Victory Records Ill Niño ‘s new album, ‘Epidemia,’ hits stores on Oct. 22, but fans won’t have to wait until then to hear the disc. The band is teaming up with Loudwire to provide listeners with an exclusive stream of the album. The New Jersey-based rockers took a musical journey with their sixth release, recording in Hoboken, Austin and Denver before wrapping up the disc. Singer Cristian Machado tells Loudwire, “The recording of ‘Epidemia’ was definitely an amazing experience. We’ve set the bar higher than ever before. I truly believe this record is one of Ill Niño’s best efforts. I really can’t wait for our fans to hear the new record. I know it will connect with many of them on a new level. I can definitely say it’s going to be a crusher but will not lack any of the beauty and passion that appears on our early records.” Machado previously stated that this was the time for the band to redefine Latin metal, while drummer Dave Chavarri mentioned that they were delving more into Latin and tribal rhythms that will just expand their boundaries further than they’ve gone before. Ill Niño already gave fans a sample of the new music by recently unveiling a trailer that featured their song, ‘ The Depression .’ Fans also may have caught them building up to the new record over the past month while on tour with Static-X , who recently had to drop off the trek due to frontman Wayne Static’s medical condition. Ill Niño continue to remain on the road — check out their current tour itinerary here . So, listen to Ill Niño’s ‘Epidemia’ below. If you dig the tunes, you can pre-order the album here . Listen to Ill Niño’s ‘Epidemia’ Album
Frazer Harrison/Brad Barket, Getty Images What’s better than watching Poison’s Bret Michaels and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider going at it in their respective seasons of NBC’s ‘Celebrity Apprentice’? How about Bret Michaels taking on Dee Snider head-to-headbanging-head in the new ‘All-Star Celebrity Apprentice’ set to kick off in March of 2013. ‘All-Star Celebrity Apprentice’ is bringing back 13 of the shows most notorious and successful celebrities to duke it out for the all-star crown and tons of cash for their associated charities. Returning rocker Bret Michaels was the victor of his season back in 2010 even battling through several life-threatening illnesses to win the show. He’ll also serve as the only returning celebrity who has walked away as a champion from the past seasons. Michaels recently expressed his enthusiasm about the opportunity to compete again in a new interview. “Last time I was really sick, and this time I’m ready to come back, being a lifelong diabetic,” Michaels told the Today Show . “This year is going to be insane; the competition is going to be insane.” Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider didn’t win his season but was a formidable competitor, even keeping it very rock ‘n’ roll and breaking a finger during the competition. Other celebs on the roster include Gary Busey, Lisa Rinna, Lil Jon, Dennis Rodman, Stephen Baldwin, Trace Atkins, Marilu Henner, Penn Gillette, Claudia Jordan and Brande Roderick. The winner will score $250,000 for the charity of their choice. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/bret-michaels-dedicates-music-room-at-arizona-hospital-that-saved-his-life/” title=”Bret Michaels Dedicates Music Room at Arizona Hospital” align=”center”]
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com / YouTube Sebastian Bach is back on the market. After a two year romance with model Minnie Gupta, the two have called it quits and have gone their separate ways. The former Skid Row singer made the announcement himself on Twitter , telling his followers, “After almost 2 years together, Minnie Gupta and myself have decided to go our separate ways. I will always be grateful for our time together and I will always have love in my heart for Minnie.” He continued to shed praise on Gupta, saying, “I cannot thank her enough for her companionship, love, and inspiration that resulted in my favourite album I have ever recorded. I wish Minnie nothing but the best in life, because that’s what she deserves. She is a truly special girl and I am so very lucky to have known her. Until we meet again….” Bach started dating Gupta after going through a divorce with his wife of 18 years, Maria Bierk. The two broke up in 2010 and Bach cited the divorce and the new love affair with Gupta as driving forces behind his last solo disc ‘Kicking & Screaming.’ In an exclusive interview with Loudwire last year, Bach talked about that inspiration, saying, “A lot of the songs have to do with breaking up and relationships and some of them have to do with finding a new love, that’s what the song ‘Kicking & Screaming’ is about.” He also commented on Gupta’s personal impact on his creative process. “I’ll take as much of Minnie as I can get,” Bach explained. “She’s so beautiful and I love spending time with her. It was an amazing experience to meet her and be with her during the recording of this record. It made it a lot easier for me.” Gupta appeared in the video for the song ‘Kicking & Screaming’ (watch below). Sounds like an amicable split. Best of luck to both Bach and Gupta and their future affairs of the heart. Minnie Gupta in Sebastian Bach’s ‘Kicking & Screaming’ Video
