak.
Kotzen has played some of the world’s biggest stages since landing a deal with Shrapnel Records in 1988 as a guitar prodigy. He went on to put out music both solo and with those bands. These days he is also half of Smith/Kotzen, alongside Iron Maiden‘s Adrian Smith, and his growing catalog keeps fans well fed on record and onstage.
So far Computerwife has previewed her new album Born From A Wish with “Nobody” and “Foreverrr,” two singles that boast grungy extravagance. On today’s “You Didn’t Know,” Addie Warncke leans into intriguing lo-fi mystique.
Ice Nine Kills will be delivering an early Holiday gift this year as they announce the release of A Very Vicious Christmas, an eight-track collection of Christmas classics recorded for Halloween Horror Nights’ Terror Tram starring Art the Clown at Universal Studios Hollywood. The EP will be released digitally on November 9th via Fearless Records and can be pre-saved here.
Revealed yesterday at the band’s annual Silver Scream Con in Worcester, Massachusetts, A Very Vicious Christmas takes the music beyond the blood-soaked Universal backlot for the first time. Across the 8-track collection, Ice Nine Kills put their brutal, twisted spin on Christmas classics, turning joyful holiday cheer into a veritable blood-soaked nightmare.
Speaking on A Very Vicious Christmas, Ice Nine Kills frontman Spencer Charnas shares: “The Ice Nine KillsA Very Vicious Christmas EP is our early holiday gift to you all. When tasked with creating a musical accompaniment for Art the Clown’s assault on the Terror Tram, we immediately understood the assignment. Art loves Christmas. Who better to distastefully dismember some Christmas classics than Ice Nine Kills?
With lyrics like ‘oh what fun it is to die in a one hearse open slay’ and ‘he’ll grind your limbs like sausage meat,’ we weren’t sure we’d find a children’s choir whose parents would approve, but thankfully the spirit of the season prevailed.
We’re forever honored that Terrifier writer/director Damien Leone, producer Phil Falcone and team invited us into their sandbox of bloodshed.
Halloween Horror Nights is one of our favorite destinations, and this year it’s sounding even more festive.”
In “Terror Tram starring Art the Clown,” the demented killer has arrived at the historic Universal Studios Hollywood backlot with a blood-soaked bag of presents, realized he is far too early for Christmas and hijacked the tram for his own holiday celebration. The experience runs select nights through Sunday, November 1. Orlando, Florida HHN attendees can have their own terrifying encounters with Art the Clown at the Downtown Clowntown scare zone. Tickets are available here.
A Very Vicious Christmas deepens a relationship between Ice Nine Kills, Art the Clown and the Terrifier universe that has already produced one of the band’s most successful releases. “A Work of Art,” their official song from Terrifier 3, has amassed nearly 60 million streams after debuting at No. 3 and spending 18 weeks on Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart. Its blood-soaked music video, featuring Art actor David Howard Thornton, debuted alongside the movie in theaters nationwide.
The collection arrives in the middle of another major October horror activation for Ice Nine Kills. The band’s “Welcome to Horrorwood” AMC Thrills & Chills® film series, created with AMC Theatres and horror entertainment brand Bloody Disgusting, is now underway at approximately 300 AMC locations across the United States. Inspired by The Silver Scream and The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, the month-long series brings Hostel, Friday the 13th, American Psycho, Pet Sematary and The Crow back to the big screen. Each screening opens with a custom introduction from Spencer Charnas and closes with the Ice Nine Kills music video inspired by the film. Tickets and the complete screening schedule are available here.
The two October takeovers continue a formidable run through modern horror for Ice Nine Kills. “Twisting The Knife (feat. Mckenna Grace),” heard over the closing credits of Scream 7, delivered the band’s first No. 1 at Active Rock Radio and first No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The track also topped Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs and Hard Rock Digital Song Sales charts. “Hell or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler Pt. 2)” appears in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, while “Play Dead” was created for Dead by Daylight’s 10th anniversary alongside an in-game Ice Nine Kills Collection.
Led by Spencer Charnas, the internationally acclaimed Ice Nine Kills blends extreme metal with melody, as evidenced by the densely catchy songs on their two breakthrough albums, The Silver Scream (featuring RIAA Gold single “A Grave Mistake”) and The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood. They have amassed more than 2 billion global streams and over 500 million YouTube views.
They were handpicked by Metallica for the M72 World Tour. The INKverse boasts a series of cinematic music videos, mock “true crime” books, graphic novels, “Nightmare on the 9th” merch drops and the annual Silver Scream Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, not far from the North Shore birthplace of Ice Nine Kills. The band closed 2025 with a headline performance at OVO Arena Wembley and the first Silver Scream Con London. 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of Ice Nine Kills’ first album.
