Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com The surviving members of Suicide Silence have announced a special benefit show for Mitch Lucker’s family this December, and all of the proceeds from the concert will go toward the education of Lucker’s 5-year-old daughter, Kenadee. The band will perform live, and a different singer will fill in for Lucker for each song. No word yet on who these special vocalists will be, but we’ll keep you posted. The band made the announcement was made this past weekend at the California Metalfest, where the surviving band members took the stage to address the crowd. Watch the fan-filmed footage of the announcement below. The show is set for the Fox Theater in Pomona, Calif., on Dec. 21, and it will be at least the fourth benefit effort since Lucker’s death. Hopefully the funds raised at this gig, along with the other benefits, will help fund Lucker’s surviving family members for the future as they deal with this tragedy. Lucker passed away on Nov. 1 at age 28 after sustaining injuries in a motorcycle crash in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Halloween night. Watch Suicide Silence Announce Benefit Show at California Metalfest [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-suicide-silence-songs/” title=”Next: Best Suicide Silence Songs” align=”center”]
Jason Merritt / Scott Harrison, Getty Images Guns N’ Roses just completed their ‘Appetite for Democracy’ residency in Las Vegas on Nov. 24, and fans who attended the final two shows were gifted with an pleasant surprise. Former GN’R guitarist Izzy Stradlin joined the band onstage for a number of songs throughout the band’s sets, including ’14 Years,’ ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,’ Used to Love Her’ and ‘Paradise City.’ It’s difficult to gauge the relationship between Stradlin and GN’R singer Axl Rose is in modern times, but there seems to be a mutual admiration for one another. In May 2006, Stradlin joined GN’R onstage in New York City for the first time in 13 years, and earlier this year, Stradlin performed with Guns at London’s O2 Arena. It should be noted that both Rose and Stradlin skipping Guns N’ Roses’ 2012 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Known to be somewhat of a recluse in his personal life, Stradlin thrilled die-hard GN’R fans during the Nov. 23 and Nov. 24 Vegas dates, playing six tracks during one show and five the following day. Check out video footage of ’14 Years’ below. Stradlin has released 11 studio albums since 1992, with his most recent musical contribution being the new single ‘ Baby-Rann .’ Could Stradlin’s increasingly frequent GN’R live cameos lead to something monumental in the future? We’ll be watching for it, so stay tuned as more Guns N’ Roses news continues to break. Guns N’ Roses with Izzy Stradlin Perform ’14 Years’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/izzy-stradlin-releases-new-single-baby-rann/” title=”Listen to Izzy Stradlin’s New Single ‘Baby-Rann'” align=”center”]
Fearless Records / Earshot Media Motionless In White and their track ‘Devil’s Night’ continue to knock down bands left and right in the Cage Match, but will they be able to beat today’s challengers? Attack Attack! enter the matchup with their track ‘The Revolution’ off of their latest album ‘This Means War.’ The band recently performed a set of shows dubbed ‘A Very Scary Night With Attack Attack!’ at the end of October. So will Attack Attack! start a ‘Revolution’ and beat out the reigning champs or will Motionless In White stay on the path to victory? Get in on the action and vote for your favorite track in the poll below. (This Cage Match will run until Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 8AM ET. Fans can vote once per hour! So come back and vote often to make sure your favorite song wins!) Listen to Motionless In White, ‘Devil’s Night’ Listen to Attack Attack!, ‘The Revolution’ Sorry, you need to have javascript running to see this poll. Email Me When Cage Match Winners Are Announced Enter your email address below to receive the Loudwire newsletter, which will include notification of the daily winner of the Cage Match, as well as our top stories of the day. Email Rules of Cage Match: Fans can vote once per hour for their favorite song. If a song remains the reigning champ for five straight cage matches, it is retired to the Loudwire Cage Match Hall of Fame. With so many great songs out there, we have to give other bands a chance!
Liz Ramanand, Loudwire It’s been quite a year for DevilDriver , as they began 2012 as part of the Metal Alliance tour with Arch Enemy and recently finished up a massive U.S. trek with GWAR. During DevilDriver’s stop in Brooklyn, N.Y., we caught up with frontman Dez Fafara , who dished on the band’s new album and expressed his excitement about joining Napalm Records’ roster. He also took a look back on DevilDriver’s 2011 release ‘Beast.’ How would you describe your relationship with GWAR and the rest of the roster on this tour? We’ve been friends with GWAR for a long time; we toured with them six or seven years ago it was one of the funnest tours we ever did. We know everybody, we know the Cancer Bats really well, we’ve toured with them before – it was my ideas to put the Bats on as well and it ended up happening so it’s been really killer so far. Everyone’s just hanging out and having a great time. No doubt you have toured with numerous bands but is there one band or musician you would love to tour with that you haven’t gotten a chance to tour with yet? We did some shows with Metallica but they were festivals but I would love to do a Metallica tour – every band is going to say that. Other than that, there’s a lot of artists out there that I would still love to work with of course. With all of this touring what is one thing you must bring on tour with you, no electronics? I bring my own blankets because there’s been a million musicians sleeping in those bunks and on those mattresses so I bring my own blankets, my own sheets, my own pillow, my own everything. If you tour like we do and I take the same bunk every time in different buses. Any creepy findings in one of your tour buses? Oh yeah, I got really ill about a year ago on a tour and they couldn’t figure out why was so ill. It was about two weeks into it and I was coughing up black s—t, we finally stripped my bunk down and we turned over the bunk and the whole thing – the bottom was covered in black mold. Somebody had spilled a drink in there or whatever and left it over the course of time and it was just getting me really sick. Other than that I’ve never experienced other creepy crawlies, you’ll see spiders in buses sometimes but we tend to let those guys out and let them live ‘cause they’ve already had a hard road. Congratulations on your new home of Napalm Records – what made your guys decide on this move? They have passion. I think when the whole folding of Roadrunner was happening, they were … letting a bunch of other people go – I had been there a long time, I think they decided, I decided, we all decided that it was just time to part ways. Napalm has a massive amount of passion for heavy metal, they love the band. When we met with the owner, he was like “I love the band.” He knew songs and it was like okay, “This is a guy who’s entrenched in our music so we want him behind it.” We’re also with Roadrunner still overseas in Australia and New Zealand so it’s good to be with them still over there. The United States label itself has changed and I forsee in the next year, it’s just going to fold completely in probably to Warner, I would imagine. With people in the UK that I’ve worked with forever, press people and others – when they lose their job, it’s time to go, start over and I’m not afraid of that. A lot of people are afraid of moving into a new house but it’s awesome to do and decorate it new and make it happen again, make it feel alive so that’s what’s happening with DevilDriver and Napalm right now. We’re excited for the record, they’re excited for the record – I think Napalm needs a flagship in the United States and I think we could be it for them and I think their press people and they think we could be it for them, too. We’re going to go gunnin’ with this next record and see the numbers – I’m predicting both higher sales and a higher chart position than what Roadrunner offered us. So we’ll see. What’s the progress on the next album? Songs are all written – I’m six songs in right now, written, we’ve got two covers that we’re going to be doing. We’re looking at a late fall – sometime between late August and late September, kind of hard to quote me right because we’re just looking for that release space but I believe that’s when the time is going to be. So this is the last time DevilDriver will be in the United Stated at least until September, October of next year. We’re taking a whole year away from the States to just let it marinate and then come on back on the new record. What do you think the vibe will be like for this new album? Every record is different, that being said I thought ‘Pray For Villains’ was kind of an out of the box record for us, I thought ‘Beast’ was a weird out of the box record for us – we’ve kind honed back in to where we are. This new record sounds a lot like the first three records, it’s got an intense groove to it and I’m really happy – the writing is going extremely well. That being said I think we’ve laid back on our laurels right now and be like, “We’re a groove band” the fans started calling us The Groove Machine, The California Groove Machine – everybody needs a title, we’ll take that one and we’re going to give them that on the new record for sure. It’s been well over a year since the release of ‘Beast.’ Looking back on it, what does Dez the music fan love about that album? A weird record for us, I’m not going to lie, when I sat down – the arrangements everything, it was a weird record to write. When it came out we knew it was just an out of the box, aggressive record for us and it got a lot of positive feedback. All of the accolades that it got, I didn’t know if I expected that reaction. Now looking back in hindsight, we needed that, we to just do something apart from ourselves and that’s what has led us now to where we are with the new record which is like, “Let’s really hone in on the songwriting on this one, let’s make sure the arrangements are really tight.” Everyone’s really excited. Looking back on ‘Beast’ we worked really hard, we toured really hard on it and it did what it was supposed to do for us which was put our sound out there in a unique way and make sure that we didn’t follow any kind of course of anybody else and we laid our own path, which we’ve been doing since we started. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/gwar-brooklyn-tour-stop/” title=”Check Out Photos of DevilDriver Performing in New York City” align=”center”]
Kevin Winter, Getty Images Puddle of Mudd ‘s Wes Scantlin is breathing a little easier, as TMZ reports that the public intoxication charge against him for a JetBlue airline incident has been dropped. The rocker was arrested in September in Austin, Texas for alleged public intoxication after fighting with an airline attendant who refused to serve him alcohol. The argument was significant enough that the Los Angeles-bound plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Austin. According to reports, the judge in the case ruled that there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute the singer. The vocalist claimed that he was sober at the time of the argument. The Puddle of Mudd singer could have faced jail time had the charge stood, as he was previously charged with cocaine possession in June, but remained free as part of a plea deal so long as he stayed out of trouble for 18 months. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/puddle-of-mudd-control-top-21st-century-hard-rock-songs/” title=”Next: Puddle of Mudd – Top 21st Century Hard Rock Songs” align=”center”]
Chris McKay, Getty Images The Guns N’ Roses Las Vegas residency was cool as it was, but it got a little cooler this past week for one very young fan. Video footage has surfaced of the band welcoming a nine-year-old girl named Chloe, who lent her vocals to the band’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’ while the band soundchecked for their Nov. 21st performance. The clip, with low quality audio, can be seen below. The band’s Las Vegas run has widely been regarded as a success, with the group crafting their own set lists exclusively for each show. In addition to young Chloe’s pre-show guest appearance, the Nov. 21 date proved special for another reason. Guns N’ Roses reportedly taped part of the show in 3D , presumably for a future concert video release. During the epic performance, the band rocked through many of their classics, along with covering Pink Floyd ‘s ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)’ and Neil Young ‘s ‘Don’t Let It Bring You Down.’ The band’s 12-date residency closed out last night (Nov. 24) at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Watch Footage of Nine-Year-Old Chloe Performing With Guns N’ Roses [button href=”http://loudwire.com/guns-n-roses-kick-off-las-vegas-residency-halloween-night/” title=”Next: Read Guns N’ Roses Las Vegas Opening Night Review” align=”center”]
MagnaCarta.net / Andrew H. Walker, Getty Images Geoff Tate has yet to play his first gig with his newly created Queensryche lineup and already he’s down one member. Tate revealed earlier this year that former Megadeth and King Diamond guitarist Glen Drover would be part of his version of the band, but Drover has just announced his exit. Back in early September, Tate revealed that Drover would join Ratt drummer Bobby Blotzer, former Quiet Riot bassist Rudy Sarzo, keyboardist Randy Gane, and Tate’s onetime Queensryche cohort Kelly Gray in a reconstructed lineup so that he could continue playing his band’s music after being ousted by the other Queensryche members earlier this year. Drover said in his exit statement: I am really sorry to say that I have decided to bow out of Geoff Tate’s Queensryche. I was very excited about doing this gig initially, but learned in the past week or so that it’s in my best interest not to do this right now. I feel really bad for those who were excited about the idea, and to Geoff himself, who, I have to say, was very nice to me on my past trip to Seattle. I, of course, am very disappointed for arriving at this point, and making this decision, to say the least. I sincerely wish the Geoff and the band all the luck on what they do in the future. Tate and his former bandmates have been locked in a legal battle over the rights to the Queensryche name and both have received permission from the presiding judge in the case to use the moniker until a final decision is rendered. At present, Tate is promoting his ‘ Kings & Thieves ‘ solo record, but he has hinted at touring with the new lineup next year. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/geoff-tate-wins-court-ruling-continue-using-queensryche-name/” title=”Next: Geoff Tate Wins Court Ruling to Continue Using Queensryche Name” align=”center”]