Hard rock band Catch Your Breath have today released their latest single ‘[Gen]inside‘ featuring Kami Kehoe via Thriller Records, arriving alongside an official music video. The track taps into the weight of misplaced blame and the moment you stop carrying it, hitting with a sharper edge than ever. ‘[Gen]inside‘ sits in that space where frustration finally […]
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Though power metal grandaddies Helloween have no shortage of Texas fans, their April 8 appearance at San Antonio’s historic Aztec Theater was only their third performance in the Alámo City. (More on that accent in a bit). As part of the 1989 Headbanger’s Ball tour that featured Anthrax and Exodus, Helloween had the opportunity to play an extended set due to an illness that forced Exodus drummer Tom Hunting to sit out much of the tour; the Bay Area legends were unable to secure a replacement in time for the show at the also historic Sunken Gardens Amphitheater, which is situated in Brackenridge Park alongside the San Antonio Zoo and the Japanese Tea Gardens. The looming grunge and alternative scenes that soon forced much of metal underground were unkind to Helloween and their ilk, especially in the United States – they would not return to the US until 1998, when they played a single show in New York City to support the phenomenal Better Than Raw album.
The first proper US tour in the post-Kepper era would not take place until early 2004, and as raucous as that performance was, to say that they half-filled the White Rabbit on the St Mary’s Strip might be a bit too generous. Metal was clearly on the rise again by this point, as evidenced by the success of bands like Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage, to say nothing of Iron Maiden’s return to stadium status. However, a full return to prominence was still a good decade away. My 2004 Helloween ticket stub would be old enough to drink before these Teutonic stalwarts would make a truly glorious return to the Home of the Breakfast Taco.
And man, what a return it was. Slated to take place at the most beautiful theater in the heart of downtown, the second night of the tour that commemorated the 40th anniversary of Helloween’s recorded output promised to be one for the ages. The Aztec Theater boasts a unique Art Deco/ Meso-American design, with enormous columns appropriately featuring Aztec reliefs. Over the lobby is suspended a monstrous three-ton chandelier that was coincidentally installed on the same October day that the New York stock markets crashed in 1929. This unique blend of architectural styles masterfully honors the traditions and cultures that inspired it, and coupled with the dubious distinction of having a centerpiece that was crowned on the cusp of global economic collapse, this has rightly earned the Aztec Theater a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
What a perfect place to metal shit up. Finland-based multinational Eurodance-metal phenomenon Beast in Black kicked things off in their expected high-energy manner, greeting the rabid audience with last year’s “Power of the Beast.” Known for lively, energetic performances, it’s difficult to pinpoint a single dominant force within this band, but for those of us in the photopit, the clear winner was drummer Atte Palokangas.
The joy this young man experiences through the simple act of performing permeates every fiber of his being, as is evidenced as much by his effortless and unceasing stick-twirling as it is by the grin that literally never left his face. The ease with which Palokangas does his thing is what enabled him to keep going during “One Night in Tokyo” after losing a stick; frontman and Joel Ekeloff clone Yannis Papadopoulos duly retrieved that stick and tossed it back to his bandmate, who caught it and continued playing without ever losing the beat. Such antics are damn near always scripted, and I have zero reason to believe these guys weren’t doing this for the ten thousandth time, but the seamless execution is praiseworthy.
Kírios Papadopoulos also gets brownie points for communicating the band’s humor and joy in what is clearly not his native language, but his mastery of what some armchair linguists call “Metalenglisch” brought many laughs to the appreciative crowd. For instance, he called the most iconic building in San Antonio the “Alámo,” stressing the penultimate syllable as is normally done, but unaware that the accent over the initial “a” in “Alamo” has long been omitted from the mission’s name because the denizens of Saytown are kinda lazy. He also playfully jabbed San Antonio’s sole pro sports franchise, the Spurs, for their two-point loss against the Denver Nuggets a few nights before, but concluded that bit by affirming his faith that the Spurs are soon to return to their late 90s/ early 2000s glory.
Even without their full stage set, Beast in Black are a force unto themselves, and the professionalism they bring to that stage has reportedly never gone missing. During this, their first full tour as a four-piece (longtime guitarist Kasperi Heikkinen left the band last fall), Beast in Black have brought their distinctive Eurodance-infused power metal to sizable crowds ready to devour the band’s wares with the ravenous appetite of a starved demon. Lacking a live keyboardist, however, forces Beast in Black to play along to backing tracks to recreate that unique sonic identity in the live setting, and this practice feels weird to many live music purists.
