Category: news

“…There was this extreme sense of second guessing everything.”

The post Loathe’s Erik Bickerstaffe On “A Stranger To You”: “I Think We Were Conscious Of Not Wanting To F*ck This Record Up” appeared first on Theprp.com.

Heavy metal has never been a genre built on playing it safe, but its lifelong obsession with the roll of the dice, the dealer’s table, and the sudden turn of a card runs far deeper than mere rebellious swagger. Across six decades of distortion, skull-laden album sleeves, and blistering guitar solos, the world of hard rock has embraced gambling imagery in heavy metal not merely as cool decoration, but as the foundational metaphor for living on the edge of oblivion.

When you examine the DNA of the music, the gambler’s fatalistic mindset maps perfectly onto the outlaw spirit of the scene, creating a shared vocabulary of calculated danger, destiny, and the thrill of the wager.

The All-or-Nothing Philosophy: Metal’s Risk Aesthetic

Gambling isn’t an incidental aesthetic borrowed to look dangerous; it is structural to how rock and metal perceive existence. From the smoky backrooms chronicled in early hard rock tracks to the menacing iconography that stamps heavy vinyl, risk is the heartbeat of the genre.

Metal has always attracted musicians and fans who reject the safety net of ordinary life. Choosing to chase a career in heavy music is itself a massive wager — throwing stability to the wind for a one-in-a-million shot at the stage. That uncompromising, all-or-nothing mentality creates an instant cultural bridge to the world of high-stakes play.

This overlap is visible not only in historical records but across contemporary entertainment. Editorial teams covering the modern digital wagering space, such as the gaming analysts examining the European landscape at Rizik Croatia, frequently note how modern casino gaming and rock aesthetics share the exact same visual and psychological cues: the drama of the cards, the unpredictability of chance, and the unflinching courage to ride out whatever hand fate deals.

The Defining Anthem: How Motörhead Immortalized the Ace of Spades

No discussion of cards and volume can exist without acknowledging the benchmark: Motörhead’s legendary 1980 masterpiece.

“You know I’m born to lose, and gambling’s for fools,
But that’s the way I like it baby,
I don’t wanna live for ever…”

When Lemmy Kilmister roared those lines over Fast Eddie Clarke’s roaring riff, he wasn’t writing a detached fictional story. Lemmy was notoriously devoted to the machines and the card tables throughout his life, bringing genuine biographical authenticity to every syllable. The Motörhead Ace of Spades lyrics codified the ultimate heavy metal ethos: you do not hedge your bets, you do not cash out early, and you embrace the inevitable finish with your boots on.

The ace of spades carries deep historical connotations of mortality and unpredictability, making it the supreme insignia for a band that built its legacy on absolute defiance.

Skulls, Suits, and Spades: Playing Cards in Album Art

Long before digital interfaces became standard, rock bands turned to visual symbols to telegraph their attitude to the world. Examining classic rock band album art playing cards reveals how quickly dice, royal flushes, and the dead man’s hand became universal symbols.

• The Skull and Spade: Merging the suit of spades with skulls creates a visual shorthand that represents both mortality and defiance.
• The Flaming Dice: Often featured on denim battle jackets and tour merch to signal a life governed by velocity and chance.
• The Dead Man’s Hand (Aces and Eights): A staple in thrash, outlaw country-metal, and southern rock, honoring the legendary hand Wild Bill Hickok held when he met his fate.

These images do more than fill merchandise space; they communicate an unspoken pledge between artist and audience that both sides understand what it means to live on the margins.

The Outlaw Gambler: Metal’s Recurring Lyrical Hero

Heavy metal’s lyrical tradition traces its roots directly through the early American blues, where wandering bluesmen sang of making pacts at midnight crossroads and staking their lives on a single game.

Metal adopted this archetype and turned up the gain. The outlaw gambler rock archetype is an antihero who refuses to beg for forgiveness, laughs in the face of bad luck, and takes full responsibility for their losses. It’s an empowering persona for listeners navigating a world that demands conformity and caution.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is metal music fate and risk so closely linked?

Metal frequently explores themes of destiny, mortality, and powerlessness against cosmic forces. Gambling imagery offers a concrete, visceral metaphor for confronting the unknown and staring down the odds.

What bands beside Motörhead frequently use gambling imagery?

