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Does MACHINE HEAD Use Fake Guitar Amps?

Manos Spanos
Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel (pictured below) of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD have defended themselves against accusations that they use fake amps as a part of their stage show, insisting that it's something that's been a part of rock shows for decades. Responding to an article that was posted on the web site of the El Paso, Texas radio station KLAQ 95.5 FM that attempted to call out MACHINE HEAD for using dummy cabs on stage, the band released the following statement: "Wow? "While it seems absurd that El Paso, Texas-based radio station 95.5 FM KLAQ would choose to go through the effort to post this on their website, we guess in-light of the big hub-bub about BLACK VEIL BRIDES getting 'called out' by the drummer for THE BRONX for having 'fake cabs' on theWarped tour earlier this month, some 'brain donor' over at the station has decided to drop the 'newsflash of the century' and 'call out' MACHINE HEAD for having 'fake amps' too! A practice that for over 40 years now has been common-place in rock 'n roll going back to the days of VAN HALEN and AC/DC.
03 min read

VINNIE PAUL: ‘How Does PANTERA Get Back Together Without DIMEBAG? It’s Never Gonna Happen’

Manos Spanos
France's L'Enôrme TV conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott at this year's Hellfest, which was held June 21-23 in Clisson, France. You can now watch the chat below. On late SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman: Vinnie: "We all miss Jeff. Jeff was a great friend and we had some very good times with him. I just wish the SLAYER boys the best. And hopefullyJeff is in a better place." On whether any other previously unreleased recordings from his brother, late PANTERA and DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, will ever see the light of day:
01 min read

DAVE MUSTAINE Says EXODUS Would Have Been Most Qualified Candidate For Expanded ‘Big Four’

Manos Spanos
MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine recently spoke to Radio.com about the band's new album, "Super Collider"; almost hiring late PANTERAguitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abott to play in MEGADETH; and politics, among other topics. You can now watch the chat below. Asked which band should have included if the "Big Four" (METALLICA,MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX) were expanded and considered the "Big Five", Mustaine said: "You know, people will say there's a whole another generation, like the 'Medium Four' [laughs], and I think there's a lot of great bands that fit that bill, too. But I think probably EXODUS, because there was nobody else at the time that had that kind of pull or that kind of importance in the metal community. Granted, it was with [lateEXODUS singer Paul] Baloff, and Baloff had a voice that you had to have an acquired taste for, but you know, I liked him." "Super Collider" sold 29,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 6 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on June 4 via Dave Mustaine's new label, Tradecraft, distributed by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe). The effort is available as a limited-edition CD with 3-D cover and bonus tracks, regular CD, regular LP, limited LP plus a bonus colored seven-inch single with two bonus tracks, and a download voucher.
02 min read

JEFF HANNEMAN Was Working On New Music Before He Died, Says TOM ARAYA

Manos Spanos
On May 2, the sudden news took the metal community by storm: SLAYERguitarist Jeff Hanneman had died. In the August 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine, the band's bassist/vocalist Tom Araya recalls his final communications with his longtime friend and bandmate: "I had been texting with him, and he even sent me a song that he had been working on. So it seemed like he was doing okay. But when I got the call that he was back in intensive care, I became concerned. Eventually he stopped responding to my texts. It was like a one-sided conversation. "I was home with my family when I found out he had died. The phone rang and my wife answered it, and she had this look of dread on her face. She handed me the phone and didn't say anything, and it was our manager,Rick [Sales], and he told me. I hung up the phone and went to my room and I cried. "It hit my family hard, because they really liked Jeff. My mother was really upset, my sisters loved Jeff, and my brother too — he was Jeff's tech for a long time."
03 min read

