Facebook: Kamelot Kamelot have had a busy year with touring North America, especially after a massive trek with Nightwish. Not to mention they’ve released their tenth studio album ‘Silverthorn,’ the first to feature the band’s new vocalist Tommy Karevik and they are currently on tour all over Europe in promotion for the new disc. While they were in the States we got the chance to speak with Kamelot guitarist Thomas Youngblood who looked back on their tour with Nightwish and talked about the band’s chemistry with the Agonist frontwoman Alyssa White-Gluz. He also expressed his enthusiasm about the release of ‘Silverthorn’ and Kamelot’s future as a whole. How would you describe the experience of touring with Nightwish? It was great. I think the musical styles of both bands complement each other really well even though we’re different from each other. We’ve been talking about doing a tour with them for a few years now so it’s cool to finally see it happen. It’s been great. You were at the show in New York and they all have been pretty packed and the fans love the combination. Alyssa White-Gluz of the Agonist joined you on stage and she’s offers vocals on the new record. How would you describe your relationship with her musically. Yeah, she’s been on my radar for a few years, we had the Agonist as one of the supporting bands on our last U.S. tour and I kind of knew about her before but on the tour we had her come out for a couple of shows and do ‘March of Mephisto’ with us — from then on it was just really cool chemistry between her and the band. When it was time to do the new album we had a spot on there that normally we probably would’ve had a guy do but I thought it was a cool twist to have a female growler. She kicked ass with the part and we shot the video for ‘Sacrimony’ and she’s also in the video so it’s been fun. It’s cool to see her in action when she comes onstage because she’s got this dominating presence which I think is really cool. ‘Silverthorn’ is the tenth studio album. What does the name of the record mean to you personally? Well the fact that we were able to make this record so quickly, we got this perfect blend of beauty and pain. The title ‘Silverthorn’ itself is a sort of a contradiction — the literal meaning is something that’s in the story but for us we just look at it as this strange and beautiful creation that we were able to achieve. This new record is a concept album –- do you find that there are any particular challenges with a concept album that are different from creating a non-concept album? Definitely, you have to stick within the storylines –- for example lyrically if you want to write stars and it has nothing to do with the story, it’s more open and easier to do a non-concept album. With a concept record you have to stay with the story, it wasn’t a massive challenge in terms of inspiration; things just seemed to fall right into place from the very beginning. I don’t know if we will do another concept record or not but with this one everything went super smooth. We’re totally stoked about the record and we knew we had something special when we were about half way in the middle of this thing. The newest member, vocalist Tommy Karevik, was exceptional at the live show in New York. What does he bring to the band? I think when we knew we had to bring in a new person on vocals we wanted the opportunity to grow the band not just to maintain the band or survive. We wanted to look at this as an opportunity to make the band bigger — I think with Tommy we can do that. Not only is he an exceptional singer, he’s a great songwriter and he’s way ahead of what I thought he would be in terms of being a frontman. People who come out to shows will see that this guy is a force to be reckoned with. [Laughs] I can’t imagine a better choice, honestly. In the beginning when this whole thing started we were a little unsure of what the future might be but now we’re really excited about it. The members of the entire band — you have a couple of Europeans and Americans from different states. Do you find the international mix adds to the creativity of the band at all? It probably does somehow, everybody has different likes and tastes –- I think the most important thing is getting along, just having a similar sense of humor, having a similar sense of social skills like being polite but also having a good time. That whole kind of chemistry is the most important and that way when we go to create things we do it more as friends instead of just being colleagues or business partners -– I think that’s the key to the chemistry and the band’s future. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/nightwish-kamelot-bring-powerful-show-to-new-york-city/” title=”Next: Check Out Photos of Kamelot’s Stop in NYC” align=”center”]
