Originality isn’t just rooted in some new sound an artist creates. Oftentimes, the simplest change in instrumentation is enough to make a band with a familiar sound become fresh to the listener of a genre that’s been long played out and often mimicked countless times. Take Beyond Creation, for example: not only is their songwriting tight, but that emphasis on a fretless bass and instrumental sections gave tech death the kick in the teeth it needed.
Guitar icon ZAKK WYLDE today has debuted an all new music video for his latest single “Sleeping Dogs” featuring Slipknot / Stone Sour frontman COREY TAYLOR. The track has gone on to become the most successful active rock radio single of Wylde’s career reaching as high as #22 in the U.S. and #11 in Canada. Directed by long time collaborator Justin Reich, the video can be seen below.
If you told me that one day Carcass and Deafheaven would be doing a tour together, I’d shrug it off. Probably the same way I would have said that they would never tour with Lamb of God, either, but that happened, as well. Now in an effort to prove me wrong, both of those bands have banded together for what is without a doubt an amazing, albeit questionable tour in recent memory.
Temple of the Dog – the Seattle supergroup featuring Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready, and drummer Matt Cameron (who plays drums with both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam) – has reunited and will tour for the first time ever since forming in 1990. Listen to the band’s previously unreleased track “Black Cat” below… On September 30th UMe will release a special Temple of the Dog 25th anniversary reissue collection of their landmark album, newly mixed by Brendan O’Brien. The collection will be available in four configurations, including a four disc Super Deluxe, a double LP, a two CD Deluxe, and a single CD. Physical...
I spoke to my friend recently about the state of music being released this year and expressed some concern: I don’t actually love anything that has come out so far. Make no mistake, 2016 is a great year overall and everything has generally been really, really good. My reviews say enough. Yet I still haven’t found an album I’ve listened to and fallen for it. By this point last year, I had amassed enough albums that I had come to love, and it was apparent I’d have plenty to pick from at the end of the year. Almost all of my favorite bands have released albums this year, but aside from the Death Fortress album, I’ve been having more and more difficulty finding anything that I’ve truly loved.
Metallica will release their eleventh studio album, Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, on November 18th, via Blackened Recordings. The 2 CD / 2 Vinyl set is the Grammy® Award winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s first studio album since 2008’s multi-platinum Death Magnetic. Hardwired…To Self-Destruct is available for pre-order at www.Metallica.com starting today in various configurations including: CD, Vinyl, Digital, Deluxe, and Deluxe Deluxe Versions. The albumis produced by Greg Fidelman, who engineered and mixed Death Magnetic.
When you forget about sub-genres, there’s actually two kinds of successful musical acts in the world. Either an artist manages to constantly push their sound and develop as they go, which hopefully means they’re getting better, as well. The other group consists of the ones with a winning formula, in which they know how to make their fans happy and keep drawing in new ones to keep ascending in fame. Either way, artists who have found success know which of the two categories they fall into, and as such they will thrive off of it so long as they are doing well for themselves.
Sweden’s musical alchemists, OPETH, will be releasing their bewitching, 12th studio album, Sorceress, on September 30th via the band’s imprint label Moderbolaget Records with Nuclear Blast Entertainment. In celebration of the release the band has planned special shows at historic venues around the world in support of the record, including Radio City Music Hall in New York on October 1st, Wembley Arena in London on November 19th and the famed Sydney Opera House on February 6th, 2017.