MACHINE HEAD Announces New Bassist

Manos Spanos
San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD have announced Jared MacEachern as their new bass player. Jared has already begun rehearsals with the rest of the band for the upcoming Rockstar Energy Mayhem Drink Festival tour and will soon relocate from North Carolina to Northern California to begin pre-production for MACHINE HEAD's upcoming eighth studio release. Some fans might remember MacEachern from MACHINE HEAD's 2007"The Black Tyranny" tour, on which he performed with his previous band,SANCTITY. MACHINE HEAD, challenged to find a fill-in bass player for the North American tour after an injury sidelined their then-four-stringerAdam Duce, also found themselves in need of someone to sing harmony with singer/guitarist Robb Flynn. Flynn remembers: "We had locked inBrandon Sigmund of local boys HOSTILITY to play bass on that tour, but we soon realized we'd need someone to hit the high harmonies. Our A&R guy [at Roadrunner Records], Monte Conner, recommended Jaredsince he was already on the tour, and that ended up being a great call.Jared flew out a few days before the tour and rehearsed with us and did great. What was most impressive about the whole thing was that he was doing double duty — opening for MACHINE HEAD with his band at the time, SANCTITY, and then later singing with us. He would stay sober until after our set, and often get in the van and drive all night. His seriousness and dedication was awesome to see and it stuck with us." Earlier this year, MACHINE HEAD conducted an extensive search for candidates through various channels, the most fruitful of which proved to be video submissions. Sifting through more than 400 videos, the band personally reviewed and evaluated everyone's performances, includingMacEachern, who made the short list without a second thought. Lead guitarist Phil Demmel recalls: "There were dozens of amazing players, and it was interesting to watch each one take on our tunes. One of our biggest criteria for this gig was to be able to sing the high harmonies. That was our litmus test. And Jared passed with flying colors."
05 min read

ZAKK WYLDE On RANDY BLYTHE, ‘Unblackened’ And Next BLACK LABEL SOCIETY Album

Manos Spanos
Anthony Morgan of Metal Forces recently conducted an interview withBLACK LABEL SOCIETY frontman and ex-OZZY OSBOURNE guitaristZakk Wylde. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. On the paperback release of his book, "Bringing Metal To The Children": Zakk: "The book all started from me and Eric [Hendrikx, co-author] just sitting around, talking, like any of the guys. It'd be like me and you sitting at the bar, talking about 'You're not gonna believe what happened the other day,' and this and that. It's the music business, where there are no rules [laughs]. There's no qualifications; you don't have to have a Master's degree. You just show up and you're there, but that's where you get the cast of characters, and that's where you get all of the comedy man. Like I always say, it's unimportant people making important decisions. They have no business doing what they're doing, but that's how it gets run. Anywhere else, if you wanna apply for a job welding or being a brain surgeon or any of that, you have to have a degree and you have to have a license, and everything like that [laughs]. Not in the music business, though. But yeah, it just came out of funny stories and us just laughing our balls off, talking about how ridiculously goofy the music business is. That's how the book came about, me saying 'You've gotta write a book about all this crap someday.'"
04 min read

MEGADETH Bassist’s Autobiography Due In October

Manos Spanos
The autobiography of David Ellefson, co-founder and bassist of 11-time Grammy-nominated heavy metal titans MEGADETH, will be made available on October 29 via Howard Books. Ellefson's memoir, "My Life With Deth", chronicles the story of Ellefson's fall into addiction during the band's early years, followed by his subsequent recovery and the return to faith which championed the band's rise to fame over the past several decades. The book was written with Joel McIver, the bestselling author of 21 books on rock music, and features a foreword by Alice Cooper. World rights to "My Life With Deth" were sold to Philis Boultinghouse atHoward Books by agent Lisa Gallagher at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Since 1983, the celebrated metal band MEGADETH has sold more than 20 million albums, received eleven Grammy nominations, and built a fan base of millions. Still going strong, they recently toured the world withMETALLICA, ANTHRAX and SLAYER. Now, in "My Life With Deth",Ellefson tells the whole behind-the-scenes story of the band and his personal journey from suffering to salvation.
03 min read

Unauthorized PANTERA Biography ‘Reinventing Metal’ Coming In September

Manos Spanos
Backbeat Books has set a September 10 release date for "Reinventing Metal - The True Story Of Pantera And The Tragically Short Life Of Dimebag Darrell", the unauthorized PANTERA biography from U.K. authorNeil Daniels. Official book description: "PANTERA is widely regarded as one of the most influential and revered American metal bands of the past 20 years. Although its output was relatively short — from 1983 to 2000 it released only nine studio albums — its impact on the metal scene since the band split up in 2003 is still felt to this day. Guitarist Dimebag Darrell was tragically killed in 2004 but his legacy remains undiminished. "PANTERA had an enormous influence on nu-metal, groove metal, metalcore, and grindcore and continues to be publicized and written about. Its 1990 breakthrough album 'Cowboys From Hell' is still regarded as one of the greatest metal albums in history, as is PANTERA's sixth opus, 'Vulgar Display Of Power'.
02 min read