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Ronnie Romero has sung for some of the most demanding figures in hard rock — Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Adrian Vandenberg — and come out of each chapter with something useful to say about the experience. He’s not a man who tends to shy away from direct answers. So when Chaoszine‘s Marko Syrjälä asked whether Romero would consider joining forces with Yngwie Malmsteen if the call came in, the response was about as clear as it gets.

“I wouldn’t think about it,” he said. “I wouldn’t wanna do it because of all the stories I’ve heard from people I’ve worked with who have worked with him. I’ve worked with people like the Johansson brothers — Jens and Anders — Jeff Scott Soto and Mark Boals. I know all those guys, and they’ve told me some stories, and I was, like, ‘I don’t know…’ So, when somebody asks me, ‘What if Yngwie calls you?’ I would say, ‘No.’ I’d hang up the phone.”

That said, Romero is careful to separate the man from the music. His entry point into Malmsteen‘s catalogue came through Swedish singer Mats Levén, and it left a mark. “The way I discovered Yngwie was actually when Mats Levén was in the band. The first Yngwie album I heard was the 1998 live album Live!!, and Mats was singing on it. Then I heard Facing the Animal, which is one of my favorites, together with The Seventh Sign. So yeah, if that ever happened, I’d choose just one song — and that would be ‘Facing the Animal’, for sure.”

When the interviewer mentioned that Levén is set to perform the entire Facing the Animal album in Japan in May, Romero didn’t hold back his admiration. “Yeah, he told me that, and that’s fantastic. He’s a great singer. As I said in a post the other day, he’s one of my heroes. Together with David Coverdale and later Ian Gillan, he was one of the first singers who really blew me away. I was, like, ‘How can this guy sing like that?’ On that live recording, he’s just killing it.”

Romero made his live debut with Rainbow in June 2016 after Blackmore selected him to front the reformed lineup. Beyond Rainbow, his CV includes Michael Schenker Group, Lords of Black, The Ferrymen, Elegant Weapons, Sunstorm, and Vandenberg — with whom he recorded the 2020 album 2020 before parting ways.

His most recent solo release is Backbone, put out via Frontiers Music Srl, produced by Romero himself and mixed and mastered by guitarist Jose Rubio Jimenez. It features contributions from former Europe guitarist Kee Marcello and songwriter Russ Ballard, who penned the track “Hideaway.”

Backbone followed Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters, his first solo album of original material, and two covers records: 2023’s Raised on Heavy Radio, which took on material from Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Accept, and Metallica with guests including Gus G., Chris Caffery, and Roland Grapow; and his debut Raised on Radio, which traced his roots through classic rock from Survivor, Bad Company, Foreigner, Queen, and Led Zeppelin.

The post RONNIE ROMERO Says He Would Never Work With YNGWIE MALMSTEEM If Asked: “No, I’d Hang Up The Phone” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

(Gonzo makes another of his monthly appearances at NCS today, with reviews of four albums released in March 2026.) We’re only three months and some change into 2026, and I swear on Satan’s taint that I’ve already identified at least 3 new albums fighting for contention in my annual top 20 list. Dark and uncertain […]

The post GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, MARCH 2026 appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.

Metallica's No Repeat Weekend comes to an arena with Suicidal Tendencies and Spiritbox. Continue reading…

Guns N’ Roses are on tour. Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, and company are currently playing shows across Latin America, including a stop at the Monsters Of Rock Brazil festival in São Paulo on Saturday. Their setlist included “Bad Apples,” a deep cut from their 1991 album Use Your Illusion I. Per Setlist.fm, they’ve only played it twice before, both times on the Use Your Illusion Tour that same year (the first time was also in Brazil). They also apparently soundchecked “Right Next Door To Hell,” another Use Your Illusion I song they hadn’t played since 1991. See clips of their Monsters Of Rock set below.

The post Guns N’ Roses Play <em>Use Your Illusion I</em> Deep Cut For The First Time In 35 Years appeared first on Stereogum.

Kyle Ball is best known as the former vocalist of Decibel favorites Wake. But he also has a profound affection for even darker sounds. At the height of the pandemic, Ball and a few collaborators released a killer black-metal-style cover of the Misfits’ 1983 crossover classic Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood. Now he’s turned his attention to his own filthy black metal hybrid with Lysergic. Stream their new EP Towering Altars of Misanthropy below. 

“I started Lysergic in the fall of 2023 while I was still in Wake,” Ball says. “Wake was changing and focusing on more expansive and less aggressive sounds, but I still had a crucial need to make unrelenting and brutal metal, so I decided to start this project. The idea was to take the bestial black death sound and smother it in grindcore, industrial, noise and psychedelic soundscapes, with lyrical content about psychedelics, blasphemy, Satan, suicide and ritualistic sacrifice… a sort of love letter to the Satanic panic era and how much chaos it created in the 80s and 90s, as well as a burning hatred towards modern Christianity.”

