Archive News Sep 07, 2001

It's official!!! As first reported here on June 30th (another BLABBERMOUTH.NET worldwide exclusive that we have to pat ourselves on the back for),VOIVOD have finally confirmed the return of original vocalist Snake (aka Denis Belanger) and addition of former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted to the group's current recording line-up, which is completed by drummer Away (aka Michel Langevin) and guitarist Piggy (aka Denis D'Amour). In the following official statement posted on the group's web site at www.voivod.com, Away outlines the band's upcoming recording and touring plans:

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'Early this year, VOIVOD split up. After a few months on hiatus, Denis D'Amour and Michel Langevin decided to reunite with original singer Denis Belanger, aka Snake, after a 7-year absence. VOIVOD is aiming to have a new record out in 2002 and will definitely make the summer festivals for 2002. Jason Newsted will play bass and co-produce the new studio album. A live bass player is yet to be announced. Michel Langevin and Denis D'Amour are sad to see [former bassist/vocalist] Eric [Forrest] go and treasure the music they made together but look forward to the future. They are also excited to have Jason's involvement as he has been a long time supporter and friend. There have been many obstacles, as in all careers, but the future certainly looks good for VOIVOD.' —Michel Langevin

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As reported here back in June, VOIVOD's upcoming studio album will be co-produced by Brian Dobbs (i.e. MANMADEGOD, ECHOBRAIN),and it will likely surface in mid-2002, at the earliest.

After finishing off the RoadRunner Road Rage Tour with MACHINE HEAD, CHIMAIRA and ILL NINO, FEAR FACTORY will be heading back to Europe for a new string of dates. The tour will be called Can't Take Me Apart Tour 2001, and it will hit the UK, Belgium, France, Holland, Portugal, Germany and Switzerland. Special guests on this trek will be DEVIN TOWNSEND, RAGING SPEEDHORN and GODFLESH. At the conclusion of the Can`t Take Me Apart Tour in Europe, FEAR FACTORY will head to Japan, Australia and New Zealand for the last tour of 2001 before heading back to America for Christmas.

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Here are the confirmed dates for the UK/Irish leg of the above-mentioned Can't Take Me Apart trek:

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Oct. 31 - Belfast, IRE @ Limelight

Nov. 01 - Dublin, IRE @ Ambassador Theatre

Nov. 03 - Manchester, UK @ Academy

Nov. 04 - Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland

Nov. 05 - Newcastle, UK @ University

Nov. 06 - Nottingham, UK @ Rock City

Nov. 08-09 - London, UK @ Astoria

MACHINE HEAD frontman Robert Flynn and guitarist Ahrue Luster were special guests on BBC's Radio 1 Rock Show, hosted by Mary Anne Hobbs. A recording of the interview can be heard at its entirety at this location. Alternatively, you can get more information on this particular show and hear select parts of the interview by going to this location.

ALIEN ANT FARM are set to perform their cover of MICHAEL JACKSON's 'Smooth Criminal' on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on Monday, September 17th. The band has just completed a two-week European tour on Sunday, September 2nd, and will kick off their own US headlining tour, with PRESSURE 4-5 in support, next month.

Boston's POWDERBURNT is the first signing to GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna's brand new label imprint through Universal Music's Republic Records, tentatively named Spiral Records. According to Erna, the bands signed to his label will not be given huge recording budgets and will instead be encouraged to the same fiscal responsibility that GODSMACK has in their career (the first GODSMACK album reportedly cost $2,600 to record, according to Erna, and even though they literally could have spent $1 million making the follow-up release, Awake, they allegedly chose to do it inexpensively once again). 'It's not about the money for me,' explained Erna recently. “I'm blessed with GODSMACK and I'm pretty smart about investing. I don't think it's necessary to spend a ton of money to launch a band. But there are musicians who just want to go on the road, drink beer and be rock stars and three years later they wake up and wonder where their money went. It's because they weren't paying attention.' Erna will produce POWDERBURNT's album, which is tentatively due in early 2002. In related news, GODSMACK will be shooting a video for their new single, 'Bad Magick', in Portland, Maine this coming Monday, September 10th.

Canada's KITTIE have made available for download the first single off their upcoming Oracle CD, entitled “What I Always Wanted”, from this location. Oracle is due to be issued through Artemis Records on October 30th.

ALICE COOPER has signed on as the spokesperson for the Marriott hotel chain. As part of the deal, ALICE will star in a new series of ads for the company, which will first begin airing on the NBC show Lost, and then move on to the other networks and major newspapers. In the first spot, a man mowing a suburban lawn suddenly comes face to face with COOPER, dressed in “Gothic” attire and sporting full stage make-up, who earnestly asks when the man last took his family away for the weekend and spent some quality time with them. Unsurprised by the unlikely encounter, the man deadpans, 'Sounds great,' as a voice-over notes that 'Residence Inn's 'come out and play weekend rates' make for a great family getaway.'

Portugal's MOONSPELL will be performing at the Sonic Seducer Fest, in Duisburg-Germany on October 2nd. In related news, MOONSPELL frontman Fernando Ribeiro will release his first book of poetry on October 31st in Lisbon, Portugal. Entitled Como Escavar Um Abismo (How To Dig An Abyss),the book will be published through Círculo de Abuso, a devoted book publisher located in Portugal. The book contains 25 poems, illustrated by David Soares (an excellent comics designer from Portugal),and the cover artwork will be made by Paulo Moreira (MOONSPELL, DAEMONARCH, PETER MURPHY, etc. photographer). Although the book is written in Portuguese, a possibility exists that it will be translated into other languages for future publication.

IRON MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson has reaffirmed to an Italian newspaper his intention of releasing a brand new solo album in early 2002, the material for which will be composed in conjunction with longtime cohort and guitarist Roy Z and recorded at the end of the year. According to Dickinson, his next solo effort will follow a similar musical direction to his last two solo offerings, Chemical Wedding and Accident Of Birth, but it will also contain some sounds that will be a throwback to the Balls To Picasso days.

Finland's H.I.M. have entered the Austrian Album charts at #1 with their latest release, entitled Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights.

Founding LACUNA COIL guitarists Claudio Leo and Raffaele Zagaria have resurfaced in a brand new band called CAYNE, which is due to release its first album, entitled Old Faded Pictures, through a joint venture between Italian labels Radar and Scarlet in November. Described as the logical next step from LACUNA COIL's first mini-CD, the album is said to contain “dark refined melody, bright heaviness and deep impact”, with musical references including PARADISE LOST, H.I.M., THE CULT, and SISTER OF MERCY. In addition to Leo and Zagaria, CAYNE's line-up includes vocalist Mario Piazza and ex-SADIST drummer Oinos. A promotional EP, featuring the title track, “Old Faded Pictures”, and a surprising cover of BRONSKI BEAT's “Small Town Boy”, will precede the album.

Germany's PRIMAL FEAR have just issued a brand new single through Nuclear Blast Records, featuring a cover of the GARY MOORE/PHIL LYNOTT hit “Out In The Fields” on side A and backed with “Breaker” and “Kill the King”. For more information, go to the Nuclear Blast mail order shop at: http://shop.nuclearblast.de

WILL HAVEN's Grady and Jeff, along with former FAR/current REVOLUTION SMILE guitarist Shaun Lopez and BRIGHT ANVIL's Adam Federico will be doing a reunion show with their old band SOCK at Capital Garage in Sacramento on October 20th. The band are reportedly planning to play a full set of all the old favorites as well as possibly a few new tracks.

UNION, featuring former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick and ex-MOTLEY CRUE frontman John Corabi, will perform two shows in the US that will serve as warm-up gigs for UNION's big concert in Argentina in October. The dates are as follows:

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Oct. 11 – Canoga Park, CA @ Paladino's

Oct. 12 – Fullerton, CA @ The Shack

WESTWORLD frontman Tony Harnell (i.e. TNT) and Mark Reale (i.e. RIOT) will be performing an acoustic set as part of the Ultrasound Festival at the Burbank Hilton at 12:15 PM on Sunday, September 9th.