Spencer Kaufman, Loudwire In one of the more surprising moments of the year, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong recently entered rehab for substance abuse problems, and now Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt has just addressed the issue in greater detail. After slinging curses at the iHeart Radio festival organizers, Armstrong smashed his guitar and left the stage . At the time, the singular reason for his outburst seemed to be frustration with having Green Day’s set time suddenly cut down by 20 minutes. The next day, though, it was revealed that there was more to Armstrong’s breakdown, as the band released a statement that the frontman would be entering rehab . In an interview with BBC Radio 1 [via NME ], Mike Dirnt revealed that the decision to send Armstrong to rehab wasn’t a difficult one, “We had to put the life of our friend in front of everything,” says Dirnt. There were also “signs of things hitting the fan” adding, “we hadn’t slept in forever.” Dirnt continues, “Hindsight is 20/20… it was a tremendous undertaking… It catches up with you a little bit. We definitely jumped off a moving train.” As for the future of Green Day’s musical career, Durst says, “We’re still getting ready for the next phase.” Stay tuned for more news on Billie Joe Armstrong’s recovery. In the meantime. the band recently released the album ‘¡Uno!,’ with the rest of the trilogy coming in the forms of ’¡Dos!’ next month and ‘¡Tre!’ in January. In addition, Armstrong’s previously taped appearances as a mentor on NBC’s ‘The Voice’ will begin airing tonight (Oct. 8) on NBC. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/green-day-frontman-rehab-stint-wont-affect-participation-the-voice/” title=”Next: Green Day Frontman to Continue on ‘The Voice’ Despite Rehab Stint” align=”center”]
Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke all about his enthusiasm for the band’s upcoming tour with Dethklok, All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder, as well as the band’s very successful album ‘Unto the Locust’ and why Machine Head isn’t sticking to a specific timeline for the next album. If you missed Jackie’s show, read the full interview with Phil Demmel below: First and foremost, I saw Phil randomly in Las Vegas recently and as it turns out we should congratulate Phil who is now married. So, congratulations! Thank you very much, yeah we bumped into each other in the lobby and you were there for the convention and I was there I actually jammed out with Steel Panther that weekend. Yeah we got it done – kind of impromptu but yeah I married the love of my life. [Note: Demmel recently married Bleeding Through’s Marta Peterson.] That’s the way to do it too, there’s no planning and craziness. Anybody who I’ve known who’s gotten married and gone throw all that it seems like exhausting all the picking things and who to put at what table. You guys did it right, congratualtions. Yeah we had both been married previously and we just wanted it to be us, so we’re selfish and that’s what we did. [Laughs] Machine Head is part of the North American tour with Dethklok that was announced recently, also All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder. It’s starting at the end of October, what a great line-up. Are you excited about being on tour with Dethklok? Had you seen Dethklok before? You know I’ve seen bits and pieces of the cartoon and not really all too familiar with it but I know that it’s a whole different demographic that’s coming to a Machine Head show and touring with bands like All That Remains and Black Dahlia it’s such a diverse group and such a cool, eclectic bill. I’m looking forward to touring with all of the bands, I think it’ll be great. Phil, now that you’ve got the distance of a whole year since it was released what’s changed about what you like about your last record ‘Unto the Locust.’ The record is my favorite Machine Head record, I’ll revisit every once in a while and I’ll get stuck on a tune that really grabs me but the constant has been ‘Darkness Within’ we’re kind of working on doing a radio push for the song and we did a video for it – kind of a real f—ed up video, it’s only available on YouTube [ after debuting on Loudwire ]. Yeah, it’s been a year – kind of crazy but Machine Head records have that steady lock, we’re not in a rush, we milk them out as long as we can. You’ve played with Rob Flynn for something like 30 years, going back to Vio-Lence in the ’80s, what aspects of those earlier years together still come into play as the foundation of Machine Head in 2012 and beyond? I think in the previous band we played together, there was a different dynamic in the fact that, that was my band – I was the main song writer for that band and he kind of came in as this new part of that. So that dynamic has been 180 where that’s my role in Machine Head now but still kind of geeking out on guitarists and learning stuff and playing stuff together. We still have that real symmetry when we get together and our harmonies – we know when each other’s going to go somewhere and we just have that really weird connection so that’s been the constant through our playing together. We’re men now, we have children [Laughs] it’s been 25 years but that’s been the one constant. What are your preparations for such a rigorous tour schedule having been diagnosed with Cardiogenic Syncope. It’s been a while since my last episode on the road. I was dealing with the death of my father in 2007 and went on the Mayhem tour and then a tour with Hellyeah directly after that so hanging out with Vinnie Paul [Laughs] wasn’t the most sobering of tours for sure. It’s really easy to do being a touring musician, especially in a metal band, it’s around you every night, it’s easy to fall into that – just getting drunk every night and self medicating and just numbing down feelings that you should be processing at some point. We were on the Mayhem tour and I had an episode and I decided to stop drinking and that’s when all these feelings I had been numbing down, all these emotions came to me and it coincides with the condition that I have and it really affected me. I was having these pass outs sometimes half a dozen in a day, I wouldn’t tell the band about them, it happened on stage a couple times and we had to pull off the Slipknot European tour at the very end. It was just time for me to clear my had with a lot of these issues and going through depression, it was just a process I had to go through. It’s been gone through – I think in ’09 it was the last episode I had onstage. It helps being with the girl that I am who keeps me really grounded and helps me. [Laughs] The last time I saw Dethklok, you guys played that day too – Dethklok played that first Mayhem date in San Bernadino not this past Mayhem but the Mayhem before. I think it’s going to be an awesome crowd between fans of the two bands and even the openers as well. I think it’s going to be a diverse group of metal fans that are all going to be coming together. Are you looking forward to bringing in a different crowd? Absolutely, it’s the main reason Machine Head is doing this tour – all the different bands that are on here to reach the people that wouldn’t normally come to a Machine Head show. I didn’t get a chance to see them at that Mayhem date, I had my son and my now wife with me and had to drive them back home after we played. I’m looking forward to seeing those guys who are crazy good musicians and the All That Remains guys are awesome guitar players and Black Dahlia too. The musicianship on this tour is going to be crazy good. Phil, the last three albums from Machine Head have been separated by four years time, does that mean that there won’t be a new Machine Head album until 2015 or are new ideas already being developed? I think that Robb is putting some stuff together, I have a couple ideas and maybe [drummer Dave] McClain has been working on some stuff too. The reason for the last one taking so long was that we got offered all these crazy tours. We thought we were about to wind it down and then Slipknot said, “Hey come on, let’s tour the world” and then Metallica comes around and says “Hey let’s go tour all over the place” you can’t say no to the biggest metal bands in the world. We don’t know what’s going to happen, we didn’t plan it that way, we’re not planning to have that big of a space between these but if the big bands come around again and want us to go we’re definitely going to go. We have an idea to kind of fill the gap but I don’t think I can really talk about how that’s going to be but we’ve got something in the works that might fill the gap. I’m going to be as vague and vanilla as I can. There will be something coming up pretty soon that’s going to make that happen. We want to keep it fresh, we want to keep the ball rolling and all the momentum that we have with ‘Locust’ going. I don’t think it’s going to be that long in between. You guys take your time, I think that sometimes bands make a mistake of sticking to some sort of timeline and some promise of dates or whatever and I guess you can’t really control creativity or when it’s going to come or how long it’s going to take. Props to your guys for doing it on your own terms, for when you felt ready. Yeah that’s exactly how we operate too, it amazes me how these bands go “Oh yeah we’ve got like 25, 30 songs that we’ve written in six months” and it’s like oh geez – granted a Machine Head tune is sometimes between 8 to 10 minutes long but that’s just how we operate. We’re comfortable in just letting the song simmer and letting the album just kind of cook and when it’s ready then it’s time to go. It’s nice having that opportunity and luxury to do. If we didn’t have that we might be putting out less quality records in a shorter amount of time. Full Metal Jackie will welcome David Vincent of Morbid Angel 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 .
