metal: Last News

Metallica’s upcoming album, ‘72 Seasons’.The legendary bassist was speaking as part of a new interview, when he confirmed that he will be making his Metallica vocal debut on the band’s forthcoming LP – namely, on a track called ‘You Must Burn!”“When I joined Metallica, I’d never sung in my whole life. So the fact that I can now support a backup vocal is pretty cool,” he said to So What!.“For the first time in my life, I get to sing on a Metallica record and support James.

Empire State Bastard – the side project of Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil – have played their first-ever live gig. Check out fan-captured footage and the full setlist below.The gig took place at the Cathouse venue in Glasgow last night (March 26), and saw the Extreme Metal band perform some of their heaviest hits to date.Founded by Biffy Clyro frontman Neil and former Oceansize guitarist Mike Vennart, the band features the iconic Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Testament, Mr Bungle) on the drums, and Naomi Macleod (Bitch Falcon) on the bass.The band opened the show with the first live performance of their debut single, ‘Harvest’, which was released last week.

Cradle Of Filth have shared an update on their highly-anticipated collaboration with Ed Sheeran.Back in 2021, frontman Dani Filth revealed that he had been in touch with the pop star and that Sheeran had invited him “up to his place”.The following year, Filth shared that work on the track was progressing, but Sheeran becoming a father had delayed sessions. However, in December Filth shared a photo of himself at the pub with Sheeran and producer Scott Atkins.“A little over a week ago I was having lunch with the unlikely lads, having just done something fun,” read the caption.A post shared by Dani Filth (@danifilthofficial)In a new interview with LouderSound, Filth confirmed that “Ed’s done all his parts.”“It’s just bass and vocals for me to do on my return to England after Easter,” he continued.

Falling In Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke has responded to Spiritbox dropping out of their scheduled tour dates with the band.Last week, Spiritbox confirmed they had pulled out of opening for six dates on Falling In Reverse’s ‘Popular Monstour’ tour this summer.While they did not specify the reason for the cancellation, the decision came amid ongoing controversy relating to Radke’s behaviour.The polarising musician has faced allegations of abuse, rape, assault and transphobia in the past, all of which he has consistently denied. He previously spent two-and-a-half years in prison for battery from 2008-2010.“We have withdrawn from the 6 shows we were scheduled to perform on the Popular Monstour,” Spiritbox wrote on social media.We have withdrawn from the 6 shows we were scheduled to perform on the Popular Monstour.— Spiritbox (@spiritboxband) March 13, 2023Our Last Night were then announced to perform in Spiritbox’s place.

The Damned’s Captain Sensible has spoken about his relationship with Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, and how the late bassist “saved” the band.The singer-songwriter was speaking in a new interview when he shared anecdotes about his time working with metal veteran, and explained that he credits him with preventing the The Damned from disbanding.The musicians first collaborated after Captain Sensible, Lemmy and former Damned member Rat Scabies performed a gig under the name Les Punks in 1976. Three years later, The Damned reformed with the Les Punks line-up for a series of demos and live performances – performing under the monikier The Doomed.Although the stint was brief, the band’s frontman credits Lemmy with encouraging the members to go on, and wishes that they had done more shows with the late bassist.“That would have been good,” he told Uncut.

T-Pain has released his unique rendition of Black Sabbath‘s ‘War Pigs’ from his latest record. Check it out below.As a part of Pain’s newly released seven-track covers album ‘On Top Of The Covers’, the usually-autotuned star takes a much more soulful take on the anti-war song.The popstar-turned-streamer shows off his powerful vocal chops, especially when delivering the bridge and reworking it into a Prince-esque rock’n’roll moment.‘War Pigs’ is on Black Sabbath’s seminal second studio album ‘Paranoid’. Despite being often recognised as an anti-war song, the band’s bassist Geezer Butler claimed the track “wasn’t about politics or government or anything.

Foo Fighters, Green Day and Avenged Sevenfold have been announced as headliners at this year’s Louder Than Life festival – check out the full line-up below.The four-day festival in Louisville, Kentucky takes place at Highland Festival Grounds at Kentucky Exposition Center from September 21 to 24, where the likes of Weezer, Queens Of the Stone Age, Limp Bizkit and Turnstile will also perform.Other acts on the massive line-up include Rancid, Tool, Godsmack, Pantera, Babymetal, Code Orange, Falling in Reverse, Deafheaven, Nothing But Thieves, Enter Shikari, Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Bad Omens, Run The Jewels, Asking Alexandria, Jehnny Beth and many more.Check out the line-up poster below.“The fans spoke, and we listened,” promoter Danny Wimmer said in a statement. “The Foo Fighters, Green Day, Tool, and Avenged Sevenfold were our most fan-requested bands for 2023, so being able to deliver this massive lineup to them is so special.”Tickets are available to purchase now from here.Foo Fighters have also been announced to headline Outside Lands festival in San Francisco this summer, with other appearances planned for Boston Calling, Sonic Temple, Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park and Bonnaroo.The Dave Grohl-led band also announced a trio of US headline shows for this year across May and June.The upcoming dates will mark the group’s first full gigs since the death of Taylor Hawkins last March.

