Archive News Mar 23, 2001 - update 1

Demolition is the title of the upcoming JUDAS PRIEST studio album, the second to feature vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, who replaced Rob Halford in 1996. Demolition is currently in the mixing stages, and it is tentatively set for a June release. According to JUDAS PRIEST Management Co-ordinator Jayne Andrews, the band will be playing a couple of final-mix cuts and “some tasters” of rough mixes for various journalists that are flying into the UK next week to conduct in-the-studio interviews with the group.

Various Internet sources are indicating that KISS' final live performance will take place in a few months' time at New York's Shea Stadium and not Madison Square Garden, as previously reported. No further details are available at this time.

Norway's THEATRE OF TRAGEDY are currently working on material for the group's next record, which is tentatively scheduled to be recorded during the summer. In the meantime, the band will be releasing a live album entitled closure:live through Massacre Records in May or June. The full track listing for the live album is as follows:

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01. Intro / And When He Falleth

02. Der Spiegel

03. Cassandra

04. Venus

05. Black as the Devil Painteth - Remix v2

06. Siren

07. Poppæa

08. Bacchante

09. A Distance There Is

10. Der Tanz der Schatten

If you were ever wondering what the implications were for the metal scene as a result of the recent US presidential elections, MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine offered these very astute (ahem!) observations in a recent interview with Canada's Chart Attack:

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'We're going into the re-building of MEGADETH and we've gone into a presidential administration that is led by a Republican. The last two Republican administrations put us in a very dire financial strait and heavy metal thrives in that situation.

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'I think it's really hard to talk about lashing out when the economy's good. If you've got a fat bank account and you're getting your dick sucked and have a nice car, what do you have to complain about? When the Bush era ended and I made all this money from their fucked up policies and then it [the money] worked for me in the bank when Clinton was there.'

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'Socio and economically speaking, most rock and heavy metal fans are not as well off as most alternative and pop fans. Most people who listen to alternative and pop are a little different than the heavy metal fan or the rock fan. Most heavy metal and rock fans are hardworking blue-collar people. Every once in a while I'll come across a lawyer or a doctor who likes heavy metal, but for the most part it's not like that.'

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'We're stockpiling weapons now and we have all these old crony Republicans that worked for George Bush and Reagan and it should scare a lot of people. It scares me.'

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MEGADETH's The World Needs A Hero is scheduled for release through Sanctuary Records on May 15.

Sweden's acclaimed thrashers THE HAUNTED (featuring ex-members of the cult act AT THE GATES) have been confirmed for the Roskilde Festival, which is taking place June 28th – July 1st in Denmark. More info is available via www.roskilde-festival.dk.

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In other THE HAUNTED news, the band were forced to cancel the Borås, Sweden show on March 30th and the Helsinki, Finland show on April 4th due to vocalist Marco Aro's having been diagnosed with “bleeding vocal chords” and ordered to remain resting for six weeks. The Helsinki show has now been re-scheduled for May 12th.

DEICIDE will allegedly be teaming up with Sweden's MARDUK for an American “festival” tour. No dates have yet been announced.

According to Total Rock, LIMP BIZKIT are planning to put together a Family Values tour for later this year, also featuring KORN, among others.

GODFLESH's upcoming studio album, due to be released later this year through an as-yet-undetermined label, has a working title of Disconnect.

Germany's GUANO APES will be returning to Britain in early May for two shows.&nbsp The dates are as follows:

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May 02 – London, UK @ Mean Fiddler

May 04 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester University

NEUROSIS have completed work on their new studio album, tentatively titled A Sun That Never Sets. It is due to be issued in late summer through Relapse Records.

Here is the latest SHELTER news from mainmain/vocalist Ray Cappo himself:

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'The new album, The Purpose, The Passion is on the way. Ken Olden (BETTER THAN A THOUSAND, BATTERY) produced it at his new Monster Island Studio in Washington, D.C. A big thanks goes out to all the DC kids who sang back-ups, especially Jay from FAIRWEATHER. I have a bunch of favorite songs already, including 'True North', 'The Value Of Sitting With Myself', 'We Can Make It Through', 'A Greater Plan' and 'The Anatomy Of Us'. Word was that we weren't going to do another one. Guess what? We are. I just have a lot to write about and a lot of songs were coming out of me. I felt like a chicken that had to lay an egg. As you probably know if you've followed us for the years, SHELTER has been through many line-up changes and I'm the only steady one in the band. On The Purpose, The Passion, I was especially helped out by our new guitarist Supergrass, who replaced Porcell. Porcell left last year when touring obligations were getting heavy and his wife just had a baby (congratulations with their son Kana). Supergrass was a BETTER THAN A THOUSAND roadie from Sweden. I met him in England when he had puffy hair and long sideburns like the English indie-pop band SUPERGRASS. When he said his name was Daniel and we already had a Daniel in the van, I said: 'Man we already have a Daniel. This is going to get confusing. Do you mind if we call you Supergrass? You really look like you could be in that band.' Somehow the name stuck and everybody calls him Supergrass now. Super or Supey for short, came out to Venice with me, where I live in California, and we spent three months writing music, surfing, doing yoga and jiu jitsu. It was a great three months and we came up with this new CD. Franklin, our old bass player from Mantra and Beyond Planet Earth has rejoined the band, too. He also had moved to L.A. a year ago and we've been in touch and remained friends. Furthermore, Sri, who was my long-term girlfriend and now a very good friend of mine, was asked to play rhythm guitar for us on our last Japanese tour. It worked out great and when we got back we asked her if she would join the band. Now just recently we needed a California drummer and Sean Sellers from GOOD RIDDANCE tried out and we got along great so he's going to playing with us.'

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Century Media Records will release The Purpose, The Passion in territories outside the USA on May 21st. A two-month tour will coincide with the release of the CD, with appearances at various festivals like Dynamo Open Air, With Full Force Festival and Essential Music Festival already confirmed.

According to DEF LEPPARD's official web site, the movie based on the band's history, presently titled Hysteria: The DEF LEPPARD Story, is in the final planning stages, with the shoot set to start in the second week of April in Montreal, Canada, under the direction of Robert Mandel. Casting is underway in Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, and London. At the moment, three unknown English actors have been cast to play Joe, Steve and Rick.

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Regarding the story and the script, co-writer Christopher Ames explains: 'We had to try to squeeze an incredible amount of information—a quarter of a century of band history—into two hours. We discovered early on that was impossible, so we decided to limit ourselves to roughly 1978-1985, starting with the formation of the band, and ending with Rick's comeback concert. As you know, that decision leaves out a lot of great stuff. So we started making compromises fudging the chronology here and there, to try to include things like Steve's long relationship with Phil and his alcoholic descent. Well, it's like a wall... You pull out a brick here and a brick there, and pretty soon the whole thing tumbles down. We decided to have Pete leave the band earlier than he really did, so we could spend more time with Phil and Steve. But upon reflection, and upon hearing from the band members about their concerns, we changed things once again. Now Pete leaves pretty much on time and the Phil/Steve relationship is accordingly compressed.'

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Regarding times and places, the story will not be 100% accurate: 'Some massaging of precise times and events has to be done to make the story flow. But it's extremely important you understand that we've been scrupulous about an honest portrayal of DEF LEPPARD, and the band is delighted with the script.'

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Roughly, the storyline will cover the formation of the band, the troubles with Pete, (producer) Mutt Lange and (managers) Peter Mensch / Cliff Burnstein entering the scene, Mutt composing and producing with the guys, the conflicts that arose inside the band, the frustrating inability to get the British press to see their talent, Rick's car crash and his decision to return to playing, Steve's plummet even as Rick was coming back to life, and the climactic concert. Not in the movie, obviously, is the band's career after 1987. This way, Steve's collapse and his relationship with the woman who tried to stop it, will not be covered. The same goes for Vivian, who will not be featured: 'Integrating someone like Viv into a wildly successful band is a story on its own. But sadly, we weren't given eight hours of airtime,' Chris explains.

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Songs featured in the movie will be “Photograph”, “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, “Rock Of Ages”, “Ride Into The Sun”, “Rocks Off”, “Bringin' On The Heartbreak”, and several others. Broadcast on VH-1 is presently scheduled sometime in July of this year.

Progressive rockers ENCHANT are working towards having a new album ready for release later in the year.

DIESEL MACHINE, featuring HALFORD guitarist Patrick Lachman, have lined up a couple of gigs in California during April. The shows are as follows:

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April 17 – West Hollywood, CA @ The Dragonfly

April 20 – West Hollywood, CA @ Coconut Teazer

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