Avenged Sevenfold Frontman Interviewed On Kerrang! Radio

On July 22, Kerrang! Radio's Loz Guest conducted an interview with vocalist M. Shadows of Orange County, California's AVENGED SEVENFOLD. You can now listen to the chat below.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD has just premiered its new song "Welcome To The Family" with video footage from the upcoming video game Call Of Duty : Black Ops. Check out the clip below. The track comes off the band's fifth studio album, produced by Mike Elizondo, which is due from Warner Bros. Records on July 27.

An exclusive digital edition of "Nightmare" is available for pre-order on the iTunes Store. In addition to the full "Nightmare" digital album, this very special iTunes edition is jam-packed with features, including a non-album exclusive bonus track ("Lost It All"), 20 exclusive photos, the "Nightmare" music video plus its written treatment, behind-the-scenes footage from the video shoot, the "Nightmare" lyric video, an audio interview with album producer Mike Elizondo, type-set lyrics with hand-written notes for "Lost It All", and sketches of the album art concept.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD is riding high on the success of "Nightmare"'s first single and title track, which has enjoyed airplay at Active Rock, Mainstream, and Modern Rock radio stations across the country and was the No. 1 Rock Song on iTunes in the U.S. and the U.K. in its debut week. A lyric video of "Nightmare" that premiered via YouTube on the band's web site received more than 275,000 plays in 24 hours and has since racked up more than two million views.

In August, AVENGED SEVENFOLD will co-headline the first annual Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival with DISTURBED. Also on the bill are STONE SOUR, HALESTORM, and HELLYEAH. The Uproar tour, which will hit amphitheatres and arenas, marks the band's first tour since the passing of beloved friend and drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. Mike Portnoy from DREAM THEATER plays drums on "Nightmare" and will also tour with the band for Uproar.

Accept And King's X To Team Up For U.S. Tour?

Reformed heavy metal legends ACCEPT will be joined by openers KING'S X for the following two shows:

Sep. 25 - Starland Ballroom - Sayreville, NJ
Sep. 27 - B.B. King Blues Club & Grill - New York, NY

Tickets for the Sayreville show go on sale on Friday, July 30 at noon. The New York City tickets will become available on Wednesday, July 28 at noon.

"Blood Of The Nations", the new studio album from ACCEPT, will be released via Nuclear Blast Records on the following dates:

August 20: Europe
September 14: North America

"Blood Of The Nations" was recorded at Backstage Studio in Derbyshire, England with acclaimed British producer and SABBAT guitarist Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, EXODUS, ARCH ENEMY, MASTERPLAN). The CD — which marks the recording debut of the band's latest addition, vocalist Mark Tornillo (ex-TT QUICK) — contains the following 12 tracks:

01. Beat The Bastards
02. Teutonic Terror
03. The Abyss
04. Blood Of The Nations
05. Shades Of Death
06. Locked And Loaded
07. Kill The Pain
08. Rollin Thunder
09. Pandemic
10. New World Comin'
11. No Shelter
12. Bucketful Of Hate

The "Blood Of The Nations" cover artwork can be viewed below.

ACCEPT 2010 is:

Wolf Hoffmann: Guitar
Peter Baltes: Bass
Herman Frank: Guitar
Mark Tornillo: Vocals
Stefan Schwarzmann: Drums

Regarding Tornillo's addition to ACCEPT, Hoffmann previously said, "It all happened in minutes. Peter and I were working on some tunes in a studio in New Jersey. Somebody suggested we give this guy Mark a call to see if he would join us on vocals. So when he arrived we started jamming on some old ACCEPT tunes — just for fun. As soon as Mark started singing we looked at each other and realized the impossible just happened: we found a new voice for ACCEPT! The timing could not have been better! Now or never... We are re-energized and excited..."

Volbeat Frontman To Guest On New The Storm Album

Guitarist/vocalist Michael Poulsen of Danish metal rock 'n' rollers VOLBEAT makes a guest appearance on "Black Luck", the forthcoming second album from fellow Danes THE STORM. Due on October 27 via Spinefarm Records, the CD features Poulsen's vocals on the single "Black Shot Eyes".

