Hayley Williams is in the thick of her first solo tour, and she just wrapped up three nights at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom, during which she brought out surprise guest Jason Isbell for a rendition of his song “Cover Me Up.” Last night on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, she and her backing band teamed up with another somewhat unlikely collaborator but a Colbert regular, Jeff Tweedy. Together, the respective Paramore and Wilco frontpeople did a cover of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s 2011 track “Ffunny Ffriends,” “in honor of all of the funny friends who work at The Late Show.”
Where they from?
Chicago, IL. I downloaded a Gameboy Advance emulator and have been playing Pokemon: FireRed this past week. One thing that annoys me ceaselessly is any move that poisons one of my Pokemon. I think it’s a dirty move and has no place in my type of Pokemon battling. Now I gotta walk around like an asshole as my Blastoise slowly dies because some douche bag Oddish used poison powder, FUCK YOU!
Why the hype?
This band is aptly titled because their music is purely face-MELTING. Endless whirlwinds of early Carcass mixed into a stew of devastating D-beat. The production is intense but accessible and the vocals are absolutely insane. They sound like a grizzly bear got into a fight with one of the port-o-potties at Coachella. Seriously, kudos to the vocalist and please take some lozenges after every show.
Latest release? Infatuation With Premeditation. Another fact I don’t like about Pokemon is any move that puts you to sleep. Like, what the fuck is that? How can someone sleep through a quick attack? Makes no god damn sense to me. And don’t even get me started on Snorla, worst Pokemon in history.
The “End of the Road” was merely a software update. In a massive 2026 cover story for Pollstar magazine, KISS icons Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have confirmed that their long-awaited avatar-based residency is officially slated to launch in Las Vegas in 2028. However, the bombshell for the KISS Army isn’t just the date—it’s the content. Simmons has officially revealed that the show will feature brand-new KISS songs written by the band specifically for their digital counterparts.
Developed in partnership with Sweden’s Pophouse Entertainment (the $1.3 billion music investment firm co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus), this $200-million venture aims to render current Las Vegas technology obsolete.
The ‘New Music’ Revelation: KISS Returns to the Studio
The most significant “Information Gain” for fans in 2026 is the confirmation of fresh material. While the band’s final “physical” show took place at Madison Square Garden in December 2023, the creative engine hasn’t stopped. When asked about the setlist for the 2028 show, Gene Simmons was blunt: “You’re gonna get all that stuff, and also new songs. Written by us. We have songs done.”
This marks the first time since 2012’s Monster that the band has actively discussed new studio recordings. By leveraging avatar technology, KISS has effectively decoupled their legendary “personas” from their physical ages, allowing them to release new music that can be performed “live” by 8-foot-tall, ageless digital superheroes.
The Launch: Scheduled for Las Vegas, 2028, as a permanent residency.
New Tracks: Confirmed “New Songs” written by Stanley and Simmons are already completed.
The Technology: A “4D roller coaster” experience involving fire, smell, and heat.
The Venue: Pophouse is shunning the Las Vegas Sphere in favor of a bespoke, intimate site built specifically for this hardware.
Why KISS is Snubbing the Las Vegas Sphere
Despite the hype surrounding the $2.3 billion Sphere, KISS and Pophouse are moving in a different direction. Paul Stanley expressed concern that the massive scale of the Sphere actually diminishes the band’s presence. “At the Sphere, the band is on a postage stamp,” Stanley noted. “I want the band to matter. You forget that there’s a band on that little stage.”
Instead, Pophouse is developing a custom-built arena designed to maximize “emotional connection” rather than just visual scale. Former Pophouse CEO Per Sundin noted that in venues like the Sphere, audiences often go for the building rather than the artist. The KISS residency aims to flip that script, creating a specialized “KISS World” where the technology and the music are inseparable.
Gene Simmons, never one for subtlety, claims the KISS experience will make current high-tech shows look primitive. “People who go to Vegas to see a show in the Sphere are awed by the massive scale… I’ll go out on a limb and make sure people understand this is gonna make that seem like a popcorn fart,” Simmons told Ultimate Classic Rock.