Bands ranging from Iron Maiden (The Angel and the Gambler) and AC/DC (Sin City) to Megadeth, Black Sabbath, and Volbeat have all woven card games, dice rolls, and risk-taking into their lyrics and stage designs.

Why do rock fans love high-stakes visual aesthetics?

The visual language of cards, roulette wheels, and dice represents autonomy, adrenaline, and an refusal to settle for ordinary routines.

TL;DR

• Rooted in Reality: Gambling imagery in heavy metal isn’t just a theatrical gimmick; it represents the genre’s all-or-nothing philosophy and outlaw ethos.
• The Gold Standard: Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” cemented the card-playing gambler as the ultimate metal archetype thanks to Lemmy’s authentic lifestyle.
• Visual Power: Album art, tour shirts, and logos have relied on spades, dice, and cards for decades to symbolize mortality and destiny.
• Modern Parallels: Platforms like Rizik Croatia showcase how the thrill of chance and the timeless iconography of risk continue to captivate modern audiences worldwide.

The post The High-Stakes Obsession: Why Heavy Metal Refuses to Fold Its Hand appeared first on Loaded Radio.

Queens Of The Stone Age will release their ninth album, Perfecth, on October 30 via Matador Records.

Having already teased the follow-up to 2023’s In Times New Roman with the single Easy Street, Josh Homme’s band have shared a second. song from the record, Insignificant Other.

“It’s a song about distance,” says Homme. “About how someone can be your entire world only to simply vanish. And about the strange vertigo of being on the receiving end of that.”

The album title apparently reflects Homme’s belief that the word ‘Perfect’ doesn’t exist. Which it blatantly does. But rock stars gonna rock star, we guess.

“Every song sounds like it’s from a different world,” says Homme. “And that’s on purpose, because it’s trying to stitch together all these emotions revolving around love, lust, foolishness, and the sort of wisdom that comes as a gift from all that.”

A press statement adds: “Kintsugi – the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by filling its cracks with gold – holds that what has been shattered is made more beautiful, not less, by the act of repair. This is the spirit in which Perfecth was made. An album that could only have been made right now thanks to Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita, and Jon Theodore taking significant evolutionary steps as a collective and arriving at hard-won clarity, its nine songs map different forms of love: of family, friends, and others both significant and insignificant. The loves that break you beyond survival and the loves that put you back together.”

The album tracklisting is:

1. It’s Only Love
2. Insignificant Other
3. Where The Goth Girls At?
4. Mono
5. From The Cliff
6. Sunday
7. Easy Street
8. Phantom Limb
9. Run Away From The Mob

Produced by Homme and Michael Shuman, Perfecth will be available on CD, standard black vinyl, on clear vinyl, and as a limited Deluxe Edition – a gatefold LP package which includes handwritten lyrics, stationary, ‘stamps’ housed inside a custom envelope as well as a bespoke piece of art temporarily placed in a custom pocket – exclusively on the QOTSA and Matador webstores.

Part of their ‘Cardboard Sessions’ set.

The post The Barbarians Of California’s In-Studio Performance Of “No Sir I Won’t Wear Your Jacket” On Cardboard Instruments Is Now Available appeared first on Theprp.com.

Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer and Dan Reed, the acclaimed voice behind Dan Reed Network, have teamed up for a new project called Shogun Mojo. The pair’s self-titled debut album arrives Nov. 6, 2026, via Frontiers Music Srl.

The official music video for the album’s first single, “Under The Gun,” can be watched below.

Shogun Mojo brings together decades of arena-rock pedigree, restless creativity and straight-up rock ‘n’ roll energy under Thayer and Reed‘s direction. Rounding out the lineup is a tight, Sweden-based rhythm section featuring drummer Robert Mehmet Ikiz, guitarist Roger Öjersson and bassist Bengan Jonasson, and together the band delivers a debut loaded with big hooks, driving energy and live-wire performances.

“In the first single ‘Under The Gun’… Tommy kills it, and Bengt and Ikiz lay down a killer funk groove,” Reed said. “As for the lyrics, they point at the current trends on earth of more division, more anger, and more fear. I’m simply saying we should be careful of the amount of negativity we populate our lives with, because we just might make it come true. If we bring on dystopia then we better be prepared for the ride.”

Thayer shared his own thoughts on the record: “I’ve always loved doing projects like this because they give me a chance to step outside of my usual world and just create, play guitar, and have fun making music.

“Dan and I go back a long way, and it’s been great getting to know Bengt and Ikiz over the past year and discovering the chemistry we have together.

