LEFT TO RIGHT: Scott Ian, Joey Belladonna, Charlie Benante, Jonathan Donais, Frank Bello
In episode three of 50 Shades Of Slaids – Andrew Slaidins sat down to chat with Scott Ian of Anthrax to talk about the upcoming Australian tour at the end of March, their first headline tour since 2005 and their first visit in seven years. Ian talks about the excitement of the tour, mentioning that the band had recently completed a successful run of shows with Megadeth and Exodus in Canada.
Slaids also tries to squeeze information about the forthcoming album out of Ian and the tease of new material in the live set.
In closing Ian promised an energetic and lengthy performance, stating that fans could expect “the most energetic, certainly minimum 90 minutes of metal you’ve ever seen from any band.”
For the rest of the fun you will just have to check it out.
ANTHRAX AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2026
Monday, March 23rd
Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane QLD
Wednesday, March 25th
Hindley St, Music Hall, Adelaide SA
Thursday, March 26th
Festival Hall, Melbourne VIC
Saturday, March 28th
Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
For complete tour and ticket information, seehere.
Sometimes death is waiting just around the corner. Sometimes death is the best option.
Project .44 – The System Doesn’t Work
Fun party crossover that rides revolutionary riffs until midsection breaks, intimating stadium heavy metal that never arrives, only to go back to more of the same. Song after song, we hear a band that wants to settle itself into the battleground of ideas but not enough courage is mustered. The cliche is there, but, like Testament, it lacks any substance past a catchy riff, one generic track after another. The heavily filtered vocals sink it more into the mire of oblivion.
Karelian Warcry – Veripellot
Advertised as blackened death metal, this is screamo played over a variety of death metal-influenced alternative metal that came to be known as dark metal. The quality is sufficiently rewarding, with moments that could almost be called interesting, but, like post-1995 At the Gates, it is never able to leave the radio-friendly, festival-ready, disposable tracks. What you have is a great guitar tone and well-studied riffs that fall through the cracks because there is no vision of the transcendent.
Aurora Disease – Epitaph
Advertised as a one-man metal band, this comes through as avant-garde weirdo urban mélange reminiscent of Peste Noire without the strength of drive or enough alienation to make the cut. The result feels sincere enough, the effort is present, the production and musicianship are present. Combining streams of understated black metal to emphasize a journey through words embedded in melody lines, Aurora Disease will find a fanbase among those who value message and aura packaged in decent production and effortful artistry. For those holding art to a higher standard of unity, aesthetic, and necessity, this release is forgettable.
Kaleidobolt – Karakuchi
Funny Scooby-Doo chase music with solos reminiscent of 70s music without actually entirely imitating it. This is simultaneously old and new. The band has a grasp of pop music dynamics and will be adept at playing festivals, weddings, and band battles, entertaining the many with guitar effects, solos, grooves, and the charisma of the momentary. Tomorrow, you won’t remember this band or this release.
AIDS Wolf – Harsh Human Style
Random snare hits, filtered farts, and an indistinct bass-guitar wobble, the opening of the present release reflects the name of the project as well as the promo pictures of the band members. The intent is a sort of experimental avant-garde without compunction. The band gets points for going all out on this idea and being able to record it. In its attempt and presentation, it is more sincere and pure than pop nonsense out there; its aesthetic constant and the streams of improvisation yield new patterns with each passing moment. Nevertheless, and despite the artistic unity, because of origin and intent, this is ultimately artsy-fartsy gutter music, coming from and destined for the garbage bin of human consciousness.
Black Reuss – ‘ENDGAME’ (Song from the Album Death)
Unfiltered, less directed allusions to goth rock and metal, Black Reuss dance to the tune of old, already very old and tired tropes used to focused effect through pop goth metal with male vocals. It does with the most established and generic materials, something that can stand on its own feet despite not moving the dial. The name of the virtue here is circumspection.