THE STORM frontwoman Pernille Rosendahl (ex-SWAN LEE) previously contributed her vocals to VOLBEAT's "Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood" album.

According to a press release, "Black Luck" features an "even heavier and more uncompromising" sound than THE STORM's platinum-selling (in Denmark) debut, "Where The Storm Meets The Ground", which came out in 2007 and was produced by Roy Thomas Baker (QUEEN, OZZY OSBOURNE, MÖTLEY CRÜE, GUNS N' ROSES). The new CD was helmed by Jacob Hansen, who has previously worked with VOLBEAT, RAUNCHY and HATESPHERE, among many others.

For more information, visit www.myspace.com/thestormdk

Vince Neil Talked About Sobriety Just Days Before His Arrest

When Motley Crue singer Vince Neil was arrested Sunday night on drunken driving charges in Las Vegas, he was promoting a memoir in which he claimed to have stopped abusing drugs and alcohol.


The 49-year-old rocker spent the night in the Clark County jail and was released Monday after posting $2,000 bail.

In an interview last week with The Associated Press about a tell-all book due out in September, Neil said he hadn't used drugs in 20 years, and had stopped abusing alcohol.

"There's just a point in your life where you kind of stop, that's what happened with me," he said. "There's other things in life than just drugs and alcohol."

Neil said he admired the sobriety of some of the top performers today.

"Those are the guys that are doing it right," he said. "It's the ones that self-destruct with the drugs and alcohol that have gone by the wayside many years ago."

On June 22, Neil told the Associate Press, "Well, there's just a point in your life where you kind of stop, that's what happened with me. That was like three years ago. There's other things in life than just drugs and alcohol. I haven't touched drugs in 20 years. You grow out of that. Or hopefully, you grow out of it."

Neil was in his Lamborghini near the Las Vegas Stri when he was pulled over Sunday by police. . A police spokesman said additional details of the arrest would not be immediately released, and a police report would not be made available while the investigation continued. A court date is scheduled for Sept. 27.

Also from the AP interview on June 22, Neil says, "It's funny because somebody asked me, 'Is it weird being sober in a band?' and I go, 'Well, the thing is, you look at all the top bands that are still out there, most of those guys are sober."

Neil is currently working on his autobiography, due out this September. He said it will deal with the turmoil in his life.

Bret Michaels Still Not 100 Percent

According to People.com, POISON singer Bret Michaels is still suffering side effects from his April 21 brain hemorrhage and warning stroke.

"While Bret may be out on the road and performing, he is still not 100 percent," Janna Elias, V.P. of Michaels Entertainment said Tuesday. "He still has pain from the chemical meningitis, short term memory loss and gets fatigued quicker than normal."

Michaels, 47, however, hasn't put his health in jeopardy by hitting the road. Instead, he "simply feels that music is a powerful healer," adds Elias.

Rush Kicks Off North American Tour; Setlist Revealed

Canadian rock legends RUSH kicked off a 40-date North American tour earlier tonight (Tuesday, June 29) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The trek features the band's first-ever performance of its classic 1981 album "Moving Pictures" in its entirety.

The band's setlist was as follows:

Set 1:

01. Video Intro
02. The Spirit of Radio
03. Time Stand Still
04. Presto
05. Stick It Out
06. Workin' Them Angels
07. Leave That Thing Alone!
08. Faithless
09. BU2B
10. Freewill
11. Marathon
12. Subdivisions

Intermission

Set 2:

13. Tom Sawyer
14. Red Barchetta
15. YYZ
16. Limelight
17. The Camera Eye
18. Witch Hunt
19. Vital Signs
20. Caravan
21. Drum Solo
22. Closer to the Heart
22. 2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx
23. Far Cry

Encore

24. La Villa Strangiato
25. Working Man
26. Video Outro

Fan-filmed footage of the concert can be viewed below.

Guitarist Alex Lifeson told The Pulse of Radio how the idea came about to play "Moving Pictures" live from front to back. "Actually Neil [Peart, drums] was the one that brought it up," he said. "He thought the idea was great, and one of our songs, 'Camera Eye', has been probably the top song on our request list from fans for years. So it really gives us an opportunity to include that in the set and to present it with the whole album. Much of that material we've been playing for a long time anyways, so it wasn't that difficult to really fit it all in, and I love the idea of it and it's really working well during rehearsals."