Spiritbox have confirmed they have pulled out of a US tour with Falling In Reverse amid ongoing controversy relating to frontman Ronnie Radke’s behaviour.The announcement last week that Spiritbox would open for Falling In Reverse on six dates of their ‘Popular Monstour’ run this summer was met with an immediate outcry. Radke has been a polarising figure throughout his career, having faced allegations of abuse, rape, assault and transphobia, all of which he has consistently denied.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has blamed “ignorance” for the reaction to ‘Lulu’, their 2011 collaborative album recorded with Lou Reed.The album earned mixed reviews upon its release and has continued to be one of the most divisive records of Metallica’s career, while Reed once claimed it was so unpopular that Metallica fans threatened to shoot him for making it.Ulrich previously reflected on the experience of working with the Velvet Underground legend as a positive one, maintaining that he “wouldn’t change a thing” about the record.Ulrich has now once again reflected on the response to the album, asking (via Loudwire) in Reed’s posthumously released new book, The Art Of The Straight Line: My Tai Chi: “What the fuck is it about ‘Lulu’ that it got that kind of reaction?”He continued: “I can’t quite figure it out, but years later, it’s aged extremely well. It sounds like a motherfucker still.

Linkin Park have shared footage of Mike Shinoda unboxing the upcoming ‘Meteora’ 20th anniversary box set – which is set for release later this year.The five-minute video was shared to the band’s YouTube channel yesterday, and saw the founding member unwrapping the super deluxe edition for the first time.The limited-edition release will arrive on April 7 and was designed to commemorate 20 years since the release of the band’s iconic second album. As explained in the footage, the list of items included fills the entire back of the box, and consists of numerous previously unreleased rarities recorded from that era.Five LPs are included, including a copy of the ‘Meteora’ album, a debut release of the band performing in Texas, and previously unreleased footage from a 2003 show in Nottingham.

Metallica have purchased a majority stake in a vinyl pressing plant in Virginia.Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, Virginia is one of the largest pressing plants in the United States, with 12 Pheenix Alpha presses and two Finebilt presses.In the past, it has pressed a host of reissues for Metallica, including box set vinyl of their albums ‘Kill ‘Em All’, ‘Ride The Lightning’ and ‘Master Of Puppets’.The band are now majority partners in the plant, which was founded in 1996 by Eric Astor. In a statement, Astor said: “Building Furnace into the dedicated and experienced family of experts that it is today has been a huge effort, but immensely gratifying.“Knowing our long-term future is secured while also being better able to take advantage of growth opportunities is really exciting for every member of the Furnace staff.”Metallica’s Lars Ulrich said: “We couldn’t be more happy to take our partnership with Furnace — and Eric, Ali and Mark specifically — to the next level.

Avenged Sevenfold have shared new single ‘Nobody’ as well as announcing their first new album in six years, ‘Life Is But A Dream’.Set to arrive on June 2, the new album will be the band’s eighth studio album, following their progressive 2016 release, ‘The Stage’.Entitled ‘Life Is But A Dream’, the album was written and recorded over the course of four years, and sees the four-piece channel the wisdom of French philosopher Albert Camus.Not only does the motif of the album centre around Camus’ written work, but the lyrics of frontman M. Shadows also follow suit, and will be rooted in existentialism and absurdism.‘Nobody’, the first single taken from the upcoming release, is available now – along with an accompanying stop-motion music video, directed by award-winning director Chris Hopewell.

We in the Dark Angel Family are deeply saddened and crushed today with the news of our brother and founder Jimmy Durkin…Posted by Dark Angel Official on Friday, March 10, 2023Durkin was a founding member of Dark Angel (under the name Shellshock) in 1981, going on to be known by their current name from 1983.Alongside the likes of Metallica and Slayer, they became a staple of California thrash metal through the 1980s and ‘90s.Durkin played with Dark Angel through until his death, with the band breaking up in 1992 before reuniting between 2002 and 2005, and then once again from 2013 until the present.The band’s most popular album came in 1986 with ‘Darkness Descends’. Drummer Gene Hoglan said last year that the band were lining up a new LP for a 2023 release.

