• Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall: “There Is New Music Coming”

    During an interview with Pełna Kulturka, Parkway Drive vocalist Winston McCall discussed the band’s plans for new material. According to him, “there is new music coming.”

    McCall said the following:

    “Basically, we planned that exact thing” — to work on new material — “and then we had a chance to do an Opera House show with the orchestra, which basically took up all of our time. So we are working on new music. There is new music coming, put it that way.

    It’s not like we have recorded an album, but focusing on making new music is literally all of the next year for us. We’ve said, ‘Okay, we’re not gonna be touring much next year at all. It’s all gonna be about create[ing] new music.’

    In the meantime, there’s gonna be a live album from the Sydney Opera House and a movie coming out of that as well, so people can hear some interesting stuff that we’ve created with that. But brand new songs is definitely the next on the PARKWAY list.”

    [via Blabbermouth]

  • Power Trip’s Blake Ibanez On New Music: “We Want It To Sound Like Something We Would Do”

    During a recent interview with Altars Of Metal, Power Trip guitarist Blake Ibanez further opened up about the band’s current era with vocalist Seth Gilmore. Notably, he also confirmed that new material is in the works.

    Ibanez said the following about recruiting Gilmore:

    “Well, obviously, we started FUGITIVE and it was kind of just to experiment. ‘Cause Seth was one of my closest friends. He lives in my town, so I think it was, like, ‘Well, I don’t have anything to do. Do you wanna try to write some songs together for fun?’ And he had been fronting hardcore bands as long as POWER TRIP has been a band. But he just played hardcore shows and sang in those types of bands. So he wasn’t what you would call like — I don’t know how you’d put it — a professional, full-time band guy. He played in bands for fun. But he’d been around a long time and been doing it a long time, so I knew he had a natural ability and he was comfortable in that role.

    I think I had mentioned to him, after Riley [Gale] passed away, I had talked about, ‘Would you wanna mess around with some of this POWER TRIP stuff?’ And I think at that point it was so fresh and so new, it was just kind of, like, ‘I don’t know. Maybe down the road.’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah, I get it.’ He’s in a band called SKOURGE, which is a hardcore band that has some crossover influences, some death metal influence. So I’d heard the evolution of his voice and everything in that band. And I think around this time they had done a new EP or something, and his voice — he started to showcase what he could do, his depth to his voice, his range. And I was, like, ‘Whoa. Oh, I didn’t know you could do all that stuff.’ And not just that, but me and him having such a good relationship and him being such a nice guy that’s easy to work with, I was, like, ‘Well, why don’t we just try to write some songs and see what happens?’

    I’ve always been pretty involved when it comes to POWER TRIP in the studio. I didn’t write anything for Riley, but just me and him having to write songs together, we had to be on the same page and understand how to… He knew what I wanted him to do in terms of where I wanted things to be, and I know the formula and I know how I like to write songs and how we’ve always written songs. And I have some of those instincts as well. So I was, like, ‘Well, I’m gonna take what I know from what we’ve always done and what I did with Riley and everything I learned from him and we learned working together, and let’s try to write songs. I think we can do it.’ And so I didn’t know if it was gonna work at all. And then, obviously, we started working together and it was fun. And he’s a talented lyricist and singer in his own right. And there wasn’t the pressure of, ‘We’re making a POWER TRIP record,’ or something. It’s, like, ‘Let’s just start a new band and have it be different and have it be its own thing.’ And that kind of just led to playing more shows and bigger shows and having some success with FUGITIVE out of the gate and building his confidence — playing bigger shows and playing his own songs and songs with me. And I think over a couple years, I think by the next time the POWER TRIP idea came around, like, ‘Hey, do you wanna try to sing these songs and see what happens?’, he was ready and he was, like, ‘Yeah. Why not? I’m comfortable playing with you, and I feel good with what I’m doing right now. Why don’t we give it a shot?’ And he was down. And he had to be, because it’s a lot to put on your shoulders. And he has a good head on his shoulders.”