The award-winning and acclaimed documentary about RUSH, called "Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage", arrived today on DVD and Blu-ray after premiering and winning the Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival this past April.

The film, which traces the band's entire career from the late Sixties until now, made its TV premiere on Saturday night (June 26) on VH1 Classic.

The band has just released two new tracks, "Caravan" and "BU2B", online and will return to the studio after the tour to complete its next album, titled "Clockwork Angels".

RUSH received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last Friday (June 25) in Los Angeles, with the band inducted by SMASHING PUMPKINS frontman and longtime fan Billy Corgan.

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Bassist On RONNIE JAMES DIO, Diminishing Record Sales

Cosmos Gaming conducted an interview with bassist Mike D'Antonio of Massachusetts metallers KILLSWITCH ENGAGE at last month's Rock On The Range festival in Columbus, Ohio. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Cosmos Gaming: In reference to where you came from musically, do you feel like your music has changed at all?

Mike D'Antonio: I guess we went about it in a roundabout way. We were all in separate bands that played 10-minute songs that played 30-40 riffs per song and we didn't have any fans. So we took a step back and said "What would promote a person walking into a venue and seeing us for the first time — loving or hating us — but just knowing right away rather than having to listen to a song 30-40 times to understand what was going on?" So the original idea of the band was to strip things down but I guess that was also the rock way of doing things because it helped us get onto the radio. But it was never anything that we were strived to do.

Cosmos Gaming: We assume you'll be doing your traditional DIO cover tonight, are you planning on doing anything special considering his recent passing?

Mike D'Antonio: Umm, we will dedicate the set to Dio. It was a really sad thing. He was one of the few older guys who could still put it on every day despite his age. It's sad to see such great talent lost but we're not going to do anything special besides just sending it out to him.

Cosmos Gaming: Is there any reason why you initially chose "Holy Diver" vs. any other song?

Mike D'Antonio: The original idea for the cover was Kerrang! magazine was doing a 25th or 30th anniversary edition of the magazine and were putting out a CD of current metal bands covering old school metal bands and there was a long list of bands from like BON JOVI to POISON to DIO and even WEEZER who were thrown in there which was kind of weird but they had the artists and then the songs that were possibilities that the bands could choose from and we had chosen DIO just based on our love for the guy and his band who put out some pretty great metal songs and albums over the years. Not necessarily something that'll be on the radio, but great metal songs nonetheless. And the song they originally wanted us to do "We Rock" but we'd always been big fans of "Holy Diver" so we went to them and there was a bit of back and forth and we just asked if we could do "Holy Diver" and they eventually said "Sure, why not?!" That's why we initially recorded the cover, because we normally don't do or record covers. We're not the kind of band who wants to get known but just recording a bunch of covers. We were just happy to do it and it ended up turning out really well. It was also the first time we'd seen our singer sing-sing a song throughout the entire thing and we weren't entirely sure if he could pull it off because there's a lot of falsetto in Dio's songs so it was cool to see him actually do it.

Cosmos Gaming: Do you feel that by covering "Holy Diver" that it brought a whole new generation to love Dio's music?

Mike D'Antonio: I'd like to hope so. It'd be great to know that. Some of those older guys were suffering a bit to the end of their careers so it would be great for them to gain a bit more respect. Some 14-year-old who doesn't know anything about music can kind of grow into it and learn to love his music. Kids need to find their way somewhere along the lines whether it's by us showing them what good music is or other bands playing songs like that, you know.

Cosmos Gaming: Whom do you blame for the downfall of record sales?

Mike D'Antonio: A lot of it unfortunately has to do with the Internet and songs being available for free but I guess it's just because it's such a new thing that's going on so people haven't figured out how to corral it back into the way it should be. Songwriters need to make money, too. I guess the next step would probably be music services sort of like in the old days where you'd put a penny in an envelope along with one of those old RCA lists where you check off 10 CDs and stuff and I guess that'll come into play and Rhapsody where you pay a certain fee and then get whatever you want. The unfortunate part is that no one owns anything anymore. You're paying the same amount of money but you do not physically own anything.