Category: news

As part of their upcoming full-length release Jacht Der Mysteriën, due out on September 11th, Fluisteraars are unveiling the first single titled “Condities Der Afstraffing”.
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🔥 Who Will Rise as This Week’s Champion on the MDR Battle Of The Bands? 🔥
And who will dominate next month as Band of the Month on Metal Devastation Radio?
Last month’s winners, TRIVAN , crushed the competition with a staggering 10,525,129 VOTES , claiming the title of Band of the Month on Metal Devastation Radio! You can check them out HERE !
This is the weekly championship edition of the Band Of The Month – Battle Of The Bands that we host every month on MDR!
How does it work?
Every Monday, we launch a new poll featuring bands that submit music each week on metaldevastationradio.com. Voting runs until Friday at 9PM EST .
Each Friday night , at the start of The Zach Moonshine Show , I’ll be spinning the Top Six weekly winners , and announcing the #1 band of the week live on air — getting thousands of listens on Mixcloud !
At the end of the month , all weekly votes are added up, and the band with the highest total votes becomes our Band of the Month !
Winning Band of the Month gets:
A featured post on our Facebook page, reaching thousands of fans
A front-page spotlight on metaldevastationradio.com , which pulls in hundreds of thousands of views every month
A free PR email blast from Metal Devastation PR, hitting 40,000+ contacts including labels, zines, stations, and more
Airplay every hour during general rotation
Tons of social media shares and exposure across our network
If you want the world to know who your band is, this is the easiest way to make it happen!
💥 Want in on the next battle?
Comment below with your band name and we’ll add you to next week’s poll — or email me at zach@metaldevastationradio.com with “Battle Submission” in the subject line.
Bands can compete as many times as they want , and if you enter multiple weeks in the same month, your votes combine toward the Band of the Month title!
👇 Click on the bands below to vote as many times as you like, or add your own! Poll closes Friday, August 21th at 9PM EST!




Who Will Rise as This Week’s Champion on the MDR Battle Of The Bands? 08/17/26 – 08/21/26

Since joining Nightwish full-time in 2013, Floor Jansen has become the face of symphonic metal. She’s not just led the Finnish theatrics for three albums, but launched a solo career in her own right (starting with 2023 album Paragon and continuing with this summer’s single, Run) and collaborated with Ayreon and her ex-bandmate, Marko Hietala. In 2023, Hammer’s sister mag Classic Rock sat the singer down to discover the music which shaped her, from the first album she ever heard to her guilty pleasure and her cult hero.

The first music I remember hearing

I’m not one of those people who have a great memory for childhood things, even though I had a great childhood. But the first band that comes to mind is The Beatles; my Dad used to play a lot of The Beatles, especially on the weekends, on a Sunday. I remember the song Honey Pie. I could not understand it as a child. It’s not great, but it’s definitely memorable!

The first song I performed live

When I was about thirteen or fourteen I joined a high-school musical, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. So it wasn’t one song, it was that musical. I shared the role of the narrator with two other girls. After that I was sold – that’s what I wanted to do. I like that [musical], but musicals are often a bit too sweet for my tastes, even back then. The Phantom Of The Opera, Jekyll & Hyde, those are a little darker.

The guitar hero

I play in a band with him: that’s Emppu [Vuorinen, Nightwish guitarist]. He is an amazing guitar player, but he doesn’t need to fill every gap in the song with meaningless notes. He really keeps the atmosphere [of the songs]. What he plays in Sleeping Sun is beautiful.

The singer

She falls completely out of the spectrum of rock and metal, but if there’s one singer that endlessly amazes me with her sound it’s Celine Dion. I find her music absolutely cheese-bombs, but that’s too bad, because I love her voice. You can feel what she’s singing.

The songwriter

Tuomas [Holopainen, Nightwish]. I don’t know anybody who can write like him. He has been writing music for twenty-five years, had three different singers in his band, and still Nightwish is one of the biggest bands out there. That says something about how good the songs are. I have a special love for Ghost Love Score which is a super-weird song, it’s ten minutes long, but for some reason, it speaks to so many people.

The greatest album of all time

It’s so coloured in time. I’m 42, so what I thought was the best at 16 [won’t be the same now]. I can never answer that question.

