music blog

Ex-DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy attended the group’s concert last night (Friday, March 4) at Beacon Theatre in New York City. It is believed to the first time Portnoy witnessed his former bandmates perform live since his exit from the iconic progressive metal outfit more than 11 years ago. According to DREAM THEATER fans who attended last night’s show, singer James LaBrie gave Portnoy a shoutout from the stage and Mike waved. Several fans also took pictures of Portnoy at the venue, with Mike and his wife reportedly watching the performance from near the Beacon Theatre soundboard. Earlier today, Portnoy shared a few backstage photos from last night’s concert and he included the following message: “After 36 years, I finally got to see my 1st DREAM THEATER show l...

Kolovorot, the cult Ukrainian underground heavy metal merchandise shop which is situated in historical part of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, was heavily damaged during a barrage of Russian air and rocket attacks earlier this week. On Friday (March 4), the organizers of Ukraine’s Metal East Nove Kolo heavy metal festival uploaded photos of the destruction at the store and included the following message: “Here is Kolovorot shop in Kharkiv. The cult Ukrainian place of underground merch, the place from which Metal East: Nove Kolo is mostly organized. It is the very small part of the results of Russian invasion in Ukraine. “We are all in Ukraine now. We continue to fight for our land. “We ask bands which have played at our festival, bands with which w...

MESHUGGAH drummer Tomas Haake spoke to Valentino Petrarca of the WSOU radio station about the band’s upcoming ninth studio album, “Immutable”. Due on April 1 via Atomic Fire, the follow-up to 2016’s “The Violent Sleep Of Reason” was recorded at Sweetspot Studios in Halmstad, Sweden; mixed by Rickard Bengtsson and Staffan Karlsson; and mastered by multiple Grammy Award winner Vlado Meller (METALLICA, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, SYSTEM OF A DOWN). Visionary artist Luminokaya once again created the stunning cover artwork. “We’re pretty stoked how it came out,” Tomas said. “We definitely took our time with this one. And compared to most other albums we’ve done, those have always kind of been very stressful —...

During an appearance at last month’s installment of Days Of The Dead, a fan-run and fan-oriented horror convention, at the Sheraton in Atlanta, Georgia, SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor discussed his new mask which he debuted last September at the Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, Oklahoma. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “My new [mask is] pretty rad. I really sat down and tried to figure out… I worked with a guy named Conor Deless. He’s a young kid; he’s actually a fan. And I can remember laying out traits that I wanted to see and a lot of the stuff that inspired him. And when he sent me the preliminary sculpt — he didn’t even sketch it out; he sent me a tiny sculpt — and it was so killer that I was, like, ‘Yes. That’s it.’ I mean, he ...

In a new interview with Tone-Talk, former PANTERA bassist Rex Brown was asked if there are any guitarists he would still like to work with. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I did a record — it’s not out yet — I did it with Richie Faulkner [of JUDAS PRIEST]. Richie and I have become really good friends. And it’s really progressively heavy and cool. Richie is a very melodic player, and then it’s got my drummer that played on my first solo record. They tracked him playing on one of those electronic kits, and they sampled the sounds into a real kit — which I’m not too crazy about; that’s not the way I would do it. But it’s Richie‘s record. And he’s got a new singer now. I don’t know when that’s coming out. Tho...

In a new interview with The Hype Magazine, punk rock icon Henry Rollins was asked about his involvement with VAN HALEN singer David Lee Roth‘s “Crazy From The Heat” 1997 autobiography. He said: “I worked with DLR closely on that project. At one point, he expressed interest in being onstage and telling stories from the book, I think. As I remember, I suggested that he have someone onstage with him to ask him questions that would prompt the stories. I think the record idea sprang from the fact that he did the book out loud on to tape. Almost 100 hours, which I have listened through three times. “The man has a blazing intellect,” Henry continued. “He is a multi-lingual, multi-disciplined self-starter. He is a voracious reader and student of history. M...

During the question-and-answer portion of his March 1 spoken-word show at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, California, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson reflected on how the title track of his 2005 solo album, “Tyranny Of Souls”, was composed specifically for the proposed THE THREE TREMORS project, also featuring JUDAS PRIEST‘s Rob Halford and QUEENSRŸCHE‘s Geoff Tate. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We were gonna do this thing with three metal singers — myself, Ronnie James Dio and Rob Halford. However, for reasons that [didn’t make much sense] — managerial bullshit or whatever — there was some opposition, not from me, to having Ronnie there, which I thought was crazy. So the suggestion was that we would have Geoff Tate instead. So Ro...