Replicating this music on stage with such fidelity and consistency is no easy task, and it enables nearly identical performances night after night, but it also restricts flirtation and improvisation, to say nothing of hearing such a prominent feature of the band’s sound seemingly coming from nowhere. This is thankfully not as dizzying as it is with, say, Wintersun, and under the meticulous guidance of guitarist and bandleader Anton Kabanen, Papadopoulos, Palokangas, and bassist Máté Molná are on a trajectory to become a fully dominant entity in the power metal community.
The crowd was now properly hyped for Helloween’s triumphant return, and fuck did they turn out in force. I’ve been fortunate enough to see many excellent performers grace the Aztec stage, but only the likes of Nightwish and Testament have even approached selling out this nearly 1,500-capacity theater. And while there were a few rows of empty seats in the mezzanine for us to rest our aging ankles during this nearly three-hour beast of a set, I was legitimately shocked to see such a fantastic turnout for a Wednesday night show. Was Helloween, the band that barely pulled a few hundred into the White Rabbit during the Rabbit tour, really playing to a crowd as big as Queensrÿche has gotten in this theater? And had they really brought a stage set that rivals King Diamond’s?
Helloween instantly made the grayhairs in the crowd happy with a manic playthrough of “March of Time,” one of the many highlights of the Keeper era. ThatKeeper 2 track kicked off a fucking flooring performance of the opening cut from theKeeper: Legacy album that followed the original pair nearly twenty years later; “The King for 1000 Years” was absolutely not a cut I ever expected to hear live, let alone on this tour or so early in the set. Spanning nearly fourteen minutes, this cut alone covers damn near all of the territory that ever made Helloween great, and hearing this collaboratively composed epic augmented by freaking Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen would have been worth the ticket price on its own. Dayum.
Speaking of Herr Hansen, he took the mic to share vocal duties with both Kiske and longtime singer Andi Deris on “Future World,” which the band started with a brief snippet of Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of Mountain King” and later peppered with some of that good-natured, goofy banter with the crowd. Throughout much of the night, the drum riser – perhaps four feet in height and spanning most of the stage’s width – was pelted with some freaking hilarious animations, and the background bore a Somewhere In Time-inspired scene that would make Derek Riggs proud for the evening’s first non-Keeper tune, “This is Tokyo.” The background morphed into a playful arcade scene for “Twilight of the Gods,” while a massive animation of honorary second mascot The Keeper acted as an emcee, referencing the Old Testament’s Walls of Jericho to introduce “Ride the Sky.”
The six performers not bound to one spot by their instruments took full advantage of the liberty their weapons of choice granted them: bassist Marcus Grosskopf bounced with a child’s bubbly joy throughout the set, Deris commandeered the crowd with the panache of Bruce Dickinson, guitar-wielding giant Sascha Gertsner stalked the stage like a cyborg terrorizing a synthwave hellscape, and co-founder Hansen proved simply unable to wipe that grin off his face. Countering this, Kiske (a giant in his own right) delivered the goods with the stern dedication that has preserved his voice throughout the decades, while Weiki’s iconic stoicism brought its own brand of hilarity.
While the introductions of former guitarist Roland Grapow and ex drummer Uli Kusch certainly brought Helloween out of their early 90s doldrums, the “Pumpkins United” iteration of the band simply pulverizes every previous incarnation we’ve seen, especially in the live setting. With so many hands involved in lifting this machine, a decades-long continuation of Helloween simply can’t be ruled out.
At one point in the mezz, I lamented to my companion that Helloween hadn’t yet played anything from Better Than Raw, the album that made me a Helloween fan in the first place, and still my preferred selection from their entire discography. My complaint was well timed, because at that very instant, the band launched into “Hey Lord!” to the delight of many bangers in my age range, and turned the final melodies of Weiki’s solo into a soaring three-part harmony with Hansen and Gerstner adding no shortage of soul to a song neither of them were involved with, while spurious animations based on that album’s cover played on the background.
Neither pushy nor shy about their Christian tendencies, the band then tore into the similarly themed “Universe – Gravity for Hearts,” easily one of the stronger offerings from their most recent effort, Giants and Monsters. Ever the clowns, though, they followed these two songs with the cheeky “Hell Was Made in Heaven.”
Dani Löble’s thunderous drum solo, during which his shout of “San Antonio!” somehow filled the theater without additional amplification, had him so beating the fuck out of his kicks and toms that he sounded like a revving motorcycle, but sadly, this came at the expense of the ginormous pumpkin balloons that were thrown into the crowd during “I Want Out” last time these guys graced the States with their whimsy. But given that this was only San Antonio’s third time hearing this song live, that didn’t matter much to the overjoyed crowd.
