Larry Busacca, Getty Images – Slash typically takes the high road where Axl Rose is concerned, but his wife got in a jab at the Guns N’ Roses singer’s weighty ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ appearance. [ Loudwire ] – The ever-spooky Marilyn Manson seems like an ideal choice to soundtrack a family’s Halloween display. Watch the ‘This Is Halloween’ light show. [ Loudwire ] – The Foo Fighters may be taking an extended break, but that just means it’s the perfect time to reflect on the 10 Best Foo Fighters Songs. [ Loudwire ] – Are you ready for the second annual National Metal Day? Find out what metal favorites will be turning up on VH1 Classic Nov. 11. [ Loudwire ] – In honor of Halloween, check out this list of horror movies that inspired songs. [ Loudwire ] – The Rolling Stones finally returned to the stage, playing a small club show in Paris. See the set list and watch some footage. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Twisted Sister are ready to go to war over businesses utilizing their band name. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Looking to add to your Metallica collection? A 2003 Orlando show is available as a free download. [ Ultimate Metallica ] – All That Remains have debuted a new lyric video for ‘You Can’t Fill My Shadow.’ [ Rock Music Report ] – Foster the People vocalist Mark Foster got tossed from watching a Prince club gig in Los Angeles. [ Diffuser.fm ]
Theo Wargo / Ethan Miller / Frazer Harrison , Getty Images VH1 Classic is bringing back “National Metal Day” for its second year, as the network will deliver a daylong celebration of all things metal on Nov. 11 (aka 11-11, as in ‘Turn It Up to 11″). The lead-in to ‘National Metal Day’ actually begins on Nov. 1 at 8PM ET/PT on the network with a series of concerts and documentaries from some of metal’s finest, as well as ‘America’s Hard 100,’ hosted by Fozzy ‘s Chris Jericho . The viewer-voted countdown kicks off Nov. 1 and airs each night at 9PM, with the final 10 being revealed on Nov. 10, the night before “National Metal Day.” The entire 10-hour countdown will re-air on Nov. 11 beginning at 10AM. ‘National Metal Day’ wouldn’t be complete without ‘That Metal Show,’ and hosts Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson, and Jim Florentine will look back at the past 11 seasons of the show with ‘That Metal Special,’ which features special guests Sebastian Bach and Ace Frehley . Look for ‘That Metal Special’ at 8PM on Nov. 11. Rounding out the metal programming will be the premiere of the concert film, ‘ Judas Priest at the US Festival 1983,’ which revisits one of the band’s most memorable shows. The film starts at 9PM, followed by an encore of Iron Maiden ‘s documentary, ‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666,’ that concludes ‘National Metal Day.’ So get ready to turn it up to “11″ for VH1 Classic’s ‘National Metal Day’ programming on Nov. 11. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-judas-priest-songs/” title=”Next: Top 10 Judas Priest Songs” align=”center”]
Cartoon Network Dethklok , the stars of the animated series ‘Metalocalypse’, find their latest release ‘Dethalbum III’ debuting at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart with roughly 20,000 units sold. It also hit the No. 1 slot on the Hard Music Albums chart. This was Dethklok’s highest chart debut to-date, and the band’s real life voice and creator Brendon Small is grateful. “Thanks to the fans for actually buying music in a world where they don’t have to.” Loudwire’s review of ‘Dethalbum III’ says it “is able to take a super serious (and often gore-slathered) genre like death metal and make it ‘deth metal.’ That is, it fuses skilled playing with a sense of humor, which is often not the case in the genre’s offerings.” Dethklok will be kicking off a North American headline tour with Machine Head , All That Remains and the Black Dahlia Murder on Tuesday, Oct. 30. When discussing the upcoming tour, Small said, “Dethklok are excited to be a part of the best tour of 2012. We spared no expense on production for the tour. We are unleashing tons of new animation, new comedy, and new sketches and are very excited to play many new songs and can’t wait for new people to see our show. I’ll be honest, I don’t know when we will be able to pull off anything this massive again, so don’t miss it.” To celebrate the album and the impending Dethklok tour kickoff, Loudwire, the band and Gibson Guitars are teaming up to give away an Epiphone “1958” Korina Explorer. Enter the contest below. Season 4 of ‘Metalocalypse’ will also be released on DVD and Blu-ray Oct. 30 as the tour launches. All 12 episodes from the show’s fourth season are included along with more than two hours of bonus material, highlighted by the 90 minute feature film ‘Nathan Reads Shakespeare 4: Comedy of Errors.’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/dethklok-epiphone-guitar-giveaway/” title=”Enter the Dethklok Epiphone Guitar Giveaway” align=”center”]
Frazer Harrison, Getty Images Fear Factory released their latest album ‘The Industrialist’ in June, and the band has now premiered the video for the title track via Metal Injection (watch below). The beginning of the seven minute clip is similar to a lyric video, with words from the spoken section appearing on the screen. But once the song kicks in, it becomes a traditional video that mixes performance footage with imagery taken from the album artwork. Vocalist Burton C. Bell talked about ‘The Industrialist’ with Full Metal Jackie. “There’s something so tight about this record, it’s very natural even though it was a focused and a very deliberate album that we were writing and it all came very naturally to us,” Bell said. “We were very focused and I think that word right there, is the one thing that is on this record that doesn’t really appear on any other record, the focus of the music, the sounds, the aggression and the concept and just everything. Everything had it’s purpose and we knew exactly what we were doing, we knew exactly what we had to do.” Fear Factory will embark on a European tour with Devin Townsend beginning on Saturday, Oct. 27. They also have one U.S. date scheduled for Jan. 26, 2013, in West Hollywood. Watch Fear Factory’s ‘The Industrialist’ Video