“Shogun Mojo really came from that shared energy, getting in a room, playing, writing and seeing where it took us.

“There’s a great spirit and camaraderie in this band that comes through in the music, and I’m excited for people to finally hear what we’ve created together.”

Reed added more on the album’s origins: “This debut album is a reflection of all the rock records both Tommy, Bengt, Ikiz, and I grew up listening to! Even Brion James from my band Dan Reed Network has a co-write on the album called ‘Funk Party’! What we captured in the studio is playing live together as bands did in the ’70s, and the outcome is a record that’s groovy, rowdy funk rock celebration of life. At least that was the goal.

“In a world of A.I. music, we took it back to the roots of having fun writing in a room together and recording in a room together. We hope you feel what we attempted to capture.

“We are often told ‘people don’t want to hear guitar solos anymore’… so Tommy has a guitar solo in every song!”

Sonically, Shogun Mojo leans into the melodic punch of late-’70s and early-’80s hard rock, mixing Kiss‘s anthemic swagger with Reed‘s soulful, unmistakable vocal delivery. Fans of Dan Reed Network‘s Slam will find plenty to latch onto here — massive choruses, funk-driven grooves and feel-good energy — filtered through a warmer, more organic sound reminiscent of classic analog rock records.

Raw and unapologetically loose, Shogun Mojo‘s debut leans on big riffs, sticky melodies and a clear love for classic hard rock, updated for a new audience.

Shogun Mojo brings together four seasoned musicians with a wide range of global experience. Leading the way is Thayer, best known as lead guitarist of Kiss, a band whose catalog has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. Raised in Oregon and shaped by 1970s hard rock, Thayer cut his teeth in Portland’s club scene before finding wider success with Black ‘N Blue and eventually stepping into Kiss in 2002.

On vocals, Reed — frontman of Dan Reed Network — brings a mix of rock, soul and storytelling to the band. His career has included multi-platinum success, world tours supporting The Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi, and a later move into filmmaking and visual art after relocating to Prague, where he now splits his time between music, family and film projects.

The rhythm section is built on deep musical chemistry. Sweden-based drummer and producer Ikiz brings a genre-blending style shaped by performances in more than 60 countries, fusing jazz sensibility with electronic textures. On bass, Stockholm’s Jonasson — known to bandmates as “Bengt” — contributes melodic, groove-heavy playing built from years across rock, reggae, jazz fusion and Scandinavian folk traditions. A longtime collaborator of Reed and Ikiz, Jonasson‘s instincts give the band much of its emotional depth.

Together, the four musicians form Shogun Mojo — a band where classic-rock pedigree and international influence come together into something distinctly its own.

The album was co-produced and engineered by Geoff Tyson, a protégé of Joe Satriani, and mixed by producer and artist Rob Daiker.

The post SHOGUN MOJO, Featuring TOMMY THAYER & DAN REED, Share New Single “Under The Gun” From Upcoming Self-Titled Album appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Dolly Parton died peacefully at her home in Nashville on Tuesday, August 25, at the age of 80. Her nephew Bryan Seaver announced it in a video message the family said she had asked him to record years ago. She leaves behind a seven-decade career, more than 100 million records sold and a catalogue of songs that will outlive everyone reading this. She also leaves behind something a hard rock and metal outlet has a particular reason to remember: she is the only person in history who tried to turn down the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and then went and recorded with Rob Halford, Nikki Sixx and John 5 to prove she deserved it.

STREAM THE METAL BREAKDOWN DAILY NOW:

Scott Penfold breaks down the latest hard rock and metal news stories on today’s Metal Breakdown Daily. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and get it every weekday morning.

She tried to give the Rock Hall back

This is the story, and it tells you everything about the woman.

In 2022, Dolly Parton was nominated for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Most artists would have accepted quietly and turned up in a nice dress.

She asked to be taken off the ballot.

Her stated reason was that she didn’t feel she had earned that right — that she hadn’t really worked in rock and roll, and she didn’t want votes split or the honour going to someone who deserved it more. There was no false modesty performance about it. She meant it, publicly, and she tried to withdraw.

The Hall inducted her anyway.

And here’s what she did about it. Rather than accept the trophy and move on, she announced she’d make a rock album. A real one. Not a gesture, not three covers stapled to a country record — a full-length statement designed to justify the plaque.

Then she went and did it, at 77 years old.

