Limp Bizkit made an announcement today regarding their future. And no, it’s not what everyone was hoping. Instead of going back on hiatus, his statement promises not only another album, but two. I guess this is the “huge news” that Durst referred to that was coming in December. In a statement released via his Twitter account, Durst said the following:
LB is joining forces w the unexpected to bring you our best material yet in 2012. Gold Cobra was for the core and our farewell to the corrupt machine. The Unquestionable Truth pt 2 and Stampede of the Disco Elephants are for the masses in ways which are indescribable through text.
We finally feel like ourselves again with no restraints and boundaries preventing us from being who we truly are as a band. The ride thus far has been nothing less than a true rock and roll journey.
We are grateful for every moment and bid the most sincere farewell to those we will now leave behind. LB will start releasing new material unethically and affectively as soon as the deals are signed and sealed in January as attorneys start their holiday vacations months before the holidays even begin.
And btw, our video POOP will finally find its way in its entirety to your eyeballs soon enough.
Gracias, LB 2012
Stampede of the Disco Elephants? It’s not like it’s a worse album title than Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water, but it’s close. And a follow-up to 2005′s The Unquestionable Truth pt 1 is the sequel nobody demanded, kind of like Basic Instinct II. But hey, if the band is happy and can make some money without being on a major label, good for them. The relative success of Gold Cobra proved they still have fans, and the slightly disturbing thought that bands like Emmure look up to Bizkit like other bands look up to Pantera ensures that there’s still an audience out there for some nostalgic rap-metal. And if you’ve accused Bizkit of putting out poop in the past, 2012 will be your year to actually see it on video.
Barry Clayton is a name that probably doesn’t ring too many bells among metal fans, but he’s the voice that starts off one of the most iconic title tracks in metal, Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast.” And now, Clayton has died at 80. The Islington Tribune reports that Clayton was a pioneer of black television and radio, hosting The Black Londoners, the first daily news show for blacks on BBC from 1974 to 1988. In addition, he also lent his voice ot the anumated Danger Mouse spin-off Count Duckula. However, it’s for the following words that he’ll be immortalized by. Rest in peace, Barry Clayton.
Woe to you oh earth and sea
For the Devil sends the beast with wrath
Because he knows the time is short
Let him who have understanding
Reckon the number of the beast
For it is a human number
Its number is six hundred and sixty six.
That’s what Van Halen fan site Van Halen News Desk is saying. We already know that tickets will be going on sale for their upcoming tour on January 10th, and now the site says that’s also when the single will be unleashed. Allegedly, the cities and dates for the first leg of the tour will be announced on Tuesday, January 3rd. One week later, the single and video will hit the air as the tickets go on sale, and the album will come out on February 7.
There’s still little known about the album, which has allegedly been finished since last summer. Apparently, the footage of the band playing in the teaser trailer for the tour was filmed at the Roxy in Los Angeles and is taken from the first video, even though the songs in the trailer aren’t new. The image also came from the Van Halen News Desk, and is apparently the album cover. Regardless of whether the album, the first with David Lee Roth since 1984 (which ironically came out on the last day of 1983), is good or not, it’s nice to see the band finally got off their collective asses and made a record.
Chimaira has had one hell of a year, with both of their guitarists leaving, singer Mark Hunter getting arrested, and oh yeah, a solid new album. Now, as one of the replacements, they’ve officially hired Daath guitarist Emil Werstler as their lead guitarist. The band confirmed this via a post on their website. It’s not like Werstler was new to the band – he was their touring bassist this past year, and played rhythm guitar for them a few years back.
We are pleased to announce that Emil Werstler will be handling lead guitar duties for Chimaira in 2012
Fans already know Emil from the Coming Alive DVD, the insane guitar solo at the end of “Samsara”, and most recently on stage playing bass for The Age Of Hell tour.
For those that don’t know, time to get familiarized. Listed as one of modern metal’s most important guitar players, Mr. Emil Werstler.
This also makes vocalist Mark Hunter the only original member on the band, and for those of you playing along at home, makes Chimaira officially half-Daath, since Sean Zatorsky is the band’s keyboardist after the departure of Chris Spicuzza earlier this year. It’ll be interesting to hear what new material from the band sounds like, as the Age Of Hell in and of itself was somewhat of a departure from the band’s earlier sound.
Ramming Speed are in the home stretch of a Winter tour that has them playing across the country for an entire month. Along the way, Ramming Speed’s drummer Jonah will be sharing highlights and pictures of all the craziness that’s been happening while on the road in his 2011 Ramming Speed Winter Tour Diary.
I’m currently sitting shotgun in the van and it occurs to me that while our tour has around a week left, it really is about time for another Metal Insider tour journal. I’d like to whip out three of these in total and time seems to be slipping by. We’ll start things off by quickly touching on the main difference between the first and second legs of the run. While the Saviours dates gave us a chance to dip our toes into the “pro gear/pro ‘tude” world of for-profit venues, now that we’re on our own it’s back into the garages and living rooms of America.
