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Marduk has issued the following announcement about splitting with Regain Records and gearing up to record a new full-length album more

Pantera, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Dream Theater Super Jam

(Banana 101.5) Down and former Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo joined the Metal Masters, a lineup including Anthrax's Scott Ian, Frank Bello, and Charlie Benante as well as Slayer's Kerry King, Megadeth's David Eleffson, and ex-Dream Theater stickman Mike Portnoy, to rock out some Pantera Classics.

If ever there were a metal supergroup — this one is the ultimate. Featuring only those truly befitting the title "Metal Masters", the group made up of mostly participants of The Big 4 shows took to the stage last night (Sept 12th).

Those in attendance at New York's Best Buy Theatre for the 2nd annual 'Metal Masters Clinic' were in for a real treat as Phil Anselmo joined the already star-studded lineup. The group fired through a rousing cover of 'A New Level' and 'F—ing Hostile', songs Anselmo originally brought to life with Pantera. Check out video here

Ozzy's Music Helps Locate Missing Child

(hennemusic) A missing 8-year old California boy with autism has been found with the help of Ozzy Osbourne's music.

ABC News reports the search for Joshua Robb, who went missing during a night of lightning storms, ended Tuesday afternoon when a search and rescue team found him in the woods near his school after playing recordings of Ozzy Osbourne.

The searchers used recordings of his father's voice and Joshua's favorite country and heavy metal music, including songs by Ozzy Osbourne. "They feel it will comfort him and draw him," San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman told the Associated Press early Tuesday. more on this story

Hard Rock Legends Pick Judas Priest's Chosen Few

(Gibson) Judas Priest took a novel approach in deciding which songs to include on their forthcoming compilation album, The Chosen Few. Rather than select the tracks themselves, the band solicited some of hard rock and heavy metal's biggest names and had them choose their favorite Priest songs.

"This is a collection of songs chosen by our friends and respected peers," Priest frontman Rob Halford said, in an interview with Rolling Stone. "We hope all the metal maniacs out there will rock out to the tunes enjoyed by metal legends."

Among those who participated in the song-selection were Steve Vai, Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, Joe Satriani and Slash. The set includes commentary from each artist about the reasons for their choice. The Chosen Few will be released on October 11 on Sony/Legacy. The following day (Oct. 12), Judas Priest kicksoff the North American leg of their farewell Epitaph tour. more on this story

Evanescence Release Comeback Video

(Banana 101.5) Amy Lee finds herself once again surrounded by rock musicians in the video for the band's first single in over four years — 'What You Want'.

Watch as the zombie-faced Evanescence frontlady runs the grimy city streets in slo-mo (not as cool as it sounds).

The video takes place in a dark urban setting that calls to memory films like 'The Crow', 'Underworld', and the Batman franchise. Read more and watch the video here

Staind To Webcast 9/11 Benefit Concert

Ustream have announced a live webcast of the Staind Album Release Show for Charity & 9/11 Victims at the Best Buy Theater in New York City.

As a part of the band's efforts to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, ticket proceeds will be donated to the families of the victims. The benefit is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 15th at 6pm PT / 9pm ET.

Viewiers can not only watch the event LIVE, but will also be able to interact with each other in real-time using our Social Stream and chat features. Both our live player and Social Stream are embeddable on your site if you're seeking a creative and simple way to engage your readers with live content. Check it out here

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine and Metallica's Kirk Hammett Bury The Hatchet

(Banana 101.5) Megadeth mastermind Dave Mustaine was once the lead guitarist for a little band called Metallica. When he was replaced by Kirk Hammett in 1983, it started a long standing rivalry that has finally come to an end.