Epigram – Obsolescent
An admixture of Arch Enemy, Behemoth, and Amon Amarth, Epigram builds songs with a tried and true formula that will land with fans of the style. The structure is pop heavy metal, and the aesthetic relies on pushing simple catchy melodies over rhythmic riffs, and racing triggered drums with overprocessed and indistinct growls.
Dark Phantom – The Redline
Rhythmic Pantera and At the Gates, with lots of solos, political and social commentary from the Middle East. Lots of ‘heart’, computer games influence, allowing good musicianship and production in greater quantities, has made it so that anyone can make what in the 90s was the purview of media soundtrack composers. Nothing here will surprise, but the guitarwork might interest young guitar enthusiasts.
Devil Empire – Inside Infernal Anthropy Thrones
Catchy, sometimes unwittingly funny, abrupt, and lacking a sense of flow, this music sounds like a random collection of passages from what could be considered “cool driving black metal music”. Sometimes the music even appears to get stuck. The vocals sound right out of the 2000s by bands with vocalists who didn’t quite make the cut. The release ticks the style boxes, and it has the heart of the villager who happened upon a Mayhem album here, a Burzum there, and decades later found out he could do a lot of this in his bedroom. Computer orchestrations are thrown willy-nilly, and nothing in here makes sense. The intent, it seems, would be maximizing (farming?) aura moment by moment without regard for what just passed and what comes next in the music. While other music reviewed is just uninspired and mediocre, Devil Empire sounds like the product of passion and familiarity with (though definitely not mastery of) the morass of an underground genre. Marginally endearing and ultimately comical, it remains a belated and disorganized artifact of subpar releases of the past.
Blues stepped into the mainstream spotlight Sunday night at the 98th Academy Awards as the performance of the Oscar-nominated song “I Lied to You” from Sinners brought some of the genre’s most respected artists to one of entertainment’s biggest stages. The powerful performance earned a standing ovation inside the Dolby Theatre, marking a rare moment where blues commanded the center of the global spotlight.
Led by Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq, the performance featured an impressive lineup that included blues titans Buddy Guy, Eric Gales, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and Bobby Rush. The stage was further filled out by Brittany Howard, Shaboozey and Alice Smith, alongside appearances by Misty Copeland, Jayme Lawson and Li Jun Li. Together, the group delivered a performance that captured the spirit and musical energy of Sinners, blending blues, roots music and cinematic storytelling on one of the world’s most watched broadcasts.
For blues fans, it was a moment that felt both historic and long overdue. The genre, which has influenced nearly every major form of modern popular music, rarely receives this kind of visibility at events like the Oscars. Seeing legends like Buddy Guy and Bobby Rush share the stage with modern torchbearers such as Gales and Kingfish created a powerful bridge between generations of blues musicians.
The performance was tied to Sinners, the Ryan Coogler film that entered the night with a record-setting 16 Oscar nominations, the most of any film this year. The live rendition of “I Lied to You” served as a musical centerpiece that reflected the film’s deep connection to blues and American roots music.
Moments like this do not happen often for the blues. While the genre’s influence is everywhere in popular music, it rarely receives such a prominent stage in front of a worldwide audience. The standing ovation that followed Sunday night’s performance felt like a recognition not just of the artists on stage, but of the enduring power and cultural importance of the blues itself.
Watch the full performance below.
Following the performance, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram took to social media, writing, “That was truly unreal.”
Good Terms played one of their last dates on the Highway to Hell Yeah Brother Tour at the Echo on March 12.
Dear Delta
New Los Angeles band Dear Delta opened the set with catchy emo pop punk. They got the crowd moving early to warm up the show. At one point, frontman Anthony Nappier played a kazoo. Check them out for a dose of 2000’s emo and a fun live show.
