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Study: Headbanging Can Cause Brain Injury

Manos Spanos
According to The Daily Beast, a new case study published in the medical journal Lancet has revealed that headbanging — described as violently shaking the head in time with the music, most commonly in the rock, punk and heavy metal music genres — can cause damage as the brain bumps up against the skull. The study detailed the case of a German heavy metal fan suffered bleeding in the brain after a night of headbanging at a MOTÖRHEAD concert. The 50-year-old complained of a two-week constant headache while being treated at Hannover Medical School and told doctors that he had been headbanging regularly for years. A CT scan showed he suffered from bleeding — medically known as chronic subdural haematoma — on the right side of his brain. "We are not against headbanging," said Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian, one of the doctors who treated the patient. "The risk of injury is very, very low. But I think if (our patient) had (gone) to a classical concert, this would not have happened." "There are probably other higher risk events going on at rock concerts than headbanging," Dr. Colin Shieff, a neurosurgeon and trustee of the British brain injury advocacy group Headway, added. "Most people who go to music festivals and jump up and down while shaking their heads don't end up in the hands of a neurosurgeon." MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine is one of several musicians who have spoken about the harm they caused themselves by headbanging on stage. He tried to cope with the pain caused by stenosis — a narrowing of the spinal column — for nearly 10 years through acupuncture, yoga, trigger-point injections, and both narcotic and non-narcotic medication, but ultimately underwent minimally invasive spine surgery in 2011 to fuse a disc in his cervical spine. He said: "I had to have my neck fused — the vertebrae in my neck — from the damage that headbanging has done over the years. It had degenerated the discs. When they were taking out one of the discs to replace it, they discovered a big bone fragment that had broken off and was pushing against my spinal column. It was very painful." SLAYER frontman Tom Araya underwent back surgery in early 2010 after experiencing back problems while on the band's Australian/New Zealand/Japanese tour in October 2009. The rocker initially did not want to take the major surgery route, so the specialist recommended a series of minimally invasive procedures. While those procedures resulted in some improvement, Araya continued to deal with intermittent bouts of severe pain, numbness and muscle spasms. The surgical procedure that Araya underwent, called an Anterior Cervical Discectomy with Fusion, was a relatively routine practice. "I can't headbang anymore," Araya explained in an April 2010 interview with Noisecreep. "When they diagnosed me, they found I was herniating to the left, and normally it's to the back. That was caused by headbanging. I'm an advocate of moderate headbanging now." He told KNAC.COM a month later: "Yeah, I just can't [headbang]. With a plate in your neck, it's not a good idea to do that. The only disclaimer I can have for people is there's nothing wrong with headbanging, just do it in moderation. And understand at some point it could damage you. People are gonna do what they wanna do, and as long as they are aware that this could happen to you, then they have a choice. I'm still gonna rock out, I just won't be able to metal out. [laughs]"
03 min read

IGOR CAVALERA: ‘It Would Have Been Cooler’ If SEPULTURA Had Ended After I Left The Band