A brief acoustic set featuring both Kiske and Deris trading voice and guitar followed, with Kiske strumming and Deris singing clumsily along to that Beatles song Daffy Duck immortalized some decades ago before segueing beautifully into “In the Middle of a Heartbeat,” after which Deris grabbed the guitar so Kiske could sing “A Tale That Wasn’t Right,” albeit an octave lower at the refrain. The crowd knew, however, that the moment Michael Weikath got back on that stage for that gut-wrenching solo with the full band backing them, that Kiske would belt his heart out in the same manner he did nearly forty years ago. He did, and it fucking ruled.
Performing like this night after night will damage even the most cautious performer, so it was clearly time for damn near half the band to take a quick break while Hansen fucked with the crowd a bit before a stripped version of the band – Hansen backed by Weiki, Grosskopf, and Löble – tore into “Heavy Metal (Is the Law)” as a quartet that was as close as we’ll ever see of the original incarnation of this long-running band.
Such meticulous maintenance has clearly served Kiske well – his delivery on the very, very fast, very, very high, and very, very woke crowd-pleaser “Eagle Fly Free” left me wondering if his voice has aged at all. Steadfast opponents of AI in the arts that they are, I’d no-bullshit be shocked if any of the Helloweenies ever confessed to using performance-enhancing tools like auto-tune. Power metal and goofiness might not be everyone’s thing, but Helloween has demonstrated repeatedly over the decades that they’re the real fucking deal, and their dedication to their crafts leaves me damn near 100% certain that any one of these gents will gracefully bow out if they can no longer live up to their legacy.
Despite playing well over two hours, there was only enough time in the set for two epics. The cheesy ghost animations that adorned the stage during “Halloween” made everyone in attendance damn sure that, as serious as these guys are about their work, they also recognize that metal can be pretty damn silly, and embracing these opposing facets has turned out to be a pretty solid formula for them. And that’s the key to making this sort of music last. If you’re not in on the joke, you end up just looking stupid.
The silly Scooby-Doo inspired animations returned for “Dr Stein,” with gracelessly ambulating mummies lurking from the pillars that flanked the stage. The song ended with a surprising segue into the final verse of “Keeper of the Seven Keys,” concluding a frenetic evening of serious metal that celebrates life, levity, and the pursuit of goofiness. The set did disregard several albums (No love for The Dark Ride or Pink Bubbles?), but given how expansive Helloween’s catalog is five decades into their career and how their set and light designs have yet to be recycled since their US draw expanded again, we’d all be wise to make every effort to see their productions.
Photos by Shirley Saccoccia
The post CONCERT REVIEW: HELLOWEEN Return To Texas After A Two Decades Absence – 40 Years Of Career Condensed In 3 Hours Of Glorious Power Metal appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.
It’s finally happening. After years of eligibility and two failed nominations, British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden are being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Metalheads worldwide have taken offense to the Hall’s past Maiden snubs. In 2023, frontman Bruce Dickinson said that the Hall was “an utter and complete load of bollocks” and that he didn’t want to be inducted. When the induction happens in November, Iron Maiden will not attend.
The post Iron Maiden To Skip Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction appeared first on Stereogum.
LOS ANGELES, CA — What started as an attempt by Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan to broker peace between two rock icons has erupted into a vitriolic public feud. In a newly penned open letter, former Pink Floyd visionary Roger Waters has leveled staggering accusations against Disturbed frontman David Draiman, calling him a “psychotic racist Nazi pig” and flatly rejecting Corgan’s suggestion of a sit-down discussion.
The controversy began during David Draiman’s recent appearance on Billy Corgan’s podcast, The Magnificent Others. During the sit-down, the conversation turned to Draiman’s fierce advocacy for his Jewish heritage and his vocal opposition to Waters’ pro-Palestinian stance.
Corgan, acting as a potential peacemaker, suggested the two musicians should talk. While Draiman expressed a willingness to do so—despite stating he believed Waters was “beyond being reached”—the response from the Waters camp was swift and definitive.