Saticöy
LA-based alt-rockers Saticöy from Ohio were up next. Their set rocked surprisingly harder than one would expect from a band with a saxophone player. This wasn’t jazz or funk rocking hard. This band is clearly a rock band, and a pretty heavy one at that. They are also legit content creators with their socials and “Learning songs in 30 secs” series on YouTube stacking up views. Their video “Safe Side” with fellow creator Connor Musarra (Steal This song ideas on IG) is out now.
Chief
Long Beach’s Chief turned the lights down and brought things down with their set. Giving the crowd a chance to breathe, the band delivered a solid set of indie pop and ethereal rock reminiscent of The 1975. The band also has a subtle heaviness, and a recent show with Dayseeker speaks to this heaviness. The band sounds ready for stardom with radio-ready musicianship and dreamy vocals, but the unassuming band was right at home on the humble stage of The Echo.
Good Terms
It’s hard to believe Good Terms played their first show at the Viper Room just four years ago. They balance musical precision and loose vibes that normally takes years more experience to perfect. The band swings wide on a variety of genres. While the core is mostly rooted in pop punk, they weave in alt-country to a heavier metal side. Heavier songs like “Mask” don’t usually make it to the live show, but the setlists always deliver a non-stop party, including this one on the eve of guitarist Ivan Barry’s birthday.
The call and response of “Hell Yeah” and “Brother” for the night was fitting for the high-energy, feel-good show. After the band’s cover of Van Halen’s “Jump,” they went into the fan-voted “High Right Now” with answered calls for a dance pit. Calls for a circle pit came shortly after. That snippet of the night gives a good overall picture what a Good Terms show is like. This is one of those bands that delivers a good time for fans of all different types of music. They’ll be at the Warped Tour stops in Long Beach and Orlando this summer. Their latest album Burnout Deluxe, and extended version of 2024’s breakout Burnout, is out now.
Press/photo passes to photograph a concert usually come from either submitting a request on the Live Nation Press Portal, or reaching out to a band’s management or public relations team – my Friday evening in the photo pit involved neither of these. My route to the show was a little more circuitous, with a meandering path that started with one generation removed from Bruce Lee’s inner-circle of teaching disciples in Jeet Kune Do, and eventually led to metal legend Zakk Wylde himself. It’s too long a story to tell, but my presence at the YouTube Theater on Friday night took the help of many seemingly unrelated people, and I was beyond grateful to be there, as this was an amazing night of rock & roll brilliance.
The YouTube Theater is a 6000-seat concert hall in the SoFi Stadium complex in Inglewood, California. It has great sound, and is a solid place to see a show – especially a Black Label Society show. Founder/singer/songwriter/guitarist extraordinaire/pianist Zakk Wylde would be working overtime, as his top-tier Black Sabbath cover band Zakk Sabbath would be opening for Black Label Society. The tour started a week ago, and goes with very few days off throughout the US, South America, and Europe through September, with a few Pantera gigs sprinkled in – an exhausting schedule for anyone, much less someone fronting two bands each night. Before launching the tour, Zakk joked that “The whole point is I’m in Zakk Sabbath, and we’re opening for Black Label…I’m not only a fan of Zakk Wylde, but I’m a fan of his wife, and by us being out on this tour, I plan on sleeping with Zakk Wylde’s wife. That’s why I’m thankful that this tour was put together. While we’re going to blow Black Label off the stage, I’m gonna sleep with his wife.”
Black Label Society
Black Label Society is on the road supporting Engines of Demolition, their 12th album, which comes out in two weeks on March 27th. Zakk played the new powerhouse track “Name in Blood” off the album – it’s heavy and exactly what you’d hope for in a new BLS song, and the audience went crazy for it.
I’ve been a Zakk fan since his album debut on 1988’s Ozzy Osborne’s No Rest for the Wicked, where his distinctive pinch dynamics on “Crazy Babies” and “Miracle Man” stood out, caught my ear, and made me a fan for life. He started Black Label Society ten years later in 1998, and while he’s performed with other musicians (Ozzy, Pantera, etc.) since then, he’s always come back to BLS.