Manos Spanos
In a late 2013 interview with Rogério of the Brazilian rock band LO-FI, ex-SEPULTURA drummer Igor Cavalera was asked about his current relationship with his former bandmates and how he looks back on his two-decade-long tenure with the group. "It's kind of weird," Igor said (see video below). "I am proud of all I accomplished with SEPULTURA, and on the other hand, I feel a little sad, you know, because I see the guys playing nowadays, and a lot of the drive and rush that we had has been lost. My brother [Max] left the band, then I left the band, so I think, in my opinion, it would have been cooler if the band had come to an end at that point. Maybe that would have been the right time for it to stop — kind of like soccer players that retire from the sport while they are still at the peak of their playing ability, [before] they start looking like they are too tired to keep playing. So it makes me sad, but on the other hand, I'm doing my own thing now." In 1996, Max exited SEPULTURA after the rest of the band fired Max's wife Gloria as their manager. Igor left SEPULTURA in June 2006 due to "artistic differences." His departure from the band came five months after he announced that he was taking a break from SEPULTURA's touring activities to spend time with his second wife and their new son (who was born in January 2006). In an October 2013 interview with MTV Iggy, SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser stated about the split with the Cavalera brothers: "For SEPULTURA fans, there are many SEPULTURAs in their head. It's not only because Max and Igor [left]. "If you [compare] the albums that we did together, from 'Schizophrenia' to 'Roots', they are totally different bands — but the same lineup. "We all change; we all grow up. "The choice to leave the band was their choice. We never fired any musician in the group. We only fired our manager after the 'Roots' tour, and Max chose to leave and stay with her and start a solo career. He didn't care about the name during those days. He didn't fight for the name. He just turned his back and said, 'Fuck you guys; I'm better off myself.' And Igor left 10 years later; he didn't care either to fight. It's like many fathers who have children and leave them. "For [the Cavaleras], SEPULTURA is like an abandoned child. They really turned their back on us and left. But it feels great to be here and keep the SEPULTURA name strong, bringing new stuff to the albums. The SEPULTURA spirit never changed, and that's why we're still here as SEPULTURA." After Max exited SEPULTURA, there was a rift between him and Igor, one that was eventually repaired through the redemptive power of music. Some time had passed and Max and Igor were unable to resist the musical pull in their magnetic fields and their musical collaboration was renewed. The duo are back for round two with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, which released its debut album, "Inflikted", in March 2008 and follow-up effort, Blunt Force Trauma", in March 2011. CAVALERA CONSPIRACY's third album will be released this fall via Napalm Records. The CD was produced by John Gray, who has previously worked with SOULFLY. CAVALERA CONSPIRACY recently recruited Nate Newton of CONVERGE as its new bassist. Max and Igor played together for the first time in 10 years at the 10th annual D-Low Memorial Festival on August 17, 2006 at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Arizona. Igor, 43, who has been living in England with his wife Laima Leyton since 2012, says that his main focus continues to be MIXHELL, the DJ/hip hop/electro project also featuring his wife.
04 min read

MASTODON: Official ‘High Road’ Video Released

Manos Spanos
Atlanta progressive metallers MASTODON will release their sixth album, "Once More 'Round The Sun", on June 24 via Reprise Records. The follow-up to 2011's "The Hunter" was recorded in Nashville with Grammy Award-winning producer Nick Raskulinecz, who is known for his work with RUSH, DEFTONES, FOO FIGHTERS and ALICE IN CHAINS. The official video for the song "High Road" can be seen below. "Once More 'Round The Sun" track listing: 01. Tread Lightly 02. The Motherload 03. High Road 04. Once More 'Round The Sun 05. Chimes At Midnight 06. Asleep In The Deep 07. Feast Your Eyes 08. Aunt Lisa 09. Ember City 10. Halloween 11. Diamond In The Witch House (feat. Scott Kelly of NEUROSIS) MASTODON will film a video for the song "High Road" on Saturday, May 24 in the Los Angeles area.
01 min read