Towering Altars of Misanthropy was initially self-released on cassette; Decomp Regalia will be releasing a vinyl version later this year. “I think it takes the sound that was laid down on the full length but turns up the brutality and aggression and pushes out a far more raw and chaotic experience,” Ball says. “This will be the last release as a solo effort, and the live band will be collaborating on the next full-length.”

The post Streaming: Lysergic’s EP “Towering Altars Of Misanthropy” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

I have to admit that I was long jaded by the original video for Tom Petty’s “You Got Lucky” as it had little, if anything, to do with the song. Once I got past that, however, the song became a fave among faves within the Petty catalog. The song is, at its core, a pointed […]

A little less than a year ago, Stevie Nicks gave a charmingly loopy speech at the Pollstar Awards, and she told the crowd that she’d begun work on her first album since 2011’s In Your Dreams: “I have seven songs, and they are autobiographical real stories where I’m not pulling any punches for probably the first time in my life… They’re real stories of memories of mine, of fantastic men!” Nicks said, “I call it the ghost record.” Apparently, that album is real, and it’s actually entitled The Ghost Record and set for release next month.

The post Stevie Nicks’ First New Album In 15 Years <em>The Ghost Record</em> Reportedly Out Next Month appeared first on Stereogum.

Long-running frontman says he twice tried to step away prior to the launch of their Final Frontier dates. Continue reading…

The post The Alternative Number Ones: Sublime’s “What I Got” appeared first on Stereogum.

On March 28th, The Garden performed a chaotic show at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium, which claims to have a capacity of 1,400… it seemed like they may have oversold. This crowd was massive, hard to move in, and deeply devoted, too. Even an hour before doors there was a line wrapped around the building. By the time we got inside, the venue was completely packed already. Fans of all ages were claiming their spots, and unwilling to give up their view. The majority of the crowd were wearing some sort of clown inspired makeup or face paint. With The Garden and their fans having a black and white jester themed aesthetic, it made me feel like I was at an Adicts show.

While it was pretty clear who most people were here to see, spotting a few people with patch pants and jackets made me feel a little less out of place. I was a little bit surprised to see U.K. punk band The Partisans on this lineup. The Garden themselves even called it “another just plain wrong lineup”, but after doing some research, apparently they have known Fletcher and Wyatt since they were 11 years old! They even toured with then in Europe a couple years back, and it isn’t uncommon for The Garden to play with legendary hardcore punk bands. After the cancellation of Los Angeles’ 2026 C.Y. Fest, The Partisans couldn’t let their travel arrangements go to waste, so they found themselves in Riverside opening for The Garden. In my opinion though, The Partisans stole the show. Even the ones that didn’t know them to begin with I think ended up as fans. Hearing some of their iconic songs, like “17 Years of Hell“, “I Don’t Give a Fuck“, and “Bastards in Blue” live felt so good.

For a band that has been around since the late 70’s, their energy hasn’t dulled in the slightest. They were a great opener, and in a way kind of showed the audience where The Garden comes from. Modern punk artists The Garden, carry influences from early bands, like The Partisans. After them was a rapper named Ghost Mountain, who I don’t really have much to say on. That was my break time.

9:45 comes around and it’s time for The Garden to hit the stage. Starting off the set with “Horseshit on Route 66“, the crowd was already going insane. I do have to say, The Garden fans know how to pit. The energy in the room never died down once. People were crowd surfing, jumping, and moshing until the very end. Their high energy setlist included songs like “Clay“, “OC93“, and “This Could Build Us a Home“, which were some memorable ones.

Formed in 2011, twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears have turned The Garden into one of the most distinctive and influential acts to come out of Southern California’s underground scene. Being in the audience made it clear that they have found a deeply loyal and devoted fanbase here, and they have basically built their own community. With one on drums and the other on bass, they truly have a one of a kind sound that is hard to put into words. I’ll admit, I wasn’t fully sold on their sound going into this, I just didn’t quite get it. There are some people you just can’t really get into, for no particular reason. However, their performance was so dynamic and engaging that it was impossible not to walk away with an appreciation for what they do. Running and jumping around the whole time while still singing what they’re meant to, it really was a great performance, and their chemistry and stage presence was really astounding.

With the energy of the crowd, The Partisans and The Garden put on a great show. Not just the music and talent stood out to me, it was also the sense of community. My friend is a fan of them, and like I mentioned earlier I could never get into them. While my plans to go to C.Y. Fest went down the drain (rightfully so), seeing The Partisans as the opener was a sign that I needed to make it to this show, and I’m glad that I did. It was definitely memorable, and I can say I walked out as a newfound fan of The Garden.