Scott Gries, Getty Images While the remaining members of Velvet Revolver have been rocking out with their latest solo efforts, former vocalist Scott Weiland seems hopeful about the revival of the band and his potential return as the frontman of the currently defunct supergroup. In fact, he even suggests they are set to start writing new material. In a new interview with Rolling Stone , Weiland expressed great enthusiasm for a possible Velvet Revolver reunion. ”I think it’s the perfect time for Velvet Revolver to get back together,” Weiland said. “Slash has done some great things, and I look forward to the opportunity to seeing him on my left and seeing Duff McKagan – who, in my opinion, is without a doubt one of the greatest rock’n’ roll and punk rock bass players of all time. And is still in amazing shape – is more ripped than just about any 25-year-old on the planet. And with Matt [Sorum] and Dave [Kushner] as well, who are just incredible musicians. I think that’s exciting to look forward to. It’s the old cliché, ‘If the gods of rock want it to happen, then it will.’” We’re not sure about the gods of rock but at last check, back in September, McKagan said that things with Velvet Revolver where at a bit of a stand still as they continued their search for the perfect replacement for Scott Weiland. “There’s nobody now,” McKagan reported. “I think the longer that Slash is out touring, and that I’m out touring, people will stop asking as much. Maybe once it’s settled down, we’ll find the guy.” Weiland seems very confident that he’ll once again be the band’s lead singer, and seemingly feels the rest of the band is open to his return as well. “I am completely open to it, and I know there are other guys in the band that are completely open to it. There have been some things that have stood in the way that aren’t anything that have to do with the band – just other players, whether it be agents. But now we’re sorting through things, and we want to start writing for some big film opportunities that have come our way, and try to set things up the way we set things up when we initially got together.” So for now the future of Velvet Revolver is still up in the air and, according to Weiland, his main gig, Stone Temple Pilots , are taking a break as well, freeing up a lot of his time. Weiland plans to stay busy with his solo band, Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts, with some upcoming live shows and a new studio album in the works for 2013. In other news, Weiland recently announced his engagement to girlfriend Jamie Wachtel. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/slash-talks-scott-weiland-diva-behavior-feud-axl-rose-kurt-cobain/” title=”Next: Slash Talks Scott Weiland’s ‘Diva Behavior’” align=”center”]
Puscifer Entertainment When listing the musical projects of Maynard James Keenan , the order almost universally is presented as: Tool , A Perfect Circle , Puscifer . Although sometimes seen as a side project to Keenan’s other two musical endeavors, Puscifer have slowly stolen the spotlight over the last six years. In a new interview with MoshCam.com , Keenan goes in-depth about Puscifer, offering insight into the band’s upcoming ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ EP, a cover of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and much more. Since 2007, every piece of music (not including guest appearances) released by Maynard Keenan has been with Puscifer. In 2007, the musical collective unveiled the full-length ‘”V” is for Vagina’ and their ‘Don’t Shoot the Messenger’ EP. Puscifer’s second album, ‘Conditions of My Parole,’ saw the light of day in 2011, and before cult Keenan fans will hear new material from Tool or A Perfect Circle, Puscifer will be releasing their ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ EP on Feb. 19, 2013. Although Keenan is the only official member of Puscifer, the some of the ultra-talented musicians featured on ‘Conditions of My Parole’ seem to be sticking around. “I think there’s definitely some solid cornerstones in place now with Josh and Matt and seemingly so with Carina,” reveals Keenan. “So as time goes forward, we’re pretty happy with this particular set of people although they all have their day jobs so if we have to call on others. It’s definitely a flexible project that can accommodate that.” Keenan also spoke about how the band chose to approach a cover of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ “We had a couple of bugs up our butt to mess around with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and I had fun with it,” says Keenan. “It’s one of my favorite songs so it’s almost like karaoke, but for real … We did a straight cover. There’s nothing broken about that song and we tried to respect the original format as closely as we could, but of course it’s going to have our signature on it.” Additionally, Keenan revealed that Puscifer, a 100% independent project, may even turn ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ into a full-length record. “We have a few things on the back burner but the project has always been of the mind to release a couple of tracks at a time. The last album [‘Conditions of My Parole’] was a bit of a departure from that, because we were on a roll and we were like ‘screw it, let’s finish an album’. We’ll probably just record a couple more songs and put them out at the end of the year or start of 2013. But if we end up on a roll and we get more songs in the pipe, we’ll definitely finish an album.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/maynard-james-keenan-explains-concept-of-puscifer-new-column/” title=”Next: Maynard James Keenan Explains the Concept of Puscifer” align=”center”]
