Today's Day in Rock Stories

Former UFO Star Pete Way Suffers Heart Attack

Though the energized hard rock song is worlds away from the pop star's hit single "Never Gonna Give You Up," fans got a clear view of Astley's undersung versatility.

Bruce says: "As you may be aware, I won't be joining the lads on this short European run. This is the first time I've not joined the guys and it's really saddening and a very strange feeling - but I know they are going to be just fine and they are going to kill it for you guys.

And he says he wants to give Megadeth fans the first chance to try the beer - so he's inviting them to attend a birthday bash he's planning to celebrate his 55th birthday on September 13.

He says in a video message: "Hi, I'm Dave Mustaine - you may know me from Twitter. This year, I'm turning 55 and you know me, I like an excuse to have a party and to celebrate with my fans with my own beer.

"I guess you could say I've done my fair share of drinking in my life, so believe me when I say this beer is the real deal. My friends at Unibroue helped me craft something special which will appeal to everyone, or A Tout Le Monde as the French people say, and now I'm inviting you to the biggest birthday party ever - mine.

Bon Jovi's "fan album" Burning Bridges was released in 2015 and the bitter relationship was detailed in the record's title track. Speaking of their new material at the time, mainman Jon Bon Jovi said: "I have a lot to write about. Believe me, the new record is good. It's pointed - it's something we're going to be very proud of when we put it out."

Taylor tells WRIF (via Blabbermouth): "We have 18 songs demoed. It's the best material we've ever written. This album, the next Stone Sour one, is going to eat people - it's so good.

"A little heavy, a little rock, a little punk, soft stuff in there. It's gonna destroy people." Asked whether the album will be packaged as elaborately as the two House Of Gold & Bones albums - which formed a house when put together - Taylor adds: "We're just going back to basics. I'm an old-school guy. I think most of us are. The thing that I loved about those great albums is that you would get it and you would wanna study everything.

The Big Four tour saw thrash giants Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer sharing a bill for seven shows as part of the Sonisphere Festival series in 2010.

Speaking ahead of Anthrax's appearance on the Ronnie James Dio stage Sunday at Bloodstock, Bello tells TeamRock: "Thrash was an all for one thing, really. That's what the Big Four was about. We'd love to do more Big Four shows."

The supergroup features Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, Cannibal Corpse frontman George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher and The Black Dahlia Murder's former drummer Shannon Lucas.

The supergroup features The Dillinger Escape Plan's Ben Weinman and Mastodon's Brent Hinds, Alice In Chains frontman William DuVall on vocal duties, former Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen and Dethklok bassist Pete Griffin.

The video is described as, "Striking a nerve with viewers in light of recent events. With the help of director Oleg Rooz, the video makes a statement with its fast-cut clips of GTO's impassioned performance of Crucifixion interwoven with footage of historical events that transformed society.

The album will be their first since the return of Pepper Keenan to the fold, after he sat out the recording of IX and 2012's self-titled effort. While playing the Ronnie James Dio stage at England's Bloodstock festival yesterday (Friday), Keenan told the audience the new album would land in 2017, and after the set bassist Mike Dean said in an exclusive interview with TeamRock that work was well underway.

Dean says: "We're currently writing it and we have a whole lot of material that we are just trying to narrow down. We're trying to get 25 rough ideas down to between 12 and 15 songs that we'll record and release next year.

Speaking to TeamRock at Bloodstock before Mastodon's headline set at the festival Saturday, Dailor says: "It sounds like Mastodon to me but an updated version. We always try to push to hear something new and hear something different, so that's what's going on.

"It's impossible to tell somebody what something sounds like so I'll spare the details but so far so good - we go with what we know, play what we like and if we don't like it, we don't play it."

And as bloodstock got underway last night (Thursday), Campbell was on hand to officially open the bar and kick off the celebrations in memory of Lemmy.

Campbell said: "He would be very proud now and he would want you all to be getting your rocks off. This place is amazing with all his pictures around, it brings it all back.