    He also discussed Gilmore’s vocal approach:

    “It’s not about being him or being anybody [else]. Just be yourself. Just sing [the songs] with intention and with passion or whatever, and he does. So, I think it was a natural progression. And I think he’s done a really amazing job.

    You’re never gonna be able to replace anybody that was their own person, an individual, like someone really talented like Riley, but that’s not what anybody’s doing. He’s always gonna be a special person and a force in his own right. And I wouldn’t want anybody to replace him. But Seth is his own own guy, and he brings something different to the table. And we just are here to continue doing what we did and not let it die. ‘Cause I think that would’ve been even more sad. And I think to play the songs and say Riley’s name on stage every night and have people remember how special he was and all the great songs we wrote, I think, is amazing. And it was really sad when we were in a time where it didn’t seem like that was gonna happen again. So, it’s just about kind of, like, let’s see what we can do now. And I think based on the relationship that me and Seth have and what we’ve been able to do, I feel really confident about writing more together and opening a new chapter that’s maybe not exactly the same, but it’s awesome and inspiring in a different way. And we’re gonna do the best we can to do that. We would never do anything that we didn’t feel supremely confident in and feel like it was the right thing. But none of that is ever gonna take away from anything Riley did or anything we did with him. That’s always gonna be special and always gonna be something we did with him. Those were his words and it was our music, and it’s always gonna be special. But as we’ve seen with other bands — AC/DC and VAN HALEN and all these other bands [who have changed singers] —you can do something new that’s different. It’s not the same, but it’s an exciting part of [a band’s evolution]… Something that could have ended tragically and never heard from again.”

    He also addressed backlash about continuing:

    “Obviously, there were some people that were terrible, people that decided to try to take advantage of whatever they could with whatever relationship they thought they had with him or whatever place they thought they had in our story. There were plenty of people that were awful to us and treated us like we were traitors because of just trying to play songs we wrote. But that was a very, very tiny part of the story. Everything else has been amazing. And people have been really receptive. I think most people understand the circumstances. We didn’t fire anybody. This was a horrible situation, and we’re just trying to continue doing something that can bring people happiness and can be fun and contribute something to the heavy music landscape.

    I don’t know if I would say I was nervous in that sense, because I’d played with Seth so long, I’ve heard how he sang the songs, I know how he is, so I felt confident. It was just another show with him. And I think the energy from the people at the shows and everything and the feedback was so great that it was just hard to feel that way. It’s always in the back of your mind. You want to offer something that is good in a similar way, but that’s not really for me to decide. I can’t control that, because Riley’s not here anymore, and this is what we have. So I can’t really dwell on it too much, because I can’t do anything to play with him again. But I love playing with Seth, and I’m gonna do that because that’s how we continue, that’s how we move forward. But I’ll always be thinking about how fun that was to play with Riley and how talented he was to write with and all that. I learned a lot. And the reason I’m here is that I got to be in a band with him. So, I’ll always, always cherish that.”

    He also added the following when asked if the band’s new material will be more “experimental” or will follow the “same recipe” they used with Gale:

    “I think it’s a little of everything you mentioned. Of course we’ll always honor him when we can. We are moving forward, we have to focus on the future, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll forget him or not honor him. Of course that’s always gonna be a thing that we’ll do and we’ll try to make sure of. But when it comes to moving forward, we’re gonna write music how we wanna write it. Obviously, like I said before, all the things and the elements of the formula that we’ve always had, I wanna try to keep those as much as I can, obviously, but Seth’s a different person, he’s a different singer, he’s a different lyricist. So, is he gonna try to write lyrics exactly like Riley would? Well, I would hope he wouldn’t. Those were Riley’s words, that was his personality. It doesn’t mean that we don’t believe in everything and still wanna be in that realm anymore — of course we do — but I don’t write the lyrics, so I can’t really control that. I want Seth to write about what he feels strongly about and what he wants to put his name on and sing every night. So that’s not really for me to decide. I think he’s his own person.