Karl Walter, Getty Images Iron Maiden guitarist Steve Harris is working in a solo album between his regular band duties, and Harris assures the quality of the disc will be up to par as these songs were not leftover Iron Maiden tracks. In the November edition of Decibel magazine (excerpted by Blabbermouth ), Harris explains, “This is not throwaway Maiden stuff. These are not riffs that I could’ve used in Maiden because, like I said, it was done with other people. As soon as that happens, it’s not gonna be used in Maiden.” The guitar great adds, “I’ve got ridiculous amount of ideas that I’m probably never gonna get out the door in my lifetime. There’s no shortage of ideas for Maiden. And this stuff is different, anyway. It’s more heavy rock than heavy metal, but to me the influences are all from the well.” Harris, who is using the title ‘ British Lion ‘ for his disc, says the effort has been in the works since 1993, but because of his extended involvement in Iron Maiden, he’s never really had much time between discs to work on it. He laughs, “It’s been so long, it’s ridiculous. I’m just so relieved to get this thing out, really, because it’s finally there. I’m really pleased with the results, but it’s taken a long while.” The guitarist says that when Iron Maiden hasn’t been touring and recording, he’s often taken the lead on things like video editing that help fill the time between records, so his time left over to record his own music has always taken a back seat. “I get a lot less downtime than the others,” says Harris. “That’s why it’s taken so long, really. I was just trying to fit bits in here and there when the other people were available to work on stuff while I was back in the U.K., which over the last few years has not been very often.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/iron-maiden-the-talisman-top-21st-century-metal-songs/” title=”Next: Iron Maiden – Top 21st Century Metal Songs” align=”center”]
ECW Press For Danko Jones , 2012 is a year of transition. While the band has been busy working up to the release of the new studio album, ‘Rock and Roll is Black and Blue,’ they’ve spent an equal amount of time reflecting on their past with their ‘Bring on the Mountain’ documentary and now the forthcoming book, ‘Too Much Trouble: A Very Oral History of Danko Jones.’ Singer Danko Jones and bassist John Calabrese spoke with Loudwire about what made this the right time to reflect on the band’s past and what the experience was like putting together two time-consuming documents. Jones explained about the timing, “It just seemed the right time and we could do it in two years or three years or five years, but it had been the fifteenth year of the band as a band and when you think of seven years being the average lifespan for a band, nowadays, we’ve lived it two times. And that was two years ago. We’re now on our seventeenth year.” The singer admits that they’ve seen some highs and lows and transitions with their audience, and he views the ‘Too Much Trouble’ book as a way of bringing it all together. He explains, “We gained a new audience in some places and our older audience [is still there], so this is our chance to bridge the gap between the people who found out about us in the last two or three years because we’ve had singles on radio and the people who were into us a long time ago and moved on or annoyingly asked, ‘Whatever happened to that band?’” It also turned out that the time for reflection worked out perfectly for the band, as they changed drummers and added Rocket From the Crypt skinbeater Atom Willard, thus starting a new chapter in their history. Interestingly enough, Jones admits in the book that one of his goals when they started was to tour with Rocket From the Crypt, but although that never happened, he’s thrilled to have the drummer from the band as part of their lineup. For Jones and Calabrese, seeing both the documentary and the book finally arrive completes the labor of love they started after their fifteenth year. “It took two years to make and two years to track down the over 70 people who are in the book,” says Jones. Calabrese adds, “It’s gonna be great because the book and the DVD, they stand alone on themselves, but it’s a great way to bring everybody up to speed.” The ‘Too Much Trouble: An Oral History of Danko Jones’ book just arrived in stores internationally. The band’s new album, ‘Rock and Roll is Black and Blue,’ follows on Oct. 9, and the ‘Bring on the Mountain’ documentary was released earlier this year. Stay tuned for Loudwire’s full interview with Danko Jones, coming soon. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/danko-jones-just-a-beautiful-day-exclusive-video-premiere/” title=”Next: Watch Danko Jones’ ‘Just a Beautiful Day’ Video” align=”center”]