"It's my honor to have this first drink at this newly-named Lemmy Bar, which is going to live forever. It's like our music, it will live forever. I'd like to thank everyone involved.

Another Fall From Grace will feature 12 tracks and include guest appearances from Gary Numan, Depeche Mode's Martin Gore, HIM's Ville Valo, Evi Vine and the band's longtime collaborator, All About Eve's Julianne Regan. The cover art and full tracklist can be seen below.

Hussey previously said the follow-up to 2013's The Brightest Light would be the "lost link" between The Sisters Of Mercy's debut album First And Last And Always and The Mission's God's Own Medicine.

And he's further elaborated on the new album, saying that his "mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing" suffered as he and the band made the record.

Hussey says: "This is a dark album, although I didn't set out with that intention, it's just the way things unfolded. I know I did go a little crazy and even a little paranoid during the recording of this album, certainly my mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing all suffered during the course of it. And I think that has informed both the music and the lyrics.

"So much of this was done in isolation - from the world, from my family, from my friends, and even from my bandmates. I can't say it's an album I enjoyed making, but it is an album I needed to make.

"It is with huge relief that I can now say it is finished and maybe it's like an acute pain that you have that once it's gone you can't remember how it felt. I hope so, as I would like one day to feel the fondness for this record that it maybe deserves."

They entered Gothenburg's Top Floor Studios earlier this year to lay down tracks for the record with producers Jacob Hansen and Jakob Herrmann. And guitarist Olof Morck reports that their new material is more "diverse" than their previous work.

He says: "Maximalism is our manifesto to the world. We are genuinely thrilled with the new material, definitely our most diverse collection to date. Our trademark 'bleeding edge' modern metal remains intact, of course, but fused with an even broader range of genres than before.

"There's everything here, including stadium rock, innovative pop and danceable super-hits. Expect these tunes to enter your mind on a permanent basis."

The follow-up to 2012's Sounds That Can't Be Made is set for release on September 23. And the frontman reckons the new material could even remind fans of the band's early records. Hogarth says: "I think this album, in a strange way, is going to remind people of Brave, it might even remind people of very early Marillion.

Kantor says: "Guitarist Eric Peterson told me of the title, referring to a secret society group - and I wanted to focus on the occult aspect of it without leaning on the already available myths.

"I pictured a ritual involving blindfolded figures coming out of chalices of black oil, holding scythes forming the teeth of a thee-headed snake.

"Looking for ways to incorporate the masonic pyramid felt like a great opportunity to use the classic logo while adding something new to it, and also give it an active part in the plot."

Though guitarist and keyboardist Dave Young admits that Devin usually wrote songs for them to learn on previous albums, drummer Ryan Van Poederooyen reveals that the songwriting process has become more organic.

He adds: "This time, right from scratch, there were songs which were born in the rehearsal space from a riff Dev would be jamming on. He'd say, 'What do you guys think of this?' I'd say, 'Yeah it's cool' and I'd start playing a beat to it."

Townsend says: "My vision is so singular - it has been since the beginning. My objectives musically haven't changed since I was 13 and I've just been trying to get it right.

My brother, JoJo, and I wrote Big Medicine together in 2007 before Brother Hawk was even a band. He lived in New York at the time, but was in between schools so he was at home in Georgia with the family for a few months. I wasn't much of a songwriter back then.

With all of the bands I'd been in I was only the guitar player, so I had written plenty of riffs, but only a few times written a full song with lyrics and everything. It was something I really wanted to do but I just didn't have it figured out quite yet.

My brother on the other hand is quite the writer, so I asked him to help me write a song. I came up with the verse chords, and we almost instantly decided to write a song about our experience as a family. We were both living on our parents farm at that moment so it was all right there in front of us. I think we wrote it in about 20 minutes or so.

Stuff that close to the heart comes quick, especially when you're writing about it for the first time. I can't remember exactly but I think I only contributed a line or two haha. We finished it and I practiced singing it once or twice, then went and played it for my parents. It was a really cool moment, and the beginning of the path I'd take to start Brother Hawk and be where I am today.