21 years ago today (July 30, 2003) SARSStock was held at Downsview Park in Toronto featuring The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and the Guess Who. 450,000 people gathered for Canada’s biggest-ever concert to help the city’s economy get back on its feet after the outbreaks of the deadly respiratory disease SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) earlier in the year. The Stones donated half of their merchandising profits to the SARS relief fund, and $1 from each ticket sale and the net profits of official merchandise also went to the fund.
Happy 59th THE ROLLING STONES’ Out Of Our Heads – July 30th, 1965 Fuelled by the band’s first US #1 hit, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, London Records released THE ROLLING STONES’ Out Of Our Heads, 57 years ago today (July 30th, 1965).
Happy 28th ALICE IN CHAINS’ Unplugged – July 30, 1996
Happy 22nd DEF LEPPARD’s X – July 30th, 2002
Happy 14th BLIND GUARDIAN’s At The Edge Of Time – July 30th, 2010
Happy 12th MASSACRE’s Condemned To The Shadows – July 30th, 2012 DEVILISH IMPRESSIONS’ Simulacra – July 30th, 2012
Happy 11th FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH’s The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1 – July 30th, 2013 CHIMAIRA’s Crown of Phantoms – July 30th, 2013
Happy 3rd AXEL RUDI PELL’s Diamonds Unlocked II – July 30, 2021 DEE SNIDER’s Leave A Scar – July 30, 2021 GEEZER BUTLER’s Manipulations Of The Mind – The Complete Collection – July 30, 2021 THE GHOST INSIDE’s Rise From The Ashes: Live At The Shrine – July 30, 2021 LOCH VOSTOK’s Opus Ferox – The Great Escape – July 30, 2021 NETHERBIRD’s Arete – July 30, 2021 SEETHER’s Wasteland – The Purgatory EP – July 30, 2021 SWALLOW THE SUN’s 20 Years Of Gloom, Beauty And Despair – Live In Helsinki – July 30, 2021
“If people thought last season was big and wild, just wait.” Jamie Campbell Bower teases ‘gnarly’ new season of Stranger Things, reveals bands he’s using to get back into character as Vecna
(Image credit: YouTube / Netflix)
Vecna has a metal band. Alright, technically it’s actor Jamie Campbell Bower who is the founder and frontman of BloodMagic, but there’s something undeniably exciting about the idea of a band helmed by the big bad behind Stranger Things.
So naturally, in the latest issue of Metal Hammerwe caught up with Jamie and drummer Kyle Adams to find out how they’re bringing this new group to life, and what their plans are for the future after releasing the distinctive – and decidedly cinematic – music video for Death / Rebirth in April.
Hammer couldn’t resist asking about the pair’s influences, and how Jamie’s work on Stranger Things – including the revelation that he listens to Darkthrone and Mayhem to get into character as Vecna – might have had an impact on the music he is now making.
You’ve mentioned in interviews previously about the music you listen to, to get into character as Vecna – has that had any bleed-in to this project?
Jamie Campbell Bower [vocals]: “I certainly tried! I gave it a good fucking go. With the music we reference in BloodMagic and the kinds of bands I’d refer to in relation to us – Deftones, Every Time I Die, Bush – a lot of that stuff can’t be replicated. It exists in and of itself and can’t be put anywhere else. I would certainly say tonally and thematically, the music I consume both when working on Stranger Things and outside of it, it’s a case of me going ‘great, all the darkness can go into here now’.
That certainly has an effect on what we’re doing, but you can’t listen to Sunn O))) and then go ‘this is great, let’s do this’ because they’re their own thing. We can certainly get excited about a certain tone or moment that subconsciously matches the energy of what we’re doing, for sure. We’re trying to be our own thing. If I could die and be reborn as someone else of course I’d like to be in Norma Jean, or Darkher, or Frayle. That’d be amazing! But no, we want to be distinct from those artists even if we love what they say and what they’re about.”
How’s the work on Stranger Things looking for you right now?
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Jamie: “It looks amazing! I obviously can’t say too much, but if people thought last season was big and wild, just wait. This season is gnarly – we’ve got some amazing creative people on board and it’s good fun, even if it’s hard work. It’s interesting coming back to a character that I’ve played before, but with development. The only other time I’ve been able to do that was with Twilight, and I was young and dumb playing a grumpy old vampire ha ha. With this there’s still a human to consider so it’s really interesting to go through development with that character.”
What are you listening to, to get back into character?