ARCH ENEMY: ‘No More Regrets’ Video Premiere

Manos Spanos
"No More Regrets", the new video from Swedish / American / Canadian metallers ARCH ENEMY, can be seen below. The song is taken from the band's new album, "War Eternal", which is being released today (June 10) in North America via Century Media Records. The cover artwork was created by Costin Chioreanu. ARCH ENEMY played its first show with new singer Alissa White-Gluz, former vocalist of THE AGONIST, on May 23 at Turbohalle in Bucharest, Romania. Angela Gossow, who joined ARCH ENEMY in 2000 and made her debut on the now-classic "Wages Of Sin" (2001), has stepped down as frontwoman and will focus on management, while Alissa takes her place. In a recent interview with Turk Gitar, ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott stated about Angela's exit from ARCH ENEMY: "It was a sudden change for the fans; we know that. But, of course, these kind of big steps in life don't come easily, and I believe this was a gradual thing that kept growing in Angela's mind for some time. "We had decided to take 2013 off from the road and any sort of band activity. The only thing we were doing was writing music and also there always the plan to go into the studio and record at the end of 2013. As the scheduled recording time got closer, Angela informed us last year that she would definitely be stepping down from her position in the band. "To be honest, it was not such a huge surprise to the rest of us, as there were a lot of conversations of that nature leading up to that point. I made the changes in the band that were necessary for ARCH ENEMY to continue and keep the music alive." Regarding Alissa's more versatile vocal approach compared to that of Gossow, Amott said: "Alissa has many different vocal styles that she can do very well… She is much more versatile in that aspect than Angela. But for ARCH ENEMY, we are sticking with the aggressive vocal style that we are known for. "When I started the band in 1995, I had the idea to make the most heavy melodic band of all time, combining elements of extreme death metal heaviness and thrash speed alongside traditional heavy metal and hard rock influences with the harmonies, melodies and solos. We are very much staying true to these roots of the band on 'War Eternal'." Speaking to Metal Underground, Alissa had the following to say about "War Eternal": "The circumstances surrounding the creation of this album, writing the lyrics and recording it, I'm just happy to have it finally come out. I think people are going to like it. The production quality is amazing! I always wanted an album that would sound this full. I'm a really big fan of this album, myself. Even if I weren't in the band and ARCH ENEMY put out this album, I would pick it up and say it's great. I'm really excited." On the topic of the new album title, Alissa said: "This album ended up being a lot more personal than maybe some of my previous or Michael's previous lyrics. In the past, a topic like war or a political or global issue was what we normally wrote about. We were writing in two different bands, but we happen to have similar topics in our writing. Then when we were writing for this album, we had a collection of lyrics for this album, but we found that we were actually writing on similar things. Fighting the ongoing war in your day-to-day life, everybody has their battle going on that nobody else knows about. And then there are song titles like 'Never Forgive, Never Forget' and on and on, I think it ties in very nicely. It wasn't something we planned out, but that is the way it turned out, so it worked out really nicely. I think we really saw eye to eye and were experiencing similar things in our lives, so we ended up writing about the same topics even though we have different styles of writing lyrics."
04 min read

MAX CAVALERA’s Original Home-Demo Version Of SEPULTURA’s ‘Roots Bloody Roots’ Posted Online

Manos Spanos
Max Cavalera's original home-made demo version of the SEPULTURA classic "Roots Bloody Roots" can be streamed using the SoundCloud widget below. The song eventually became the opening track of the band's sixth studio album, 1996's "Roots", which was SEPULTURA's last studio CD to feature Max on vocals and guitar. Asked in a December 2013 interview with DeadRhetoric.com if he was a proponent of the down-tuned guitar approach, like Max was, around the time when bands like KORN and the DEFTONES were just beginning to take off in terms of popularity, SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser said: "At the beginning, not much. I was skeptical of the low tuning because bands like KORN or the DEFTONES, they don't have the fast pace of SEPULTURA's music. I was concerned to lose that kind of fast ability and the picking, the heavy picking on sloppy, low strings. But there are so many possibilities of using heavier-gauge strings, which give that kind of tension, and you don't lose that ability to play fast. 'Trauma Of War', the song that opens the [new SEPULTURA] album ['The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart'], it's in low tuning, but it's a very fast song, but we don't lose that kind of ability. I learned how to do deal with that, and you open a lot of worlds in music, but yeah, at the beginning I was a little skeptical." Speaking to Live-Metal.net in 2009, Max admitted that he drew inspiration from some of the so-called early "nu metal" bands during the songwriting process for "Roots". He explained: "SEPULTURA did [take] a little bit of an influence from KORN and DEFTONES in some areas. And the funny thing is that we influenced those bands from when they started out. I talked to the KORN guys and they said they listened to 'Chaos A.D.' religiously when they started — it was like one of their favorite records. So it's kind of a 360 degrees kind of influence — back and forth." "Roots" was certified gold in 2005 by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for U.S. shipments in excess of 500,000 copies.
02 min read

MOTÖRHEAD’s MIKKEY DEE Says LEMMY Is Doing ‘Much, Much Better’