It can be a great experience hearing your band go from a tiny practice space to a big stage, complete with huge sub woofers, racks and racks of power amps, and, occasionally, a phenomenal sound guy. That said I definitely found myself missing the BYOB chaos of the DIY world during the first week of club shows. Playing the Swamp House in Oakland with Witchaven and Ex-Mortus (curated by the wildly handsome Scotty Tankcrimes) was every bit an unhinged, awesome mess, and ended up being the gateway to a run of brutally fun house shows from Cali all the way through Texas. The Killer Clam (garage) in Bakersfield, Casa De Sam Snead (garage) in El Paso, and Slamalot (living room with the criminally heavy Hatred Surge and Chest Pain) in Austin, all put us face to face with the sweaty, drunken youth of America. Our gear was knocked around, covered in sticky shitty beer every night and at many times the crowds were out of control to the point where it was difficult to finish songs. So basically it totally ruled.
However, load ins haven’t only been to houses. We’ve also played the basement of a pizza place (J&J’s) in Denton with Wild//Tribe (think Poison Idea, Motorhead, Paintbox etc…fucking awesome..) and Vegas, ah yes, Vegas had us in Yayo Taco. That movie The Hangover fucking sucked, but after waking up as the little spoon to a large naked viking of a man with very few memories of the night before, my first instinct was to check the digital camera. The little bastard had little to offer besides a photo of the viking and I peeing into a large Christmas tree and a second picture of us giving the “Sign of the Hammer” in front of early-morning neon. Read more »
Life of Agony bassist Alan Robert, who most recently has dabbled in creating comic series’ ‘Crawl To Me’ and ‘Wire Hangers,’ will be the focus of the second season premiere of NY Ink. The show premieres on Thursday (29) at 9pmEST on TLC.
In 1988, New York City-based speedsters Riot released their definitive mission statement, the tempo-pushing cult classic Thundersteel, with then-new vocalist Tony Moore at the front. Moore and Riot followed that up with 1990’s The Privilege of Power before parting ways; though Riot never really disappeared, the lineup behind those two records is arguably one of the most revered in American metal history.
Moore and the other band members from that era – founding guitarist Mark Reale, longtime second guitarist Mike Flyntz, bassist Don Van Stavern and drummer Bobby Jarzombek – reconvened in 2008 to tour and ultimately recorded Immortal Soul, their first album together in 21 years. The response has been almost universal acclaim from both fans and critics, and Riot’s upcoming American tour in January, though presently limited to a handful of dates, will mark the record’s live debut. Metal Insider caught up with Moore over the phone from his rehearsal studio in Los Angeles, where he offered observations on the modern economics of touring, the band’s writing and recording process now and in the late 80s, and just who he thinks the real star of the Immortal Soul sessions is.
You’re down to tour for three dates in New York and Virginia, and then the five-day 70,000 Tons of Metal Cruise in Miami. What’s the plan from there? It seems like there’s a lot of support behind touring more.
That’s something we’re looking forward to spending some time talking about on the cruise. Since we’re going to have five days together, and we only have to play a couple of shows, we’ll have time to talk about exactly what we’re going to do in the future. Because what we’re discovering is that the response to the record has been great, but there are so many bands out there at our level. The market is kind of flooded. The economy is a disaster, both here and overseas – Europe, Japan – it seems like wherever our biggest fan bases are, the economy is making it really tough to put a tour together that makes money. The numbers that we’re getting from the festivals are really far from the mark, in terms of making it affordable for us to do them. I mean, we’re trying to come up with a plan; I don’t know if that means getting on a leg of a tour as a support act for a bigger name or something, we’re not sure. Right now, we picked a bad year to release a good record, and the world economy is making it hard to get out there. Our plan is to figure that out in January, and come up with a plan for spring.
You’re talking about how the economy’s really changed. What are some of the economic difficulties you’re running into compared to when Thundersteel and The Privilege of Power were out back in the day?
Well, back in the 80s, the market was booming. It was an illusion, because there was a huge crash in 88-89, but there was all of this fake money around, and we were on a major label (Columbia). So while we weren’t being treated like royalty, we did have access to some tour support. When we went out and toured the States, we could go out in a big tour bus and be comfortable, make enough money to survive, and it was all doable. But right now, it seems to be the exact opposite. The promoters are coming back to us with numbers that are just not workable. We can barely cover our flights. It’s a challenge, but it’s a challenge that hundreds of bands in our situation are facing. So we’ll come up with something! But the economic situation, and the difference between now and then, is pretty remarkable. And Japan has the additional challenge of still being in recovery mode since the earthquake and the tsunami. And for the fans too, it’s just a matter of discretionary income. Out of a hundred albums that come out this year, you’ve gotta pick and choose which ones you’re gonna buy, and it’s being reflected in what we’re seeing in terms of sales. Although overall, we’re pleased with how the album’s selling, and especially pleased overall with the critical response, we’re just dealing with the reality of a really bad overall world economy.
It seems like the critical response has been really positive; this record’s getting extremely strong reviews almost across the board. What prompted you guys to come back and make this record in the first place?
