Sabaton Switches Venues
Due to the closure of The Prague, Swedish rockers Sabaton have moved their one and only exclusive headline show to a new bigger venue – The Corner Hotel. The gig is on Sunday January 13, 2013 and Sabaton will be supported by Eyefear and Black Majesty. Eyefear are currently tearing it up with the brilliant The Inception Of Darkness, while Black Majesty’s latest is Stargazer, a killer and slightly stripped-back take on their melodic power metal awesomeness.
Devin Townsend Gets Freaky With Your Retinae
Over the weekend Devin Townsend performed his one-off Retinal Circus show in London. Sold out for a year, this multimedia extravaganza visited material from throughout Devy’s career, including tracks from Infinity, Ocean Machine, Synchestra, Addicted!, Physicist, Epicloud, Ziltoid The Omniscient and Deconstruction, and it’ll be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2013. It included narration from Devy’s mentor Steve Vai, appearances by Anneke van Giersbergen, Ziltoid himself, gymnasts …oh and Jed Motherfucking Simon from Strapping Young Motherfucking Lad, playing SYL classics Detox and Love? – the first time Devy’s performed these songs since disbanding SYL! Devin says quite categorically that this doesn’t mean SYL is getting back together or that he’ll start playing Strapping material in his sets – it was a true one-off. But of course, focusing on two SYL songs played in a huge night of chaotic wonder is really an injustice, as those who watched the official stream or were there on the night will attest.
Happy Anniversary, Doro
Legendary Ex-Warlock singer Doro Pesch is back with a new album called Raise Your Fist, released in anticipation of her 30th anniversary of rocking the world (although seriously, have you seen Doro? She doesn’t look a day over 28).
Dweezil Designs Frank Zappa Tribute Guitar
Dweezil Zappa has just unveiled his latest axe as he prepares to hit the road with a stripped-down Zappa Plays Zappa band in Europe and North America in November and December: it’s a recreation of Frank Zappa’s famous Roxy-era Gibson SG, with the same modifications Frank had had done to the guitar at the time of the Roxy and Elsewhere shows in 1973. Dweezil says: “Hopefully, fans will be able to get to own one of these in the near future. It is an exact replica of Frank’s Roxy era guitar which started its life as an SG Special with P90s and no trem. Frank tweaked it a lot in the early 70s and it morphed into this by ’74. It later ended up with a mirror pick guard over the whole body and some advanced electronics. I decided to have it reproduced to match Roxy/Apostrophe era since this is how the guitar looked and functioned at that time.” I know there are lot of fellow guitar nuts reading this column, but they’ll all have to get in line behind me. Heheh.
Evil Elvis Has Just Entered The Building
Canadian horror-billy king Evil Elvis (ex- KC & The Moonshine Band) is set to pull out a no holds barred tour as he play’s some of the most prestigious venues in Australia this November, including my beloved Potbelly in Canberra (I went to uni there – awesome metal scene in Canberra back in the day, by the way …Psychrist, Alchemist, Destroyer 666, Armoured Angel, Henry’s Anger… thems was the days. But I digress). In Melbourne he’ll be decimating the Cherry Bar on November 10 with The Workinghorse Irons and Shadow League.
Robert Plant Joins Bluesfest Roster
Robert Plant – y’know, Led Zeppelin and all that – has been added to the bill for the Byron Bay Bluesfest! Freaking stoked about this. Have you heard his album The Mighty Rearranger? Incredible stuff. He currently plays some of that stuff in his live sets with The Sensational Space Shifters Band, as well as plenty of Led Zeppelin tracks–- a recent setlist includes Zep cuts Friends, Black Dog, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, Gallows Pole, Ramble On, Whole Lotta Love, Going To California and Rock And Roll in addition to Plant originals and various covers.
New Stone Sour Rockin’ The Rak
Yesterday I was on Toorak Road (picking up some Mexican for dinner, woo!) and I heard something familiar blasting out of a passing car: the killer new Stone Sour album, House of Gold & Bones Part 1. Great to hear it being blasted out of a car that’s not being driven by me. Have you got this thing yet? Phwoar. Corey Taylor and James Root seem to be bringing more and more of that Slipknot aggression into Stone Sour, and stripping away any last elements of ‘FM rock radio’ that the band may once have had. And it’s killer to hear Skid Row’s Rachel Bolan on bass, adding some of that same attitude that helped Slave To The Grind to drag Skid Row out of the Hair Metal bin and into the Pissed Off Bruisers bin.
