(Un)Official Metal Thread

[Hellraiser]

11 hours ago, DFF said:

I actually think it's a rather neat idea - it gives a whole new generation a chance to experience something similar to the original experience. They already use similar tech for hologram Elvis Pressley shows do they not?

I think people should just come to grips with the fact that he is dead and they missed their chance to see him. Just get one of the DVDs or Blu-Rays. It's way more authentic than this shitshow will ever be. It's unworthy of him.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

@DFF Pretty well actually, she quite likes what I've had her listen too from Sabbath, Maiden, AC/DC, and Zeppelin, and there's the odd track from a batch of the others she quite likes as well. Never going to fully convert her based on what she norally listens to, but it's at least opened her mind to it a bit.

[Hellraiser]

New Running Wild Song "Black Bart" from the new album "Rapid Foray" coming out next week.

 

If the rest of the album is that good this might be the best album they've done since Rivalry in 1998.

[DFF]

On ‎10‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 19:16, Jericode said:

@DFF Pretty well actually, she quite likes what I've had her listen too from Sabbath, Maiden, AC/DC, and Zeppelin, and there's the odd track from a batch of the others she quite likes as well. Never going to fully convert her based on what she norally listens to, but it's at least opened her mind to it a bit.

Nice! Any tracks/bands in particular? Can tailor another list towards that stuff for you

[OctoberRaven]

Just got back from Blind Guardian. Hooooly shit that was great.

Started with The Ninth Wave, then played earlier stuff. Then they play Imaginations From The Other Side. THE ENTIRE ALBUM.

And Then... THERE WAS SILENCE

And an extra encore AFTER In The Forest. So many holy shit this is awesome moments.

 

Also Grave Digger opened for them and that was rad but holy shit Blind Guardian playing all of Imaginations

[LUKIE]

If anyone is interested Australia have a heavy rock/metal digital radio station www.andrewhaug.com

 

[DFF]

Bloodstock announced their first batch of bands for 2017:

Friday headliner: Amon Amarth
Friday sub-headliner: Blind Guardian
Also Friday main stage: Testament

Also announced: Hatebreed, Hell, Whitechapel, Possessed.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Why didn't anyone tell me there was new Crowbar?

[LUKIE]

Okilly Dokilly's new album comes out tomorrow.

WHITE WINE SPRITZER!

[Hellraiser]

After the dumpster fire of an election that just went down here is something that managed to put me in a goo mood at least temporarily:

 

[Hellraiser]

It's happening! After about 28 years since guitarist Kai Hansen left them and 23 years after Michael KIske left them Helloween will reunite with those 2 members for the "Pumpkins United" World Tour in 2017 and 2018. That doesn't mean that the current members are gone. Guitarist Sascha Gerstner and vocalist Andi Deris are still part of Helloween. The band will play a best-off set spanning their entire career from 1984 until today.

From the band's homepage:

Quote

DROP EVERYTHING. DRUM ROLL.

Here comes the sensation for all HELLOWEEN fans: You believed in it for years and con-tinued to ask for it – now is the time: In fall 2017, Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen will once again mount a HELLOWEEN stage together and resurrect the band’s legendary original line-up. Yes, it’s official: Weikath, Kiske, Hansen, Grosskopf are going to play HELLOWEEN classics live and on a joint tour. Massive news. Awesome. But you might want to sit down again, because that’s not all of it! Under the flag PUMPKINS UNITED all pumpkin heads will step up – meaning Andi & Michi on vocals, Kai & Weiki & Sascha on guitars, and Markus & Dani in the rhythm section.

PUMPKINS UNITED WORLD TOUR 2017/2018: GOOD. AS. IT. GETS.

THE IDEA.

Undisputedly, HELLOWEEN are one of Germany’s most respected metal exports and considered the founders of German melodic speed metal. As godfathers of the genre, they have grown to become one of the most influential metal bands of the planet. In an unbelievable career reaching back as far as 1984, HELLOWEEN have performed at innumerable metal festivals around the globe such as Rock in Rio, Loudpark in Tokyo, Wacken, or the Woodstock in Poland, which they headlined in front of over 500,000 fans.