My guilty pleasure

I’ll see if there’s anything I listen to that people might think is weird… One of my band members loves nineties disco, and that is so far away from what we do, but I don’t have [anything like] that. I do like to listen to film music when I read books. Usually instrumental. The music depends on what kind of book it is, because you still connect it together. I was listening to the music from Inception when I read Steven King’s Dark Tower series. There are parts of the book that really connect to parts of the music.

The best record I’ve made

You put so much love and energy into every song, that the moment you release the album, that’s the best thing you’ve ever done. It always feels that way because you put everything you’ve learned, all the skills you have, everything you are into your latest work. So for me that would be Paragon, because it’s the latest thing I did.

The worst record I’ve made

Probably the first [Prison Of Desire by After Forever]. I was 18 when I recorded it, so we didn’t know anything about writing, about recording, about singing. But your first is your first. And that also makes it very, very special.

The song that makes me cry

Most music makes me cry! My emotions are very close to the surface. One song is Heartless, from Evergrey. Just some things in his lyrics that are expressed very beautifully.

The cult hero

Anneke van Giersbergen. When I heard [The Gathering’s] Strange Machines on the radio, and then went to see a concert, for me she was like an absolute role model. To sing like that in a metal band, she made me want to do that too. And I loved the way that she did it, her sound and performance and just being this fierce woman among the men.

The best cover version

During the pandemic I started doing cover songs, and some of my favourites I put on YouTube. That was my only connection to the outside world. I have a young daughter, and it’s really hard to get around [the film] Frozen. So I did Let It Go. It’s fun to sing. I wanted to give it a mature sound, a metal twist.

The song I want played at my funeral

I haven’t thought of it yet, to be honest. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. I just went through cancer, so I’ve just been thinking more about surviving.

Originally published in 2023. Floor’s new solo single, Run, is now streaming.

Queens Of The Stone Age have announced their ninth studio album. It’s called Perfecth. And rather than issue a press release, the band revealed it over a chaotic game of five-finger fillet — the one where you stab a blade between your spread fingers as fast as you can. A September 30 release date appeared on screen during the clip. Over the course of the game it got scratched out, and the band settled for telling everyone the album is coming soon instead.

STREAM THE METAL BREAKDOWN DAILY NOW:

Scott Penfold breaks down the Perfecth announcement on today’s Metal Breakdown Daily — the knife game, the complaint hotline, and what “coming soon” actually means when Josh Homme says it. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and get it every weekday morning.

The knife thing

Let’s be precise about what happened, because it’s better than the summary.

The band posted a clip over the weekend. In it, they play five-finger fillet — an old bar game, and a genuinely stupid one, where the point is to drive a knife into the table between your outstretched fingers without hitting any of them. Speed is the whole thrill. Losing has consequences.

On screen was the album title, Perfecth, and a release date: September 30.

By the end of the game, that date had been scratched out. What replaced it was “coming soon.”

So the official position is now: album nine exists, it’s called Perfecth, and its release date was destroyed by a knife on camera. Which is either the most on-brand album announcement of the year or a very elaborate way of admitting the date wasn’t locked. Possibly both.

Nobody should be shocked by any of this. This is a band who once opened an album with a song that’s just a list of drugs.

The rollout has been building for months

The knife clip didn’t come out of nowhere.

QOTSA have been ramping up promotional activity all summer. The strangest piece of it was an online complaint line — genuinely, a phone number for grievances, which is the kind of thing that either means something or means Josh Homme thought it was funny. With this band the answer is usually both.

Then in July came “Easy Street,” the first single, featuring country artist Nikki Lane and released with a video. That’s the actual musical evidence of where this record might be heading, and it’s worth revisiting now that we know there’s a full album behind it.

There’s also an Australian and New Zealand tour booked for late 2026 with Primus, which is a routing you don’t announce unless you’ve got something to tour behind.

Add it up: a single, a complaint hotline, a tour, and now a title. The record is real and it’s close.

What we don’t know

Almost everything else, and it’s worth being honest about that rather than padding the page.

No confirmed release date — September 30 is tentative and the band themselves crossed it out. No tracklist. No artwork. No producer credits. No word on guests.

What we do know is that it’s the follow-up to 2023’s In Times New Roman…, and that it arrives after a genuinely difficult stretch for Homme personally and health-wise. Whatever Perfecth turns out to be, it’s the sound of a band coming out the other side of something.

We Recommend – Stoner Metal: 6 Must-Hear Tracks For a Psychedelic Headbanging Trip (and Beyond!)