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com There are instrument-breaking, expletive-hurling onstage meltdowns, and then there’s something a whole lot less bombastic but no less entertaining that drummer Mike Portnoy pulled off during a set in Manila, Philippines, when he became upset with the equipment setup mid-performance. The Adrenaline Mob drummer, who was playing with his supergroup that featured bassist Billy Sheehan, guitarist Tony MacAlpine, and keyboardist Derek Sherinian, was clearly not happy with the way his drums had been set up during the show and had a mini-meltdown that was captured via fan video (seen below). We call it a mini-meltdown as the concept of tossing parts of your kit to the ground definitely qualifies as a meltdown, but it may be one of the calmest experiences ever seen in this situation. The former Dream Theater stickman can be seen gesturing for assistance mid-song, and once the drum techs got to the stage, he proceeded to stop drumming while the band played on and tepidly tossed several of his cymbals to the ground while the group of techs worked on his kit. He then asked the band members to take the sound down a little as he addressed the crowd with an impromptu rap about having to wait all night for the crew to get it right. Once the kit was back in proper order, Portnoy returned to his place onstage and finished out the song with the band, who continued performing throughout the entire ordeal. The drummer later posted about his actions in a lengthy missive that read: Not to excuse my actions, but at least to explain the situation: This PSMS tour has been VERY difficult on all of us in terms of gear and production. The only way we have been able to make it to such far away places such as Manila, Russia, Israel, Indonesia, etc (where it is normally VERY expensive to tour unless you are a “name” band that has been around for many years) is we’ve have had to make concessions by using supplied gear and local techs at each show. Granted, WE agreed to these terms and are willing to make it work — however, on at least a half dozen occasions on this tour we have been incredibly frustrated to arrive at the venue only to find the band’s gear requirements were simply blatantly ignored (wrong keyboards, wrong amps, Zildjian cymbals, etc) AND were not setup and ready for us as was supposed to be the case and what the promoters had promised. We have been as patient and understanding as we possibly can be…but when you get 4 guys who haven’t slept more than a couple of hours every night in order to fly to these shows without sleep … sometimes our patience can wear thin. In the case of the Manila show, we arrived hours before the show to find out the drums weren’t setup, cymbals were missing, Billy‘s amp was wrong (again) and Tony had a buzz on his gear that would not go away … but we forged ahead because we were VERY excited to play for the fans! At the start of ‘Stratus’ (where the video on youtube is from) — my snare drum mic fell off and I motioned for the tech to come put it back on the stand/drum … and instead, he comes up to the drum kit and takes the mic away … leaving me playing with NO snare mic!!! (you’ll hear I begin playing the high tom instead of the snare) … realizing he had no idea what was going on or how to fix the situation, I stopped playing and did my little “rap” while they fixed the situation and we wouldn’t have to play the whole song with no snare in the mix. In the video, you can see I was at least making a joke out of it and wasn’t maliciously trying to hurt anybody or storming off in anger. Moral of the story: WE ARE HUMAN! And sometimes frustrating circumstances create frustrated behavior. I’m not saying I was right in stopping the song … but if you see a video from later in the show, you’ll see I explain to the audience that I’ve been waiting my whole career to play in Manila and I wasn’t going to let ANYTHING ruin my night or their show!!?And we carried on and everybody had a great night. And I look forward to returning (although this may be the last time I tour without my own kit and my own drum tech…hahahaha!!!). Watch Mike Portnoy Deal With Technical Issues in Manila [button href=”http://loudwire.com/adrenaline-mob-video-undaunted/” title=”Watch Adrenaline Mob’s ‘Undaunted’ Video” align=”center”]
