Today's Day in Rock Stories

Deep Purple and Judas Priest Team For North American Tour

Perry played the special concert at the Borgata Music Box in Atlantic City, New Jersey last Friday (April 20th) as the final of three special shows to support his recently released solo album "Sweetzerland Manifesto".

The band recently launched a new North American leg of their Concrete And Gold tour and Shiflett told Rolling Stone that Grohl will be mixing up the set list as the tour goes along.

He said, (via Classic Rock), "Things change on a dime. When we get into that final third, Dave will start cutting, adding and rearranging songs, or he'll do stuff in a different order. You have to stay in the moment the whole time. You don't want to be up there thinking about the room service. It keeps you on your toes."

Chris then singled out the song "The Sky Is a Neighborhood" as an example, explaining, "It's evolved a little bit over the months of playing it live. Everything is a little looser and a little louder. It's gotten a little rougher around the edges, some of the parts have stretched out, the pauses are longer. We added an intro thing to it. It's just changed."

The new song is the lead single from the forthcoming Scars On Broadway album, Dictator, which is set to be released on July 20th release and features Malakian writing, producing and playing every instrument-including all vocals-himself on the effort.

Madame Tussauds Nashville has reportedly launched a limited timed Ozzy Osbourne attraction featuring his wax figure restyled by his daughter Kelly, according to The Music Universe.

The special album will be entitled "Tribute To Jimi (Often Imitated But Never Duplicated)" and is set to be released on May 18th. Pinnick co-produced the effort with Michael Parnin and recorded it at Blacksound Studios, Pasadena, CA.

He had this to say, "I've been wanting to do this for a long time, so when Joe at Rat Pak Records brought the idea up to me, I couldn't wait to get started! We wanted to recreate the analog recording process as closely to the original recordings as possible, so we did our research and tried to use as many of the original effects and equipment that we could find.

They are currently wrapping up their European spring tour and will next will head to Japan for headline shows in Osaka (June 25th at Umedia Club Quattro), Tokyo (June 26th at Ebisu Liquidroom), and Nagoya (June 28th at Nahoya Club Quattro).

The new clip was directed by Tim Dennesen and Andrew WK had this to say: "Music Is Worth Living For finds me and my band in the throes of a colossal vision quest. Determined to party harder than ever, we steel ourselves against alien elements, and battle a formless but formidable storm.

"Multiplying myself, I attempt to transcend the whirling void by engaging in a series of flailing spiritual manoeuvres, vainly wrestling with the emptiness of my own soul.

The title of the album caused some controversy with retail giant Walmart refusing to carry it. Frontman Michael Sweet explained the title to All That Shreds. He said "We didn't do it just to shake things up. We have a point to prove in a statement. A few years back we thought about using this title. We didn't go with it because we felt it was a little too much at that time.

"Now, in 2018, with everything that we've seen on the news, the evil we're faced with on a daily basis to new levels and new degrees, it made perfect sense for us to have an album called God Damn Evil.

"It's a prayer request. It is what it is. It's not a swear, it's not just the shock statement, it's a prayer request, and we're asking God to damn the evil that we see."

Guitarist Esa Holopainen had this to say "I guess Queen Of Time turned out as a massive surprise to all of us. During the rehearsing and pre-production we didn't have any idea that producer Jens Bogren had this huge picture inside of his head about the landscape of the album.

"It's a very natural continuation to Under The Red Cloud but with steroids. The songs are more aggressive but there's more dynamics, harmonies and orchestral arrangements present.

The band will be launching the tour to preview their forthcoming album "Scary World" which is set to be released on August 24th and they will be launching the first video from the effort "Candy Coated Suicide" on May 18th.

The band had this to say, "We're excited to get back on the road with our friends in Combichrist and play some songs from our upcoming album which is set for a Fall 2018 release. We're releasing the first single, 'Candy Coated Suicide,' on May 18th in conjunction with the start of the tour."

To get fans ready for the new full length, the band will be releasing the title song digitally on May 11th followed by a limited edition 7-inch vinyl single of the in three different colors on May 25th.

The band had this to say, "We are eternally dedicated to Immortal and our own musical past. The album is conceptual, and the first step in the reclaiming of our past grimness and attitude.

Frontman Liam Joseph Cormier made the following comments to Metal Hammer about the song featured in the new video, "Heads Will Roll is a classic Bats Biker Metal banger! Just a ripper from start to finish about being so pissed off you want to cut someones head off. We've all been there and we know we'll be there again."
He also explained the reasons for the surprise album release, "We were just tired of waiting. We spent all of 2017 working hard on this album, all while playing shows and talking with our fans, who were constantly asking, 'when can we hear new music?'"

The new visual stars Magen Killz and it was directed by Kenn Little of "A Ghost in Every Room" on location in downtown Kansas City, MO. Singer Tak Kitara had this to say:

The new album will be hitting stores on May 25th and was produced by Aaron Gillespie (Underoath, The Almost). According to the announcement the record was "inspired by the idea that each song on it's own is a piece of a larger mosaic encapsulated within the album."

frontman Kim Benzie made the following comments to The Music about the track, "The Armour You Own spawned from guiding someone important in my life through a bout of anxiety.

The new video was filmed in Los Angeles and directed by the band's frontman Drogoth who offered the following comments, "Since our first music video was mainly a 'performance' video, I wanted to do something more cinematic and story driven.

The video finds the band members fleeing the city, being pursued by an unseen adversary, or perhaps being drawn to the outskirts by the call of a coven of powerful witches.