    We all come from the same world musically, and we have similar tastes and everything. We want it to sound like POWER TRIP, we want it to sound like something we would do. But I would never tell him to write about this or that. Riley, he was always thinking and changing, and I don’t know what he would be writing about in this day and age either. I don’t know what he would wanna talk about. I can’t really speculate on that. He’s not with us anymore, sadly. I would feel that would be like trying to fill his shoes, and that doesn’t feel right. I think he deserves that space. I think with Seth, he’s his own guy. He can handle his own thoughts and ideas. I don’t think we would do anything that would, for any reason, go in opposition to anything that he wrote about. But he’s not gonna try to write the same songs or anything like that, so it’ll be something different. But I can’t imagine it’d be anything that people that like us wouldn’t be interested in or be stoked on. But [it’s] not really my call.”

    [via Blabbermouth]

  • Freddie Mercury’s “Mr Bad Guy” To Receive 40th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue

    Freddie Mercury’s “Mr Bad Guy” will be receiving a 40th anniversary vinyl reissue on December 5. A 180g translucent green pressing and a picture disc can be pre-ordered HERE.

    “Mr Bad Guy” 40th Anniversary Track Listing:

    Side One:

    01. “Let’s Turn It On”
    02. “Made In Heaven”
    03. “I Was Born To Love You”
    04. “Foolin’ Around”
    05. “Your Kind Of Lover”

    Side Two”

    01. “Mr. Bad Guy”
    02. “Man Made Paradise”
    03. “There Must Be More To Life Than This”
    04. “Living On My Own”
    05. “My Love Is Dangerous”
    06. “Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow”

    The mix featured on the reissue was done by Queen’s longtime sound team of Justin Shirley-Smith and Joshua J Macrae. Shirley-Smith commented:

    “We went back to the original multi-track tapes. It’s a great collection of songs and Freddie’s vocal performance is absolutely extraordinary. The idea wasn’t to try to make it sound like they would make it now, it was to make it sound like it would have then if they’d had better technology and more time. And of course, it’s a massive honor to work on anything Freddie did, and we always treat it with the utmost respect.”

  • Terrorizer Working On New Music

    Terrorizer’s David Vincent has confirmed that the band are working on new music. He told Electric Eye the following:

    “Well, funny you should ask. We actually have some new stuff. But I don’t have anything to announce yet.”

    [via Blabbermouth]

  • Sublime To Perform Self-Titled Album In Full At Red Rocks

    Sublime will be performing at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO on April 17-18. The first night will find the band celebrating the 30th anniversary of their self-titled album by performing it in full. The second night will feature a greatest hits set. Drummer Bud Gaugh commented:

    “Red Rocks Amphitheatre is one of the world’s most spiritual places. You can feel the power generated by the Earth here! I can’t think of a better place to play, for the first time, the Sublime self-titled album from cover to cover, than Red Rocks! One of our most magnificent albums on one the most magical stages if not THE most magical stage in the world!!!”

    Bassist Eric Wilson added:

    “Red Rocks is absolutely my favorite place to play in the world. The sound is amazing and I can’t wait to get back there and share this special event with everyone.”

  • Mudvayne Might Continue To Focus On Singles Instead Of Recording A Full-Length Album

    During a recent interview with Toilet Ov Hell, Mudvayne frontman Chad Gray was asked about the possibility of a new album. According to him, the band may continue to focus on singles rather than recording a full-length record.

    Gray said the following:

    “I don’t know. I like doing it like this.

    It’s so fucking funny. I’ll tell you a funny story. So years ago, in fucking MUDVAYNE fashion, it was probably after [2002’s] ‘The End of All Things [To Come]’, maybe around the ‘Lost And Found’ [2005] era or whatever, I just had this fucking idea [of] going to the guys and be, like, ‘You know what would be really fucking cool?’ I’m, like, ‘Each album is this body of work. You have the beginning and you have the end. How fucking cool would it be, and how us would it be if we created a never-ending record, if we just created this thing that we just started with and we just started releasing songs, we just started putting out songs?’ I was, like, ‘We could create the narrative. It would never have to stop. And we could control where it goes.’ So there is no beginning and end. It’s just this thing that takes off and just fucking meanders here and goes there and dah dah dah, and raises, and lowers, just creating this energy, and we can control it — we can control the narrative. Everyone was, like, ‘That’s a fucking really cool idea.’ I was just, ‘I think it would be so fucking cool.’ And those ideas came from 45s, those ideas came from cassingles. I don’t know if you remember cassingles, but bands would do that… That’s how fucking people did it back in the day. And I’m just thinking, like, why don’t we just fucking lose this whole full-length concept of starting it with one song and ending it somewhere and this is the body of work and this is the concept of the whole album? ‘Cause we were always conceptually based or whatever in themes and threads of themes through our albums. I’m just, like, it’d be just so fucking cool.