Manos Spanos
Kaaos TV conducted an interview with MOTÖRHEAD drummer Mikkey Dee on May 21 at Hard Rock Café in Helsinki, Finland. You can now watch the chat below. MOTÖRHEAD canceled a handful of shows on its European festival tour in August 2013 after the band's frontman, Lemmy, suffered a haematoma (where blood collects outside of a blood vessel). The news of Lemmy's latest medical issue followed reports that he was also fitted with a defibrillator because of heart problems. The band also postponed a European headlining tour which was scheduled to kick off in November. Asked how Lemmy is doing now, Mikkey said: "It's much, much better. He's been good for awhile. He's working hard on his health. We just did three weeks in the U.S. He's up and about. It's more to get going again. It's for the whole band. We've never been off eight months. But Lemmy's much better, and he played great when we did this U.S. leg, so I really hope that he can stay healthy. And he looks good, so that's all I can say. And he's working very, very hard on it, too, so all the best." MOTÖRHEAD's 21st studio album, "Aftershock", sold 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 22 on The Billboard 200 chart. MOTÖRHEAD's previous CD, 2011's "The Wörld Is Yours", opened with 7,000 units to enter the chart at No. 94. The band's 2008 effort, "Motörizer", premiered with 6,400 copies to debut at No. 82, while 2006's "Kiss Of Death" registered a first-week tally of 3,500. "Aftershock" was recorded at NRG Studios in North Hollywood, California and is described in a press release as "a true leveler, a crushing confirmation of everything MOTÖRHEAD stands for, marching from the dust storm to deliver 14 belting statements which see MOTÖRHEAD in perhaps their best writing form for years."
02 min read

DEATH ANGEL’s European Summer Tour Canceled

Manos Spanos
Vocalist Mark Osegueda of San Francisco Bay Area metallers DEATH ANGEL has released the following statement: "It's with a heavy heart I have to inform you that the rumors you are hearing are unfortunately true... although there is a platinum lining to this black cloud of DEATH ANGEL's 2014 summer festival season. "The platinum lining is that we are very proud to announce is DEATH ANGEL WILL be playing Hellfest [in France] this year! Hellfest will have the exclusive European DEATH ANGEL show this summer! However, our billing on that festival has been updated. We will now be playing on Sunday, June 22! (The BLACK SABBATH day!) On main stage #1 in place of MEGADETH who unfortunately had to cancel… and we plan to give that slot on the bill, and you metal fans the damage it deserves! "The dark cloud, I must announce, is the rest of our summer festival has been canceled... and canceled by us. "I assure you this has NOTHING to do with the structure or strength of the band itself! We feel the band is at its live performing peak riding on the wave of our latest album, 'The Dream Calls for Blood'! It boils down to the infrastructure of the business side of this band… Certain aspects of how this band was being handled were no longer matching up to the quality level of product we are releasing, and the live shows we've been unleashing! And if we carried on that way any longer, it would have damaged the core of what is us, and that is the band! So we are taking this time to restructure our business team to make DEATH ANGEL the strongest band that we can possibly be from the outside to the core! "The lineup is intact! The hunger is voracious! And we will be back in Europe with a full-blown tour when we feel confident that we have the full arsenal, and team behind us that this band, and its music, and, most of all, you fans, deserve! "We are doing all we can to expedite this process! "I know some of you will not understand this aspect of the art form known as music! But it is a business. And hasty business choices in this art has brought down bigger than us.... And we have NO intentions of being brought down! "Some of you will have negative comments and thoughts... But believe me, no one is more saddened and disappointed about these cancellations than us... And if you have ever seen us live, I'm sure you can attest to our love for being on stage! That being said, we'll see you at Hellfest. And we plan on giving you a performance that night that will convince the naysayers that DEATH ANGEL is here to stay and a force to be reckoned with." DEATH ANGEL's seventh album, "The Dream Calls For Blood", sold 5,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 72 on The Billboard 200 chart. DEATH ANGEL's previous CD, "Relentless Retribution", opened with 2,700 units in September 2010. The band's 2008 effort, "Killing Season", registered a first-week tally of around 2,300. This number was in line with the performance of its predecessor, "The Art of Dying", which premiered with around 2,100 copies back in May 2004. Released on October 11, 2013 in Europe (except for the U.K. where it arrived three days later) and October 15, 2013 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records, "The Dream Calls For Blood" was recorded at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida with producer Jason Suecof (TRIVIUM, AUGUST BURNS RED, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, ALL THAT REMAINS, WHITECHAPEL, DEVILDRIVER), and once again features cover art by Brent Elliot White (JOB FOR A COWBOY, CARNIFEX, WHITECHAPEL).
04 min read

