Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Those who’ve followed Serj Tankian since System of a Down first went on hiatus have seen the singer follow a variety of muses, including a growing love of orchestral music. Tankian is now ready to take his biggest step yet in the orchestral direction by recording his first-ever full symphony record, and he’s launched a Kickstarter campaign to make his musical dream come true. Tankian first ventured into symphonic territory during support of his ‘Elect the Dead’ album when he invited several orchestras to help translate some of the tracks live. That resulted in the ‘Elect the Dead Symphony’ CD and DVD, and the project only enhanced his thirst for more, leading him to work on his first four-act symphony. The vocalist also intends to utilize an Austrian orchestra from his past tour with the idea that they will record Tankian’s work, as well as play it live for an audience. The singer makes his plea as follows: I am very excited to share my most personal, compelling musical project to date: my first-ever full symphony called ORCA. I have an incredible opportunity to record and perform ORCA live with the world renowned Das Karussell Orchestra (featuring members of the Bruckner Orchester) at Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria on Oct. 28th, 2012 and with your involvement and support, we can make it happen! While I have rearranged some of my past rock compositions to be performed as orchestral pieces, such as the Elect The Dead Symphony in 2010, ORCA is the first 4 act symphony that I have composed, a mix of early 20th century compositional styles combined with the powerful range of film scoring. I decided to name my symphony ORCA because orcas “appear to have no parallel outside humans” in terms of their cultural faculties. An orca is really a dolphin with much darker tendencies. I see this dichotomy as a great metaphor for humanity. Last year, I wrote and recorded a professionally sampled studio version with the goal of being able to record it properly with a full orchestra … this was not something I could capture in a small home studio. I was able to play with The Das Karussell Orchestra at Brucknerhaus during the ‘Elect The Dead Symphony’ world tour, which was an amazing experience. I shared my sampled recording of ORCA with them, and together we made plans for the live performance and recording to fully bring the work to life and share and distribute it to as many people as possible. We have put together many different ways for fans to get involved and be a part of ORCA from the ground up, all of which are outlined in this Kickstarter campaign. We tried to think of ways to give you every bit of music possible, and interactive, personalized experiences for those who can attend the show on Oct. 28th, and for those who can’t. Our goal is $25,000, which is the minimal cost for the recording. Any additional funds will be used to cover the expenses of mixing, mastering and promotion. We will keep you updated with news and progress so you are able to see what we do as this project grows. Please check it out and I hope to share this journey for ORCA with you all. Thank you for the support. Peace,??Serj At present, Tankian is attempting to reach the $25,000 goal, and he’s just under $15,000 shy with 19 days left to go. In order to help sell the idea, Tankian has come up with a number of rewards depending on how much fans donate to his goal. For a contribution as minimal as $1, fans will get a personalized email from the singer. Other tiers include such draws as CD packages, early downloads, autographed score sheets, t-shirts, album credits, meet-and-greet VIP tickets to the show, and lunch with Tankian. The top-priced package for those donating $10,000 or more includes all of the previously mentioned items, plus the opportunity to spend a portion of the recording day with Tankian and the Das Karussell Orchestra, executive producer credit on the disc, a professionally framed plaque with the ORCA score sheet, show poster, and personalized placard and the opportunity to join Tankian onstage at the show taking a bow after the performance. Watch Serj Tankian’s ‘ORCA’ Symphony Plea [button href=”http://loudwire.com/serj-tankian-harakiri-best-rock-songs-of-2012/” title=”Next: Serj Tankian – Best Rock Songs of 2012″ align=”center”]