Jamie: “I listened to a lot of Frayle yesterday to get back into character. I’ve fallen in love with them. It’s interesting, because last season I was consuming a lot of dark black metal stuff, Revenge and more spacey stuff like Sunn O))). [This time] I found myself edging towards folk music, so I was like ‘I wonder if there’s a world where these things combine’ and that’s how I discovered Darkher.
She fits the bill perfectly within that. Through Darkher I got into Frayle and I really like the energy that’s in that and how grounding it is. Don’t get me wrong – there are times I still need the fastest, loudest death rattle I can possibly find, but there are times I need that grounding.”
Who are the most important band in rock and metal right now?
Kyle Adams [drums]: “Honestly, you know who I really like? The band Nothing More, their last album Spirits is fucking unreal. I’d heard of them before in the past, then heard the songs from Spirits and thought ‘these are pretty cool’, but when I heard the whole album it made me realise they’re really doing something different. Something very proggy, but melding it with pop and radio sensibilities that feels groundbreaking to me. I don’t know what bands are helping sounds to evolve right now, but they’re the first band I’ve heard in the heavy rock and metal world that’s doing something so different.”
Jamie: “I don’t think I could answer that question and leave this interview feeling happy with myself. Ha ha! I have very dear friends in bands like Architects, Bring Me The Horizon and Empire State Bastard, so I’m always overjoyed when I see them doing something new and exciting. I love watching my friends and people who are just better than me inspiring me. I was listening to [Bring Me The Horizon’s] Suicide Season again the other day and the title track from that album is so good! I’m used to listening to like Chelsea Smile or whatever but when that comes in, it’s so of its time and its scene.”
Kyle: “Oh man, one more band that comes to mind is Biffy Clyro – they’re always breaking new ground. I love Biffy so much and every record is so unique and not what you’d expect. Even going back for a second, third listen, there’s stuff you completely forget that they do. It’s something magical they have.”
Staff writer for Metal Hammer, Rich has never met a feature he didn’t fancy, which is just as well when it comes to covering everything rock, punk and metal for both print and online, be it legendary events like Rock In Rio or Clash Of The Titans or seeking out exciting new bands like Nine Treasures, Jinjer and Sleep Token.
Black metal collective Tribulation have announced their next studio album.
Sub Rosa In Æternum will come out on November 1 via Century Media Records.
The band have accompanied the news with the release of second single Tainted Skies. Listen to the new track and watch its music video below.
Guitarist Adam Zaars comments: “The old and the new. Tainted Skies is a fairly straightforward Tribulation song written by Joseph [Tholl, guitars].
“He gives the whole sound his own spin and takes us through murky depths and shadowy skies, from death to new life.”
The track listing of Sub Rosa In Æternum is yet to be released, but the album will feature recent single Saturn Coming Down.
When put out in June, the track revealed that Tribulation were pursuing a more psychedelic sound than their usual goth/black metal ways. The band have also shed their corpse paint, which had long been a key part of their appearance.
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Sub Rosa In Æternum will be the first Tribulation album since Where The Gloom Becomes Sound in 2021.
It will also be the band’s second studio offering without founding guitarist Jonathan Hultén, following the 2023 EP Hamartia.
Hultén left Tribulation in 2020 to more fully pursue a solo career.
Before the release of Sub Rosa In Æternum, Tribulation will tour North America with progressive metal favourites Opeth. See the full list of announced dates below.
(Image credit: Century Media Records)
Opeth / Tribulation 2024 North American tour:
Oct 11: Milwaukee The Rave / Eagles Club, WI Oct 12: Cleveland Agora Theater & Ballroom, OH Oct 14: Toronto Queen Elizabeth Theatre, ON Oct 15: Montréal L’Olympia, QC Oct 16: Worcester Palladium, MA Oct 18: Brooklyn Kings Theatre, NY Oct 19: Pittsburgh Stage AE, PA Oct 20: Washington, DC, Warner Theatre Oct 22: Atlanta Tabernacle, GA Oct 23: New Orleans Fillmore New Orleans, LA Oct 24: Austin Emo’s Austin, TX Oct 25: Dallas Majestic Theatre, TX Oct 27: Denver Mission Ballroom, CO Oct 29: Phoenix The Van Buren, AZ Oct 30: Los Angeles YouTube Theater, CA Oct 31: San Francisco The Warfield, CA
“The chief of police came up to me in the cell and went, Is this the Englander who’s accused of beating up punks? Then he bent down and said, Good for you, mate.” Joe Strummer on the night a Clash gig turned into a bloody band versus audience riot
(Image credit: Virginia Turbett/Redferns)
In 1977, on The Clash’s debut single, White Riot, vocalist/guitarist Joe Strummer sang about wanting “a riot of my own” . He wouldn’t have to wait terribly long to get one. In fact, before the year was out, the 11th hour cancellation of his band’s scheduled debut Belfast gig, on the aptly-titled Out Of Control tour, resulted in punks facing off in the streets against the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
This skirmish, however, was nothing compared to the violence the band would encounter two-and-a-half years later while performing in Hamburg, West Germany.