The horror community Spencer loves has embraced his band in return, with collaborations across some of the genre’s biggest franchises. For Halloween Horror Nights 2026, Ice Nine Kills created the music for “Terror Tram starring Art the Clown,” now collected on A Very Vicious Christmas. Terrifier 3, the highest-grossing unrated film, features “A Work of Art.” Scream 7, which had the biggest opening weekend in franchise history, boasts “Twisting The Knife (feat. Mckenna Grace).” “Hell or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler Pt. 2)” appears in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. In summer 2026, INK entered the world of survival horror game hit Dead by Daylight with “Play Dead,” while Spencer Charnas was invited to voice a character in the new Halloween: The Game.
To round out 2026, Ice Nine Kills announced that they will be appearing as part of Unwrapped: An Acoustic Holiday. Six not so silent nights this December also featuring acoustic performances from Smith & Myers of Shinedown, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society, The Funeral Portrait, TheWarning, Ayron Jones, Sublime and more. For more information check here.
Originally released on October 6, 1970, Led Zeppelin‘s third album saw the band veering towards a folkier, more acoustic sound. In 2014, the album was remastered by Jimmy Page and reissued as a deluxe edition.
Here, we reveal 25 things you might not know about the original.
1. Bron Yr Aur, the cottage situated between Aberystwyth and Machynlleth in South Snowdonia where Page and Plant wrote and rehearsed material for Led Zeppelin III, is Welsh for ‘golden hill’, ‘breast of the gold’ or ‘hill of the gold’.
2.That’s The Way was originally titled The Boy Next Door. Robert Plant introduced it under that title when they performed the song during their famous bill-topping appearance at the Bath Festival on June 28, 1970.
3. During the making of their third album, Led Zeppelin were the first band to record at the newly built Island Studio 2 in Basing Street, London. This would later be the location of the recording of the Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas? in 1984.
4. Despite their no singles policy, Immigrant Song was at one time lined up to be a UK single backed with the third album leftover Hey Hey What Can I Do?. It was assigned a catalogue number 2091 043 and a release date of November 27th 1970 but was subsequently shelved.
5. A cover version of Immigrant Song by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor featuring Yeah Yeahs’ singer Karen O was used on the soundtrack of the David Fincher film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
6. The lyrics of Hats Off To (Roy) Harper are based on Bukka White’s 1937 recording Shake Em On Down. Robert Plant also leaned on that source for inspiration on Custard Pie, the opening track on 1975’s Physical Graffiti album.
7. The traditional blues tale Gallows Pole that opens side two was discovered by Jimmy Page on an album titled 12 String Guitar released in 1962 by American acoustic performer Fred Gerlach. The track was originally recorded in 1939 by iconic bluesman Leadbelly as Gallis Pole.
8. The acoustic instrumental Bron-Yr-Aur was one of a handful of tracks left off the album – it would later appear on Physical Graffiti. Page’s acoustic work on the likes of Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp revealed the influence of folk guitarists Bert Jansch and Davy Graham.
9.Down By The Seaside, The Rover and Poor Tom were all originally worked on during the Zep III sessions but issued on subsequent Zep albums – Physical Graffiti and Coda respectively.
10. The original UK pressing of Zep III was released in October 1970 on the orange and maroon Atlantic label, distributed by Polydor. Copies bearing the inscription “Executive Producer Peter Grant”, which was omitted on later pressings, are worth around £150 in mint condition.
11.Friends, conceived by Page on the balcony of his Pangbourne boathouse home in early 1970, was later re-recorded by Page and Plant in India with the Bombay Orchestra in March 1972, a version that remains unreleased. Page and Plant returned to the song for their 1994 Unledded/No Quarter MTV performances.
12. Since I’ve Been Loving You previewed on the UK in 1970, some ten months before the album’s release. Listen carefully to the studio version and you can hear John Bonham’s bass drum pedal squeaking.
13. The title for Out On The Tiles was derived from a drinking song John Bonham used to recite in the studio with the words, “I’ve had a pint of bitter and now I’m feeling better and I’m out on the tiles”. It started out as a backing track dubbed “Bathroom Sound” (this version can be heard on the Led Zeppelin III companion audio disc on the remastered set).
14. The Jimmy Page composed Tangerine was first recorded in April 1968 at the final Yardbirds recording session under the title Knowing That I’m Losing You.
15.Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp was written at the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage about Plant’s dog Strider. The tune itself was first tried in an electric, rockier arrangement titled Jennings Farm Blues. This take can also be heard on the Zep III companion audio disc
16.Key To the Highway/Trouble In Mind was found by Page at the end of a studio tape reel from the recording session that produced Hats Off To (Roy) Harper.