Jason Merritt, Getty Images Here’s a look at the top stories of the day on Loudwire and around the Web: – It’s a busy time for Ozzy Osbourne right now. The singer will join wife Sharon Osbourne for her 60th birthday bash next week on ‘The Talk.’ He also got some great news regarding his son Jack Osbourne . [ Loudwire ] – Three Days Grace have been all over radio with ‘ Chalk Outline .’ Now the band takes the song to the streets in their new video. [ Loudwire ] – Deuce is ready to take at least a couple of his former Hollywood Undead bandmates to court over an alleged beatdown he claims to have received earlier this year. [ Loudwire ] – Kiss are heading to the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’ for an appearance and post-show concert webcast next week, but first, the new single ‘Long Way Down’ has arrived. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – There’s a new sales king for 2012. Mumford & Sons have toppled Justin Bieber’s previous mark with a stellar opening week for the ‘Babel’ album. [ Diffuser.fm ] – Like Moths to Flames have dipped back into the well to add a couple of new songs to make a deluxe edition of the ‘When We Don’t Exist’ album. [ Rock Music Report ]
The End Welsh post-hardcore act Funeral for a Friend will be releasing their sixth studio album early next year. The band’s upcoming 2013 full-length, ‘Conduit,’ will be the follow-up to their 2011 effort, ‘Welcome Home Armageddon.’ Funeral for a Friend rose to prominence in 2003 with their debut album ‘Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation,’ as well as the 2005 sophomore release, ‘Hours.’ Now that nearly 10 years has passed since their debut, the Welsh musicians are also set to unveil the music video for new song ‘Best Friends and Hospital Beds’ on Oct. 10. The band shared their excitement about the upcoming release: Five people on a stage, a conduit for the message and the music, delivering that to people who want to listen in, be a part of whatever it is that we’re doing and being involved. It’s purely about delivering the message. After 10 years of being a band, we see how much what we’ve done has effected people who care about our stuff. Whether it’s lyrics or whatever, these songs transcend us and become something more to a lot more people. It sounds lofty I know but that’s how it feels to us when we meet the folks who dig our band and who treat these songs with so much love and respect. It blows our minds constantly. ‘Conduit’ will be Funeral for a Friend’s first release on The End Records. The disc is set for a Jan. 28 release in Europe with a Feb. 5 release reported for the United States.
Epic Lamb of God ‘s Randy Blythe free from a Czech prison and the band ready to shred through the United States once again. The ‘Pure American Metal’ act is embarking on a fall 2012 U.S. tour and have asked fans who are or have been in the U.S. military to send in their photos for a patriotic tribute, which will be shown during performances by Lamb of God during the trek. Due to Randy Blythe’s current legal situation in the Czech Republic, Lamb of God are not currently able to tour outside their homeland of the United States, so to commemorate the men and women of the U.S. military, Lamb of God will compile a mound of photos for this new video project. The group is also asking for photos of soldiers who were killed in action to be a part of the compilation, which will be directed by Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton. Lamb of God released the following call to action: Lamb of God is looking to honor the brave men and women of our United States military by incorporating soldier’s names and faces into a video presentation during their upcoming U.S. tour. If you are in the military, or have a husband, wife, brother, sister, friend or family member who has served or is actively serving, and wish to be included in this video tribute, please take a moment to send a photo to logvideocontent@gmail.com . Please keep the photos under 2MB and include the soldier’s name, military branch, and a brief description of where the soldier is serving or has served. The band is asking for photos of soldiers killed in action, those actively serving, and those who have completed their service to our country. This presentation will be directed by Lamb of God lead guitarist Mark Morton and longtime Lamb of God videographer Doug Spangenberg, and will be seen by tens of thousands of people over the course of Lamb of God’s upcoming U.S. tour. Please send your photos and information in as soon as possible if you would like for you or your loved one to be included in this tribute. Be sure to send any pictures you may have to logvideocontent@gmail.com , and check out Lamb of God on their 2012 U.S. tour with In Flames and Sylosis , with Hatebreed and Hellyeah joining in for certain dates. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/lamb-of-god-fall-2012-u-s-tour-dates-in-flames-hatebreed-hellyeah-sylosis/” title=”Lamb of God U.S. Tour Dates” align=”center”]
Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images Ozzy Osbourne ‘s son Jack and his fiance Lisa Stelly reportedly will be getting married this weekend in Hawaii. Ozzy and his wife Sharon will be welcoming Stelly, who is the mother of Jack’s 5-month-old daughter Pearl, into their family as the low-key wedding takes place either this coming Saturday (Oct. 5) or Sunday (Oct. 6). According to an undisclosed source, the New York Post has learned that Jack and Lisa recently sent out the invitations and asked their family and friends to keep the affair hush, hush. “They just sent the invites out and are asking guests to sign non-disclosure agreements,” says the anonymous source. Jack Osbourne has gone through a roller-coaster ride of emotions this year. He became a father on April 24, but only weeks later revealed he is battling multiple sclerosis . The first piece of news was met with the greatest of excitement by the Osbourne family, with his mother Sharon boasting, “It’s like a new life. There’s nothing like it, nothing like to witness it. It’s just an amazing event. You go through every emotion. You go through joy and you thank God that everybody is healthy and happy. You realize how lucky you are. It’s like life has gone full cycle in our family.” The reaction was quite different when Jack was diagnosed with MS, but Stelly has stood beside her future husband throughout it all. “It’s something great to focus on,” Stelly says about the upcoming wedding. “Even when I was at the hospital, we were discussing the plans. It’s going to be great. After we had the baby we decided we didn’t want to waste any more time.” As always, we’d like to give our best wishes to Jack and Lisa, along with both the Osbourne and Stelly families. Enjoy the toaster. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/ozzy-osbourne-celebrate-sharon-60th-birthday-the-talk/” title=”Next: Ozzy Osbourne to Toast Sharon’s 60th on ‘The Talk'” align=”center”]
Metal Blade We may have mentioned this a few times in some recent posts, but Between the Buried and Me ‘s upcoming album ‘The Parallax II: Future Sequence’ is insanely awesome. The record comes out Tuesday, Oct. 9, and BTBAM fans everywhere have been pulling their hair out waiting for it to drop, so to tide you over for the next few days, the band have posted teasers for every single song on ‘The Parallax II.’ Between the Buried and Me have been gifting their fans with an incredible amount of content from the yet-released album, including guitar demonstrations of ‘Telos’ from both Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring. ‘Telos’ has been out for a few months now and BTBAM have released a music video for ‘Astral Body,’ but there are 10 more tracks which have yet to see the eternal darkness of space, which give ‘The Parallax II’ a total run time of over 72 minutes. Every track that BTBAM have teased in this new six-minute compilation is fairly well represented, but with every little bit Between the Buried and Me have chosen to tease fans with, there are dozens of licks, melodies, harmonies and nuances still left to be discovered on Oct. 9. Keep the lyric, ‘Goodbye to Everything’ in mind, because it’s a theme that is revisited many times throughout the band’s sonic space odyssey. Without further ado, treat your ears to some unreleased material from ‘The Parallax II: Future Sequence,’ and stay anxious for the album’s release. Between the Buried and Me, ‘The Parallax II’ Album Teaser [button href=”http://loudwire.com/between-the-buried-and-me-colors-top-21st-century-metal-songs/” title=”Between the Buried and Me: Top 21st Century Metal Songs” align=”center”]
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com 3 Doors Down have enjoyed a decade-plus of hit after hit after hit, and now the Mississippi rockers will package all of their favorites onto one best-of disc, with a trio of new tracks adding a little something special to the release. The set, simply titled ‘Greatest Hits,’ is due Nov. 19 from Republic Records and features such favorites as the group’s first smash single ‘Kryptonite’ through standouts like ‘It’s Not My Time,’ ‘When I’m Gone,’ and ‘Here Without You.’ As for the new songs, fans are already embracing the track ‘One Light,’ which made its live debut earlier this year as part of the band’s Republican National Convention appearance. The set also features the new songs ‘There’s a Life’ and ‘Goodbyes.’ The ‘Greatest Hits’ collection comes after 3 Doors Down reluctantly parted ways with guitarist Matt Roberts earlier this year. Roberts has dealt with circulation problems for years, and things had worsened to the point that he realized he could no longer keep up with the grueling tour schedule the band follows each year. Chet Roberts, unrelated to Matt, has stepped in to fill the vacated slot. Check out our photo gallery from 3 Doors Down’s show earlier this year on the ‘Gang of Outlaws’ tour. 3 Doors Down’s ‘Greatest Hits’ Track Listing: 1. ‘Kryptonite’ 2. ‘When I’m Gone’ 3. ‘Here Without You’ 4. ‘It’s Not My Time’ 5. ‘Let Me Go’ 6. ‘Be Like That’ 7. ‘Loser’ 8. ‘Away From the Sun’ 9. ‘Duck and Run’ 10. ‘One Light’ 11. ‘There’s a Life’ 12. ‘Goodbyes’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/3-doors-down-kryptonite-top-21st-century-hard-rock-songs/” title=”Next: 3 Doors Down – Top 21st Century Hard Rock Songs” align=”center”]