Last week, Vince Neil claimed in an interview that he believed his recent prison sentence for a 2010 DUI to be “a little harsh.” Yes, because 15 days in prison and another 15 days under house arrest for a repeated DUI offender is too harsh. Well, if you’re like us then you’ll be disgusted to hear that after only spending 10 out of 15 days of his sentence in prison, Neil has been released from jail. TMZ reports that the Motley Crue killer singer checked out of the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas towards the end of last week and has started his house arrest.
So it’s bad enough that Neil’s original sentence was so low to begin with, especially considering how his first DUI actually killed someone, but now he doesn’t even serve the entire time?! Yeah, cause that’s surely going to teach Neil a lesson: do what you want, and in the worst case scenario you’ll get a small sentence that you’ll only serve some of.
Judas Priest has added a U.K. leg to their final Epitaph Tour. Support will come from Queensryche and Rival Sons.
The Red Chord has announced more dates for their upcoming Spring tour with Gaza and Trap Them.
When it was first announced that Trent Reznor was going to be scoring the “Facebook” movie, it seemed both odd and awesome of a pairing. However, a Golden Globe win and countless critical praise later, the Nine Inch Nails frontman and co-composer Atticus Ross have won an Oscar. The two were on hand at the star studded award show to receive the Oscar for “Best Original Score” for their work on David Fincher’s The Social Network. Reznor and his co-collaborator will be working with Fincher once again on his remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. So if the new soundtrack is anywhere near as great as what they did for The Social Network, then there might be a strong chance of seeing the industrial rock god walking the red carpet again.
Either way, it’s pretty rad to see the same guy who sang the lyrics “I wanna f**k you like an animal” accepting an Oscar from Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Now all he needs is an Emmy and a Tony to get the EGOT. You can watch their acceptance speech above.
Slayer just can’t catch a break lately. Minutes before they were set to take the stage to headline the Soundwave Festival in Sydney, Australia, singer and bassist Tom Araya was taken to a hospital, forcing the band to cancel their appearance. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the band showed up at the venue mid-afternoon, but after being taken to the hospital, was “ordered by the doctors to stay in for observations.” There’s no word on what’s wrong with Araya, but initially, it seems like he’ll be ok, as the show’s promoter said that he should be able to play the next leg of the Soundwave festival on Saturday in Melbourne.
Keep in mind that the band was playing without guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who is recovering from surgery on his arm after a spider bite gave him necrotizing fasciitis, otherwise known as flesh eating disease. Exodus’ Gary Holt was set to fill in for him. And Araya’s illness might have something to do with the back surgery he had about a year ago that’s kept him from being able to bang his head. God might not hate us all, but he sure seems to have it in for Hanneman and Araya. We’ll keep you updated on his condition.
Black Label Society has reportedly parted ways with drummer William Hunt, who also drums in Evanescence. Hunt recorded drums on the group’s latest album Order Of The Black and had been a part of their touring lineup as well. It is not exactly clear what caused the split, but it’s a safe bet that Hunt’s other gig is somehow involved.
It’s also been revealed that Mr. Zakk Wylde has recruited drummer Johnny Kelly of Type O Negative fame to fill in behind the kit. While it is unsure as to whether Kelly will become their permanent new drummer, he will join BLS through their entire upcoming tour of Europe. His first performance with the band will be tonight during their show in Paris. In addition to Type O Negative, Kelly has toured and recorded with Danzig and Seventh Void (which also features Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey). We’ll keep you updated when more is revealed.
As we reported earlier this week, High On Fire and The Melvins were literally a minute away from boarding a plane in Christchurch, New Zealand when a devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake erupted. While no one in the bands were injured, the death toll has reportedly risen to 102 people. Both bands are still reportedly in New Zealand and have altered their current touring plans due to the earthquake.
High On Fire singer/guitarist Matt Pike has provided NBC Bay Area a video report describing his first hand experience during the earthquake’s affect. The video report can be seen on the channel’s website. Both High On Fire and The Melvins released a joint official statement explaining the current circumstances, ending with the following message:
“Our thoughts go out to all the people of Christchurch who have already been through such agony recently and are now going through much worse. To those who have lost loved ones in particular, our deepest sympathies.”
We will keep you posted as well, and our thoughts also go out to the people of Christchurch, NZ.
Mike Portnoy intensifies the drama between him and his former band Dream Theater once again. Back in December, Portnoy claimed that after reaching out to rejoin the band, DT told him no. Now it appears that they won’t even talked to their former drummer.