Highlights of the show included Ozzy Osborne’s 1991 monster hit “No More Tears” that Zakk co-wrote and performed on. It’s a great song with a killer riff that everyone knows by heart, and when it concluded, all 6000 people in the venue chanted “Ozzy…Ozzy…Ozzy”. Black Label Society started playing it again on this tour after a twenty-plus-year hiatus, and hearing it live with thousands of fellow metalheads was even more poignant given Ozzy’s death nine months ago. The other really special moment happened during 2005’s “In This River”, a soaring piano power ballad. Two huge photos of Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul from Pantera were revealed behind the band, and Zakk dedicated the song to their memory. Lastly, to the point that this music is important, there was a lady sitting on the step on the back of the barricade in the security/photo pit before the show, and she remained there for all three bands. One of the photographers asked about her story, and she told him that she was watching her 293rd Black Label Society show, and the band’s representatives had arranged for her to be closer than anyone else. It was her fifth show on the current tour, and she was planning on seeing more.
Black Label Society are:
Zakk Wylde – vocals, guitar, piano
John (JD) DeServio – bass
Jeff Fabb – drums
Dario Lorina – rhythm guitar
Black Label Society Setlist
1) Funeral Bell
2) Name in Blood
3) Destroy & Conquer
4) A Love Unreal
5) Heart of Darkness
6) No More Tears (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
7) In This River
8) The Blessed Hellride
9) Set You Free
10) Fire It Up
11) Suicide Messiah
12) Stillborn
Zakk Sabbath
Zakk’s other band, the three-piece Zakk Sabbath, opened for Black Label Society. All three bands had crossover members, and both Jeff Fabb (drums) and John (JD) DeServio (bass) played with Zakk in both bands. Started in 2014, Zakk Sabbath is a cover band celebrating the music of Black Sabbath. Having stood by Ozzy’s side on stage for so many years, Zakk knows how to do it right and honors his favorite band in the best possible way.
The audience chanted “Ozzy…Ozzy…Ozzy” between songs with the encouragement of Zakk, and people truly loved the show, the music, and being able to be relive their past by seeing these incredible songs played live. This music is important, and it’s vital that someone like Zakk, who truly understands and honors both the music and the memory, helps keep it alive through his playing. A highlight was Zakk heading into the crowd and playing a solo during their last song of the night, “War Pigs”. Fans in the seated section where he stopped to play, pushed forward towards him, surrounding him in a tight-knit circle much like a rugby scrum, as he raised his guitar behind his head, while taking brief pauses to fist-bump kids in the inner circle, before returning to the stage – guitar still behind his head, and solo still raging. The night was already in high gear, and Black Label Society was still to come.
Zakk Sabbath Setlist
1) Children of the Grave
2) Snowblind
3) Orchid
4) Fairies Wear Boots
5) Bassically
6) N.I.B.
7) Sirens
8) War Pigs
Dark Chapel
I didn’t know about Dark Chapel before the show, except that it was fronted by BLS’s rhythm guitarist Dario Lorina. When the four-piece hit the stage and exploded into their first song, “Afterglow”, jaws dropped at how bad-ass Dario’s voice sounded, and how tight they were. This is a really good band, and an excellent show–the crowd was still getting there when they started, and despite the room not being near capacity yet, everyone in the band was there to put on a rock show, and rock out they did. Dario has shared the stage with Zakk for years, but he really stepped out of Zakk’s immense shadow and truly shines on his own. Dark Chapel played a short, yet powerful five-song set, and it was a great way to start off an amazing night of heavy music!
Welcome readers! If you are new to this series, with each edition we feature an artist who may not have a significant profile in the blues rock genre but is worth exploring. If you are returning, welcome back! With this edition, our feature artist takes blues rock down a dark alley where the instinct is to run but the passion is more powerful.