We’re not sure! (laughs) I’d have to think back…OK, I’d have to go all the way back to the early 2000’s. At that time, Riot was on Metal Blade, and (ex-vocalist) Mike DiMeo was singing, and the (2006 Riot album) Army of One lineup was together. Mark (Reale) gave me a call – I’m in Los Angeles now, but I was still living in New York at the time – and asked if I’d be interested in doing another record with the band. I said, “Sure, of course! I’ve had those songs in my head for years, so I’d love to get together.” So he said, “Great, let me talk to the guys about it.” Apparently, he went back to Metal Blade, and they were not enthusiastic about changing singers midstream. So that sort of fell to the back burner, but it put me and Mike Flyntz back in touch. We went ahead and did the Faith and Fire project, and that got us back in the mode of writing together. That was really super-fun; it was me and Mike and Danny Miranda from Queen + Paul Rodgers, and John Miceli, who is Meat Loaf’s drummer. So we self-produced an album (Accelerator) and released it back in 2006, and it did OK. We pretty much just put it up on CD Baby and promoted it as best we could.
Then a couple more years went by. I forget when the Thundersteel lineup all got together and floated the idea of doing the reunion thing, but as soon as we leaked the idea to some of the press, the response was overwhelming. We immediately got offered three dates in Japan, plus Sweden Rock and Metalway (in Spain), so we said, “Great! Let’s do these things and see how it goes over.” We got over to Sweden, and over 15,000 people showed up to see us. And the thing that amazed us was the age of the audience was about half what we expected it to be. We had our core original fans who were all in their 40s or older, but literally better than half the audience was kids in their 20s. So we discovered that somehow this music had been passed down to a new generation of fans, and I think that was what helped really generate the enthusiasm that kept us going to the point where we said, “Alright, let’s talk about doing an album.” There was some stuff written already back then in 2009, and we performed “Wings Are For Angels” in Texas (at the first reunion show in San Antonio) and Sweden and Japan. It went over great, and we were able to make deals with a couple of great indie labels pretty easily. We’re working with Avalon Marquee in Tokyo, and SPV/Steamhammer worldwide. They’ve been really great and super-supportive, and it came together so quickly and easily in terms of enthusiasm from the business end that we really didn’t have a choice. Plus, the technology has evolved so much in 20 years that we were able to record the album in five different studios and four different cities. We were never all in the room at the same time. Read more »
While it’s not the new album announcement that everyone’s waiting for, visitors to Van Halen’s website will find the above video, announcing that the band will be on tour next year, with the first tickets going on sale on January 10. It also gives you a chance to see what Van Halen looks like in 2012. Well, at least David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen. The footage was shot at the Roxy in Los Angeles back in November. If they’re touring, that means they’ll be touring behind a new album right? RIGHT?! We’ll have to wait to find out – maybe there will be an announcement when the tour dates are announced. Stay tuned…
With the year just about over and the music industry taking a break, Metal Insider is going to slow down a bit next week. We’ll still be posting semi-regularly, and covering breaking news, but someone’s gotta hit the eggnog and unwrap some presents, and it might as well be us. So deck a hall, trim a tree, light a menorah or do whatever it is you do while everyone else is celebrating the holidays, and we’ll catch up next week. Thank you all for your continued readership and look for bigger and better things from us in 2012! Satan bless us everyone!
And just like that, another year has almost passed. Who knows what 2012 brings? We can’t predict the future, but the least we could do is ask some people in the metal community what they think might happen, as well as what they’re looking forward to in the coming year. All of Anthrax got back to us, and here’s what they had to say:
Scott Ian
What are you looking forward to in 2012?
Worshipping music all over the world with our loyal followers! And the new Batman movie, that too. And season 2 of Game Of Thrones as well. And my son walking and talking, and the new Stephen King Dark Tower book and….you get the idea.
Do you have any predictions for next year?
The world won’t end.
Charlie Benante
a) What are you looking forward to in 2012?
A better America with less political conflict and more BIG 4 Shows.
Do you have any predictions for next year?
That people will wise up and stop watching and listening to the worst and will demand better.
Joey Belladonna
What are you looking forward to in 2012?
Hope to see the fans on tour, and a lot of metal!
Do you have any predictions for next year?
Yes, the Vikings will be better in 2012!
Frank Bello
What are you looking forward to in 2012?
I’m looking foward to touring Worship Music all over the world in 2012 and trying the local beer in each town we play.
Do you have any predictions for next year?
What am I- a fucking psychic? (just kidding) – I predict that there will some amazing tours for everybody to see.
Rob Caggiano
What are you looking forward to in 2012?
I’m looking forward to all the great shows/tours we have coming up all around the world…….
Do you have any predictions for next year?
The end of the world of course!
Limp Bizkit made an announcement today regarding their future. And no, it’s not what everyone was hoping. Instead of going back on hiatus, his statement promises not only another album, but two. I guess this is the “huge news” that Durst referred to that was coming in December. In a statement released via his Twitter account, Durst said the following:
Posted by Bram Teitelman on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 3:43 pm
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