When asked by fan via his official fan forum what will become of YtseJam Records, the record label Dream Theater created to release official live bootlegs (and what spells out Majesty backwards, their original name), Portnoy had the following to say:
“As this question seems to come up every few weeks, I may as well go on the record:
I have no idea why JP would have said Ytsejam Records wouldn’t be effected…
I was the one that handpicked and decided on every title, compiled the music and videos for the CD’s and DVD’s and oversaw the artwork and liner notes.
John’s side of the YJR Production team consisted of dealing with the manufacturing factory and staying on top of the payments and deliverys after I produced all of the titles…
Being I have the entire 25 year archive of every studio and live recording from 1985 to 2010 in my home, and being the band currently refuse to answer my emails or calls, I honestly can’t see any upcoming releases…
It’s a shame too….I was already working on another batch before all of this went down….”
Ouch! While it does seem a little harsh to have supposedly cut all contact with Portnoy, it’s not exactly like either party has helped the situation. Both sides seem to be a bit overly press-happy when talking about the split, which A7X’s M. Shadows even pointed out previously. At this point, for both die-hard Dream Theater fans and metal listeners in general, all of this drama is getting a bit tiring. I’d go out of my way to say that we’d all be more interested in hearing about Portnoy’s new projects, as well as find out about who Dream Theater’s new drummer is, than all of this bickering. But I guess we’ll find out about both in due time. Until then, guess we should just enjoy the soap opera known as “Dream Theater: The Mike Portnoy Departure.”
AltPress.com is streaming “Specular Reflection,” a new song from Between the Buried and Me. The six and a half minute song is taken from their Metal Blade debut EP, The Parralax: Hypersleep Dialogues, which will be released on April 12.
Headbanger’s Brawl is a weekly column where Metal Insider’s Bram and Zach take a moment to debate and analyze two opposing sides of a topical issue occurring in the world of metal and/or the music industry.
Yesterday, the nominees for the 3rd annual Revolver Golden Gods Award Show were announced. In the past, the show’s credibility has been questions. While this year may not resolve those accusations, the Revolver Golden Gods Award Show still remains one of the only U.S. award shows to at the very least acknowledge the genre of metal. And at the very least, they do a better job than another award show we could name.
So with that in mind, Bram and Zach pick out who they predict will win each Golden Gods Award in this week’s Headbangers’ Brawl.
Epiphone Best Guitarist(s):
Zach: My bet’s on Gus G. winning it this year. He’s proven himself to be an awesome guitarist both on Ozzy’s latest album Scream and live. Plus, he’s easily won over many of Ozzy’s diehard fans, which is no easy task considering how loved Zakk Wylde was.
Bram: I’d put money on Gus G. as well, but I don’t think he really deserves to win. It’s not like the band wrote Scream together, and while he is a great guitarist live, I don’t think anyone can name a Firewind song, and until we get to hear songs that he’s written for and with Ozzy, I don’t know that he deserves it.
Who I think should win is Iron Maiden. First of all, they have three guitarists, which rules. Secondly, The Final Frontier is the best record the band’s put out in a decade. And finally, I don’t know if legacy counts for the Golden Gods, but Maiden have it wrapped up compared to everyone else
Drum Workshop Best Drummer:
Z: It’s either a tossup between Joey Jordison or Mike Portnoy. Both have had busy years and have been in the headlines for both their playing and drama surrounding certain bands. However, Portnoy may have seriously experienced backlash from even his hardcore fan base for leaving Dream Theater in such a public matter. So with that in mind, plus with Slipknot on the road to recovery after the passing of Paul Gray, I say Jordison has the edge.
B: It’s a little weird that Jordison is nominated for Zombie and not Murderdolls. And if it was Jordison that died and not Gray, he’d definitely win posthumously, but I don’t think he’ll get the sympathy vote. I’d give it to Portnoy, who proved that there’s life after Dream Theater and that he could adapt to a band like Avenged.
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Last week, Vince Neil claimed in an interview that he believed his recent prison sentence for a 2010 DUI to be “a little harsh.” Yes, because 15 days in prison and another 15 days under house arrest for a repeated DUI offender is too harsh. Well, if you’re like us then you’ll be disgusted to hear that after only spending 10 out of 15 days of his sentence in prison, Neil has been released from jail. TMZ reports that the Motley Crue 
Posted by Zach Shaw on Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 11:02 am
Douchetastic