BLACK MAJESTY MUSICLAND RESIDENCY
Celebrating more than a decade of Black Majesty, the band will play a special run of hometown Melbourne shows live at Musicland every Thursday in May, starting on Thursday May 1. Black Majesty will hit the stage at about 9.30pm. In other news, Black Majesty are currently putting the final touches on their sixth studio album expected for release later in the year. More info at blackmajesty.com
TWO FROM BURIED IN VERONA
Buried In Verona are supporting their new album Faceless with aten-date national tour which kicked off last week and will make their way to Melbourne for two shows, at Plastic on Thursday April 24 (18+) and at Arrow on Swanston on Friday April 25 (all ages). Joining Buried In Verona for the shows will be US buzzed and new comers Fit For A King, Melbourne’s Feed Her To The Sharks and Ocean Grove.
WHAT ARE BABY ANIMALS COOKING UP?
Check out the Baby Animals Facebook page (facebook.com/babyanimalsmusic) for a video snippet of a new and very sombre-sounding track.
ZAKK WYLDE SCORES HIGHEST EVER OZ CHART DEBUT
Congratulations to Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society for scoring their highest ever official Australian ARIA chart debut (coming in at #31) and highest ever first week sales for Catacombs of the Black Vatican. I asked Zakk what kind of headspace he was in for the recording of the album. “We just went in with the mindset of, ‘We’re just gonna steal everything from all our favourite bands.’ Black Sabbath, Les Zeppelin, The Eagles, The Allman Brothers, Bob Seger, Creedence, Elton John, the Stones. We just put a grocery list together and said we’d steal each one of ‘em. It’ll be a good formula because we know at least they were successful. I mean, you steal to the point of, instead of stealing Stairway To Heaven we just changed it to The Stairway To Heaven. If you use the title ‘The’ in it, it usually alters it completely. Look, if we’ve gotta give ‘em ten percent of the publishing, fine!”
MORBID ANGEL THIS WEEK
If you’re reading this on Wednesday April 23, you still have a few hours to grab a ticket for Morbid Angel performing the Covenant album in its entirety at The Hi-Fi with Belligerent Intent. Covenant was the first death metal album released on a major label, 21 years ago. So where does vocalist/bassist David Vincent see the album’s legacy? “We always did what we wanted to do and we weren’t looking at what other people were doing to set a course for what we were going to do. We always looked inward for inspiration. I’m thankful for that. Probably at the time we were all very determined and we were confident in what we were doing but I don’t know that we knew that it would do what it ended up doing. But again, I’m thankful for it.”
SKID ROW, UGLY KID JOE & DEAD CITY RUINS THIS WEEK
Ugly Kid Joe and Skid Row are touring in late April with the awesome Dead City Ruins, who are also serving as support for the European tour. They’ll be at the Palace Theatre on Friday April 25. Tickets from Oztix or Ticketek. “The whole band has been big fans of both bands since we were all teenagers,” Dead City Ruins vocalist Jake Wiffen says. “And to tour with those guys in Europe was just unbelievable. They’re such cool guys, no rock-star attitudes or anything. They really helped us out.” It’ll be one of the last shows ever at the Palace, which will close a few weeks later. Dead City Ruins’ new album – recorded with US engineer James Lugo (Iron Maiden, Bruce Springsteen, Dokken) – is out now. Recorded at Melbourne’s Pony Music, it’s a road-ready, energetic slab of rock that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is never afraid to rock. “I’ve been inspired by a lot of early punk bands, Jake says. “And you can’t just run ProTools and clean everything up and still have that human element there. To me there’s no heart and soul in that. I’d rather listen to someone’s vocals with a few pitches going out and a few bum notes on the guitar, but really feel like you’re in a sweaty bar with that band watching them life than to hear something that’s totally perfect. Music is about heart and soul and I believe everyone can tell when something’s real and when something’s digitised.”