Addressing Corgan directly but focusing his fire on Draiman, Waters penned a letter that pulled no punches regarding Draiman’s support of the IDF. The full, unedited letter from Waters reads:
“An open letter to @Billy: Dear Billy Corgan How are you? It’s been too long. @davidmdraiman Someone forwarded me this chap’s appearance on your podcast. I’d never heard of him. Anyway, it turns out he has heard of me. It seems he has a problem with me standing up for human rights, particularly the human rights of my brothers and sisters in Gaza who are being slaughtered in a genocide by the armed forces of the Nazi racist, pariah state of Israel. You, being the lovely fella you are gave this little piece of shit a chance to clarify or even modify his position. He did. He is a psychotic racist Nazi pig.
I’m told, Billy, he writes messages on bombs before the IDF drops them on civilians in Gaza. Enough said. I will continue to work with all my brothers and sisters all over the world in the movement to demand equal human rights for all human beings, irrespective of their religion or ethnicity or nationality. If you, my friend are wondering if I want a conversation with this obnoxious little prick? The answer is non merci Billy, life’s too short, he can inhabit his tiny corner of hell without the benefit of my love and truth.
Love R. PS. @Disturbed? Er? Yeah! Just a bit!”
![Video Thumbnail: Disturbed - Don't Tell Me (feat. Ann Wilson) [Official Music Video]](https://loadedradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/disturbed-dont-tell-me-feat-ann--1024x576.jpg "WAR OF WORDS: Roger Waters Lashes Out At Disturbed's David Draiman in Brutal Open Letter To Billy Corgan 3")
Draiman did not stay silent. Taking to the X social media platform, the Disturbed singer addressed the letter and the “Nazi” accusations, doubling down on his stance against Hamas while maintaining a call for dialogue.
Draiman responded: “And here I was open to dialogue, even with someone I so deeply disagree with. Honestly @rogerwaters, this is the reaction I unfortunately expected. It’s disappointing, but predictable. Be brave Roger. Blessed are the peacemakers, right? I’m always willing to try. We must all continue to try. Even with you.”
To clarify his position on the military equipment mentioned by Waters, Draiman reshared a previous post regarding his support for the Israeli people:
“I’d write ‘FUCK HAMAS’ on every single piece of military equipment in existence if it meant actually eradicating the cancer that plagues both the Israeli AND Palestinian people. Palestinian children deserve better than a life where they are taught to hate from the day they are born and where their mother’s greatest pride is for their child to be martyred as a human shield in their genocidal war against the Jews.”
Roger Waters has sparked a massive social media firestorm after calling Disturbed’s David Draiman a “psychotic racist Nazi pig” in an open letter to Billy Corgan. The letter was a response to a podcast episode where Corgan tried to mediate the long-standing feud between the two. Waters has officially rejected a meeting with Draiman, stating “life’s too short,” while Draiman responded by calling Waters’ reaction “predictable” and urging him to be a “peacemaker.”
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An open letter to @Billy:
— Roger Waters
Dear Billy Corgan
How are you? It’s been too long. @davidmdraiman Someone forwarded me this chap’s appearance on your podcast. I’d never heard of him. Anyway, it turns out he has heard of me. It seems he has a problem with me standing up for human… pic.twitter.com/gZyN1TmM3Y(@rogerwaters) April 16, 2026
And here I was open to dialogue, even with someone I so deeply disagree with.
— David Draiman
Honestly @rogerwaters, this is the reaction I unfortunately expected.
It’s disappointing, but predictable.
Be brave Roger.
Blessed are the peacemakers, right?
I’m always willing to try. We…(@davidmdraiman) April 16, 2026
The post WAR OF WORDS: Roger Waters Lashes Out At Disturbed’s David Draiman in Brutal Open Letter To Billy Corgan appeared first on Loaded Radio.
Shadowborne has released ‘High And Low‘, first single taken from the debut album ‘Heaven’s Falling‘ to be released on June 19th via Scarlet Records. ‘High And Low‘ captures the arrival of a powerful outsider crossing the sea with fire at her command. It balances triumph and tension – the promise of liberation against the threat […]
The post Shadowborne’s Debut Album ‘Heaven’s Falling’ Out In June appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM.
Iron Maiden have confirmed they will not be attending their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, scheduled for November 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The reason is so entirely on-brand it barely needs explaining: they’ll be on tour in Australia. The band plays Melbourne on November 13 and Sydney on November 15, bracketing the ceremony on both sides without so much as a gap in the schedule.
Manager Rod Smallwood made the band’s position clear in a statement to Billboard: “As the most observant have already noticed, the band will be on tour in Australia around the November date of the induction ceremony for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Los Angeles. In accepting, Iron Maiden made it very clear to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame that the fans always come first and that the shows will, of course, go on.