Prosthetic Sad news for Landmine Marathon fans: The band’s phenomenally brutal and unnerving vocalist Grace Perry has chosen to depart from the band. After eight years with Phoenix, Ariz., death metal act, Grace Perry has called it quits so she can focus on ‘non-musical endeavors.’ The news is surprising to say the least, as Perry was only one of two original members left in the band, the other being bassist Matt Martinez. Landmine Marathon have also been at the top of their game since the 2011 release of ‘Gallows,’ which featured some of the band’s nastiest songwriting yet, along with unforgettable aggression in the voice of Grace Perry, which we spotlit in our Brutal Female Metal Vocalists feature. An official press release broke the news earlier today (Oct. 25), adding an official statement from the band: This summer, Grace decided to leave the band to pursue non-musical endeavors. We are grateful for all of her contributions to LANDMINE MARATHON and wish her nothing but future successes. Krysta Martinez (pictured above) of the band Transient has been scouted to take Perry’s spot on vocals. The new Landmine singer definitely has a set of brutal pipes, which has already been demonstrated in an alternate edition of the Landmine Marathon song ‘Dead Horses,’ which Krysta has lent her voice to. Krysta Martinez has issued her own statement, in which she expresses her excitement while still praising the talents of Grace Perry. I’m stoked to be creating music with Landmine Marathon and look forward to hitting the road with them in coming months. Grace is an amazing vocalist, and filling her shoes is a great challenge. Things have been incredibly enjoyable so far and the best is surely yet to come. Check out both versions of ‘Dead Horses’ below and decide for yourself if Krysta Martinez can meet Landmine Marathon’s quota of sonic violence. Landmine Marathon, ‘Dead Horses’ (Original Recording) Landmine Marathon, ‘Dead Horses’ (Krysta Martinez Version)
Sean Gardner, Getty Images It’s a whole new world out there for young artists looking to catch a break and established artists trying to maintain their momentum, but Trent Reznor says the key to approaching the current music business model is somewhat the same for all musicians. He tells Techdirt.com , “My advice today, to established acts and new-coming acts, is the same advice I’d give to myself: pause for a minute, and really think about ‘What is your goal? Where do you see yourself?’” He adds, “As a 22-year-old kid in Cleveland, it seemed to me that just playing out in bars, hoping someone noticed your band, and then offered you a record contract, while that’s possible, I didn’t know anybody, and didn’t know anybody who knew anybody that that had ever happened to. The strategy, then, was let’s work on getting a band, and something that means something, music that matters, music that I feel proud of, and a vibe and name and ‘brand’ of this thing, and then try to reach maybe some small labels that had music in the same vein of what I liked.” But in today’s music scene, there are many more options for getting your music to listeners, and Reznor says it’s more important than ever to define what your ultimate goal is. He explains, “If I were that person [starting out] today, there’s a hell of a lot of things that didn’t exist then, that exist now — like YouTube, like the ability to self-publish, like the ability to reach everyone in the world from your bedroom if they’re interested. I’d focus my efforts on what seems like a logical way to do that [and] that maintains integrity. If my goal is to compete with Rihanna on the pop charts, I’d think that requires going through a major label system with a powerful manager.” For Reznor, he says the decision to revisit the major label strategy for his latest project How to Destroy Angels fit a particular goal, one that differs from what he has to do with Nine Inch Nails . He says he was worried that only Nine Inch Nails fans would follow his new project and that it might not fit what they were looking for, so a label provides him the opportunity to reach more people. He explains, “The main reason I do what I do is I want to do something that matters. I want to be able to create art that reaches the maximum amount of people on my terms … That was a key component … Because it came down to us — us being the band now — sitting around and identifying what our goals were. And the top priority wasn’t to make money. It was to try to reach the most amount of people, and try to reach the most amount of people effectively, that doesn’t feel like it’s coming completely from my backyard. Because I don’t want this project, ultimately, to just be dismissed as a ‘side project’ or … (loud sigh) … a ‘patronizing affair with Trent and his wife.’ Sounds terrible, you know?” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-nine-inch-nails-songs/” title=”Next: 10 Best Nine Inch Nails Songs” align=”center”]
Theo Wargo, Getty Images – Metallica ‘s Kirk Hammett updates fans on the next album, their 3D film and the future of the Orion Festival. [ Loudwire ] – Rob Zombie calls the band’s next album the “most inspired event” of his career. [ Loudwire ] – Trick-or-treat! It’s Gwar ! Watch their Halloween adventures in suburbia. [ Loudwire ] – Duff McKagan ‘s Loaded are rolling out their ‘The Taking’ film in a series of online vignettes. [ Loudwire ] – Converge are the latest band to escape a scary van crash on the road. [ Loudwire ] – If you’re a Who fan, start saving. November will see four archival releases. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Happy birthday to former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman . Check out the Top 10 Rolling Stones Bill Wyman Songs. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Think you know everything about Metallica ‘s hit ‘ One ‘? Get the full story. [ Ultimate Metallica ] – Is there anything better than rockers on film? Check out the 10 Best Rock Documentaries list. [ Diffuser.fm ] – Shiny Toy Guns have reunited with singer Carah Faye and their new album, ‘III,’ is in stores now. [ Rock Music Report ]