Lincoln Durham doesn’t just perform songs. He conjures them. In the modern music landscape where polish often outweighs personality, Durham stands as a dirt-under-the-fingernails outlier: a one-man band who builds ominous sermons out of stomp boards, junkyard patched-up slide guitars, and lyrics that wrestle openly with sin, doubt, and redemption. His records don’t feel manufactured. They feel exhumed. One needs to see Durham’s live videos or, better yet, a live performance to fully appreciate his talents. I’ve never seen a solo multi-instrumentalist put on such a mind-blowing performance.
Lincoln Durham – Solo Sorcerer Conjuring Southern Gothic Blues
Born in Whitney and raised in Itasca, Texas, Durham’s musical path started far from the shadow-lit juke joint atmosphere he now inhabits. Encouraged by his father and grandfather, he became a child prodigy on fiddle, playing at the age of four. He captured the Texas State Youth Fiddle Championship when he was ten. That early immersion into musical discipline and tradition gave him structure but not yet an identity.
That would begin to form in his teens when the electric guitar and the raw emotional voltage of grunge, particularly Nirvana, pulled him away from the fiddle and toward something representing a more personal choice. After high school, he meandered between career and art, struggling against mimicking idols and creating his own voice. It wasn’t until his twenties that the artist known as Lincoln Durham would take shape. As he stated for Sonic Guild, “I had found my voice (for better or worse), armed with old, bastardized guitars, hand-me-down fiddles and banjos, home-made contraptions with just enough tension on a string to be considered an instrument and any random percussive item I can get my hands or feet on. I call it an Obnoxious Southern-Gothic Scary-Blues Revival-Punk One-Man-Band with a heavy amped edge, preaching the gospel of some new kind of depraved music.” The one-man band format was no longer a placeholder for a full band. It became part of an identity.
Two key figures helped shape Lincoln Durham’s creative direction: Ray Wylie Hubbard, the legendary Texas songwriter who served as Durham’s mentor and co-producer, guiding him toward a rootsy yet unconfined sound, and George Reiff, a producer and bassist whose collaboration forged Durham’s cinematic “Southern Gothic” studio style. After Reiff’s passing, Durham moved toward self-production, creating an even more organic sound. Durham explored the raw blues of Son House and Fred McDowell, the poetic grit of Tom Waits, Nick Cave’s brooding spirituality, Jack White’s stripped-down energy, and literary inspirations like Poe and Cormac McCarthy, all contributing to Durham’s dark, symbolic, and deeply human lyrics.
Durham’s early self-titled EP (2010) served as a calling card, a raw introduction to his stomp-and-howl aesthetic, but it was his full-length debut, The Shovel vs. the Howling Bones in 2012, that put his name on the map in roots-rock circles. Produced by Hubbard and Reiff at The Finishing School in Austin, the album sounded like back-porch blues dragged through a thunderstorm. Improvised percussion textures, including metal and found-object rhythms, collided with slide guitar and a preacher-on-the-edge vocal attack.
Songs like “Reckoning Lament,” “Clementine,” “Last Red Dawn,” and “Drifting Wood” established Durham’s core palette: part Delta ghost story, part revival-tent warning shot. Personal favorites include “Mudd Puddles” and “Trucker’s Love Song.” Critics praised the record’s raw authority, with one outlet suggesting it was the kind of record many bigger names would love to make but couldn’t pull off convincingly. The project’s momentum helped Durham earn a Black Fret Grant (now Sonic Guild) in 2014, further validating his underground rise.
If The Shovel vs. the Howling Bones was the warning rumble, Exodus of the Deemed Unrighteous (2013) was the lightning strike. Produced by George Reiff and featuring drummer Rick Richards, the album sharpened Durham’s tension-and-release dynamics. Tracks like “Ballad of a Prodigal Son” and “Annie Departee” (played on a literal ax) fused biblical imagery with psychological fracture, delivered through arrangements that felt deliberately unstable: clattering percussion, droning strings, and vocals that moved from whisper to indictment. Other noteworthy tracks include “Rise in the River,” “Keep On Allie,” and “Sinner.”