Metal Blade Technical death metal masters Cattle Decapitation have dropped of the ‘Autumn Apocalypse Tour,’ which features Six Feet Under and Wretched. According to Cattle frontman Travis Ryan, the band’s sudden exit from the tour was caused by former Cannibal Corpse and current Six Feet Under vocalist Chris Barnes sucker punching Ryan during a verbal confrontation. According to Ryan, Chris Barnes was dissing Cattle Decapitation while onstage the previous night. After Ryan approached Barnes to challenge him on why the Six Feet Under singer would smack talk the band, Barnes reportedly punched Ryan mid-sentence and ran away. Travis Ryan took to his personal Facebook page to vent about Barnes and the hostile situation. “Chris Barnes is a f—ing hack,” begins Ryan. “I’ve personally passed on at least 5 Six Feet tours over the last 8 or so years because he pulls so much nonsense on the support bands because his ego is astronomical. We’re leaving the Chris Barnes Show tour today. Go to the Chris Barnes show and buy some of their merch. They need it desperately.” Ryan continued his tirade in a series of posts: He couldn’t handle the fact that we were destroying him nightly on merch and talked s–t about us on stage last night. I went to confront him about that and he sucker punched me as I was talking. He immediately RAN out the door and fled to his bus like he does every night when the two fans that are left for their show are trying to get him to sign something. We’re leaving because we have no interest in bringing more people to the chris barnes show. There was no ‘fight’. He punched me, RAN away and a few people saw it. I just walked out told his tour manager the deal, wrapped up the merch and left. Just don’t go to the show and please get the word out. Cattle Decapitation is not doing this tour as we no longer wish to bring people to his show. Cuz its HIS show. More than enough people have drilled that fact into us. He says ‘what about showing some respect’ I laughed, said ‘respect?’ And proceeded to tell him about the time where he spent all night with me outside their bus @ the tail end of the butchered at birth tour in 93 and that respect was paid long ago and he’s since proved to the metal world how much of a b-tch he is… I got ‘dude, in 1993…’ In there and he punched me as I was talking. Ran out the door and seriously thinks he’s a bad ass still? Hahaha… Here’s how chris barnes works: punches. Runs. Does the Rocky dance like he’s a badass on his tour bus he’s about to not f—in afford. Chris Barnes tweeted a short response to the statements of Travis Ryan, which has now been deleted from Barnes’ Twitter page. “If you eat tofu you’ll get you’re ass kicked in a fight. #knocked out.” Six Feet Under and Wretched are continuing with the remainder of their U.S. dates, finishing the tour in Atlanta, Ga. on Nov. 18. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/top-hard-rock-smackdowns/” title=”Next: Top 10 Hard Rock Smackdowns” align=”center”]
Roadrunner Machine Head are currently on tour with Dethklok , All That Remains and the Black Dahlia Murder . With a lineup that is sure to both draw and excite metalheads, one unfortunate part of the United States is going to miss out on the full show, as Machine Head have been banned from ever performing on property owned by the Disney corporation. Thus, the Orlando, Fla. stop of the tour on Dec. 4 will be Machine Head-less. In 2007, Walt Disney Properties banned Machine Head from the ‘House of Blues’ venues in both Anaheim, Calif., and Orlando, the respective cities that are home to Disneyland and Disney World. Machine Head were banned by the company to due the band’s “violent imagery,” “inflammatory lyrics” and the group’s “undesirable fans.” These accusations come from the company that created ‘The Lion King,’ which features antagonist Scar plunging his claws into his brother Mufasa’s paws before allowing him to fall from a cliff only to be trampled to death by a heard of wildebeest. Disney also included the song ‘Savages’ in the film ‘Pocahontas,’ where the character Ratcliffe sings the lyrics, “They’re savages! / Barely even human … Dirty redskin devils,” about Native Americans. “Violent Imagery?” Check. “Inflammatory lyrics?” Massive check. Additionally, the entertainment company was happy to allow Motorhead to write the song ‘Dog-Face Boy’ for the animated film ‘Bolt,’ surely in an attempt to appeal to those same “undesirable fans” and lure them into movie theaters worldwide. The band released the following statement regarding the continuation of the Disney ban: For the third time in a row, the corporate powers behind Walt Disney Properties have once again pressured promoter Live Nation into canceling Machine Head’s performance at a House of Blues venue on Disney property, this time the December 4th show in Orlando, FL. While no one is willing to provide evidence that would prove unfavorable to Disney, sources close to events have suggested that Machine Head remains on a “banned list”, and while Dethklok, All That Remains and Black Dahlia Murder will still be allowed to play, the