Facebook: Finch There were a lot of happy fans last fall when Finch decided to regroup to play some dates commemorating the tenth anniversary of their breakout album ‘What It Is to Burn.’ There are even more ecstatic people now that the group has decided to expand the trek outside of California to other North American and European stops this year. Adding to the excitement, the band has also revealed the support acts for a number of their upcoming dates. At present, the band will resume touring in support of their influential disc on Feb. 1 at the Glass House in Pomona, Calif. The group scheduled four dates over consecutive February weekends to give their West Coast fans every opportunity to catch their performance. Late Night Revival and Weatherbox will support on Feb. 1, with Hancox and Particles Like Planets opening on Feb. 2. Just Eleanor and XO will open the Feb. 8 date, with Reverend Crow and Fluf rounding out the support acts on Feb. 9. As the band expands to a wider audience in March, they’ve announced that The Almost have signed on to provide support throughout their remaining North American stops. That leg of the tour runs from March 7 in Chicago through March 16 in Boston. After that, Finch will pack up and head to Europe for the remainder of March. The title cut from Finch’s ‘What It Is to Burn’ album cracked Loudwire’s Top 50 21st Century Hard Rock Songs list. Finch ‘What It Is to Burn’ 2013 Tour Dates: 2/1 — Pomona, Calif. — Glass House 2/2 — Pomona, Calif. — Glass House 2/8 — Pomona, Calif. — Glass House 2/9 — Pomona, Calif. — Glass House 3/7 — Chicago, Ill. — Metro 3/8 — Detroit, Mich. — St. Andrews Hall 3/9 — Toronto, Ontario — Sound Academy 3/11 — Pittsburgh, Pa. — Mr. Small’s 3/12 — New York, N.Y. — Irving Plaza 3/14 — Silver Spring, Md. — The Fillmore 3/15 — Philadelphia, Pa. — Electric Factory 3/16 — Boston, Mass. — Royale 3/19 — Manchester, U.K. — HMV Ritz 3/20 — Glasgow, Scotland — O2 ABC 3/21 — Birmingham, U.K. — HMV Institute 3/22 — London, U.K. — O2 Brixton Academy 3/23 — Paris, France — Le Trabendo 3/25 — Koln, Germany — Luxor 3/27 — Amsterdam, Netherlands — Melkweg [button href=”http://loudwire.com/alice-in-chains-2013-must-see-rock-concerts/” title=”Check Out Other 2013 Must-See Rock Concerts” align=”center”]
Jason Merritt, Getty Images Guns N’ Roses have taken a few knocks in recent years for appearing onstage late or rolling past curfews as a result, but one of the main reasons for that occurrence is the production value that they’re bringing to audiences around the world. Guitarist DJ Ashba tells Australia’s Yahoo7 News that the production issues are a common reason for the delay in getting the band to the stage. He explains, “We have a huge rig and pyrotechnics so often it’s the case of fitting all that into the venue. Our number one priority is to make the shows safe. [The criticism from fans on social media] kills us as a band because we’re not doing any of this on purpose. Our main goal is to go and give the fans a show they will never forget and we understand how expensive tickets are. We take that into account and when we do hit the stage, it’s almost impossible to get us off.” The guitarist also addressed the sometimes negative perception of frontman Axl Rose in the media, explaining, “I think a lot of people and the press try to blow it up and say he’s an a–hole, but everyone can be an a–hole if you get them on the wrong day. One thing people don’t seem to get is that he’s genuinely funny and he’s always joking around and telling stories to make people laugh. I always say that if he wasn’t a musician, he’d be a great comedian. I wish the world could see that side of him because it’s the opposite of what people have branded in their brains.” Even though Ashba is one of the last members to join the current Guns N’ Roses lineup, he says that Rose has done nothing but treat his bandmates like gold since he started. He adds, “He lets us write our own solos and gives everybody their time to shine on stage and I think that says a lot about who he is. He has no problem sharing the spotlight, in fact he quite likes it.” Guns N’ Roses will next take the stage this March in Australia. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/guns-n-roses-offer-first-look-at-3d-concert-film-announce-tour-dates-in-australia/” title=”Next: Guns N’ Roses Offer First Look at 3D Concert Film” align=”center”]
Facebook: Testament We recently had a lovely chat with Testament vocalist Chuck Billy . With Testament going strong after releasing their latest album, ‘Dark Roots of Earth,’ the band is set to conquer North America very soon through a winter trek with fellow thrash legends Overkill . We spoke with Billy about ‘Dark Roots of Earth,’ how the album compares to their iconic discography, the setlist their fans can expect during the tour with Overkill, his all-time favorite metal musicians + much more. Check out our exclusive interview with Testament’s Chuck Billy: Congratulations on the success of ‘Dark Roots of Earth.’ Both fans and critics seem to love it and it reached No. 12 on the Billboard chart, which was your highest charting position ever. With the record industry in a weakened state across the board, what does that chart position mean to you personally? Well, it’s definitely a big accomplishment for us. You always put your heart and soul into every record you do and I think this record was definitely a special record. We really wrote these songs and chose what we were going to put on the record by what leads us not by what critics and fans were gonna think. When we came up with ‘Cold Embrace’ or even ‘Dark Roots of Earth,’ when we first heard it, it didn’t even cross our minds to think, ‘What is everybody going to think?’ The first thing we thought was, “This feels good, let’s go for it.” I think that’s what this record has above the other ones; the sense of confidence we came into while writing the songs. We took the risks and we’re just happy as a band and what we’ve accomplished. It hit No. 12, after all is said and done, after what we put into it … it was awesome. It’s almost like our gut feeling paid off. We believed in it so much that everybody else did as well. [Laughs] To be considered a ‘true’ thrash band you have to operate in some fairly narrow confines, but you guys have been able to put out albums again and again that sound very fresh and interesting. How do you keep your music sounding so fresh? From when we started to where we are today, there have been a lot of bands that have a little Testament influence and over those years we’ve looked to those newer bands and have really gotten re-influenced off of them with the style and where metal’s gone and without trying to copy. I really wanted to stick to my style of singing and not really jump on what other bands are doing, but musically and production wise it’s just gotten better and better over the years. There are a lot of great sounding records and great sounding bands. The hardest thing is to put out a great record and make it go off the same vibe live; that’s the toughest thing. When I see a band that’s just as good live as they are on the record, I really enjoy it. I think we took a full circle of people getting influenced off of us and we got influenced off them and I think the biggest thing is we still feel young at heart. We don’t feel like we’re a 30-year-old band; not feeling our age, put it that way. [Laughs] Of those newer thrash bands that have inspired you, are there any in particular that inspired you the most for ‘Dark Roots of Earth’? I don’t know about just one band, but there are a lot of bands we talk to all the way from Lamb of God to Shadows Fall . There are bands that I hear a little bit of that early thrash style and you see what they’re accomplishing, Lamb of God and bands like that. It’s all in the riffing and the style, you kind of go, ‘Okay I get it,’ and you apply it to what you’re doing in a small way. A long time has passed since ‘The Legacy’ came out. How would you compare the songwriting and recording process from ‘The Legacy’ to ‘Dark Roots of Earth’? What are the most notable differences? Well, we didn’t know anything about recording records when we did that record [‘The Legacy’], first of all. I mean, I listened to that record and I remember recording that record and the mic techniques we used and stuff … it was almost a joke actually. We were using condenser microphones on clothes hangers. I think back about it just going, “What the hell was that guy doing?” And when I listen to the record that’s why I hear the guitar sounding so small. Things have just changed, we went from two-inch tape down to digital recording. I think there was a point there with digital recording, bands had a problem at first because you couldn’t get that warm, fat sound. Everything on digital boards and digital processing just sounded thinner. I think it took some time for engineers and people to really know what they wanted in a sense and figure out how to make those digital recordings sound fat like they were two-inch tapes. We went through the whole process from when we started to where we are now, and it’s night and day. Now you can make big sounding records through digital processing. The songwriting … I think when Alex [Skolnick] , Greg [Christian] and Louie [Clemente] left the band, it was just me and Eric [Peterson.] We were writing songs that were more riff oriented. The writing technique changed from the way it was before. We were just focused on the songs and the riffs. I think once Alex came back and the reunion happened, it was a matter of getting used to each other and comfortable with each other again. We did the ‘Formation of Damnation’ record, it was the first step of bringing back that old style of writing together again and I think after that record and a bunch of years touring together, this new record was almost natural, just like the was it was [in the past]. We almost forgot about the way we wrote when me and Eric were the songwriters. It was a group effort to where we were thinking, “Okay, we’ve got to write a lead section here for Alex. Maybe we can do duel harmony guitars at the beginning.” The whole thought process was right there where it was at the beginning. I think that’s why a lot people say, “Yeah, I hear some of that early style in there.” Speaking of the members of Testament, I saw you guys last year on tour with Anthrax and you had Gene Hoglan on drums. On this upcoming tour with Overkill can fans expect Gene to grace us with his presence? Yeah, Gene pretty much signed on for the whole record cycle. I know he had Dethklok obligations so he had to miss one year of being on the road with us, but I don’t think Dethklok performs that often so I think he’s all ours right now for the rest of the record cycle. So yeah, he’ll be there. You played your first show in India recently and you’ve now been added to litany of huge, important bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden who’ve gone there. Can you talk a little bit about that experience, playing in India? I really enjoyed it, it was definitely an experience and kind of what I’ve learned by traveling the world is that a metal fan in the Bay Area has the same look and energy as a metal fan in the India: black shirts, long hair, banging their head. I think the experience was exciting for us because we had never been there after 25-30 years. There are a lot of people on the light crew, the sound crew, everybody who worked on the show seemed to be really excited because they’d been Testament fans for a long time and had never seen us. The excitement for them was pretty big, they were all very excited, which makes us even