“We would like to assure all our fans in Australasia that the Australian and New Zealand dates will remain unaffected and we look forward to bringing the ‘Run For Your Lives’ tour to them on the penultimate stop of our 50th-anniversary celebrations,” Smallwood added.
Iron Maiden are among the performers inductees in the Rock Hall’s class of 2026, alongside Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross, and Wu-Tang Clan. The musicians being honored are Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Adrian Smith, Dave Murray, and Janick Gers, along with former members Dennis Stratton, Paul Di’Anno, Blaze Bayley, and Clive Burr.
When the induction was first announced, Smallwood set the tone: “We’d like to thank the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame for including us (and former members who were all part of our story) in the 2026 roll call of inductees. Iron Maiden have always been about our relationship with our fans above anything else, including awards and industry accolades. However, having said that, it’s always nice to be recognized and honored for any achievements within the music industry too!”
He added: “It also seems appropriate for the band to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame this year as we continue our 50th-anniversary celebrations with our ‘Run For Your Lives’ world tour visiting the Americas and beyond. We would also like to congratulate our fellow 2026 inductees and extend our gratitude as ever to our fans for their loyalty, perseverance, and support for over 50 years now! See you all, somewhere on tour.”
What makes all of this particularly enjoyable is the backstory. In 2018, Dickinson famously called the Rock Hall “an utter and complete load of bollocks” during a spoken-word show in Australia, insisting the institution is “run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock and roll if it hit them in the face.” He later clarified that his comments had been taken out of context, but didn’t exactly walk them back: “I’m really happy we’re not there, and I would never want to be there. If we’re ever inducted, I will refuse — they won’t bloody be having my corpse in there. Rock and roll music does not belong in a mausoleum in Cleveland. It’s a living, breathing thing, and if you put it in a museum, then it’s dead. It’s worse than horrible, it’s vulgar.”
Harris, for his part, has always been characteristically measured on the subject. “I don’t really think about it, to be honest. I think awards are things that are nice to have when you get them, but it’s not something you’re really striving for — it’s not what it’s about,” he told Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon. “It’s never been about that. It’s always been about just trying to make good music and go out and play good live shows, and that’s it, really.”
That Iron Maiden‘s entry into the Hall of Fame comes mid-tour, mid-anniversary, with Megadeth in tow and Australia as the excuse, is perhaps the most Maiden way this could have gone. The ceremony airs on ABC and Disney+ in December. The band will be soundchecking in Brisbane.
The post IRON MAIDEN Won’t Attend Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony: “The Fans Always Come First And The Shows Will Go On” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.
Bestial death horde PIG’S BLOOD have unleashed a new song off their forthcoming new album, Destroying the Spirit.
Stream the album opener, “Standing in Depravity” now at this location.
Destroying the Spirit is set for release on April 24 on digital, CD and vinyl (standard black and yellow/oxblood variants).
Pre-order links below:
www.darkdescentrecords.com/shop
darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com
PIG’S BLOOD are going scorched earth with their inaugural release under the Dark Descent Records banner. Destroying the Spiritsees the band reach a new level of relentless, blackened brutality. An unholy barrage of volcanic riffing and abyssal hostility, Destroying the Spirit is violence incarnate.
Listen to the album’s first single, “Strikeforce of Isolate Will,” at: youtu.be/w9xeLa0ifG8?si=OemBEPkeyWAoPO12
Hailing from Milwaukee, PIG’S BLOOD have spent the last decade-plus unleashing their unrepentant strain of death metal upon the underground. While often grouped under the banner of war metal, their sound stretches far beyond any single label.
PIG’S BLOOD:
Bubba Nitz – Bass
Chris Ellis – Vocals
Brian Serzynski – Drums
Mike Gamm – Guitars
Paul Mirenda – Guitars
Drawing from the raw, militant fury of bands like Revenge and Blasphemy, PIG’S BLOOD fuses that chaotic savagery with a backbone indebted to early ’90s American legends such as Deicide, Order from Chaos, and Incantation.
The result is a malformed yet deliberate hybrid, bludgeoning battle hymns delivered with a sharp, serrated edge. Through sheer force and conviction, PIG’S BLOOD continue carving out their own brutal stronghold within the death metal underground.
Track list:
1. Standing in Depravity
2. Destroying the Spirit
3. Tartarean Infection
4. Power to Stop It
5. Rabid Dogs
6. Satanic Hammer of Justice
7. Aftermath
8. Commitment to Death
9. Ravenous Hellslaught
10. Strikeforce of Isolate Will
Stream more PIG’S BLOOD on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com
Source: ClawHammer PR
