Facebook: Pantera – Pantera / Hellyeah drummer Vinnie Paul has seemingly put an end to the questions of whether or not a Pantera reunion with Zakk Wylde on guitar may happen. Read what he said here. [ Loudwire ] – Avenged Sevenfold will be a part of ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II.’ At a certain point in the game, you can see an animated version of the band perform ‘Carry On.’ Watch here: [ Loudwire ] – Three Days Grace and Shinedown have announced a co-headlining U.S. arena tour featuring support from P.O.D. [ Loudwire ] – Bullet For My Valentine have released a new music video for ‘Temper Temper.’ Check it out here. [ Loudwire ] – In Dave Navarro doing awesome things news, the Jane’s Addiction musician recently sent a Canadian musician a new guitar after his was stolen. [ Loudwire ] – Royal Thunder join Monster Magnet for U.S. East Coast tour dates. [ Rock Music Report ] – Rockers salute military heroes via Twitter on Veteran’s Day. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Paul McCartney and wife involved in near-disastrous helicopter incident. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Sigur Ros announce 2013 North American tour, prep for Madison Square Garden. [ Diffuser.fm ] – What’s your favorite Metallica song from ‘Kill ‘Em All’? Vote for your top track here. [ Ultimate Metallica ]
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Video game fans have been anxiously awaiting the release of ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II,’ which hits shelves tomorrow (Nov. 13). It was previously announced that Avenged Sevenfold ‘s song ‘ Carry On ‘ would be part of the game’s soundtrack, but now we’ve learned the band makes an appearance in the game, as well. If you stick around until the end of the credits, a virtual A7X performs ‘Carry On.’ In addition to the band, characters from the game join in as well. A nervous Raul Menendez plays guitar, and Sergeant Frank Woods is behind the drum kit. This is not Avenged Sevenfold’s first association with the ‘Call of Duty’ games. 2011′s ‘Call of the Dead’ expansion pack included their song ‘Not Ready to Die.’ The musical score for ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’ was created by Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor . In addition to coming with the physical edition of the game, the 40 plus song soundtrack will also get a separate release tomorrow (Nov. 13). The ‘Call of Duty’ games are massively popular. The first ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ game was the largest ever entertainment launch, bringing in a staggering $650 million within five days of its release. That record was broken by ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.’ Could ‘Black Ops II’ be the biggest seller yet? We’ll find out beginning tomorrow. Watch Avenged Sevenfold – ‘Carry On’ Video (NSFW Language)
Seven Four Entertainment/Republic With a monstrous 16 year hiatus between Soundgarden ‘s last studio release and their newest offering ‘King Animal,’ the group’s fans likely had a lot of questions leading up to the return of one of rock’s most beloved bands. The biggest question of course lies within their sound. While it helped mold a new revolutionary genre back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, does it have staying power for a whole new century? The answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ ‘King Animal’ settles in nicely, picking up right where the band left off so many years ago and taking care of a lot of unfinished business. ‘King Animal’ displays the familiar sounds of Soundgarden without getting too caught up in nostalgia, something that can often handcuff bands trying to rise up from the ashes of their past. The band, feeling revitalized and a sense of renewal with this disc, see their reunion as more of a rebirth rather than a comeback, and the creative inspiration fueling that sentiment can be felt throughout ‘King Animal.’ Although the vibe is undeniably Soundgarden — moody, groove-laden rock — the band’s evolution is on full display, as Chris Cornell’s iconic vocals and Kim Thayil’s guitar work provide a sonic power that’s impeccably complemented by the the rhythm section of drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd. The first single ‘Been Away Too Long’ serves as a battle cry for the band’s triumphant return. It’s almost as if the band wrote a personal letter to their fans with Cornell’s brooding confessions, “I’ve been away for too long” and “I only ever really wanted a break.” Sixteen years may have been too long indeed, but Soundgarden are clearly back. With everyone in the band with at least one writing credit to their name on ‘King Animal,’ the songs cover a lot of sonic terrain from the explosive drums that fuel ‘By Crooked Steps’ to the ethereal swirling vocals on ‘Blood on the Valley Floor.’ The haunting lingering vibe left by the intricate web of sound spun in ‘Bones of Birds’ is arguably one of the disc’s best offerings, followed by the visual soundscape painted by ‘Taree.’ ‘King Animal’ offers up an eclectic mix of visual imagery, thought provoking prose, all set to a timeless soundscape of flourishing rock with a reminiscent feel. In music, it’s sometimes difficult to stand the test of time but Soundgarden prove with ‘King Animal’ that they did not reassemble simply to preserve a legacy but to build on one that’s already firmly in place.