New York hardcore veterans AGNOSTIC FRONT will be issuing their latest CD, entitled Dead Yuppies, through Epitaph Records on October 1st. Produced by singer Roger Miret, the album will contain the following track listing:

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01. I Wanna Know

02. Out Of Reach

03. Critic

04. Liberty

05. Club Girl

06. Uncle Sam

07. Urban Decadence

08. Love To be Hated

09. No Mercy

10. Politician

11. Pedophile

12. All Right

13. Dead Yuppies

14. Standing On My Own

L.A. GUNS and FASTER PUSSYCAT will be joining forces for the following UK dates at the end of the month:

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Sept. 22 - Nottingham, UK @ Rock City

Sept. 23 - Bristol, UK Bristol @ Bierkeller

Sept. 24 - West Midlands, UK @ J.B.'s

Sept. 25 - London, UK @ Underworld

Sept. 26 - London, UK @ Underworld

Sept. 28 - Bradford, UK @ Rio's

Sept. 29 - Manchester, UK @ Manchester University

DARGAARD's Amestigon and Peter K. have formed a new project called HELLBOUND, the musical direction of which is being descrtibed as being “in the vein of earlier black metal”. A split CD is tentatively due to be issued in late 2001 through the group's own label.

Current SILVERGINGER 5 guitarist / ex-ELECTRIC BOYS/TITANIC TRUTH frontman Conny Bloom will be embarking on a short tour of Sweden, during which he will record a Best of Conny Bloom live album, consisting of songs from ELECTRIC BOYS, TITANIC TRUTH, Bloom's solo album and some of the singer's “favorite guitar tracks”. The shows will reportedly take place in October, an will also feature drummer Tom Broman, bassist Rocky Ivarsson and SPIRITUAL BEGGARS keyboardist Per Wiberg.

SICK SPEED, featuring former STUCK MOJO guitarist Rich Ward on vocals/guitar, Mike 'Happy' Schneider on guitar/vocals, ex-STUCK MOJO bassist Dan Dryden, and ex-STUCK MOJO drummer Bud Fontsere, have shot up to #34 on MP3.com's metal charts with their track 'The Way I Am'. Here are the SICK SPEED songs' positions as of today for Heavy Metal Category (sub-category of Metal):

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#34 - 'The Way I Am' (noted as 'on fire!')

#49 - 'Around the World'

#67 - 'The Test'

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In related news, it has now been confirmed that Sir Edgar Powell (aka producer Andy “Undie” Sneap) will be flying back across the pond from England to play another show with FOZZY, the Chris Jericho-fronted cover band that also features in its ranks members of SICK SPEED. Sneap apparently had such a great time playing the FOZZY “classics” in Tennessee last month that he's decided to fly over for FOZZY's show in Tampa, Florida at the Masquerade on September 21st.

NEW END ORIGINAL, the new band of former FAR vocalist Jonah Matranga, will be performing the following shows during September/October:

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Sept. 07 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court

Sept. 08 - Denver, CO @ The Raven

Sept. 10 - St. Louis, MO @ Rocket Bar

Sept. 11 - Champaign, IL @ High Dive

Sept. 12 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop

Sept. 13 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Laga

Sept. 14 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza

Sept. 15 - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East (downstairs)

Sept. 16 - Philadelphia, PA @ 1st Unitarian Church

Sept. 18 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat

Sept. 19 - Buffalo, NY @ Showplace Theater

Sept. 20 - Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick

Sept. 21 - Chicago, IL @ Fireside Bowl

Sept. 22 - Minneapolis, MN @ 400 Bar

Sept. 23 - Sioux Falls, SD @ TBA

Sept. 24 - Rapid City, SD @ The Imperial Inn

Sept. 26 - Missoula, MT @ Jays Tavern

Sept. 27 - Seattle, WA @ Paradox

Sept. 28 - Portland, OR @ The Blackbird

Oct. 05 - Pomona, CA @ Glass House

Oct. 06 – Los Angeles, CA @ Fais-Do-Do

Oct. 07 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Coach House

Oct. 08 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill

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