Liz Ramanand, Loudwire It’s been one hell of a year for Jesse Leach , who reunited with Killswitch Engage at the beginning of 2012. The band’s first performance back together occurred at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, and they were also part of this year’s Trespass America Festival over the summer with Five Finger Death Punch, Trivium and more. Leach, who was the band’s original singer, came back into the lineup after longtime vocalist Howard Jones left the band in late 2011. He and the rest of Killswitch have just finished up recording their first album together in 10 years. They are also celebrating the tenth anniversary of the band’s debut disc, ‘Alive or Just Breathing’ by performing it in its entirety during a headlining trek that features support from Shadows Fall and Acaro. When we recently spoke with Jesse Leach, he expressed his excitement about the upcoming album, the tour and more. I was at the first show at the New England Hardcore and Metal Festival earlier this year – how has your experience of rejoining the band been from that show to now? It’s been amazing and so much fun. It’s hard to put into words, my life’s just completely changed. I’ve had so much fun with these guys and we just finished recording our record that I’m super proud of. It’s been great. What has been the funniest thing a fan has said to you since coming back into the fold? You know probably some of the criticisms that people give me, I think it’s hilarious – to me – about how I don’t sing the same as Howard [Jones]. It’s not necessarily funny to most people but it is for me because we’re such different singers. I think it’s hilarious that people constantly want to compare us — it’s funny in a different kind of way. Fans have definitely been really sweet but occasionally you get the people that don’t care and they say what they want to say. As far as “Ha Ha” funny, [guitarist] Adam [Dutkiewicz] is the one that gets all the funny ones. To play ‘Alive or Just Breathing’ in full after 10 years, what does this mean to you? It’s surreal, it’s strange. I have a lot of love for that record but I had to do a lot of listening to it again – we’re playing it from start to finish. I look back on who I was 10 years ago as a singer and a person and I’ve changed so much. It’s just amazing for the fan to pay tribute to those fans who still care about that record, it’s just astonishing to me and it was definitely a career defining record. It’s and honor is basically how I feel, it’s an honor to perform this record. Again, I’m a different person but those lyrics still ring true for the most part for me. It just feels good to be able to do this for the fans and for us it’s just a fan thing to do in between since the [new] record isn’t out yet, so we wanted to hit the road and have some fun and give the fans something special because it’s been ten years. Looking back on it now, what did recording that album teach you that you took with you to record future albums in your career? [Laughs] Recording that record taught me that I had to use my voice properly and be more confident. I think that process, being under the microscope the way that I was for that record with Adam – we both learned a lot from that record. It made me really want to learn my instrument better and have control over it because what I hear in my head was difficult to produce. What I was hearing in my head and what was coming out wasn’t what I wanted it to be – it was just me being critical of myself but then again you should be. It kind of kickstarted me to be like, “alright I got to figure this thing out.” I wanted to become a better singer and become more confident. You guys killed on the Trespass American Festival – and you’re headed on tour with Shadows Fall later this month. No doubt this tour will be a memorable one what are you looking forward to most about this trek? Probably just hanging out, we got Shadows Fall and my buddies in a band called Acaro. It’s pretty much all of the Massachusetts boys getting together – I live in New York now but it’s going to be a reunion of sorts. I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of antics and stuff going on. That and obviously just playing, if all goes well we’ll slide in another new song. Yeah I can’t wait for this new record – I literally finished just two days ago so I’m still buzzed from it. For you guys going from Trespass America and doing the big festival shows to more intimate clubs, do you prefer the smaller venues versus the bigger ones? I like them both but they definitely offer different things. The one thing I’m looking forward to with smaller clubs, especially for this record, is the intimacy of the crowd. There’s not going to be a huge divide where the audience is ten feet away from the stage and we’re ten feet above them. The intimacy is great the emotion comes off better and for this record it’s important. There was a Facebook post on the vocals being done for the new Killswitch Engage album; how was the recording process like for you? For the new record it was great, I came off tour I was filled with energy, ready to go, we knocked out a bunch of stuff. I had joined the band, the record was there, we’re on tour so I really didn’t have time to write. I took the past two months not only recording but writing so I’m there with an idea, being in the other room writing and going to Adam saying, “Here’s my idea I just wrote, what do you think?” So there’s real spontaneity some of the songs that we just finished up. I had maybe five or six solid ideas when I came off tour and the rest had to be developed as we were recording it. It was exciting but at the same time tough because for me I’m digging deep down into my emotions and my psyche trying to come up with stuff that is honest and emotive and relevant, hopefully for the listener. It’s tiring but well worth, anything that’s worth achieving you got to suffer a little bit for it. I think mentally and spiritually and a little bit physically we were suffering but all of that made for an amazing record that I’m really proud of. How has the vibe of working on the new record been with the other members? These guys have welcomed me back with open arms and just very encouraging and digging the stuff that I’m doing and these guys were just like, “Wow we’re really excited, we feel like it’s been a long time since we’ve been this excited about music,” and that just makes me feel amazing. It makes me feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. What can you tell me about where you guys are at with the progression of the new album and maybe a possible timeline or when fans can get a single? Yeah it’s funny, I basically said to management and everybody, “I don’t want to know anything, don’t tell me anything” so I couldn’t even tell you when the record is coming out [Laughs] I don’t know if we’re doing a single before the record . As far as what the album is about and how it sounds and feels – it’s everything, it’s emotive, it’s personal, it’s spiritual, it’s political, it’s everything – my view of the world and some of the songs are written through the eyes of someone else like how I living vicariously through somebody trying to be almost like a storyteller. The music is definitely the fastest Killswitch record ever, it’s very heavy but still maintains the signature Killswitch hooky, melodic stuff their too. There’s definitely melody attached but I pulled out some new styles vocally, yelling and screaming and growling and layers and it sounds massive. The newest song ‘No End In Sight’ that you guys play live, how does this song represent what we can expect from the new album? That song is the weakest song on the whole record. [Laughs] That’s my opinion, I actually almost wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t even on the record because I think other stuff is much better but probably since we played it and fans know we’ll put it on but in my opinion that’s definitely the weakest songs. Now that the record is done in retrospect that would not be the song that we would be playing live. When will we see the return of your character Salty Rizz? [Laughs] I don’t know! I don’t think that’s going to be a repeat character, I’ve done other characters for videos for fun and I think that’s the one that got the least amount of attention. My approach to promos and stuff – when you’re on tour, it doesn’t matter who you’re working with, what company they want you to do these video update things and when it comes to music I’m a fairly serious guy when I’m onstage. We had to do these and I was just like, “I’ll do them I don’t care, I’ll do something stupid.” There’s more stupidity to come but I don’t know if it will be Salty Rizz or not. Killswitch Engage kick off their ‘Alive or Just Breathing’ tour with a headlining appearance at California MetalFest on Nov. 24. The trek wraps Dec. 29 in Clifton Park, N.Y. Click here for a full list of dates. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/killswitch-engage-members-discuss-new-song-jesse-leachs-return-more/” title=”Next: Watch Our Video Interview With Killswitch Engage” align=”center”]
YouTube All That Remains offer a militaristic theme in their video for new single ‘Stand Up’ from their latest album, ‘A War You Cannot Win.’ Clearly, a battle theme is woven through multiple elements of the release as whole, from the lyrics and the audio to the video and the visual. The video fuses performance footage of ATR playing their instruments in the middle of the woods – they shot the vid on location in New Hampshire — and they are somewhat obscured by plumes of smoke. The action and scenery switches to a battlefield, with soldiers and armed military men in combat brandishing weapons and engaging in ground missions. But is it really a battlefield or is it those same woods? Food for thought… You might get a little dizzy when watching the video, since it often switches to the perspective of one of the combat men. You’ll feel like you are behind the rifle scope, as he seeks out his prey or enemy. It might make you a little bit queasy, since you move when he moves for many of those scenes. But there really is nothing cooler than a metal band ripping through a galloping guitar solo in the middle of the woods, while images of gas mask-wearing armed forces are spliced throughout. It leaves you wondering if it’s the band being hunted and, if so, by whom? We won’t give it away. Watch All That Remains ‘Stand Up’ Video [button href=”http://loudwire.com/all-that-remains-phil-labonte-talks-military-religion-a-war-you-cannot-win/” title=”Next: ATR’s Phil Labonte Talks Military, Religion + More” align=”center”]
Razor & Tie All That Remains are in the midst of a tour with Dethklok, Machine Head and the Black Dahlia Murder. The band is out in support of their brand new disc ‘A War You Cannot Win,’ which dropped Nov. 6. We recently caught up with All That Remains guitarist Mike Martin, and he spoke about ‘A War You Cannot Win’ and the process of recording the new album, as well as the experience of rooming with the band’s producer and friend, Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage. ‘A War You Cannot Win’ – can you talk about what this title means to you? It’s funny I always get these questions, I do a lot of interviews because when we’re on the road. Phil’s [Labonte] job, as far as a vocalist goes, is not the easiest thing in the world – not only do you have to scream and sing for an hour a night but because he’s doing that, he tries to avoid doing a hundred interviews a day on top of the show. So I always do a lot of the press and a lot of the questions have something to do with the song title or what the album means and what does this lyric mean and Phil writes that and he came up with the album title so it’s just one of those things where it’s one of his questions and it would suck for me to answer. I have no idea. [Laughs] Maybe you can tell me when he came to you with that title, the first time you heard it, what was your reaction? I’m just a black and white dude when it comes to most things so I was just like, “Okay that sounds cool, it doesn’t sound stupid.” [Laughs] It’s like “Okay cool, that’s fine.” That’s basically what everybody else does too, I don’t think anybody else in the band digs too deep into the meaning. Phil’s big into politics and all sorts of stuff so God only knows what the title means to him – it could mean a number of things. What sets this album apart from your previous efforts? I think with every album, we just continue to make steps of maturity as far as songwriting goes. I just think when you do something for 10, 12, 15 years you can’t help but learn a little bit along the way and I think that’s one thing this band continues to get better at with every album. It’s not a physical thing where everybody has to get a 100 times better at their specific instrument – I think collectively the songwriting gets better with each one. How was the recording process like overall for this specific record? For this, it was the most comfortable thing ever. We were at our normal home studio with Adam D. from Killswitch, our normal producer. I’m actually sitting in his living room right now because I live at his house. Yeah normal studio, normal producer – you know what you’re getting into and the work ethic and everybody’s methods already and everybody’s comfortable right away. Out of curiosity how is Adam Dutkiewicz as a roommate? [Laughs] He’s an amazing roommate, this is the most chill house you could possibly live in, just the quietest. We live out in the woods, it’s just farms out here – it’s amazing. It’s super quiet and calm – calm I know is something nobody expects when they see Adam onstage because he’s out of his mind, he’s actually pulling into the driveway now, I heard the garage just open. We’re both obsessed with certain restaurants and bars in our area and we go and eat there all the time – we’re pretty gross with the food. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/dethklok-2012-tour-machine-head-all-that-remains-black-dahlia-murder/” title=”Check Out All That Remains’ 2012 Tour Dates with Dethklok” align=”center”]
Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Dez Fafara of DevilDriver and Coal Chamber was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. Fafara spoke all about DevilDriver’s current trek with Gwar and their upcoming European tour with Cannibal Corpse and the band’s forthcoming record, as well as being open to performing more shows with Coal Chamber. Read the full interview with Dez Fafara below: DevilDriver are out on tour with Gwar, this isn’t the first time you guys have toured with together? No, we toured together about six years ago and it was the funnest thing we’ve ever done, especially this time of the season with a bunch of monsters is great. So we’re having a great time. There’s some news semi-recently with a label change so talk to us about about DevilDriver news and what’s happening right now. Well DevilDriver is with Napalm Records now worldwide except over in Australia, where we’re still with Roadrunner Records and we’ve got a new record coming out possibly end Fall time next year. We’re recording in December and I do the vocals in January and the record is sounding really killer. I’m really happy with the songs so far, it’s just real groove heavy . Let’s talk about Coal Chamber for a sec; Coal