Hellraiser

Okay, this is probably just me nitpicking, but

In also think that at this point people should get used to the idea that he will never finish up the series himself if they haven't done so already. At least if his plan still is to finish the series with the seventh novel.

The new Helloween album is self-titled and will be out on June 18th. Coverartwork: It's so refreshing to finally have a decent cover artwork again after almost two decades of CG abominations.

So the executor of the estate of Geoff Nichols, who played Keyboard for Black Sabbath from 1979 all the way to 2004 and was credited as an official band member during the short-lived Glenn Hughes era as well as both Tony Martin eras, is going through some old tapes that Nichols left behind and found what appears to be a Black Sabbath demo of an unreleased song with Ronnie James Dio:

Apparently there is also drama going on between Goss and Laiho's girlfriend at the time of his death: https://loudwire.com/alexi-laiho-ex-wife-illegal-funeral-fake-gofundme/

Alexi's former Sinergy bandmate (and as it turns out legally still his wife as they apparently never divorced after separating in 2004) Kimberly Goss revealed the cause of his death: "Alcohol-induced degeneration of the liver and pancreas connective tissue". He also had a "cocktail of painkillers, opioids and insomnia medication" in his system.

The first taste of the first Helloween album with Kai Hansen since 1988 and Michael Kiske since 1993:

The video above is a respones/tie-in to this video:

Rock musicians in the 70s did tons of coke. I don't see how this is newsworthy.

I love the nods to Malcolm In The Middle and Scrubs.

This is just a bizarre way of handling a situation like that. They are so vague about the entire thing and everything happens so fast. It felt like they accidentally skipped an episode. And this whole thing came completely out of the blue as well. I thought this was going to be a fun, light-hearted anime about surfing and then they suddenly drop a bombshell like this. I really hope that this isn't the last we hear about that character.

Is anyone here watching "Wave!! Surfing Yappe!!"? If so, could someone explain to me what hell just happened in Episode 5?

So during scenes featuring Miranda in ME2 the camera was often focused on her ass. Even during serious conversations when she talks about her traumatic childhood. In an interview with the project director of the Legendary Edition, he said that they changed the camera angle on those scenes. That is all they changed. The camera angels. And you already have gamers acting like this is somehow the fall of western civilization and that the remastered collection has been ruined because of this.

Evile are back! If you don't remember them, they were part of the retro Thrash Metal wave that swept the scene in the late 2000s and early 2010s. In 2013 the guitarist Ol Drake left the band after they released their 4th album to focus on his family and start a solo career. The band continued to play some live shows every now and then, but didn't release any new material. Ol Drake returned to the band in 2018 and they played a couple of gigs with him, but there hasn't been any band activity since then. Last year Ol's brother Matt, the 2nd guitarist and lead vocalist of the band, left to spent more time with his family and because of health issues. Ol Drake will be taking over singing duties for him. Their 5th album will be named Hell Unleashed and will be out on April 30th via Napalm Records.

That is great. I hated that EA forced you to play multiplayer to get the perfect ending back in the day.

Yes, technically Steve Harris is the only founding member of Iron Maiden that is still part of the band. But the line-up that recorded all the classic albums is still mostly intact. If you ask me there is a big difference between that and a band like Foreigner in which is made up of Mick Jones and a bunch of hired guns.

Unfortunately, the name is what sells tickets. Concert promoters don't care who is in the band as long as they can put an established name on the marquee. Accept and Foreigner will get booked, the Wolf Hoffmann Group or Mick Jones's Foreigner Experience probably not as much. That is why there are so many lawsuits regarding band names and so many cases of 2 versions of bands existing at the same time. See Venom, Entomned, Queensryche, Survivor or L.A. Guns for example.

Hansi Kürsch has officially left Demons & Wizards, the project he founded together with Jon Schaffer: https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/jon-schaffers-longtime-friend-and-bandmate-hansi-kursch-officially-quits-demons-wizards-project/ Schaffer himself is awaiting extradition to Washington: https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/iced-earths-jon-schaffer-is-still-being-held-at-indianas-marion-county-jail-will-soon-be-extradited-to-washington-d-c/

Release date is May 14th. Blech. It won't be just a graphical update, they did gameplay updates as well. Especially for the first game. Reading the website I get the impression that they basically remade the first game. It features all the DLC except the Pinnacle Station DLC for ME1. That one was also missing from the PS3 port of the original game because the source data was corrupted or something. So it won't be available in the Legendary Edition either. https://www.ea.com/games/mass-effect/mass-effect-legendary-edition/overview?setLocale=en-us Edit: Apparently there is also a 150$ Legendary Cache edition with a special steel case, a 1:1 scale replica helmet, a canvas art paint and a N7 acceptance letter. But it doesn't include the actual game. Because of course it doesn't. Gotta love EA.

Apparently Bioware held some kind of presentation about ME: Legendary Edition for journalists and the embargo for talking about said presentation will be lifted today.

The new Accept album is better than I excepted. You could argue that it is a bit disingenuous to call it Accept when Wolf Hoffmann is the only member of the classic line-up that is left, but they still deliver. The only bad song on the album is The Underaker if you ask me. And I could have done without the stupid smartphones=bad boomer lyrics on Zombie Apocalypse. But other than that the album is really good.

They put out a statement a few days after the riots: https://www.blind-guardian.com/statement/

Century haven't announced anything yet, but they removed all Iced Earth releases and merch from their webshops and removed the band from the artists roster on their homepage. Same for Demons and Wizards. It is probably only a matter of time until they officially announce that they dropped both bands.

Jon Schaffer has turned himself in and faces six charges related to the Capitol riots: https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/iced-earths-jon-schaffer-arrested-for-role-in-capitol-riot/