“The first time we went there this guy was undoing my Doc Martens all night as we played, Strummer recalled in a 1988 interview with Musician magazine. “About the fifth time I said, The next time you touch it I’ll do you, ’cause I’m trying to sing.’ He touched me again, so I kicked him in the head. After the show I was in the washroom and he was washing blood off his face.”
When The Clash returned to the city on May 5, 1980, to play a sold-out show at the Markthalle venue, punks outside the venue were already involved in running battles with the local police. In Marcus Gray’s Clash biography Return Of The Last Gang In Town, Adrian Whittaker, an English Clash fan living in the city, explained that Hamburg’s anarcho-punk squat community were in constant conflict with the authorities, and they had attempted to crash into the gig for free, to berate the band for “selling out” their punk principles.
“They tried to get in free, couldn’t, sat down in the main road outside, and brought traffic to a standstill,” Whittaker said. “They got cleared away by riot police, and, tempers fraying, besieged the doors again.”
A decision was taken to allow the gatecrashers in, in an attempt to defuse the situation, and ward off violence, but the punks were still not satisfied. Individuals kept storming the stage, grabbing the mics, and berating the London band for various perceived ‘betrayals’.
“We were seen as worse than the Eagles stylistically,” Strummer told Musician. “They said, ‘Right, we’ll turn up and give ’em a good kicking. ’ We let ’em in the gig and then it was either have a pitched battle or attempt to play the set. In the end we had to get down and slug it out with them.”
On the audio recording of the gig, ironically, during an extremely ragged version of I Fought The Law, you can hear Strummer get into an altercation with one ‘fan’.
“I was playing and I saw this guy, sort of using the guy in front of him as a punch-bag, trying to be all tough,” Strummer later explained to NME. “So I rapped him on the head with a Telecaster, I just lost my temper. And there was blood gushing down in front of his face. It wasn’t much of a cut, but it looked a real horror show. And the howl out of the audience – you shoulda heard it.”
Before playing the next song on the set-list, White Man in Hammersmith Palais, Mick Jones quoted the lyric “You think it’s funny, turning rebellion into money”, and told the crowd, “We’re not here for money, we’re here to play”, and offered to refund the price of admission to the most unruly crowd members, a very generous offer bearing in mind that they hadn’t actually paid to get in. His offer was applauded, but the heckling and violence continued. Before long, the venue turned into a pitched battle between the band and their most vocal opponents.
“It was like being a professional wrestler,” Strummer told Musician. “The band and crew got down on the dance floor with the punks and started to battle en masse. Meanwhile the innocent burghers of Hamburg were standing around the edges on little raised tiers, still watching. As the fight was going on I was thinking, This is ridiculous! One minute you’re in a band and the next you’re slugging it out. It seemed to make no difference to the people watching! I looked up and saw them standing there with the same expressions on their faces. I remember thinking, God! Where will this end?”
The police, inevitably, were summoned once more.
43 years ago todayAssaults, fisticuffs and riots on and off the stageThe Clash, Hamburg Market Hall, May 19, 1980.#punk #punks #punkrock #theclash #history #punkrockhistory #otd pic.twitter.com/ewm5J0eYTvMay 19, 2023
With a laugh, Strummer explained to Musician what happened next.
“While I was waiting to be arrested this giant came backstage and said, ‘You! You are ze one who kicked my face! This time you don’t get away with it! You started that riot! I’m gonna tell the cops!’ I went, Oh my fucking hell! It’s you!”
“Luckily I was stone cold sober when they arrested me,” Strummer continued. “The chief of police came up to me in the cell and went, ‘Is this the Englander who’s accused of beating up punks?’ They went, ‘Yeah. ’ He came over to me and bent down and said, ‘Good for you, mate.’ Then he straightened up and walked away.”
“I began to think that I’d overstepped my mark,” Strummer admitted to NME. “I became very frightened that violence had really taken me over. So since then I’ve decided the only way you can fight aggro in the audience is to play a really boring song.”
Listen to the mayhem unfold during the gig recording below:
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
In 2009 Stranglers bassist JJ Burnel dispelled the myth that punks hated prog, and illustrated his point by telling Prog how a Caravan song had come to heavily influence one of the biggest-selling punk albums of all time.