The band has delivered countless headliner world tours, spectacular shows with the likes of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Dio, Slayer, or Ozzy Osbourne to name just a few, and played at exotic locations in Borneo, Indonesia, Manaus, Brazil, or, at over 10,600 ft in the world’s highest capital, La Paz, Bolivia. The band’s spectacular show at the »Monsters Of Rock« festival in Castle Donington in front of over 100,000 metal heads in 1988 was just as memorable as the massive MTV »Headbanger’s Ball« US tour with Anthrax and Exodus. Including genre masterpieces »Keeper of the Seven Keys« Part I & II, they’ve released 15 studio- and three live albums to date, selling over eight million records and earning fourteen gold and six platinum awards. For 30 years, HELLOWEEN have been delighting their fans with fantastic riffs, great songs, and haunting melodies – three decades of a global career they officially celebrated with the »Hellbook« in 2015. This is when the idea for PUMPKINS UNITED was born: The ‘Anniversary Bible’ as well as touring with Kai made them realize that this band’s story is demanding its next chapter. Or, as Michael Kiske describes it: »Playing an original HELLOWEEN track with Unisonic was quite a flashback already, but rocking with the original line-up and Andi will be something really special. The time has come!« The chemistry between Kiske, Hansen, Weikath, and Grosskopf is singular – and sees its revival not least because of you: You’ve never stopped asking for it – now the mega event is coming up live, with the complete cast, and heavily wired!

IN DETAIL.

The super tour’s first confirmed date is October 28, 2017 in Sao Paulo and takes the full PUMPKINS entourage across selected cities and venues in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the US. An extremely big deal, which, including a few secret surprises, will present almost three hours of the biggest hits from three decades of HELLOWEEN as the band will obviously insist on performing a full-speed trip through the HELLOWEEN repertoire. »We already had an awesome time on the Hellish Rock part 1 & 2, but this time we’ll definitely double down on it« says Kai Hansen, and Markus Grosskopf adds: »There’ll for sure be songs that we haven’t played in a very long time or even ever before.« Whoever doesn’t secure tickets for this tour, probably doesn’t have all their pumpkins in a row: The original line-up wants to celebrate a global party with you, which is also going to be highly emotional because this SPECIAL WORLD TOUR is actually not a reunion and most probably won’t happen again. Andi channels our metal hearts when he says: »I’m so much looking forward to playing Michi’s and my tunes together with him live on stage. It’s going to be absolutely exceptional.«

– And now: breathe.

Source: Pumpkins-United.Helloween.org

So unfortunately no Uli Kusch or Roland Grapow. Unless they are the "secret surprises" the band is talking about.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Hellraiser

[DFF]

This is pretty massive. I'm hoping for UK dates, including maybe an appearance at Bloodstock!

[DFF]

The new Metallica album drops at the end of the week. I'm quite looking forward to checking it out.

[Hellraiser]

I'm curious to see if Helloween will play songs from "Chameleon" and Pink Bubble Go Ape" during the tour. I would love to hear "Kids Of The Century", "When The Sinner", "Someone's Crying" or even "Windmill" live. I think fans will be more receptive to these songs now than they were 20 years ago. 

[DFF]

On 15/11/2016 at 14:59, Hellraiser said:

I'm curious to see if Helloween will play songs from "Chameleon" and Pink Bubble Go Ape" during the tour. I would love to hear "Kids Of The Century", "When The Sinner", "Someone's Crying" or even "Windmill" live. I think fans will be more receptive to these songs now than they were 20 years ago. 

They've made a point of saying it's from their whole history, so who knows? 

 

In other news, Metallica are releasing a music video every two hours until every song on the album is out there. Here is the playlist:

 

As it stands, it contains: 

ManUNkind
Confusion
Dream No More
Hardwired
Atlas, Rise!
Moth Into Flame

 

 

Here is the video release schedule:

Wednesday, November 16

9:00 AM PST – “Dream No More” (Directed by Tom Kirk) - Gshow Globo, Brazil
11:00 AM PST – “Confusion” (Directed by Claire Marie Vogel) - Rolling Stone, USA
1:00 PM PST – “ManUNkind” (Directed by Jonas Åkerlund) – Bravewords, Canada 
3:00 PM PST – “Now That We’re Dead” (Directed by Herring & Herring) – Pitchfork, USA
5:00 PM PST – “Here Comes Revenge” (Directed by Jessica Cope) – Triple M, Australia
7:00 PM PST – “Am I Savage” (Directed by Herring & Herring) – Ro69.JP (Rockin’ On), Japan
9:00 PM PST – “Halo On Fire” (Directed by Herring & Herring) – BiLD/Metal Hammer, Germany
11:00 PM PST – “Murder One” (Directed by Robert Valley) – Le Parisien, France

Thursday, November 17

1:00 AM PST – “Spit Out The Bone” (Directed by Phil Mucci) – NME, England
3:00 AM PST – “Lords of Summer” (Directed by Brett Murray) – Aftonbladet, Sweden

[LUKIE]

I heard the third song the other day on Andrew Haug and it was really not great.