Deftones have played an intimate show featuring a number of rarities as part of the Heaven By Marc Jacobs collection launch – check the videos below.The metal veterans took to the stage at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg, New York on Thursday night (March 9). The show included a number of rare live outings including ‘Feiticeira’, ‘Elite’, and ‘What Happened To You?’ none of which have been performed since 2018.If that wasn’t enough for fans who packed the venue, the band also played ‘Mascara’, which hasn’t formed part of their live set since 2015.Chino Moreno and co.

Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford has shared his thoughts on Ozzy Osbourne‘s recent retirement from touring.Speaking to Metal Hammer, Halford said he had not spoken to Osbourne in person since the latter announced his retirement from touring in early February. However, Halford texted Osbourne to congratulate him on his recent two-Grammy win for best rock album and best metal performance.Digging deeper into the topic of retirement, Halford said: “I can only reinforce what all of Ozzy’s fans, including us in Judas Priest, have said to him though, which is that he has done so much for all of us in rock and metal.

Metallica’s James Hetfield is set to star in a new Western thriller movie alongside Game Of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage.The metal frontman has dabbled in acting previously, playing Officer Bob Hayward in Netflix’s Ted Bundy drama, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile, and voicing characters in Dave The Barbarian and Skylanders Academy.Hetfield is now confirmed to appear in The Thicket, a new movie adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale’s book of the same name.

Metallica have dropped a menacing new single, ‘If Darkness Had A Son’ – check it out below.The song is the third single, after ‘Screaming Suicide’ and ‘Lux Æterna’ to be taken from the band’s upcoming album, ’72 Seasons’, which will be released on April 14.Prior to the track’s release, Metallica teased ‘If Darkness Had A Son’ on TikTok. The band shared an 80-second instrumental of the new song via the platform, featuring each band member duetting with their bandmates. The videos started out with just drummer Lars Ulrich, with each band member joining in one by one.“Duet this,” they then wrote to fans.Check out the video for ‘If Darkness Had A Son’ below:Speaking about the inspiration behind the name of ’72 Seasons’ in a press release, frontman James Hetfield said: “72 seasons.

Ghost frontman Tobias Forge and Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott have spoken to NME about working together on their collaboration ‘Spillways’, as well as their morning spent together in an Irish pub and why Måneskin are proof that the rock revival is real.‘Spillways’ originally featured on Ghost’s 2022 album ‘Impera’ but earlier this year the theatrical rockers released a reworked version featuring the Def Leppard icon. Speaking to NME, Elliott described it as “this big love-in.”He has been a fan of Ghost since the release of 2015’s ‘Meliora’ after being introduced to them by band Phil Collen and really loved ‘Impera’. “I played the shit out of Ghost’s music on my [Planet Rock] radio show, and then we saw that they had been bigging us up in the press,” said Elliott.Forge then revealed that a lot of ‘Impera’ was actually inspired by Def Leppard.“I’ve always been a fan but with this album, I really looked at their songwriting,” he said.

Slipknot turntablist Sid Wilson has recalled showing the band how “crazy” he was in order to secure a spot in the metal group.Wilson said in a new interview that he was already practicing with Slipknot “and coming up with parts” but that he needed to see them play live before making a decision on joining.He told Revolver earlier this month: “But before making the commitment, I needed to see the band live. They kept telling me, ‘We’re crazy, we’re crazy. We wear masks, we’re crazy.’ I’m like, Got it.

Ghost have released the latest instalment of their ongoing video story, in which it is hinted that current frontman Papa Emeritus IV could be killed off later this year.Tobias Forge’s on-stage alter ego has gone through different incarnations with each album cycle, so the death of Papa Emeritus IV may well herald the end of the ‘Impera’ era. The album was released last March.In the last instalment of the video series, titled ‘Chapter 16: Tax Season’, Papa is seen sitting on a sofa playing an old-looking video game based on the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy. In the middle of this, Sister Imperator calls to ask him what he’s doing and informs him, after some tax-related jokes, that a second show at LA’s Kia Forum on September 12 has been added to the end of their upcoming US tour.

Mike Shinoda has shared how Linkin Park became the first band to prank Metallica.Back in summer of 2003, Linkin Park opened for Metallica on their North American ‘Summer Sanitarium’ tour – along with Mudvayne, Deftones and Limp Bizkit – in support of the metal band’s ‘St. Anger‘ album which came out the same year.Appearing on a recent episode of SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, singer, rapper and guitarist Shinoda explained how Linkin Park were able to bring a lighter touch to Metallica’s famously raucous shows.“Nobody had ever pranked them on stage,” Shinoda recalled.“By the way, it was like four of us I think.