Rockstar, and the people she called

Rockstar arrived on November 17, 2023. Thirty tracks. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 — the highest-charting album of her entire career, which is a genuinely absurd sentence about a woman with more than fifty albums behind her.

Look at who turned up.

Rob Halford duetted with her on “Bygones,” an original she wrote — and she brought in Nikki Sixx on bass and John 5 on guitar for it. That’s the Metal God and two members of Mötley Crüe, on a Dolly Parton song, and it topped the Mediabase Classic Rock chart. Her own comment was that Halford was one of her all-time favourites and that it was one of her favourite songs on the whole record.

Ann Wilson and Howard Leese joined her on Heart’s “Magic Man.” Steven Tyler on “I Want You Back,” with Warren Haynes. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts on “I Hate Myself For Loving You.” Stevie Nicks on “What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You,” with Waddy Wachtel. Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo on “Heartbreaker.” Debbie Harry on “Heart Of Glass.” Peter Frampton. Elton John. Sting. Kevin Cronin. John Fogerty. Melissa Etheridge. Simon Le Bon. Linda Perry.

She covered “Stairway To Heaven.” She covered “Purple Rain.” She covered “We Are The Champions” welded to “We Will Rock You.”

And she got Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on “Let It Be,” with Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood playing on it.

Then there’s “Free Bird” — built around Ronnie Van Zant’s vocals, with Gary Rossington and Artimus Pyle playing. Rossington died in March 2023, months before the album came out. It’s one of the last things he recorded.

Nobody assembles a guest list like that out of obligation. Those people said yes because it was her.

Why her name belongs in this conversation

Some people will read a Dolly Parton obituary on a metal site and roll their eyes. Fair enough. Here’s the argument.

Songwriting is songwriting. “Jolene” is two chords, a modal riff and a lyric about desperation that has been covered by everyone from the White Stripes to Miley Cyrus, and it works in any genre you drop it into because the bones are perfect. That song has been sung by more metal vocalists in more soundchecks than anyone would admit to.

“I Will Always Love You” — which she wrote about leaving Porter Wagoner’s show to go solo, not about romance — is one of the most valuable copyrights in music history. She famously refused to sell Elvis Presley half the publishing to get him to record it, and that decision made her a fortune. That’s not a country music story. That’s an artist protecting her work, which is the most rock and roll instinct there is.

And she came up hard. Born January 19, 1946 in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, into genuine poverty — the childhood she turned into “Coat Of Many Colors.” She built Dollywood, funded the Imagination Library, gave millions away quietly, and never once pretended she’d come from anywhere else.

The DNA of everything heavy music was built on is the blues, hard living and Appalachian folk. Same roots. Different tree.

We Recommend – The 13 Greatest Frontmen In Heavy Metal History, Ranked

What she did for our people

Worth stating plainly, because this is the part that matters to a metal audience.

Rob Halford got to sing with Dolly Parton. So did Ann Wilson, Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. Nikki Sixx played bass on a track she wrote, and John 5 played guitar on it — two years before he’d become Mötley Crüe’s permanent guitarist.

She didn’t need any of them. She was already one of the most famous people alive. She called them because she genuinely loved the music and because she’d decided that if she was going in the Rock Hall, she was going to walk in the front door with the receipts.

For a genre that spends a lot of its time being told it doesn’t count, an artist of that stature taking it that seriously means something. She treated Judas Priest and the whole lineage that runs back to Sabbath as peers worth learning from, not novelty guests.

That’s respect. It goes both ways today.

Check Out – 13 Metal Albums Turning 40 In 2026, Including The One MTV Turned Into Its News Theme Song

The last few years

Her husband of nearly six decades, Carl Thomas Dean, died in March 2025 at 82. They married in 1966 and he stayed almost entirely out of public life for the whole of it. A week after his death she released “If You Hadn’t Been There,” one of her final singles.

She was open afterwards about the toll it took. She said that while Carl was sick and after he passed, she hadn’t looked after herself and had let things go she should have been dealing with.

She postponed a Las Vegas residency, then cancelled it outright in May 2026, telling fans she was responding well to treatment but wasn’t yet in shape to be carrying guitars around on five-inch heels. That was very much her, right to the end — turning a difficult announcement into a joke so nobody else had to feel bad.

She still made a public appearance at Dollywood in March. She was still involved in a stage musical about her own life and in the Threads symphony project.

The family have said a small, private service will be held for immediate family. No cause of death has been given beyond their statement that she died peacefully.

TL;DR

• What happened: Dolly Parton died peacefully at her home in Nashville on August 25, 2026, aged 80. Her nephew Bryan Seaver announced it in a video the family said she asked him to record years ago.
• The rock connection: she was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2022 after trying to withdraw her own nomination, saying she hadn’t earned it.
• What she did about it: released Rockstar in November 2023, a 30-track rock album that debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 — the highest-charting record of her career.
• Who played on it: Rob Halford, Nikki Sixx, John 5, Steven Tyler, Joan Jett, Ann Wilson, Stevie Nicks, Pat Benatar, Debbie Harry, Peter Frampton, Elton John, Sting, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, among many others.
• The career: more than 100 country hits, over two dozen No. 1s, more than 100 million records sold, and Grammy, Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony recognition alongside Country Music and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction.
• Her husband: Carl Thomas Dean, married nearly 59 years, died in March 2025.

FAQ

She tried to hand back the Rock Hall because she didn’t think she’d earned it, then called Rob Halford and made sure she had. That’s about as rock and roll as it gets. Share your favourite Dolly moment in the comments — and keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream.

The post Dolly Parton Has Died At 80, And Metal Should Say Goodbye Too appeared first on Loaded Radio.

Edinburgh Summer Sessions kicked off on Friday, 21st August. Held at the Royal Highland Showgrounds, the Summer Sessions have been running since 2018 and showcasing many high-profile artists, including Chappell Roan in 2025 and Ocean Colour Scene in 2024 – and this year, the lineup might just be their most impressive and eclectic yet, with … Continue reading Gig Review: Biffy Clyro / Nothing But Thieves / Swim School – Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh (21st August 2026)

Rob Halford, Ted Nugent and Bret Michaels are among those who've shared tributes to the iconic country singer. Continue reading…

Album Review: Sardonic Witchery – Hell’s Thorns Attack

Reviewed by Matthew Williams

There’s a wonderful sentence at the bottom of the attached PR sheet that came with this promo, which simply states “Old fashioned satanic metal forged in fire, steel and devotion to darkness”. If that doesn’t whet your appetite then nothing will, as King Demogorgon, the Lusitanian bastard, has risen once more from the hidden depths of the Texas underground, via Portugal, to unleash merry hell upon the world.

With G Lucis Ruina by his side, they have emerged with a collection of songs that make up Sardonic Witchery’s fifth album, and it all kicks off with a deliciously eerie opening on “Crown of Burning Spikes”. The snare is getting one hell of a pounding, as it does throughout the entire album, and with the chorus sounding like a war cry, each word pierces your soul deeper than the one before. The crushing noise is unrelenting and with a solo leading “Hateful Evil Thorne” they unleash a killer riff around the minute mark that signals their demonic intent. It’s dark, aggressive and savage, but more importantly, it’s damn good.

Across the songs, they are paying their respects to the history of black metal whilst simultaneously moving the band towards new levels of bedlam, chaos and profanity. “Unholy Conqueror” has a huge commanding presence, like a cloaked figure constantly watching over your shoulder, before they confront you head on with the terrifying “Sabbath of Sadistic Desire”. I didn’t think they could up the depravity further, but this propels it up several notches, with scintillating riffs and rhythms exploding all over the composition.

Their exploration of all things wicked and immoral moves onto “Ego Sum Rex Ignis Aeturnus” followed by “Cult of a Thousand Horns” which is just rapid and will leave your ears stinging. The screaming vocals, intense rhythms and raucous riffs are wonderfully weaved together to produce a song full of venomous intent. The onslaught shows no signs of slowing, with next track “Raped by Horrendous Night” demonstrating that they aren’t just playing fast for playing fast sake, they are doing it with intent. And that intent is to rip your face off!!!

The fierce and frenzied beating of your senses comes to an end with “Dark Moon Slaughter” as the solo leads into more frothing at the mouth vocals, and a few well placed “eeuurrgghhsss”. This one does however seem more controlled, and purposeful in its approach, with the middle section riff getting me instantly headbanging as the repeated chorus line dramatically raises the caustic nature of the song. Enter at your peril with this one.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Album Review: Sardonic Witchery – Hell’s Thorns Attack appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

The singer-songwriter rose from poverty to become a chart-topping performer whose earnest character allowed her to span genres.