[Hellraiser]

Statement from Dennis Ward's Facebook page about the future of Unisonic (the band featuring Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske):
 

Quote

To all Unisonic fans that have been messaging me in regards to the fate of Unisonic's future I can only say this: there will definitely not be any new Unisonic release before 2019. This is not a guarantee that we will or will not continue. Only time will tell.

Until then I can only wish Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen all the best with the reunion of Helloween. I know that the fans have been waiting for this moment for quite some time and it was always clear to me, from the beginning when I established the group unisonic, that this reunion might eventually come to be. I too look forward to seeing all the guys on stage together making history.

As for me I will continue doing what I've been doing for the past 30 years: writing, producing, and recording rock 'n' roll. Pink cream 69 has signed a new deal with the label Frontiers and will deliver a new album to be released the summer of 2017. Fortunately I am also actively working with a few other musicians on other projects for the near future. Stay tuned and I hope to give more details as the time comes. Peace, love and lots of beer!

So no new Unisonic album before 2019 and the band may or may not be done. I assume no new Helloween or Gamma Ray records as well. That is frustrating.

Edit: An official Statement from the Unisonic Facebook page:
 

Quote

Hi to all UNISONIC fans!

As most of you have heard already, HELLOWEEN will team up with Kai & Michael for the PUMPKINS UNITED world tour 2017/2018.
Many, many fans all over the world have been waiting for this event for over 20 years, and with no doubt this will be a historical gathering in the metal universe! Being their musical legacy, this tour is very important for Michael & Kai, but we want to make clear that this is definitely NOT the end of UNISONIC!!!
We´ll take a break for a while and each one of us will continue his individual activities, but as soon as the PUMPKINS UNITED world tour is over we will close the line-up gap with a permanent drummer and start working on our third studio album.

UNISONIC will stay around!

So they are not done. But still no new album before 2019.

Edited November 18, 2016 by Hellraiser

[DFF]

That's fair enough really, given the situation.

[Hellraiser]

21 hours ago, DFF said:

That's fair enough really, given the situation.

Do they really need 11 months to prepare for 1 tour? This isn't like Michael Jackson't "This is It" where they have a big production with different sets, dancers, choreographies and everything. My guess is that it'll be like any other Helloween gig just that it will be 3 hours long and 5 guys instead of 7. Which is cool in my book.

An for all fans of Italian Epic Power Metal:
Apparently there is another version of Rhapsody Of Fire now simply called "Rhapsody". Current "Luca Turilli's Rhapsody" members Luca Turilli himself, bassist Patrice Guers and rhythm guitarist Dominique Leurquin (all of them have been members of the original Rhapsody) have reunited with former Rhapsody Of Fire members vocalist Fabio Lione and drummer Alex Holzwarth  to play songs from the first few albums of Rhapsody. In particular they are going to play the band's 2nd album "Symphony Of Enchanted Lands" in its entirety. The whole thing will be called "20th Anniversary Farwell Tour" and they will simply refer to themselves as "Rhapsody" without the "on Fire" suffix or the "Luca Turilli's" prefix.

Source: Blabbermouth.net

This whole thing is funny because from the 5 musicians listed above only 2 actually played on the first 3 records of the band. That would be Luca Turilli and Fabio Lione. I know you could argue that the guys in the rhythm section of Rhapsody have always been replacable so it doesn't really matter who is on bass and drums. And I suppose you're right. The most important members of Rhapsody have always been Lione, Turilli and Staropoli. Which brings us to the main problem: Staropoli isn't involved. You can't really do a proper farewell tour for a band if one of it's key members is not going to be involved in it. It's like having an Iron Maiden farewell tour without Steve Harris.

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2016 by Hellraiser

[DFF]

Doom vs Stoner II have made their first announcement for next year: