Alternative Music

ICED EARTH guitarist Jon Schaffer, who pleaded guilty 10 months ago to his role in the Capitol riot, is continuing to cooperate with authorities while on pre-sentencing release. In a joint status update filed on Friday (February 18) in federal court in Washington, D.C., United States attorney Matthew M. Graves wrote that the “government reports that Defendant Jon Schaffer continues to cooperate with the government.” Prosecutors also asked for a May deadline for the filing of another status report in his case. According to an April 2021 Justice Department press release, Schaffer has “acknowledged he is a founding lifetime member” of the right-wing Oath Keepers extremist group. Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta granted the U.S. government’s reques...

Fan-filmed video footage of Lita Ford‘s February 16 performance aboard the Rock Legends Cruise IX can be seen below (courtesy of YouTube user Greg Perry). Lita recently completed recording her long-awaited new solo album. The follow-up to 2012’s “Living Like A Runaway” was once again helmed by guitarist/producer Gary Hoey, who contributes some guitar playing to the disc, alongside the rest of Ford‘s backing band, which continues to consist of guitarist Patrick Kennison, drummer Bobby Rock and bassist Marty O’Brien. In January 2021, Lita told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that her new album contains “some of the best guitar playing” she has heard “in decades.” She added: “And I’m not blowi...

Californian rockers TESLA have announced nearly two dozen live shows for this spring and summer. The trek will kick off on March 10 in Plant City, Florida and will include stops at the Florida Strawberry Festival and M3 Rock Festival before concluding on August 6 in Monroe, Michigan. The dates are as follows: Mar. 10 – Plant City, FL @ Florida Strawberry Festival Mar. 12 – Boise, ID @ Private Event Mar. 25 – Harris, MI @ Island Resort & Casino Mar. 26 – Harris, MI @ Island Resort & Casino May 05 – Waterloo, NY @ Del Lago Resort & Casino May 07 – Jim Thorpe, PA @ Penn’s Peak May 08 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion May 10 – Portland, ME @ Aura May 12 – Hampton Beach, NH @ Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom Jun. 11 –...

Fan-filmed video footage of SOULFLY performing a cover of FEAR FACTORY‘s “Replica” (after the intro to “Body Hammer”) on February 15 at Goldfield in Roseville, California can be seen below. FEAR FACTORY‘s Dino Cazares is once again playing guitar for SOULFLY on the Max Cavalera-fronted outfit’s current U.S. tour. He previously performed with SOULFLY on the group’s last U.S. run of dates, which took place in August and September of 2021. SOULFLY kicked off its 35-date U.S. tour on February 7 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The trek will make stops in Seattle, Minneapolis, Nashville, and Baton Rouge before concluding in Gallup, New Mexico on March 19. Joining the band for select dates are SHORT FUSE and 200 STAB WOUNDS. Prior to the launch of the tour, C...

In a new interview with the WMSC radio station, GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist Slash paid tribute to classic AEROSMITH, saying: “There’s an AEROSMITH song called ‘Nobody’s Fault’ off the ‘Rocks’ record… It was one of the songs that when I first picked up the guitar, that was the record, that particular album, the timing of me hearing that record at the time when I heard it had a lot to do with how I ended up where I am. And [that song] was probably one of the most heavy hard rock songs — very indicative of the ’70s and very indicative of AEROSMITH at this certain time. And it wasn’t BLACK SABBATH heavy, it wasn’t ‘heavy metal, heavy metal,’ but it was still this really hardcore hard rock song. And so I always loved it.&...

Rob Halford says that he is “stoked” about the possibility of working on his debut blues solo album. The JUDAS PRIEST singer is collaborating with the same team that assisted him during the making of his 2019 Christmas LP “Celestial”, including his brother Nigel and his nephew Alex (son of PRIEST bassist Ian Hill). Speaking to Joe Rock of Long Island, New York’s 102.3 WBAB radio station, Halford said about his upcoming blues record (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I love the blues. Without the blues, we wouldn’t have rock and roll. The blues was born here in the United States and then slowly mutated into all these incredible styles and different dynamics and variations. Man, I think back to those originators, like Little Richard, Bill Haley, ...

In a new interview with Midwest Beatdown, KORN drummer Ray Luzier spoke about the fact that the band’s new album, “Requiem”, consists of only nine songs, with just one being more than four minutes long. “We tracked about, I wanna say 16, 17 tunes or something like that,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “And there’s a lot of records where if you think a song is a filler, it doesn’t necessarily mean the next guy thinks it’s a filler; they might like the songs that aren’t singles better than the singles, so everyone’s got opinions. But on this record, we tracked a lot. There’s some that didn’t make it [where] I was literally, like, ‘Wait. How can that not make it? That’s an amazing song....

Prior to kicking off their long-awaited North American tour this April, legendary rockers THE WHO will play an acoustic show at this year’s Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom on Friday, March 25. Following their success with the 2020 acoustic shows at Pryzm, Kingston-on-Thames, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend will front an acoustic band featuring Simon Townshend, Phil Spalding, Jodie Linscott, Billy Nicholls, Geraint Watkins, Charlie Hart and Andy Cutting, performing some WHO classics, rarities and all-time favorites. The support band for this show are THE WILD THINGS, who have been in the studio recently recording their forthcoming album, produced by Townshend. Tickets for this and all Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at the Royal Albert Hal...