Bullet for My Valentine fans know that the band recently announced that their much-anticipated new full-length album, ‘Temper Temper,’ will arrive on Feb. 11, 2012, via Sony Music. Now, we have a new music video from the Welsh metallers for ‘Temper Temper.’ The song will be released via all major digital outlets on Nov. 25. Watch the video, which features one terrifying schoolroom of misfits, below. It was just a few months ago when Bullet for My Valentine’s Matt Tuck broke the news to Kerrang! that recording sessions for the new album were in full swing. “We’ve still got seven songs left to track vocally, but the other seven are done. So we’re seven songs in, and we listened to them in the car on the way up as well cause we wanted to show a few people and see what they thought and everyone was like, ‘Wow!’ So it’s an exciting, exciting time for everybody.” For ‘Temper Temper,’ the guys once again hit up producer Don Gilmore ( Linkin Park , Deftones ), who twiddled the knobs on the band’s last album, 2010’s ‘Fever.’ The set was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge of Deftones and Nickelback fame. Watch Bullet for My Valentine’s Music Video for ‘Temper Temper’
Yet another rock band has announced that they will launch a Las Vegas residency. With bands such as Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses having successful tenures in Sin City, Def Leppard are the latest act to confirm a series of shows in Vegas. Def Leppard’s residency will be titled ‘Viva Hysteria!’ and will be focused around the band’s most beloved album, ‘Hysteria.’ The group will be playing the record in its entirety, which features the legendary tracks, ‘Animal,’ ‘Love Bites’ and ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me,’ along with select hits from their other albums. The famed Hard Rock Hotel and Casino will host Def Leppard’s residency, with nine shows scheduled to begin on March 22. “We’re very happy to be part of what I call the first wave of rockers to take Vegas back from the lounge singers — Wayne Newton and his type,” Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott tells USA Today . “Things like ‘Run Riot,’ ‘Don’t Shoot Shotgun’ and ‘Love and Affection’ got left by the wayside because of the popularity of other songs that, to be frank, if you don’t play them live, you don’t get out of the building alive. The oddest thing is going to be doing ‘Sugar’ fifth. In many respects, it’s like the Troggs opening with Wild Thing.” Elliot continues, “The downtime will not go to waste. Two of the guys in the band live in Dublin and the other three live in California. This is a great opportunity for a band that has decided to live all over the world to be in one room at one time, to look each other in the eyes and to come up with ideas.” Ultimate Classic Rock actually spoke with Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen earlier this year about the possibility of a Las Vegas residency. “We’ve been talking about this for 10 years, me and Joe Elliot, more than anyone else. We [would] do [whole albums like] ‘Hysteria’ or we do ‘Pyromania’ one night and something like that would be great, but we’ve just talked about it. Obviously we haven’t got it into gear, it would be cool. It’s getting the time to do it in a venue; I think that’s brilliant Motley Crue doing it.” Check out Def Leppard’s upcoming Vegas dates below. Tickets go on sale Nov. 16. Def Leppard 2013 Las Vegas Residency Dates: March 22 March 23 March 27 March 29 March 30 April 3 April 5 April 6 April 10
Ethan Miller, Getty Images Twisted Sister made headlines last month with talk that they were planning to take legal action against the owner of a Minneapolis food truck over usage of their band name, but guitarist and a manager Jay Jay French says there really wasn’t much of a choice in taking action. The band sent a cease-and-desist letter to the owner of the Twisted Sister House of Hunger food truck, and owner Wesley Kaake told local station WCCO-TV that in researching the matter, he discovered that there were at least six other businesses who also received similar letters from the band. In response to the backlash, French told Blabbermouth , “I get how stories like these appear like David vs. Goliath. I also get how easy it is to take cheap shots at my band because of our former image and the ’80s-era iconography. [But] the fact of the matter is that trademark law doesn’t give me a choice on who and what to defend. The law is very clear: either defend your trademark or lose rights to it.” The guitarist says over the years he’s had to take action against major companies like Six Flags, Urban Decay, and Harley-Davidson as well as some of the “mom and pop companies.” He adds, “The defense is almost always the same. They first claim that they never heard of the band and then they say that no one would confuse the two anyway. I have won every case. The unique juxtaposition of the words ‘Twisted’ and ‘Sister’ have never ever appeared in print prior to my band’s use of it. This was established in the Six Flags case.” French concludes, “The name is so unique, like Led Zeppelin, that any use would confuse the marketplace as either the product or service is owned or endorsed by us. Also, if I let one go, that just emboldens someone else with the rationale that ‘you didn’t bother them, so why go after me.’ I have heard this many times before.” The guitarist also states that he’s not opposed to the food truck using the name for their business so long as they legally license it from the band. He adds, “One hundred percent of the licensing money will go to the OUIF (Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/twisted-sister-pee-wees-big-adventure-cameo/” title=”Next: Twisted Sister – Musician Movie Cameos” align=”center”]
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”]