The two have been touring together as part of The Big 4 and now that they've shared a stage together, have mended their differences. Dave Mustaine tells Artisan News that their relationship began to turn in the other direction when Hammett offered him the spotlight:

"When we played 'Helpless' [Diamond Head cover] one night, I walked over to say hello to Kirk on the stage and he said, 'Do you wanna take the solo?" and I said, 'Yeah.' [Laughs] But we forgot to tell anybody on the stage or the sound out front that I was gonna do the solo so… The song's playing along and Kirk's playing rhythm full blast, and I'm sitting there going [shreds air guitar]… you can't hear what I'm doing. At least we knew what had happened." He has more to say here.

Bob Seger Celebrates Going Digital With Free EP

(hennemusic) It's been a long time coming for fans, but Bob Seger is making some of his classic material available digitally via iTunes for the first time. Available now are Seger's two multiplatinum concert albums — "Live Bullet" (1976) and "Nine Tonight" (1981) — released for download at iTunes and Amazon. Also making its iTunes debut is "Early Seger Vol. 1," a collection of spruced-up tracks and previously unreleased fare from the early 1970s.

Seger, who has never released a boxed set, says he'll use iTunes to unveil songs from his sizable backlog of unreleased material. "There's just so much of that stuff," he says. "I'd love people to finally hear it."

To celebrate Seger's introduction to iTunes, a digital 'Bonus EP' will be available for "Live Bullet" and "Nine Tonight" download for one week only exclusively through iTunes. The disc includes tunes such as "Mainstreet" and live versions of "Hollywood Nights" and "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man." more on this story

U2's Troubles The Focus of New Movie

(Gibson) Infighting and "creative differences" nearly doomed U2 in the wake of the band's success in the late '80s. As reported by Rollingstone.com, the new U2 documentary, From The Sky Down, lays bare a tumultuous time during which the group was saved by the song, "One."

"The movie has this pretty long [section] where you hear them write that song – and it's goose bumps," said the film's director Davis Guggenheim, in an interview with Rolling Stone following the documentary's premiere last week in Toronto. "The writing of that song really saved the band. They had come out of the height of Joshua Tree as the biggest band in the world. Rattle and Hum was a disaster from their point of view, a lot of bad reviews – they weren't happy with what they had become. They take that bridge section out of "Mysterious Ways" and they go back into the room at Hansa [Studios]. They write a song on the fly in a matter of minutes. "One" is written and the band is saved and we have all that on tape."

Bono apparently concurs with Guggenheim's assessment. "Making Achtung Baby is the reason we're here now," the singer says, in an interview that airs early in the documentary. As reported previously, From The Sky Down pieces together old footage of the band making Achtung Baby with new interviews with U2's members. more on this story

Another First For Metallica

(Gibson) Metallica will stage their first-ever United Arab Emirates live performance next month in Abu Dhabi.

In a prepared statement, the band said: "We're continuing to find firsts in 2011 as we are extremely excited to announce that we will be playing in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, next month on October 25 at Yas Island. After 30 years of travel to all corners of the earth, this one is extra special as the show kicks off a week of new territories for us."

The statement added that the Abu Dhabi show would be followed by two performances in India. more on this story

Five Finger Death Punch Go C**k Rock for New Video

(Banana 101.5) Five Finger Death Punch took an unexpected turn with the video for their latest single 'Under an Over It' — while parts of it look more like a mid-90′s rap video, guitarist Zoltan Bathory claims the inspiration was purely "c**k rock".

Five Finger Death Punch is known for many things, their sense of humor not being one of them. The Sin City hard rockers show that they don't always take themselves so seriously in their new music video. Guitarist Zoltan recently told Artist Direct about why they lightened up on this one:

"We wanted to hit a pretty sarcastic tone with it, so it looks like a typical big c**k rock video, but in a tongue in cheek way. We put all the 'big-time video' clichés in it except for the booty shake… or maybe we even got that, I don't remember. We do have the party scenes, cars, airplanes, mansions, pools and girls—of course you can't have a raaawwwk video without your token pool scene." Read what else he had to say and check out the video here

Keith Richards Unsure When Rolling Stones Will Play Again

(Gibson) Keith Richards says he hopes to reconvene The Rolling Stones, but he isn't sure when that might happen.