Chamber reunited last year for what you thought would be just a few shows but now there’s talk of maybe working on some new music. What changed your mind? Well we haven’t talked about new music, there’s a lot of rumors out there. We did Australia and it went incredibly well, we all got along great, we revisited the music and the fans. It was killer. Then we went and did South America and that was just absolutely amazing. We would like to do something in the States but we just don’t know when we’re going to have the time because I’m with DevilDriver right now so we’re just taking it slowly and having a good time with it. Offstage, how are Coal Chamber and DevilDriver different in terms of the collective personalities of each band? Everybody’s different in both bands, Coal Chamber offstage – they’re nuts, those guys are crazy. We’ve settled down a bit. DevilDriver, after shows, everyone’s kind of got a girlfriend or gotten married and this and that. It’s a good time touring with both of them and I’m definitely having a good time doing both sides of my music. Dez, you mentioned earlier that DevilDriver starts recording next month, leaving you with a short amount of time to track vocals before heading to Europe with Cannibal Corpse. How does the pressure of a tight schedule become a creative tool? I think pressure is a creative tool, I think it’s there when you have to do it then you have to get it done and that’s what’s happening with me. In January I’ve got to record and then we go right overseas with Cannibal Corpse and we do a co-headlining thing in February and March so we just pray that it all goes well. [Laughs] We’re going to be doing the record with Mark Lewis, he’s quick, we work well together. He’s already got the new music on him so he knows where we’re going with this. I’m really excited to get trackin’. You just released a song to raise money offset the medical cost of your sister’s cancer treatment. Has that given you any thought of more philanthropic efforts on a broader scale? I love music and I have so many different sides to me and so many different things I listen to and that’s why I have Coal Chamber – it’s a more dark, goth side and that’s why I have DevilDriver it’s more of a heavy side of me. ‘Dark Meadowlark,’ the song I did for my sister Kerri, is a totally different animal than either of those. So we’ll really have to see, time is what really matters – do I have time to do other things and right now I’m really concentrating on DevilDriver. Can you give information on how people can get the song? Sure and it would be very helpful to me and my family if you did so. You got to DezFafara.com and it’ll take you right to Kerri’s Corner, it takes you right to her page. You can download the song, it’s $2.50, some people are giving a thousand dollars, other people are giving ten dollars. Pick up the song and help somebody you don’t know and hopefully it’ll feel good for you. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Chris Adler of Lamb of God on her next show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .
Independent Label Group Down recently visited Loudwire’s offices when they were on tour in New York City. The entire group swarmed on our little studio room to talk about their four-part series of ‘Down IV’ EPs, all the while anointing themselves the most handsome band in the history of handsome while knocking back a few beers. After releasing ‘Down IV Part 1 – The Purple EP’ in September, the band refused to put a timeline on the next EP. Frontman Philip Anselmo intimated that perhaps he might not be in the right mood to record another EP at this point, and that he may find himself inspired by flute music or technical death metal in the future. Guitarist Pepper Keenan then joked that it’ll take them 20 years to release all four EPs. Since the members of Down have so many other projects going at once, we had to ask them how they manage to hunker “Down” and and actually do Down. “We all know when it’s time to do Down, it’s time to do Down,” Anselmo said. “Down has a core audience that surpasses any of our current singular audiences.” ‘Down IV Part 1 – The Purple EP,’ featuring the single ‘Witchtripper,’ is currently available at iTunes . Down will return to the road this winter with Warbeast on ‘The Weed & Speed Tour: West Coast Throwdown in the Year of XIII.” Tickets for the tour are available here ; check out the dates below the video. Watch Down Talk EP Series, Commitment + More [Exclusive] Down The Weed & Speed Tour Dates: 1/11 – Houston, TX | Warehouse Live – Ballroom 1/12 – San Antonio, TX | Backstage Live 1/14 – Tempe, AZ | The Marquee 1/15 – Las Vegas, NV | Fremont Country Club 1/16 – West Hollywood, CA | Key Club 1/18 – Anaheim, CA | City National Grove of Anaheim 1/19 – Sacramento, CA | Ace of Spades 1/20 – San Francisco, CA | Regency Ballroom 1/22 – Seattle, WA | Showbox at the Market 1/23 – Portland, OR | Roseland Theater 1/24 – Boise, ID | Knitting Factory Concert House 1/26 – Denver, CO | The Summit Music Hall 1/28 – Minneapolis, MN | First Avenue 1/29 – Milwaukee, WI | The Rave 1/30 – Cincinnati, OH | Bogart’s 2/1 – Chattanooga, TN | Track 29 [button href=”http://loudwire.com/down-witchtripper-video/” title=”Next: Watch Down’s ‘Witchtripper’ Video” align=”center”]