Homme has been everywhere this year anyway

Even without a QOTSA record, 2026 has been a busy year for the man.

He turned up on Mastodon’s Marrow Deep, guesting on “Snakes For Dinner” and appearing in its video — his first Mastodon collaboration in nearly twenty years, the last being “Colony Of Birchmen” on 2006’s Blood Mountain. That record, the band’s first since Brent Hinds’ death, lands August 28.

He’s also kept the Kyuss question alive. Last year he said a reunion is possible, with the caveat that it would only happen if they gave the money away and charged five dollars a ticket — because, in his words, it was never about money.

That’s not a man planning a cash-in. It’s a man who built an entire genre out of the California desert and still holds a specific, slightly stubborn set of ideas about how this is supposed to work.

Check This Out – Baddiecore: The 13 Bands That Took A Joke Tweet To The Grammy Stage

Why QOTSA still matter

Twenty-eight years on from forming in Palm Desert, Queens Of The Stone Age occupy a strange and enviable position: gold-certified, festival-headlining, and still genuinely unpredictable.

They came out of Kyuss — the band that took Black Sabbath’s blueprint and dragged it into the desert to bake — and then Homme spent three decades refusing to make the same record twice. Songs For The Deaf is a stone classic. Era Vulgaris confused everyone. …Like Clockwork was a grief record. In Times New Roman… was meaner than anyone expected.

The current lineup — Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita and Jon Theodore — has been stable for over a decade, which for this band is practically unheard of.

So when they announce album nine by stabbing a table, treat it as the tell. This isn’t a band going through the motions.

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A post shared by QOTSA (@queensofthestoneage)

TL;DR

• What’s announced: Queens Of The Stone Age’s ninth studio album, titled Perfecth.
• How it was announced: via a clip of the band playing five-finger fillet, the knife-between-the-fingers game.
• The release date situation: September 30 appeared on screen, then got scratched out during the game. Official line is now “coming soon.”
• What came before it: July’s single “Easy Street” featuring Nikki Lane, plus an online complaint line the band set up as part of the rollout.
• What’s still unknown: confirmed date, tracklist, artwork, producers and guests.
• Also on the books: a late-2026 Australian and New Zealand tour with Primus.

FAQ

A knife game, a complaint hotline, and a release date that didn’t survive its own announcement. Peak QOTSA, or are you just ready to hear the thing? Tell us below, and keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.

The post Queens Of The Stone Age Announce New Album In The Most Unique And Dangerous Way Possible appeared first on Loaded Radio.

GHOSTEMANE is back with their first new music in five years, and they are not messing about, to say the least.

They are stepping back into the limelight with ‘ZERO DAY’, a forward-thinking, ferocious and fantastically orchestrated piece of modern nu-metal mastery. Bristling with industrial weight and hardcore intensity, it feels like a tribute to the most chaotic elements of the past, whilst still being quintessentially GHOSTEMANE in size and stature.

It is a boot to the temple of the highest calibre, and feels like the beginning of what is set to be a fascinating chapter in a musical story unlike any other.

Get stuck in.

GHOSTMANE released his last full-length album ‘ANTI-ICON’ back in 2020. You can check it out in full below, just to get reacquainted.

The post GHOSTMANE Shares Bludgeoning New Track ‘ZERO DAY’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

His first European headline tour begins September 18

Source

During the COVID-19 pandemic, different people had different ways to deal with the increased amount of time they had on their hands. Throw a rock and you could find someone in the arts figuring out what their new project would be. For author J. Hunter Bennett, it became a way to clean out some old books. I would be pressed to think that he knew this endeavor would lead to his latest book, More Punk than the Public Library: The Adventures of a Little Free Punk Rock Bookstore. Here, Bennett describes his accidental building of a punk‑literary micro‑community, and captures its evolution.

Setting up a little library outside his house on a busy corner in his Chevy Chase, DC neighborhood, Bennett started the Nevada Avenue Outdoor Free Bookshop (NAOFB). It was here Bennett decided to unload some of his punk rock and crime books to anyone who walked by. He accompanied this with a monthly newsletter he printed himself and left copies inside. What started as a way to cope with the horrors of the pandemic and the government’s handling of it turned into a staple of Bennett’s neighborhood. It eventually grew into an underground punk zine. This book is a reprinting of the issues, formatted and collected for your convenience. Each chapter goes over each issue or communique, as our editor proprietor gives us a little context before presenting each issue.