    I remember at the time, a good friend of mine was the product manager at Sony for us at Epic, and I pitched the idea to him and he’s, like, ‘Wow.’ He’s, like, ‘That’s an interesting take.’ And I was, like, ‘Well, it’s not like it hasn’t been done before. It’s how it used to be done.’ This is how you used to do it. You didn’t use to have full-lengths; you had 45s. You had two fucking songs, and they’re just fucking dropping them — bam, bam, bam, like maybe a few in a year. Its own individual thing. He was, like, ‘That’s a cool fucking concept.’ I was, like, ‘Yeah. fucking how cool would that be to write this never-ending record that we can control, da da da da. And we release a song every couple months.’ So, he turned around and he pitched it to them. And Sony was, like, ‘Oh, no, we can never do that. We never do that, ’cause we need the first-week numbers from the album.’ And what that means is the label’s looking at you, going, ‘You know what?! We laid out two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for you to record this fucking album. And we’ve got another hundred thousand dollars in promotional flats and blah, blah, blah. And we’ve got another fifty thousand dollars in working the song at radio. So we need that money back, we need those first-week numbers.’ I was just, like, ‘How fucking shortsighted.’ And what they wanted was to release the album and get every fucking dollar they laid out back in one week. ‘Cause they could do that… But it’s just like that kind of shortsightedness. They never got it. So we ended up getting off Epic and we went to another label, more of an independent… And that same product manager that I had moved over to that label. So now he’s my project manager there. He’s there and I’m, like, ‘Man, do you remember the fucking idea?’ He’s, like, ‘Yeah, man.’ He’s, like, ‘I thought it was fucking great.’ I’m, like, ‘Dude, it’s fucking crazy. It’s not like it hasn’t been done before, blah, blah, blah.’ We get a meeting with the president, and we sit down and fucking pitch it to him, just pitch this idea. [He said], ‘Oh, no. We can never do that. I need the first-week numbers.’ Okay. It’s typical fucking bullshit, big-record-label bullshit. And then two or three years later we’re playing a show in New York, and this president from the label comes with his little right-hand guy. And I hated him, and I hated his right-hand guy… And we’re sitting there, we’re all sitting in the room, sitting on the couch or whatever, and he’s in there. He just starts talking. He’s a big idea guy, and he’s talking, and he’s, like, ‘Yeah. I’ve got this idea about us releasing a song every month or two, and just keep creating,’ blah blah blah. ‘We just go and do these sessions.’ ‘Cause that was my pitch too, when I told him about it. I was, like, ‘We’d do a writing session.’ We’d maybe get two songs, three songs, whatever — go into the studio for, like, four days and just go crazy until you’re fucking brain dead. And then you walk out. And you come out with one [song], you come out with four, whatever. And he said, ‘We’d just do these sessions, so it’s not all the studio costs,’ and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was just fucking sitting there, looking at him, listening to him babble. And I looked at him. I was, like, ‘Are you out of your fucking mind?’ And he fucking looked at me. His eyes got all big. And his right-hand guy’s looking like he’s gotta clean up a spill or something. Like, ‘What do I do?’ He’s, like, ‘What?’ And I’m, like. ‘We had this exact same fucking conversation three years ago. You don’t remember that? When I was giving you this exact same fucking pitch three years ago, in your office, and you said you couldn’t do it ’cause of first-week numbers. He’s, like, ‘Oh, maybe I do remember that conversation.’ I’m, like, ‘Yeah, it sounds like you do. Because you’re fucking telling it to me back right now.’ It was just that kind of shit.”