Reviewers highlighted the record’s uncompromising makeup, “blood-soaked grit and messy emotional chaos,” and noted that Durham wasn’t cutting any corners for broader appeal. This is integral to his brand: he isn’t courting the mainstream. He’s building a body of work. Many of his now most-recognized songs trace back to this period, including “Ballad of a Prodigal Son,” which remains one of his strongest cross-platform streaming performers.
Revelations of a Mind Unraveling was released in 2016 and internalized Durham’s focus. The album delivers a kind of personal exorcism, directly addressing struggles with anxiety, depression, and OCD. It was recorded with a live-in-studio approach to preserve imperfections and emotional volatility. The result is a psychologically intense record. “Creeper” is easily the most popular track and, along with “Suffer My Name” and “Rage and Fire and Brimstone,” challenges and confronts listeners. Personal favorites include “Bones” and “Noose.” Critics took notice, with one prominent review calling it “the kind of record that Jack White wishes he could make, loose and unhinged by commercial limitations or stylistic allegiances.” That persona has followed Durham ever since, a badge of honor for an artist proudly operating outside industry comfort zones.
Following the death of George Reiff, Durham took the reins of the producer’s chair for And Into Heaven Came the Night (2018). Produced at Austin’s Ice Cream Factory Studio, the album carries a thick emotional atmosphere, less explosive and more somber and diverse. The album has nine single-word titled tracks. Standouts include “Heaven,” top streamer “Preacher,” “Hate,” “Laugh,” and “Gnaw.” Each track carries a mood and narrative, all with the familiar rhythmic stomp that’s part of his musical signature.
Durham’s music easily lends itself to dark, modern Western and crime-leaning television. Multiple songs, including “Hate,” “Heaven,” and “Last Red Dawn,” have appeared in episodes of CW’s Walker, while other placements include Lethal Weapon (the series) and recurring performance features on The Texas Music Scene. His tense, rootsy sounds and dramatic themes translate naturally to visual storytelling.
His most recent full-length, 2023’s Resurrection Thorn, takes on a far different persona from its predecessors. Recorded across home studios in Austin and Boston and mixed by Chris Bell, the record incorporates more full-band ensembles, including piano. This is a not-so-subtle but important shift from the strict one-man-band studio model. It is by far his most emotionally even, toned-down work that plays like an artistic rebirth and reckoning. Ardent listeners may not recognize what they’re hearing. There are some familiar-sounding tracks like “Powder Keg,” “Trouble,” and “Devils Play” in the mix as the album traces a journey through collapse toward hard-earned renewal.
In recent years, Durham has focused on intimate venue shows, select festivals, high-fidelity studio sessions, and direct-to-fan channels as opposed to undertaking grueling tours. His Quiethouse Recording live videos (2024–2025) strip the songs back to voice, strings, and stomp, reaffirming that the power doesn’t live in the production. It’s in the delivery. He also maintains an active Patreon where he shares gear builds, unusual instruments, and songwriting deep dives, reinforcing his reputation as both craftsman and creator. He has also posted that a new album is forthcoming, recently sharing photos from studio shoots.
Lincoln Durham occupies a rare lane in blues rock: too raw for the mainstream, too inventive for traditionalists, and too intense to be background noise. His catalog reads like a series of journal entries from the edge: faith, fear, sin, and survival hammered into sermons, stomps, and strings. In an era crowded with retro moves and safe revivalism, Durham remains something more dangerous and intriguing, an uncomfortable brush with the darker side of reality.
Less than two weeks prior the release of Coronach record, Hellripper have dropped a David Gregory-directed/edited music video for the newest track in preview called “Mortercheyn”. Read more…