ARCH ENEMY Plays First Show With New Singer ALISSA WHITE-GLUZ; Video Available

Manos Spanos
Swedish / American / Canadian metallers ARCH ENEMY played their first show with new singer Alissa White-Gluz, former vocalist of THE AGONIST, last night (Friday, May 23) at Turbohalle in Bucharest, Romania. Angela Gossow, who joined ARCH ENEMY in 2000 and made her debut on the now-classic "Wages Of Sin" (2001), has stepped down as frontwoman and will focus on management, while Alissa takes her place. Fan-filmed video footage of the Bucharest concert can be seen below. Check out photos of the concert at Metalhead.ro. ARCH ENEMY, new album, "War Eternal" will be released in North America on June 10 via Century Media Records. The cover artwork was created by Costin Chioreanu. The "War Eternal" video was directed by Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, IN FLAMES, SONIC SYNDICATE and KAMELOT, among others. In a recent interview with Turk Gitar, ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott stated about Angela's exit from ARCH ENEMY: "It was a sudden change for the fans; we know that. But, of course, these kind of big steps in life don't come easily, and I believe this was a gradual thing that kept growing in Angela's mind for some time. "We had decided to take 2013 off from the road and any sort of band activity. The only thing we were doing was writing music and also there always the plan to go into the studio and record at the end of 2013. As the scheduled recording time got closer, Angela informed us last year that she would definitely be stepping down from her position in the band. "To be honest, it was not such a huge surprise to the rest of us, as there were a lot of conversations of that nature leading up to that point. I made the changes in the band that were necessary for ARCH ENEMY to continue and keep the music alive." Regarding Alissa's more versatile vocal approach compared to that of Gossow, Amott said: "Alissa has many different vocal styles that she can do very well… She is much more versatile in that aspect than Angela. But for ARCH ENEMY, we are sticking with the aggressive vocal style that we are known for. "When I started the band in 1995, I had the idea to make the most heavy melodic band of all time, combining elements of extreme death metal heaviness and thrash speed alongside traditional heavy metal and hard rock influences with the harmonies, melodies and solos. We are very much staying true to these roots of the band on 'War Eternal'." Speaking to Metal Underground, Alissa had the following to say about "War Eternal": "The circumstances surrounding the creation of this album, writing the lyrics and recording it, I'm just happy to have it finally come out. I think people are going to like it. The production quality is amazing! I always wanted an album that would sound this full. I'm a really big fan of this album, myself. Even if I weren't in the band and ARCH ENEMY put out this album, I would pick it up and say it's great. I'm really excited." On the topic of the new album title, Alissa said: "This album ended up being a lot more personal than maybe some of my previous or Michael's previous lyrics. In the past, a topic like war or a political or global issue was what we normally wrote about. We were writing in two different bands, but we happen to have similar topics in our writing. Then when we were writing for this album, we had a collection of lyrics for this album, but we found that we were actually writing on similar things. Fighting the ongoing war in your day-to-day life, everybody has their battle going on that nobody else knows about. And then there are song titles like 'Never Forgive, Never Forget' and on and on, I think it ties in very nicely. It wasn't something we planned out, but that is the way it turned out, so it worked out really nicely. I think we really saw eye to eye and were experiencing similar things in our lives, so we ended up writing about the same topics even though we have different styles of writing lyrics."
05 min read