Today's Day in Rock Stories

AC/DC With Axl Rose Play Rarity At Tour Kick Off

Live Nation exec Bob Roux predicted the company would sell one million tickets for the 25-show tour, roughly 90 percent of what was available. Roux said that some less well-attended shows were the result of the band playing cities it wanted to play, rather than sticking to the highest population centers that would better guarantee sellouts.

Now Slipknot have confirmed that it'll be Iowa, which Metal Hammer recently voted the best album of the 21st century. The band say: "Fifteen years ago, something quite extraordinary happened. Nine men from Iowa went in to a studio in California and created one of the most chaotic and destructive albums ever made. It was, and still is, a shockingly physical and ferocious recording.

Ozzy tells Metro: "I'm currently playing around with some song ideas. I have a few things jotted down, and once Black Sabbath is off the road, I'll be heading into the studio with my band to get the songs recorded. Once it's all in the can you can be sure to see me back on the road again."

The European tour was the final leg of the band's Book of Souls World Tour that played in six continents from February 24 through the finale at Wacken Open Air festival on August 4 - which was streamed live.

In an archive interview from 2010, which has recently surfaced, Ward tells Banger TV: "The cover was something that was presented to us, and being our usual morbid selves, we were all instantaneously attracted to that.

They've been opening their recent shows with a fresh track entitled Ramm 4, which he describes as a signal of intention over the songs that will follow it. Lorenz tells Kaaos TV: "We wanted to show the world that we're still together and that we're playing and making new music.

"We've started to compile ideas for songs and develop them as a band. It's difficult to say how far along we are, because a lot of the time everything seems to be going well - and then there are days and we just want to start the process all over again.

Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon says: "Our new video for Save That Goodness captures the essence of the song. It's a feel-good message with a hint of spirituality.

He says "I'm getting on the plane and Hardwired had just been featured all over the nation. I sit down next to this guy, who offered me the free drink coupon.

"I had a Metallica jacket on and he said, 'Oh, I heard they released their new album today.' I said, 'No, I think it was just one song.' He goes, 'Did you hear it?' and I'm like, 'Yeah, it's good.'

The song is the title track off the band's latest EP which was released on July 15th to follow their fan-funded full length 2015's 'Transmutation' and 2012's debut EP 'Imagining'.

Vocalist and guitarist Michael Ursini had this to say, "We had the luck and honor of having our single 'Fight or Flight' played at the Blue Jays games all summer and felt that there was a great enough demand to release a music video.

Drummer Charlie Benante explains to Fangoria: "Originally, the idea for the treatment that Jack came to us with was a very frame-to-frame type of look. There was going to be a monster in it of course, because the title lends to that.

"We shot performance stuff at a studio and the next day we were doing a festival and they came out and were just doing shots of us live. That song didn't have to be the one we were playing - they just wanted to get a different vibe and a different look to the video."

Benante says the days of "huge marketing tool" videos to help them sell singles and albums are in the past, with the band no longer feeling the urgency to create them. And he takes a swipe at YouTube for not paying artists enough for using their material.

Vocalist and guitarist Chris Theo previously said the track tells the story of someone "seeking to come to terms with their gender identity later in life," taking the listener on "an emotive journey that spans resignation, anger, acceptance and regret."

Vocalist and guitarist Chris Theo tells Prog: "It would have been easy to go for something dark and grimy for this video, but we were keen to push ourselves to create something different.

"Since a lot of our music explores this juxtaposition between heavy and atmospheric elements, we looked to create visuals that seemed almost at odds with the music.

"But beyond the immediate surreal and comic nature of the Elderflower video is an underlying sadness. We all deceive ourselves, we all hide from the truths that hurt, but unless we own those truths this architecture of fallacy we've built will topple, and take us with it.

Speaking about the experience, frontman Daniel Tompkins says: "I live quite close to the Download festival at Donington, and I've always gone and watched all my biggest inspirations on those stages. To be there, on the Encore Stage with 15,000 heads singing along and showing their appreciation, that was special."

Tompkins split from the band in 2011 and was brought back into the fold in 2014, replacing Ashe O'Hara prior to work on the band's third album Polaris, which launched last year.

And the vocalist reports he can see the band's progression due to the fact they're now playing to larger audiences. He continues: "It's the first time we've been on a big festival run. We've done quite well this year - we've had some good billings and played some big stages. The crowds have been incredible as well. I really do think that's a good sign of the progression of the whole band.

The follow-up to 2014's Scare Force One consists of two sets of music - Theaterror is described as "traditional hard-rocking songs" while Demonarchy is "more modern than ever."

Frontman Mr Lordi recently said: "It's our first conceptual half an album - not a full conceptual album, but half of the album is a conceptual storyline with six songs.

Speaking to the You Rock Foundation, a music charity which seeks to raise awareness about mental health issues, Heafy says: "When we first started touring I used to have social anxiety disorder. It's not clinically diagnosed but I knew that any time I would go out and meet fans I would freak out.

"At that time as well, I had really terrible acne, so when our band was first blowing up in the UK, we would always have fans who wanted to meet us and magazines who wanted to take pictures - and I didn't want to do it. Not because I was trying to be egotistical, it's that I didn't want to be seen. I was afraid to talk to people and afraid to be in groups.

Support on all dates will come from Japanese metal trio Babymetal, who launched their second album titled Metal Resistance in March this year. Tickets for all seven shows go on general sale from 10am on September 2 through TeamRock Tickets.

In the short clip, vocalist and lyricist Anders Friden explains the meaning behind the album title, and reports it was inspired by emotional conflicts which affect people on a daily basis.

Friden says: "All titles for every album come really late in the process. I write the lyrics and then I gather all the lyrics after we're done and I look at the album as a whole, then try to figure out what the theme is.

"With Battles, we all have our inner struggles from the day we are really young up until the day we die, so this album is about that and something everyone can relate to.

Organizer Caitlin Elliott tells TeamRock: "Arch Enemy are melodic death metal legends and we are incredibly proud to have them headlining the first edition of Heavy Scotland.

Welch also reports that if Bring Me The Horizon's 2015 album That's The Spirit had come out a decade ago, it would have racked up an enormous amount of sales by now.

He tells Alternative Press: "When you think of what bands, when we get all grey-haired and hang it up, that can take that slot and headline, Bring Me The Horizon is no.1 for me, they just have everything.

Vocalist and guitarist Simon Neil says: "We would like to let you know that we're doing a UK tour with Brand New, which is unbelievably exciting. It's going to be one hell of a show � we can't wait."

'Overrun' was written by our two singers about the intensity of living in a flat with the rest of the band and rarely seeing or speaking to anyone that's not in the band. It's very introspective, lyrically, but wasn't intended to be a sad song. Because two of us contribute to the lyrics, we tend to try to capture a general feeling or idea, rather than a specific subject or story. I think that's why people often come up with suggestions as to what they think one of our songs is written about that aren't even close to what we had in mind.

As for the recording, it sort of came together by accident. We had planned to demo 'Overrun' with a view to then bringing it into a professional studio and getting a good producer involved. However, after self-producing the demo in our local studio in Maryhill, Glasgow, we were really happy with how it turned out and weren't confident we'd be able to do any better after throwing loads of money at it. So we just kept working on what was meant to be the demo, then got an amazing producer called Paul Savage on board to mix it for us and that was it!