17. A similar blues jam, recorded at the same session, features the band running through versions of Bukka White’s I Feel Like I’m Fixin To Die and Arthur Cruddup’s That’s Alright. Officially unreleased, this has surfaced on various bootlegs.
18. Just prior to the release of Led Zeppelin III, Zep jammed with Fairport Convention at a gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Although recorded at the time, the tapes remain unreleased.
19. The elaborate Led Zep III sleeve was designed by Zacron, a former student of Kings Collage of Art, who Jimmy had first met in the early 60s.
20. The photos that adorn the back cover were taken by sleeve designer Zacron during a series of visits he made to each of the group members’ respective houses in the spring of 1970.
21. Original pressing of the album have an inscription on the run-out groove of each side – “Do What Thou Wilt” on side one and “So Mote It Be” on side two. Both are quotes from the black magic occultist Alistair Crowley, who Page had an interest in.
22. In September 1970, Led Zeppelin were voted the world’s top band in the annual Melody Maker poll, ending The Beatles reign. Plant and Bonham appeared on BBC TV’s Nationwide news programme to explain their success (and have a smoke!)
23. The swirling noise that cross-fades Friends into Celebration Day was a deliberate edit effect by Page to cover up a studio cock-up when John Bonham’s original opening rhythm track to Celebration Day was wiped.
24. The famous bootleg album Led Zeppelin Live On Blueberry Hill, recorded at the LA Forum on September 4th 1970, includes live versions of Immigrant Song, Out On the Tiles and Since I’ve Been Loving You, performed a month prior to the album’s release.
25. Page mixed Led Zep III at Ardent Studios in Memphis with Terry Manning, a studio engineer Page knew from his Yardbirds days, when Manning was in the band Lawson and Four More.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HELLIR DESCENDS DEEPER INTO THE DARKNESS WITH NEW EP HOLLOW MOON; APHELION
Solo Blackened Progressive Metal Project Unleashes the Heavier, Angrier Second Chapter of the Hollow Moon Trilogy on October 26, 2026
There is something inherently unsettling about being alive. The weight of existence, the darkness beneath the surface, and the things that linger in the spaces between despair and release all become fuel for hellir , the solo blackened progressive metal project of Daniel Shaneyfelt .
On October 26, 2026 , hellir will release hollow moon; aphelion , the second installment in the project’s planned Hollow Moon trilogy. Following the singles “nebula” and “glint,” the new EP pushes hellir’s sound into heavier, angrier, and more punishing territory while continuing to leave room for unexpected turns.
“The second installment in the hollow moon trilogy. Heavier, angrier, meaner, with a couple surprises along the way.”
That description gets straight to the point. hellir isn’t interested in staying inside the boundaries of a single sound. The project moves freely between delicate piano passages, electronic and techno-inspired elements, atmospheric textures, and crushing heaviness, creating a soundscape that can shift from fragile to devastating without warning.
At the center of it all is a bleak examination of what it means to be alive.
Inspired by the intensity and genre-bending approach that may appeal to fans of Nott, Humanity’s Last Breath, and Rolo Tomassi , hellir takes progressive metal into darker and more unpredictable territory. The contrast is essential to the project’s identity. Moments of restraint give the heavier sections even more impact, while electronic elements and unconventional textures add another layer to the darkness.
Entirely written, produced, mixed, and mastered by Daniel Shaneyfelt in his home studio, hollow moon; aphelion is a fully independent release with every aspect of its creation handled by the project’s sole member.
With hollow moon; aphelion , hellir continues building its own bleak universe and moves the larger trilogy one step closer to its conclusion. The moon is still hollow. The journey is getting darker.
hellir’s hollow moon; aphelion arrives October 26, 2026.
RELEASE DETAILS
Artist: hellir Release: hollow moon; aphelion Release Type: EP Release Date: October 26, 2026 Genre: Blackened Progressive Metal Singles: “nebula” / “glint” Written, Produced, Mixed & Mastered By: Daniel Shaneyfelt Label: Independent For Fans Of: Nott, Humanity’s Last Breath, Rolo Tomassi
glint by hellir
ABOUT HELLIR
hellir is a solo blackened progressive metal project created by Daniel Shaneyfelt. Exploring everything from delicate piano and electronic experimentation to crushing heaviness, hellir is a bleak look into what it means to be alive, using darkness, atmosphere, aggression, and unexpected sonic shifts to explore the heavier side of existence.
Connect:
https://linktr.ee/_hellir
Contact:
Daniel Shaneyfelt hellirsounds@gmail.com