"There is talk about [doing more songwriting]," the veteran rocker told GQ in a recent interview. "Basically I want to get the Stones back together and give it one more bash. I think they've got it in them. But it's about timing and an awful lot of very careful diplomacy."

Richards also revealed that one of the greatest difficulties he encountered in putting together Life, his autobiography, was writing about the loss of his son, Tara, to sudden infant death syndrome. "'I really didn't want to go through and remember the death of my son," he said. "You spend a lot of time trying to bury that kind of [stuff], not bringing it up again. That was the hard one for me, to relieve that." more on this story

Beatles and Rolling Stores Pop Art Legend Dies

(Gibson) The British pop artist Richard Hamilton died yesterday. He was 89. Hamilton was a groundbreaking '60s artist who designed the cover for The Beatles eponymous 1968 album, better known as "The White Album."

According to the Daily Mail, Hamilton's work inspired the likes of Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys. Richard Hamilton's best known, Swingeing London painting, depicted Rolling Stone Mick Jagger in the back of a police car.

Hamilton is also credited with coining the phrase 'pop art' itself. He wrote in 1957, "Pop art is popular (designed for a mass audience), transient (short term solution), expendable (easily forgotten), low cost, mass produced, young (aimed at youth), witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big business." more on this story

Smashing Pumpkin Almost Done With New Album

(Banana 101.5) While finishing up the album within an album, 'Oceania', Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan gives a progress report as well as his advice fellow Second City rockers Madina Lake.

Billy Corgan and his new supporting cast in Smashing Pumpkins have been recording almost non-stop since 2009. It all started with the 44 song project 'Teargarden by Kaleidyscope' that was intended to be released a song-at-a-time and all for free. Corgan followed through with that project through 12 songs and a year and a half before the idea expanded.

Now the single song release program is on hold until after the upcoming album within an album, 'Oceania', is completed and has run it's course. Corgan has been updating the progress of the record via Twitter. Read what he had to say here

Experience Augmented Reality With Mastodon

(Banana 101.5) There has been a lot of talk about the "Augmented Reality" feature that is included with the limited edition of Mastodon's forthcoming record 'The Hunter'. Now you can get a first hand look at what it's all about.

Mastodon's fifth studio effort will hit shelves September 27th and the limited edition will be coupled with what the band has been calling 'The Augmented Reality Experience". Don't worry, until we watched this video — we weren't really sure what that entailed either.

The band has been known for their hallucinogenic and vivid imagery in the past, and even more so on their latest videos for 'Black Tongue', 'Curl of the Burl', and 'Spectrelight'. The Augmented Reality Experience will take the sludged-out psychedelia to the next level as you become the horned beast from the cover of their album. If your head hasn't exploded yet, check out the video to see it happen, man... right here!

Gibson Create Special Les Pauls To Benefit 9/11 Families

(Gibson) The factory workers at Gibson USA's Nashville plant personally recognized the 10th anniversary of the events of September 11th, 2001, by creating three very special guitars. Each of these Les Paul Traditionals feature a custom laser etching designed by Gibson's top craftsmen. The luthiers started with one of Gibson's famous Les Paul Traditionals with a gloss Ebony finish. They then created a line drawing for the unique artwork of each guitar that was then loaded into a computer controlled laser to create an engraving into the wood of the guitar body. This ensures that the artwork is a permanent part of the guitar, as opposed to simply being a part of the finish.

The first in this series of three is entitled Never Forget. This guitar displays the Twin Towers standing prominently in the New York skyline. The second guitar in the series is entitled, Always Honor. It is a tribute from the employees of Gibson to those first responders who gave so much of themselves, including their lives, to protect others. The final guitar in the series is entitled, Forever Free. This guitar has a stunning representation of New York's future skyline, with the Freedom Tower proudly standing tall.