The show is being spearheaded by a creative team led by Thierry Coup, a legend in the theme park industry. The experience is described as a “sensory attack” that goes far beyond traditional virtual reality.
“If you see a dragon coming in to scoop you up and it breathes fire, there will be fire all around you, and you’ll feel the heat,” Simmons explained. “The fire, the brimstone, the coffee—you’ll be able to smell it.”
The deal with Pophouse, reported to be worth over $300 million, saw the company acquire the band’s entire song catalog, name, image, and likeness—including the iconic face paint designs. By moving fully virtual, KISS becomes the first American band to successfully industrialize their “personas” for a post-human touring cycle.
Simmons confirmed that while the show will launch in Vegas, the technology is designed to be staged “all around the world.” For the KISS Army, the message is clear: The Demon and The Starchild aren’t going anywhere; they’re just getting an upgrade.
Stay tuned to Loaded Radio for the latest updates on the KISS 2028 residency and the first listen of those brand-new tracks. Stream us 24/7 here.
🔥 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, ETHEREAL DARKNESS, crushed the competition with a staggering 339,768 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, April 17th at 9PM EST!
Who Will Rise as This Week’s Champion on the MDR Battle Of The Bands?? 04/13/26 – 04/17/26
New Bruce Springsteen covers are materializing like crazy this week, and not just the requisite “I’m On Fire” covers either. First came news of a Nicholas Krgovich’s Boss Tape and access to its opening track, “Gave It A Name.” Now we get a great one from Nation Of Language. The Sub Pop synth-pop trio has…
Truck Violence have revealed that they have signed to The Flenser (home of the likes of Chat Pile and Agriculture) for their new full-length album.
It’s titled ‘The weathervane is my body’ and will be released on June 26.
The artwork looks like this:
Whilst the tracklisting is like this:
1. My dog would fuck the air 2. Jaundiced and reaching for a mother 3. Compelled by Christy 4. House caught fire 5. New Jesus 6. Your name, It’s walking 7. Stomach as a tower and the globules descending 8. Gerard, be quiet 9. Kindly, wash yourself
The band have also offered up a taste of what to expect from the record in the form of ‘New Jesus’, a wonderfully contorted and brilliantly wicked piece of noisy anguish. With flecks of hardcore punishment and lashings of angular alt-rock weirdness, it’s the sort of track that sticks to you like tar and refuses to wash off.
Vocalist/poet Karsyn Henderson had this to say about the track’s sentiments, stating, “’New Jesus’ is a rant about the blatant fascistic slide occurring both to the south of our border and on screen. It is loosely about the ABC—Trump settlement and the post-January 6th election fraud cases. The lack of any broader moral compulsions beyond centralizing power on the political right has led to a culture of post-truth, where there is no reward in accuracy unless it leads to an augmenting of one’s political capital, which it rarely does.” He continues, “This is as destructive in politics as it is in art. There is surprising apathy among young people in regards to this slide, who believe the acquisition of power and the subsequent lording over that occurs, is merely nature, essentially; what will happen, will happen. With these lines of thinking, you find more people sympathetic to this mode, if it is both natural and inevitable, why not acclimate and reap the rewards. Why not join the fascist grift, degenerate art through tiktok, etc…”
The band are set to make their way around Europe over the next few months. Here is where you can lose yourself in their art.
APRIL
18 – TILBURG Roadburn
JUNE
27 – MANCHESTER Outbreak Festival 28 – NEWCASTLE Zerox 29 – LONDON Windmill Brixton 30 – LONDON Windmill Brixton
JULY
02 – ROSKILDE Roskilde Festival 03 – MONTREUIL Le Chinois 04 – LEPER Ieper Fest 05 – ROTTERDAM Vessel 11 07 – NOTTINGHAM The Old Cold Store 08 – LEEDS Wharf Chambers 09 – WITHINGTON 2000trees 10 – NEWPORT Le Pub
Tim Nielsen of southern rock stalwarts Drivin N Cryin talks about how he keeps busy, what sustains the band financially, and what the band’s drummer eats most nights while on tour.
