Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

What in the hell?  Just when you thought this week couldn't get any worse, it does.  We've had three straight days of major musical losses.  First, we had Mike Howe of Metal Church on Sunday, then we had Joey Jordison yesterday, and the reaper strikes for the third day in a row, as it has sadly taken ZZ Top legend Dusty Hill.  Wow.  The legendary bassist passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 72.  His cause of death is unknown, but he did recently undergo hip replacement, which caused him to miss some of the band's U.S shows.  R.I.P. Dusty, and thank you for all the amazing music.

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

Wow, what is going on?  Yesterday, we find out that Mike Howe of Metal Church passes away, and now we get hit with another death of a big name, and this is truly a big one.  Joey Jordison, former drummer of Slipknot has passed away at the age of 46.  Way too young.  His cause of death remains unclear at the moment, but he has been battling some health issues for the past few years like acute transverse myelitis.  He was a founding member of Slipknot, as well as one of the main songwriters, and played on the first four albums from the self-titled debut up to All Hope Is Gone, until he was dismissed from the band in 2013.  We send our deepest condolences to Joey's family, friends and fans across the globe.  R.I.P. Joey.

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

It has already been a month since Bullet For My Valentine gave the first taste of their upcoming self-titled seventh studio album, due for release on October 22nd, with the first single "Knives".  For me, the song hardly did anything.  It had a pretty decent main riff, but it was lacking soul.  However, the band just released another track called "Parasite", which is the album's opening track.  This one is definitely better, with great riffing, some clean vocals, and it's got a solo.  The first time since Venom a solo was heard in Bullet.  Listen to it below.

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

Time to start your morning with some good ol' fashioned melodic hard rock, and who better to listen to than Eclipse?  Down below, you can watch the music video for their brand new single "Bite The Bullet", which comes from their forthcoming eighth studio album called Wired, which is due to be released on October 8th through Frontiers Music srl.  Back in May, the band premiered the first official single from the album "Saturday Night (Hallelujah)", which got us all in a party mood, and it's a song we all needed at the time.

"Bite The Bullet" contains one of the heaviest sounding riffs from Eclipse in a while, but it's still in the vein that we've come to expect from them.  Wired follows 2019's Paradigm, and is also the first to feature bassist Victor Crusner, who is the brother of drummer Philip Crusner.  You can also check out the album artwork below, which is a shot from the "Saturday Night" video, as well as the track listing.  When you look at the album cover, it just speaks "rock n roll", and it kind of reminds me of Raven's Rock Until You Drop.

Wired track listing:

01.  Roses On Your Grave
02.  Dying Breed
03.  Saturday Night (Hallelujah)
04.  Run For Cover
05.  Carved In Stone
06.  Twilight
07.  Poison Inside My Heart
08.  Bite The Bullet
09.  We Didn't Come To Lose
10.  Things We Love
11.  Dead Inside (Bonus track)

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

Just a couple of days ago, Iron Maiden released the new single "The Writing On The Wall", which said that a new album announcement was imminent, and now, here it is!  Maiden studio album #17 is ready to be unleashed before summer's end.  For this album, they took inspiration from Japan, and have named the album Senjutsu, which translates to "tactics and strategy", and will be released September 3rd.  They also revealed the new cover artwork, and the track listing, which also includes the writing credits and time lengths.  It was once again produced by Kevin Shirley, so we already know what the production will sound like.  It was also recorded back in 2019 in Paris at Guillaume Tell Studios once again where they recorded Brave New World and Book Of Souls.

Looking at the track listing, there are four songs written purely by Steve Harris, making this the first time a Maiden album had more than one song written purely by him since Virtual XI.  Whether this also turns out to be Maiden's last studio album remains to be seen, but either way, a new Maiden album is always exciting, regardless of the amount of long songs.

Senjutsu track listing:

01.  Senjutsu (Smith Harris) (8:20)
02.  Stratego (Gers/Harris) (4:59)
03.  The Writing On The Wall (Smith/Dickinson) (6:13)
04.  Lost In A Lost World (Harris) (9:31)
05.  Days Of Future Past (Smith/Dickinson) (4:03)
06.  The Time Machine (Gers/Harris) (7:09)
07.  Darkest Hour (Smith/Dickinson) (7:20)
08.  Death Of The Celts (Harris) (10:20)
09.  The Parchment (Harris) (12:39)
10.  Hell On Earth (Harris) (11:19)

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

As if a new song by Iron Maiden wasn't enough, U.D.O. have premiered the video for their brand new single "Metal Never Dies", which is taken from their forthcoming album Game Over, which will be released October 22 through AFM Records.  It's straight-ahead U.D.O. just like we'd expect.  As cliche as the title is, it's a great song musically, but not exactly the best song vocally.  The vocal melodies just don't seem captivating.  Take a listen for yourselves and see if you like it.

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

Over the last few weeks, it seemed like Iron Maiden have been cryptically teasing something with the name Belshazzar's Feast.  However, the speculation ended just now, and it turns out that it's a brand new track called "The Writing On The Wall", making this Maiden's first taste of new music in 6 years since Book Of Souls.  The song was written by Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson, and the animated music video can be watched below.  This 100% confirms that Maiden have a new album ready to be released later this year.  We'll see whether the title turns out to be Belshazzar's Feast.  This tune is super catchy!