The guitars will travel the USA this year, being played by a variety of artists, before being auctioned for charity on 9/11/12 to benefit families of 9/11 first responders. Check out photos of the guitars here

Madina Lake Streaming New Album and Video Online

(MSO) Madina Lake released their new album World War III this week and are giving fans a full stream of the effort online.

In addition to streaming the full album all week here, the group debuted the video for their second single "Imagineer" which was co written and produced by Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins today on PureVolume.

"Billy surpassed our expectations of what kind of artist and man he is. His influence on 'Imagineer' is undeniable," explains bassist Matthew Leone.

Watch the video for "Imagineer" here

Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton Album Streaming Online

The new Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton album, Marsalis And Clapton Play The Blues: Live From Jazz At Lincoln Center, was released yesterday and is currently streaming online. Here is a little background followed by the link to check it out:

New York City's premier jazz venue got the blues last April when Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton performed together in Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center for two sold-out shows dedicated to vintage blues. The extraordinary collaboration, billed as Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play the Blues, paired these musical virtuosos with members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as they brought to life a repertoire of songs selected by Clapton and arranged by Marsalis.

Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and nine-time Grammy® Award winner, writes about his collaboration with Clapton, a 19-time Grammy recipient, in the album's liner notes: "...we wanted these concerts to sound like people playing music they know and love, not like a project." To help them achieve that level of devotion, Marsalis and Clapton were joined on stage by Dan Nimmer (piano), Carlos Henriquez (bass), Ali Jackson (drums), Marcus Printup (trumpet), Victor Goines (clarinet), Chris Crenshaw (trombone, vocals), Don Vappie (banjo) and Clapton's longtime keyboardist/sideman Chris Stainton. Marsalis says the group combined the sound of an early blues jump-band with the sound of New Orleans jazz to accommodate the integration of guitar/trumpet lead, a combination that gave the musicians the latitude to play different grooves, from the Delta to the Caribbean and beyond.

Listen here

The Devil Wears Prada Deliver New Album and Announce Tour

(ILG) The Devil Wears Prada released their new album Dead Throne yesterday and are gearing up to promote it live.

The band recently announced the "Dead Throne Tour: North America 2011," the first North American leg of the band's 2011-2012 worldwide tour.

The 37-date headline trek kicks off on November 3 in Milwaukee and will criss-cross the U.S. and Canada over a six-week period. "Dead Throne Tour: North America 2011" will feature Whitechapel, Enter Shikari, and For Today on all dates. more on this story

Edward Rogers Sets New Album Release

Edward Rogers has set a November 8, 2011 release date for Porcelain, his fourth solo album.

The eleven sonically distinctive compositions were all written and recorded within an 18-month period. "The title of the album" explains Rogers "directly reflects the emotions represented in the songs and my mood during the writing process – rage, love, broken friendships, good days, bad days…fun days." The album's title track, "Porcelain" premiered on Blurt Online last week, and can be heard here.

All the songs on Porcelain were penned by Rogers, but also draw upon the talents of some notable kindred spirits. Don Piper, who co-produced the album with Rogers, is a celebrated songwriter and bandleader in his own right. James Mastro (guitar) was a founding member of both The Bongos and Health & Happiness Show and currently records and tours with Ian Hunter. Don Fleming (guitar) was the frontman for Velvet Monkeys, B.A.L.L. and Gumball and is also well known for producing Sonic Youth, Teenage Fan Club, among others. more on this story

Former Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, KISS Members To Tribute Ozzy

(Sub) Versailles plans for the spring, 2012 release of 'No More Tears: A Millennium Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne.'

Featuring a collection of hits and fan favorites covering every era of Ozzy's solo and Black Sabbath catalog, this album will feature current/former members of Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, Kiss, Slaughter, Night Ranger, Ozzy Osbourne Band, Badlands, Alice Cooper Band, The Cult, LA Guns, Warrant, Dokken, Steve Vai band, Spinal Tap, David Lee Roth band, Santana, and a host of others to be announced.