Sections like “Hardcore Reading With…” are interviews with various members of the Washington D.C. Hardcore scene as they talk about the books they like and make recommendations. “Fell in Love with a Book” is a column where a guest writer comes in and gives a review of a book that means a lot to them. As issues go on, more columns and sections are added. At one point, his page count gets to about twenty pages. Bennett ends up with a pretty stacked lineup of people to contribute, with interviews from members of bands like Embrace, Velocity Girl, and Dag Nasty. He also gets some cool essays about his personal life, recruiting his sister and mom each for a book review.

While More Punk Than the Public Library… does mostly follow a wash, rinse, repeat format, it’s extremely entertaining. Each chapter is uniform to the context and then a reprinting of the corresponding month’s issue, but the contents of each book will win you over. Despite starting as a personal project, the NAOFB sort of ballooned in the best way possible. What became a way to kill time during one of the darkest times in modern history is now this book. Each issue of Bennett’s zine may tell small stories and anecdotes about the contributors, but this book is a fantastic way to show how a community can come together and be built over something as small as a little library with secondhand books on a street corner.

More Punk than the Public Library: The Adventures of a Little Free Punk Rock Bookstore was published and is available through Microcosm Publishing.

Click here for more articles by Forrest

A great rock performance can look almost effortless from the crowd, can’t it? The guitarist is racing from one side of the stage to the other, the drummer is attacking every fill, and the vocalist is somehow singing at full … Continue reading →

The post The Hidden Physical Demands Behind High-Energy Rock Performances appeared first on DMME.net.

Watch a roulette table for ten minutes, even on a phone screen, and a rhythm declares itself: the unhurried spiral of the ball, the settling, the sweep, the pause while the next round gathers itself. Blackjack moves differently, in short … Continue reading →

The post A Beginner’s Breakdown of Online Roulette, Blackjack, and Crash Games appeared first on DMME.net.

Musicians spend countless hours recording songs, rehearsing, performing concerts, and traveling between shows. Away from demanding schedules, many famous performers also devote serious time and energy to sports.

Athletic interests among musicians can take many forms. Some stars play mainly for recreation, while others competed at a high level before music became their profession. 

Golf, basketball, soccer, track and field, and baseball have all attracted performers known primarily for their work onstage.

Similar skills matter in both music and athletics. Practice, coordination, timing, confidence, competitiveness, and performing under pressure can make a difference in either setting.

Here are seven popular musicians whose interest in sports involved much more than sitting in the audience.

1. Alice Cooper – Golf

Alice Cooper built one of rock music’s most recognizable stage personas with theatrical performances, dark imagery, and songs such as “School’s Out.” 

Golf might seem like an unlikely pastime for someone associated with shock rock, but it became one of his biggest interests away from music.

Cooper took up golf in the early 1980s and eventually became an extremely dedicated player. Regular rounds became part of his routine, including periods when he was touring and performing.

His dedication produced a few especially notable results:

• Cooper once maintained a 5.3 handicap.
• Golf became important enough to inspire his memoir, Alice Cooper, Golf Monster.
• Playing while on tour helped turn golf into a consistent part of his lifestyle rather than an occasional celebrity hobby.

Players inspired by Cooper’s dedication to the game can also look at equipment options such as Srixon Iron Sets, which include several configurations for different playing preferences.

Few images could contrast more sharply with Cooper’s concert persona. 

Audiences know him for dramatic makeup and theatrical rock shows, yet he has also been perfectly happy spending hours concentrating on a quiet round of golf.

2. Prince – Basketball

Prince had far more than a casual interest in basketball. 

Long before his status as an international music star, he played the game while growing up and developed skills that stayed with him during adulthood.

Basketball continued to be part of his recreational life even after albums, concerts, and recording sessions filled his schedule. 

His size might not have made him look like an obvious basketball threat, but competitiveness and athletic ability helped make him a surprisingly capable player.

Pop culture eventually turned that reputation into comedy. 

A famous Chappelle’s Show sketch portrayed Prince dominating a pickup basketball game before delivering the memorable “Game, Blouses” line.

Few musicians combined flamboyant stage performances and pickup basketball quite like Prince. Music made him famous around the world, but basketball gave him another place to compete.

3. Rod Stewart – Soccer

Rod Stewart’s connection with soccer started during childhood. 