more pumped up like, “Man, we’ve really got to perform well because they’re expecting a lot.” It was pretty cool because we had such a big repertoire of songs to play for them and we played extra songs that we didn’t rehearse, that we just threw in there and pulled off on the fly. It was an awesome festival, I would definitely love to go back there again to experience the culture. We only had a day to really sightsee, so we went around and checked out the temples and microbreweries are a big thing there now so we went and tested the local micro beers. It was a really wild experience driving around the city because they seem to just drive wherever they want to drive … going the wrong way, there’s really no lines of traffic, it’s just kind of a free for all. The greatest thing was watching these families on Mopeds, they have the mother and the father and the kids and the little baby on handlebars, the grandmother sitting side-saddle in the back … they put like five or six people on a Moped in all this crazy traffic. Amongst all that crazy traffic was just people with their kids walking across the street. No one got hit, nobody got hurt, it was just the way it was. That blew me away. Traveling in traffic was just mind-blowing. [Laughs] This year, 2013, marks the 30th year of Testament. Do you have any plans coming up to celebrate this milestone? We keep talking about trying to do a special show or a special major city tour or maybe a different country tour where we play either ‘The Legacy’ front to back or maybe even ‘Dark Roots’ front to back, but it’s all just talk so we’ll see what happens. We have to get our agent on board and promoters on board with the idea, but we definitely want to do something special. I think when we did ‘The Legacy’ and ‘The New Order’ record back to back, we got a great response. The fans really wanted to see something special like that, so we’re definitely open to doing something cool like that. On this upcoming tour with Overkill, another thrash band that had a very strong 2012, what can we expect in terms of your set and how important is it for Testament to perform new songs as opposed to the classics? It’s very important, actually. When we re-formed with the original lineup, our set consisted mostly of the classic stuff because those were the songs that all of us wrote together. They weren’t really on the ‘Low’ record, ‘Demonic’ or ‘Formation’… any of those records. We tended to play more classics, but I think just talking to the band, there seems to be a consistency on what people tell us about how Testament’s sound doesn’t sound like a dated band and that we have a modern sound; that’s a great compliment to us. We don’t want to be a nostalgic band and just play the classics. We want to show who we are today and what we’ve evolved to. If people are saying that we sound more current, then let’s play some more current stuff in our show. On the Anthrax tour, we played a lot of classics. We tried to mix it up with both, but coming out on this Overkill tour we definitely have a new set. We’ve got six or seven new songs in the show, so we’re leaning toward playing the more modern stuff we’re doing. I think new fans to the band who hadn’t been around in the early years, I think they’re going to be happiest hearing the songs they recognize in the records they’ve bought over the last 10 years. When you think of each instrument in a band in the world of thrash, who do you think is the best at playing each instrument? I’d say Kerry King [ Slayer ] is a master rhythm player. If it was up to me, Michael Schenker [Scorpions, UFO] is one of the best lead guitar players. Man, it’s tough between Gene Hoglan and Dave Lombardo [Slayer]. They have to be two of the better drummers I’ve played with. Bass players: Steve DiGiorgio [ Death , Sadus] is probably one of the best bass players I’ve jammed with. Vocalists: I’ve got a top three … I love Ronnie James Dio , Rob Halford [ Judas Priest ] and Bruce Dickinson [ Iron Maiden ]. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/testament-vocalist-chuck-billy-dream-share-stage-with-metallica/” title=”Chuck Billy Reveals ‘Dream’ to Share the Stage With Metallica” align=”center”]
Kevin Winter, Getty Images The Black Keys may allow some of their music to be used in commercials, but the band isn’t exactly thrilled that another company has been using a track that is similar to one of their songs. According to the Hollywood Reporter , the group has accused casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment of improper usage and has filed a lawsuit to stop it. The band charges Pinnacle with using a song that is “substantially similar” to ‘Howlin’ for You’ in their advertisements, including one spot that ran this past September. They’re claiming that Pinnacle has violated trademark law and state in the lawsuit that the company has “suggested a false designation of origin as well as making unfair competition for them.” The group also cites claims made by Pinnacle on Twitter and YouTube that the song in question was “a licensed musical interpretation.” This isn’t the first time the Black Keys have taken legal action against improper usage of their music. Just last year the band filed a lawsuit and eventually settled for an undisclosed amount after both Pizza Hut and Home Depot aired commercials with material similar to the band’s songs without permission. The legal action isn’t holding up the Black Keys from keeping busy. The band reportedly ducked into the studio earlier this month to begin coming up with music for their next album. The disc will be the follow-up to their Grammy-nominated ‘El Camino’ album. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/the-black-keys-jack-white-lead-2013-rock-grammy-nominations/” title=”Next: Black Keys Among Leading 2013 Grammy Nominees” align=”center”] ?
Vimeo Get ready to rock as Avatar are unleashing the video for their current single, ‘Smells Like a Freakshow’ and Loudwire is bringing you the exclusive premiere. The Swedish rockers have provided an interesting character study for the video, as each of the band members get to play the role of tormentor and the tormented in the Johan Carlen-directed video. The band tells Loudwire, “The video illustrates inner conflict in an explicit manner, using abuse of unjust power in different contexts. The lyrical themes of downfall, embracing of decadence and failed attempts to escape are pointed out by the fact that ultimately the bad guys win.” Though all of the members go through a rough conflict with themselves in the video, singer Johannes Eckerstrom has perhaps the most compelling battle. One version of himself stands tall and confident, whipping and taunting the other version of himself, which is slumped over and chained to a post before attempting to escape. ‘Smells Like a Freak Show’ is featured on the band’s fourth studio album and first proper American release, ‘Black Waltz.’ Eckerstrom says of their sound, “We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock ‘n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde.” But even with that eclectic nature, the singer says he feels the band has hit their stride. He adds, “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound.” The ‘Black Waltz’ album is currently available for purchase here . Watch Avatar’s ‘Smells Like a Freakshow’ Video [button href=”http://loudwire.com/avatar-let-it-burn-exclusive-video-premiere/” title=”Next: Watch Avatar’s ‘Let It Burn’ Video” align=”center”]
Facebook: Children of Bodom The mighty Children of Bodom have secluded themselves within the icy woods of their native Finland to work on their eighth studio album. From an undisclosed location in Helskini, the band is constructing and recording 10 new tracks for their follow-up record to 2011′s ‘Relentless Reckless Forever.’ “It’s a nice change to the regular method where we lock ourselves up at a studio in the middle of the woods, usually also during the darkest time of the year,” Bodom frontman Alexi Laiho tells Soundi magazine. “However, we did track drums at the tried-and-tested Petrax studio in Hollola this time as well, so we got our fix of that modus operandi too. But for the guitar and bass, we don’t require a big facility in the countryside, so we decided to stay closer to home for this part of the session.” Interesting enough, Bodom guitarist Roope Latvala has made it clear that he is dedicated to elevating the guitar to greater prominence for the band’s next album, a goal which fans with surely appreciate. Although Children of Bodom’s music has remained strong throughout their career, the band has focused less on massively addictive guitar leads since their 2005 album, ‘Are You Dead Yet?’ “Roope did voice his opinions more than usual this time around,” Alexi says. “And maybe the others, too. As far as the actual question goes, the usual rule applies: all good ideas are taken into consideration.” Although there is no ballpark estimate of a release date, Bodom will be continuing their tradition of recording hysterical covers of pop songs, with the band planning to create metal versions of Bananarama and Roxette tracks. Check out footage of Children of Bodom jamming on some new material in the video below. Children of Bodom Practice New Tracks From the Studio [button href=”http://loudwire.com/children-of-bodom-everytime-i-die-top-21st-century-metal-songs/” title=”Children of Bodom – Top 21st Century Metal Songs” align=”center”]
Puscifer Entertainment Puscifer are currently revving up for the release of their upcoming EP ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ along with a handful of tour dates in Australia and South America. To take you further into the realm of Maynard James Keenan and his Puscifer bandmates, we’ve got an exclusive video of the musical collective warming up for what is sure to be a spotlit year for the band’s career. Tool and A Perfect Circle vocalist Maynard James Keenan began Puscifer as an additional sonic alter-ego in 2003, with Keenan acting as the group’s sole permanent member. A decade after the idea was conceived, Puscifer are beginning to rise up not just as an obscure side project, but as a musical force comparable to both Tool and A Perfect Circle in terms of quality. Since the release of the 2011 full-length ‘Conditions of My Parole,’ Puscifer seem to have cemented a more secure lineup consisting of singer Carina Round , A Perfect Circle members Matt McJunkins and Jeff Friedl and guitarist Mat Mitchell among others. The band embarked on a theatrical U.S. tour last summer, and in this behind-the-scenes video, we witness Maynard and his band of curmudgeons in the middle of practice. One of the most interesting parts of the video is the band’s use of their framed television monitors, which magnify the heads of both Keenan and Round to mammoth proportions. Check out this rare look into the world of Puscifer in the video below, premiered exclusively here on Loudwire, and see the band’s current tour itinerary here . Puscifer Behind the Scenes Teaser