Music

POISON drummer Rikki Rockett, who was diagnosed with oral cancer five years ago, offered an update on his health status during a recent appearance on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”. He said:”I just had a PET scan three weeks ago, and I’ve been in remission over four years now. So I’m good.” In June 2015, Rikki visited his primary care doctor with a sore throat. His doctor found a small tumor at the base of his tongue, and Rikki learned he had human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oral cancer. He endured nine rounds of chemotherapy and 37 sessions of radiation therapy. The tumor initially responded, but returned three months later, spreading to his lymph nodes. Rikki then saw Dr. Ezra Cohen at UCSD Moores Cancer Center, who helped him enrol...

Maryland rockers CLUTCH have invited their fans to choose the setlist for the band’s next live stream concert. Tickets are on sale now at ClutchMerch.com for what the group has dubbed “Live From The Doom Saloon – Volume II”. Fans are encouraged to construct their dream 14-song setlist via ClutchSetList.com. Neil Fallon, Tim Sult, Dan Maines and Jean-Paul Gaster will choose their favorite of the submissions and perform that set on August 7 at 5 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. EST. ClutchMerch.com also offers ticket bundles with exclusive merchandise and a limited-edition vinyl pressing of the entire performance. Says CLUTCH: “The thing that makes this stream unique is that CLUTCH fans will have the opportunity to create their dream setlist from our entire catalog. This means...

When VAN HALEN parted with frontman David Lee Roth in 1985, his eventual replacement, Sammy Hagar, was not the band’s first choice to fill Roth‘s shoes. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen asked Patty Smyth of the group SCANDAL to join the band first, which Smyth has now recounted in a new interview with Stereogum. She recalled: “They were heavy drinkers. I don’t drink. I never saw myself living in L.A. I was, like, ‘I’m from New York. We don’t move to L.A.’ “It’s all semantics because if [Eddie] had said to me, ‘Let’s make a record,’ then I would have said yes to that. But joining the band — to me then, ‘Oh god, they fight all the time, him and his brother, and I don’t want to get into a volatile situation....

U.K. grindcore pioneers NAPALM DEATH will release their new studio album, “Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism”, on September 18 via Century Media Records. The follow-up to 2015’s “Apex Predator – Easy Meat” was again recorded with longtime producer Russ Russell and features artwork by Frode Sylthe. The first single off “Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism”, a song called “Backlash Just Because”, can be streamed below. NAPALM DEATH vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway stated about the upcoming album and its theme: “The phrase sticking in my mind when I started thinking about the lyrical direction for this album was ‘the other.’ You could recognize at the time that there was a rapidly growing fear and...