His father played the sport and managed amateur teams, helping make soccer a major part of family life.

Stewart became serious about playing himself. He captained his school team and spent part of his youth dreaming about becoming a professional soccer player instead of a singer.

His early soccer experience included several signs that those ambitions were serious:

• He captained his school team.
• Brentford F.C. gave him a trial.
• Professional soccer once looked like a plausible career direction before music took priority.

Passion for the game stayed with him after his singing career took off. Soccer continued to occupy an important place among his personal interests, making him one of rock music’s most enthusiastic followers of the sport.

Stewart has essentially identified singing and soccer as his two natural talents. 

One eventually produced a hugely successful recording career, while the other became a lifelong passion that nearly sent him toward a very different profession.

4. Marvin Gaye – Basketball

Marvin Gaye brought smooth vocals and emotional expression to some of soul music’s most celebrated recordings. Away from music, he also possessed a strong competitive streak that frequently appeared on the basketball court.

Gaye regularly played basketball in Detroit instead of limiting his interest to watching professional games. 

St. Cecilia Gym became one of the places associated with his playing, where he competed alongside talented local athletes and professional players.

Basketball later intersected with his musical career in one of his most famous public performances. 

Gaye sang the national anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, creating a memorable connection between his music and a sport he personally enjoyed playing.

Many singers enjoy sports recreationally, but Gaye came unusually close to testing his athletic ability at a professional level.

5. Bruce Dickinson – Soccer

Bruce Dickinson has built a reputation for having an unusually long list of interests outside his role as Iron Maiden’s frontman. 

Aviation, fencing, writing, and athletics have all occupied his time, and soccer also belongs on that list.

Dickinson has been associated with soccer as one of his recreational interests and has expressed affection for Liverpool F.C. His enthusiasm fits naturally with the highly active personality fans have seen throughout his career.

Soccer also connects Dickinson with a broader sporting culture around Iron Maiden:

• Band members have taken part in soccer-related events.
• Charity matches have added another connection between Iron Maiden and the sport.
• Dickinson’s interest in soccer sits alongside fencing, another activity requiring concentration, discipline, and physical effort.

Few frontmen can match Dickinson’s collection of extracurricular interests. 

Soccer might be only one item on that list, but it adds another athletic dimension to a musician famous for constantly taking on demanding activities.

6. Garth Brooks – Track and Field

Garth Brooks was competing inside stadiums before he became famous for filling them with country music fans. 

Sports played an important role during his younger years, with football, baseball, and track and field among his athletic interests.

Track and field eventually helped Brooks earn a scholarship to Oklahoma State University. 

His event was the javelin, giving his athletic background a very different character compared with celebrity hobbies such as golf or basketball.

Several facts make his college athletic career especially notable:

• Brooks attended Oklahoma State University on an athletic scholarship.
• Javelin was his primary competitive event.
• His sporting background also included football and baseball.

Throwing the javelin requires technique, timing, speed, strength, and repetition. Brooks spent part of his college years working on those skills while competing as an athlete.

Music gradually became his professional focus, leading to a career that made him one of country music’s biggest stars. 

Years before songs such as “Friends in Low Places” became concert staples, Brooks was concentrating on how far he could send a javelin.

College competition also separates his story from musicians who picked up a sport after becoming famous. Brooks had already reached a serious competitive level at a time when his future career could still have developed in several directions.

7. Billy Ray Cyrus – Baseball

Billy Ray Cyrus had legitimate baseball credentials before “Achy Breaky Heart” made him a country music star. 

Baseball played a significant enough role in his early life to help him reach college.

Cyrus attended Georgetown College on a baseball scholarship. Receiving that opportunity meant his connection with the sport involved demonstrated ability rather than casual weekend participation.

Baseball still offers an interesting glimpse at the alternate future he once could have followed. 

Athletic talent helped open an educational opportunity, while musical talent ultimately took his career in another direction.

Had circumstances developed differently, Cyrus might have become associated with a bat and glove rather than a guitar. His story makes a fitting final example of how close music and serious athletic ambitions can sometimes exist within one person.

Summary

Athletic interests among famous musicians range from recreational passions to legitimate competitive backgrounds. 

Music and sports can look like completely separate worlds, yet both demand repetition, timing, coordination, confidence, focus, and competitiveness. 

For these seven performers, athletic ability and musical success were never as far apart as they might appear.