Along with the latter name artists, the label is keeping in its tradition of featuring a number of adding a limited number of cover song slots with original Millennium metal bands influenced by Ozzy. more on this story

Rollins Band Offshoot Mack Going Soph

(Sub) Mack has announced an October 11th digital release for Pay To Play, the follow-up to its self-titled debut album. The physical release will follow early next year.

Joining former Rollins Band drummer Jason Mackenroth in Mack's lineup are bassist Michael "MK" Kelly (Magnified) and guitarist Billy O'Malley (Seka, Stripmind, Jocobono). Between albums, Mackenroth moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and joined Blue Man Group's show at the Venetian, where Kelly and O'Malley also serve as band musicians.

Mack will play a record release party at Count's Vamp'd in Las Vegas on Thursday, October 13th. A U.S. tour will be announced shortly. For the live shows, Blas Elias (Slaughter), who also plays in Blue Man Group's Las Vegas production, will play drums, enabling Mackenroth to step out front on lead vocals. more on this story

Rock Legends Levin Torn White Deliver New Album

A new album, Levin Torn White, featuring Tony Levin on Bass & Chapman Stick, David Torn on Guitar & Alan White from YES on drums, was released this week. Here is some background information we were sent:

Tony Levin - Bass and Chapman Stick (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Liquid Tension Experiment, John Lennon, Pink Floyd; "Tony Levin is one of the world's best bass players, if not the best." – Peter Gabriel)

David Torn - Guitar and Textural Events (Jeff Beck, David Bowie, John Legend, B.L.U.E.; Two-time Grammy winner and three-time Guitar Player Magazine Readers' Poll winner) more on this story

Junius Announce Tour With Enslaved and Alcest

Junius are set to hit the road with Enslaved and Alcest for a North American Tour this fall.

The trek is set to kick off on September 23 in Springfield, VA and will wrap up on October 14th in Los Angeles.

Junius will be out on the road supporting their new album, Reports From the Threshold of Death, which will be released on October 25th. more on this story

Gwar-B-Q Venue Changed Due To Denied Permit

The Gwar camp sent over this bit of news about this weekend's Gwar-B-Q: A last -second venue change to their highly anticipated "Gwar-B-Q", switching the venue from Hadad's Water Park to Richmond's beautiful National Theater.

Henrico County would not issue the proper licenses for the event to run legally despite Slave Pit's intense efforts to placate the authorities.

Slave Pit's Dave Brockie had this to say about the debacle- "We feel we have been treated in an unjust manner. There have been music festivals for years in Henrico County with no problem OR licenses. We jumped through hoops, hired cops, made safety plans...and at the last second they chose not to give us the permits." more on this story

Singled Out: Rains' Look In My Eyes

Today Jeff Rains from Rains tells us about their new single "Look In My Eyes" from their latest album "Stories". Here is the story:

Look In My Eyes is about an ex band member/friend that I was desperately trying to help find his way in life, but all he was doing was pushing himself to fail. It was actually the last song I wrote for our "Stories" record. There was a lot of frustration built up on my end from various situations that were happening at the time and I think a lot of those frustrations came out during the writing of that song. To be honest I don't remember writing much of the song at all. I knew I had to get one more track done for the record and I couldn't get focused at all. I ended up asking my wife if she could give me a few hours alone at our house(I presume she went shopping), and within an hour the whole song was finished.

The most awkward part is; I hadn't gotten around to firing said band member quite yet, and he had nothing to do with the writing or recording process so he hadn't heard the song yet. He happened to be at my house when the final mix came in and we listened to the whole thing together. As soon as it was over he said "That's about me isn't it?". Needless to say we haven't talked since.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

. The Bangles - Sweetheart of the Sun

In a sense Sweetheart of the Sun is more a new beginning for the Bangles than it is a comeback and therefore shouldnt be measured against the successes of the past. (3.5 stars) - Read the full The Bangles - Sweetheart of the Sun review

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