Today's Top Stories

Primus' Tim Alexander Suffers Another Heart Attack

Slash spoke to Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer on Boston's WZLX (via UCR) about how the reunion is going, "Everybody's playing great - playing nice. Everybody's getting along and everybody's playing great, and the shows have been awesome.

Adler was recruited by Megadeth to play drums on the band's latest studio album "Dystopia" but has now returned to his primary gig with Lamb of God with Soilwork's Dirk Verbeuren taking over drumming duties for Megadeth's current tour.

Mustaine was asked by Ron Ben-Tovim of the Machine Music blog, "The band has its fair share of staff reshuffles along the way, a long-running band so it's natural for that to happen, have you found that your attitude toward that, toward welcoming new people in, the consideration you take into who you want to join the band, has that changed over the years? With Chris and Kiko in the band, do you have other things in mind as to what you're looking for? Personal chemistry, musical chemistry?"

The Megadeth frontman responded, "If you're in the presence of greatness, it's shameful not to allow that to be great. But let me back up though: Chris Adler is not in Megadeth, he's in Lamb of God. He was a session guy, he was what you could call work for hire. And he has nothing to do with us anymore, and he is with his band. I am very grateful for his contributions, I'm grateful for him introducing us to Dirk. We still haven't announced who our new drummer is going to be, it won't be Chris Adler, because he's in Lamb of God.

Portnoy wrote the collection of tracks to deal with his experience of alcoholism and always intended to perform it live in full. He says: "When I came up with the idea of writing a multi-part suite that was to span five albums - which ended up taking eight years to complete - it was always part of my masterplan to eventually perform it in it's entirely live on stage.

"It saddens me that I was not able to do so with Dream Theater after completing the final piece of my conceptual puzzle, but I've decided that I owe it to the fans to finally bring my 12 Step Suite to life on stage as I always envisioned."

Michael Gira had the following to say, "Our beloved brother Thor Harris has taken a sabbatical from Swans for this tour. In an admirable personal decision he's decided he can't undertake the relentless touring schedule of Swans this time and needs to be in Texas as much as possible to be near his quite elderly mother.

"Anybody who knows Thor knows he's an absolute sweetheart. He is also pursuing his own music as Thor and Friends. Thor will of course be working with me on future projects...

"The keyboardist Paul Wallfisch will be taking Thor's place for this tour cycle. Paul's recent projects include Ministry of Wolves (with Alexander Hacke of Einsturdzende Neubauten, Mick Harvey of Bad Seeds and Danielle DePicciotto). Paul also plays piano with the tortured cabaret singer Little Annie, a personal favorite of mine. I've known Paul for years, and it's good to be working with him. He will be playing piano, organ, and Mellotron on this tour."

After the tour, Gira says, "I'll continue to make music under the name Swans, with a revolving cast of collaborators... touring will definitely be less extensive."

When asked at a press conference at Hellfest, France, if they could collaborate following Black Sabbath's The End Tour, Hughes says it could be possible as they "work together really well."

In pairs, they'll drive 832 miles in cars worth less than �500 - without using sat-navs or motorways throughout the entire journey, which they've branded Dash To The Med.

Good Charlotte say: "Our brand new Life Changes lyric video is live now. Thanks to our friend Nigel Holt for directing this one." They previously issued a video for lead track 40 Oz. Dream.

Now singer Gary Cherone says that they are hoping that their sixth album will finally be unveiled next year. Cherone tells Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer on WZLX:

He will hit the studio with producer Chris 'Zeuss' Harris, who also worked on 2010 Murderdolls album Women & Children Last. Wednesday 13 says: "I can't tell you how excited we are to work with Zeuss again. We've been talking about it for years and now we're gonna finally make it happen.

They'll be joined at the O2 complex on the weekend of October 28-30 by Walter Trout, The Temperance Movement, Jo Harman, Lauren Housley and JD & The Straight Shot.

Edited by Geoff Barton (ex-Sounds and Kerrang!), the collectible magazine traces the band's history across the last five decades, from Lemmy's very first interview shortly after he had been kicked out of Hawkwind up to the great man's final stand, taking in classic TV appearances, broken necks and (alleged) phone calls with Halle Berry.

"They say that Muhammad Ali brought out the best in the sports writers who met him. Lemmy was a bit like that too," says TeamRock editor-in-chief Scott Rowley. "He was fond of music writers and sparring with them was a bit of a sport to him. The result was some of the funniest, warmest articles we've published in Classic Rock and Metal Hammer and it's great to have them all collected here."

The band - who were nominated in the newcomer category at last year's Progressive Music Awards - are currently writing their second album and hope to find another female bassist to replace Dawson.

Sumer say: "We are looking for a bass slinger to replace our current sister by another mister, before she leaves us in the pursuit of real life. We're keen for another girl to join our ranks, but we are fully open to anyone.

The producer recalls his electrical engineer father building various instruments for him before he died in 2011 - and he says he wants the device back.

Wilson tells Music Radar: "My father was an electronic engineer - and when I was young he made me all these instruments, like a vocoder, a delay machine, a little four-track portastudio.

"There was one thing, in particular, this sequencer and it was amazing. It had its own personality and it was totally unique to the way my dad thought about it."

Organisers say the first female-positive music event of its kind in Scotland aims to celebrate women in music by giving them a bigger platform - with two stages running from 10:30am until 11pm on the day.

Doom rock outfit Courtesans will headline the festival, with female-fronted rock bands Heel and Bugeye, metal band Firesign, voodoo metal band Vodun, punk acts Bravado and Arcade 39 performing at the event.

The band have also teamed up with electronic producer Ryan Hemsworth to remix Tired Of Tomorrow track Nineteen Ninety Heaven. It can be heard and purchased through the group's Bandcamp page.

Frontman Justin Furstenfeld had the following to say about their latest effort: "Our last album, Sway, was about finding inner peace and learning to live in a healthy way.

Barbaud says: "The areas in front of the two main stages will have to be readjusted. We had never witnessed such forceful enthusiasm during shows like Rammstein's, Black Sabbath's or Gojira's, to the detriment of the other stages when different bands were playing at the same time as these popular artists. We organizers will have to adapt.

"There were also some shortcomings we were not prepared for - the excessive wait at the cathedral and at the cashless banks got on a lot of festivalgoers' nerves.