corporate powers at Disney have refused to allow Machine Head to perform. In 2007, Walt Disney Properties banned Machine Head from the House Of Blues venues in both Anaheim and Orlando, citing “violent imagery”, “inflammatory lyrics” and most appallingly “undesirable fans” as the reason. The diversity-impaired corporation began pressuring the promoter with vague threats of liability and reduced job security before placing Machine Head under an internal “review process”. Five days later, Walt Disney Properties would convey their alarming decision to the band, less than 48 hours before the first date of 2007′s anti-war, anti-religion, anti-conservative-themed “The Blackening” album headline run at the House Of Blues in Anaheim, CA. A stunned Machine Head announced the details and disgust regarding the situation and let fans know of the then-rescheduled show 70 miles away at The Glass House in Pomona. In retaliation for that public announcement, Disney cancelled the band’s then-upcoming performance at the House Of Blues in Orlando, citing the same absurd reasons, though they would only publicly state that they had “changed musical formats” at the venue. Machine Head wish to once again extend their gratitude to Live Nation and the House Of Blues for their poise and tolerance throughout these ridiculous developments, unbelievably transpiring here in these United States Of America in this year 2012. As they are not on Disney property and therefore not subject to the corporation’s alleged coercionary tactics, the current dates with Dethklok, All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder at the Dallas and Houston House Of Blues will go on as scheduled. Unfortunately, Machine Head’s Florida performance will not be rescheduled in an effort to avoid creating any conflict with the existing dates on the tour. All refund requests will be honored. Machine Head assure fans that all refund requests for the Dec. 4 show will be honored. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/machine-head-to-unleash-machine-f-ing-head-live-double-album/” title=”Next: Machine Head to Unleash Live Double Album” align=”center”]
Michael Buckner, Getty Images / Liz Ramanand, Loudwire New York alternative and progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria have just announced a 2013 U.S. headlining tour with Between the Buried and Me + Russian Circles as support. Coheed and Cambria are hitting the road to promote their upcoming full-length album, ‘The Afterman: Descension,” which will hit stores on Feb. 5. The album acts as the follow-up to the band’s 2012 album, ‘The Afterman: Ascension.’ Between the Buried and Me are currently at an extremely high point, having just released ‘The Parallax II: Future Sequence,’ which we gave a rare perfect five-star review . Much like Coheed’s release, ‘The Parallax II’ is also a follow-up record, which continues the story that began with ‘The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues’ EP. Chicago-based instrumental act Russian Circles are a fitting opening act for the tour, combining progressive rock and metal in the vein of both Coheed and BTBAM. Check out the full list of tour dates below. Coheed and Cambria + Between the Buried and Me 2013 North American Tour Dates: Feb. 04 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club Feb. 05 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club Feb. 07 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE Feb. 08 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit Feb. 09 – Chicago, IL – Congress Theatre Feb. 10 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue Feb. 12 – Des Moines, IA – Val Air Ballroom Feb. 14 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre Feb. 15 – Salt Lake City, UT – SaltAir Feb. 17 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater Feb. 18 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre Feb. 19 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo Feb. 21 – San Francisco, CA – Warfield Theater Feb. 22 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern Feb. 25 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues Feb. 26 – The Marquee – Tempe, AZ Feb. 27 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theatre Mar. 01 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Mar. 02 – Houston, TX – Bayou Music Center Mar. 03 – Dallas, TX – Palladium Ballroom Mar. 05 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle Mar. 06 – Saint Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live Mar. 07 – Lake Buena Vista, FL – House of Blues Mar. 08 – Miami Beach, FL – The Fillmore Mar. 10 – Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Charlotte Mar. 11 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory Mar. 14 – Boston, MA – House of Blues Mar. 16 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall
Mary Oullette, SheWillShootYou.com / Kevin Winter, Getty Images Mark Tremonti raised a few eyebrows in the Van Halen camp when he recently commented that he’d like to make Wolfgang Van Halen ‘s addition to his self-titled band a permanent thing. But the guitarist says that VH fans shouldn’t worry about this signaling Wolfgang’s exit, as he plans to work around the Van Halen commitments. Tremonti tells Metal Express Radio (excerpted by Van Halen News Desk ), “We’re talking about doing this arrangement for good. Van Halen will always be his priority, whenever they are touring. When he’s not touring, he’ll be with us. He will write and play on the records and, if he is on tour with Van Halen, we will find somebody that he is comfortable with filling his shoes.” Tremonti recently revealed that the younger Van Halen was part of their initial thought process for their current release, but he was otherwise occupied at the time when they started recording their record. With Van Halen off the road and with Tremonti’s Creed and Alter Bridge bassist Brian Marshall bowing out just prior to their tour, Wolfgang became a last-minute addition to the band’s lineup. The group just finished their European tour , with no further dates on the itinerary at present. Meanwhile, Van Halen remain off the road as well while guitarist Eddie Van Halen recovers from the surgery he had to deal with diverticulitis earlier this year. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/mark-tremonti-video-new-single-so-youre-afraid/” title=”Next: Watch Tremonti’s ‘So You’re Afraid’ Video ” align=”center”]
Spencer Kaufman, Loudwire As singer Billie Joe Armstrong remains in rehab for substance abuse treatment, Green Day have announced that they’ve canceled all of their remaining 2012 club shows and have postponed their entire 2013 North American arena tour set for January and February. Bassist Mike Dirnt explains, “Obviously the time for this isn’t ideal, but Billie Joe’s well-being is our main concern. We are happy to say the Billie Joe is doing well, and we want to thank you for all the outpouring of support and well wishes that we have received, and we can’t wait to see you all again soon.” New dates for the January and February performances will be announced shortly, and all previously purchased tickets will be honored. The band also revealed that because of all the schedule maneuvering, they will go ahead and push up the release of their ‘¡Tré!’ album to Dec. 11 from Jan. 15. Drummer Tre Cool added, “We feel bad we have to delay our tour, so to make up for it we want to give our fans the music earlier than we had planned. If we couldn’t be there to play it for you live, the least we could do was give you the next best thing.” ‘¡Tré!’ is the third of the band’s new album trilogy, which also included the recently released ‘¡Uno!’ and the Nov. 13 release ‘¡Dos!’ One of Green Day’s missed performances came over the weekend as they were scheduled to headline the Voodoo Arts + Music Experience in New Orleans. However, their Bay Area pals Metallica stepped in to deliver a stellar show . Green Day Canceled 2012 Tour Dates 11/26 — Seattle, Wash. — Paramount Theatre 11/27 — Kennewick, Wash. — Toyota Center 11/29 — Salem, Ore. — Salem Armory Auditorium 12/1 — Sacramento, Calif. — Memorial Auditorium 12/2 — Reno, Nev. — Grand Sierra Resort 12/4 — Santa Cruz, Calif. — Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium 12/10 — Tempe, Ariz. — Marquee Theatre Green Day Postponed 2013 Tour Dates 1/7 — Green Bay, Wis. — Resch Center 1/8 — Rosemont, Ill. — Allstate Arena 1/10 — Wilkes-Barra, Pa. — Mohegan Sun 1/11 — University Park, Pa. — Bryce Jordan Center 1/13 — Rochester, N.Y. — Blue Cross Arena 1/14 — Pittsburgh, Pa. — Consol Energy Center 1/16 — Brooklyn, N.Y. — Barclays Center 1/18 — Manchester, N.H. — Verizon Wireless Arena 1/19 — Uncasville, Ct. — Mohegan Sun Arena 1/21 — Fairfax, Va. — Patriot Center 1/22 — Philadelphia, Pa. — Liacouras Center 1/24 — Providence, R.I. — Dunkin Donuts Center 1/25 — Portland, Maine — Cumberland County Civic Center 1/27 — Quebec City, Quebec — Colisee Pepsi 1/29 — Toronto, Ontario — Air Canada Centre 1/30 — Cleveland, Ohio — Wolstein Center 2/1 — Moline, Ill. — i Wireless Center 2/2 — Madison, Wis. — Alliant Energy Center 2/4 — Omaha, Neb. — CenturyLink Center 2/6 — Broomfield, Colo. — 1st Bank Center 2/8 — Las Vegas, Nev. — MGM Grand Garden Arena [button href=”http://loudwire.com/green-day-mike-dirnt-on-billie-joe-armstrong-health-i-know-my-friend-life-in-danger/” title=”Next: Green Day’s Mike Dirnt Comments on Billie Joe Armstrong’s Troubles” align=”center”]