    So, back to your question, like, is there a full-length on the way? It’s just, like, I like doing it this way. I’ve kind of always wanted to do it this way. Get together, get in a room, do a session, at least write it. Fucking book some time, get in the studio, record it and fucking put it out. Fuck it. You know what I mean? And you do that 10 times, you got a full-length, but you don’t ever have to put it on a full-length, so you don’t have a beginning and an end. I’m getting my way finally. I can write the never-ending album.”

    [via Blabbermouth]

  • Erik Rutan And Metal Blade Launch New Merch To Raise Money For Mana Recording Studio

    As previously reported, Erik Rutan (Cannibal Corpse, etc.) and his family lost “90% of everything [they] own” after Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton hit in 2014. This includes the guitarist’s Mana Recording Studio. As such, Rutan and Metal Blade Records have now launched some new merch to raise money for the studio. You can purchase the new offerings HERE.

  • Watch Thornhill And Ocean Grove Cover Each Other’s Songs Live

    During their November 9 show at the O2 Islington in London, UK, Thornhill and Ocean Grove decided to cover each other’s songs. You can watch members of Thornhill perform “Stratosphere Love“ during Ocean Grove’s set and members of Ocean Grove perform “under the knife” during Thornhill’s set below. Notably, Thornhill commented on the swap:

    [via The PRP]

  • Failure To Celebrate 30th Anniversary Of “Fantastic Planet” At Space Echo Festival

    Failure will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 1996 album “Fantastic Planet” during next year’s “Space Echo” festival. That event will take place at Radius in Chicago, IL on May 2 and it will also feature: Baroness, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Torche, Shiner, Ringo Deathstarr, Spotlights, Slow Mass, and Bleary Eyed.

    Cold Waves are involved in this new festival and they had the following to say about it:

    “The original COLD WAVES FESTIVAL in 2012 was a celebration of Chicago’s darkwave/industrial/gothic music scene, a fundraiser and homage to a fallen brother, Jamie Duffy. His work ethic and passion in the local music scene was a gift to many musicians, and his abrupt passing had a profound effect on the musical families he belonged to.

    Over a decade later… COLD WAVES continues to shake the pillars of heaven by collecting the bands, styles, sounds and attitudes that Jamie held dear, and cement the sound of a Chicago institution alive and well. From Wax Trax! and Medusas to Uncle Al and Chicago Trax, this is our history and our future.

    Now in 2026, we embrace another part of our history via our newest endeavor; SPACE ECHO. Anyone who toured or performed with our bands, our tribe, knew that FAILURE was a big part of our enduring hearbeat. This new event pays respect to their intersection of metal, shoegaze, prog, psychedelic, experimental, dream-pop and doom, expanding the boundaries of the “
    ‘alternative music genre’ the band, and their contemporaries, represents.

    ‘This is not a dream… not a dream…’”

  • Simple Plan, Highly Suspect, Etc. Added To 2026 Welcome To Rockville Festival

    Simple Plan, Highly Suspect, Badflower, Breathe Carolina, and The Paradox have been added to next year’s Welcome To Rockville festival. That event will be held at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL on May 7-10 and it will also feature the following: My Chemical Romance, Bring Me The Horizon, Ice Nine Kills, The Offspring, Motionless In White, Dethklok, Staind, Sevendust, Black Veil Brides, Rise Against, Atreyu, All That Remains, Lorna Shore, Whitechapel, The Plot In You, The Ataris, Paleface Swiss, Crown The Empire, Saliva, 10 Years, Nonpoint, Ill Niño, Avatar, Cradle Of Filth, Fozzy, DragonForce, Drowning Pool, Buckcherry, Spineshank, Signs Of The Swarm, Make Them Suffer, Wolves At The Gate, Sick Puppies, Colorblind, Amira Elfeky, Disembodied Tyrant, Nekrogoblikon, Psychostick, Galactic Empire, and Primer 55. Further artists are pending.