“I got into listening to prog rock through Dave Greenfield, the Stranglers keyboard player. When he joined the band about a year after me, he would play me a lot of different types of music, including quite a bit of prog – he was a big fan of Yes. And I did grow to like some of the music.
“The problem is: how do you define the term ‘prog rock’? It’s such a broad church, isn’t it? This sort of music has the reputation of being musos’ music – and when we first began that certainly wasn’t what our band was all about. However, I think over the years we’ve become a musos’ band, which has helped me to appreciate what it’s all about.
“I’m not someone who’s dedicated to any one band. I’m more into the songs than anything. And there’s one that always sticks in my mind, because I really believe it to be amazing – In The Land Of Grey And Pink by Caravan, from the 1971 album of the same title.
“The first time I heard the song I’d smoked a lot of dope and it just blew me away. I loved the way it was arranged and the intricacies going on. To me, it was the sort of music in which you could enjoy getting lost. It made such a major impact on me that you can hear the influence running through the Stranglers song Down In The Sewer from our debut album (1977’s Rattus Norvegicus).
What right did Johnny Rotten have to slag off Pink Floyd or Genesis, when he was in a boy band called the Sex Pistols?
“I’m not sure how many people know this, but it’s actually a suite. We put together four different parts to make up the final song, and as such I guess it was a progressive rock number. It’s over seven minutes long – and a lot of the way I arranged the song was down to listening to that Caravan track.
“I think there’s an awful lot of bullshit spoken about what is and isn’t punk or prog rock. Who makes up these rules? There are songs we’ve done over the years that could be seen as prog – and I wouldn’t deny it. Back at the start of the punk explosion, it became cool to slag off prog rock bands in public, because we were all supposed to hate ‘the hippies.’ But what do you think these punk musicians were doing when they got home? Listening to the bands they’d been having a go at!
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Down in the Sewer (Medley) (1996 Remaster) – YouTube
“We got caught up in this nonsense for a short while, but then realised it was a load of toss. What right did Johnny Rotten have to slag off Pink Floyd or Genesis, when he was in a boy band called the Sex Pistols? Once we got out of that rut – having been ostracised by so many of the ‘cool’ punk bands who’d been our friends a few months earlier – we became a lot more open to being honest about what we liked and what we didn’t.
“Another prog rock classic for me is Owner Of A Lonely Heart by Yes. I love the way Trevor Horn arranged it – the sound is stunning. Now, is that regarded as being true prog? It comes back to this whole thing about rules, and putting music into bags. If you really are a fan of progressive rock, then you have to have an open mind for everything.
“When we did the song Walk On By [their Burt Bacharach cover on 1978’s album Black And White], we turned it into something of an epic. Was that a prog rock interpretation? I’d say it probably was – but then somebody else might disagree.
“What is and isn’t prog comes down to your understanding of the term, and how diverse your taste can be. But for me, it always comes back to In The Land Of Grey And Pink. The mere fact that I’m still going on about after all these years shows what sort of an impression it made on me.
“And it doesn’t really matter if I never heard anything else from that band – you can hear the influence in my music.”
“I’d never even met any of the people on this record until the sessions.” English Teacher, Jane Weaver, O. and more to appear on new Speedy Wunderground compilation from producer Dan Carey
(Image credit: Gus Stewart/Redferns | Matt McNulty/Getty Images | O. The Band)
Mercury Prize-nominated indie-rockers English Teacher, Liverpool singer-songwriter Jane Weaver, and South London experimental duo O. are among an eclectic range of artists set to appear on the sixth annual compilation from producer Dan Carey’s influential Speedy Wunderground label.
Scheduled for August 30, the sixth edition of the compilation series will feature eight artists/eight songs, each recorded in a single day by Carey, who has previously worked with artists such as Kae Tempest, Squid, Wet Leg, Fontaines D.C. and more.
The tracklist for the record is:
Side A 1. Lewsberg – Six Hills 2. Jane Weaver – Oblique Fantasy 3. The Queen’s Head – Your God Owes You Money 4. HighSchool – Only a Dream
Side B 1. O. – OGO 2. English Teacher – Song About Love 3. Hot Face – dura dura 4. Tummyache – Circling the Drain
“I’m excited to have this collection ready,” says Carey, label founder, producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and music industry innovator. “There is something that sets this apart from the previous 5 volumes: I had never worked with, and in most cases never even met any of the people on this record until the sessions for these songs.
“There’s a variety in how these collaborations came about. Jane Weaver and Lewsberg are artists that I’d been wanting to work with for a long time, whereas I saw Hot Face at The Windmill one night and just said come over to mine! I have calculated that as a result of this compilation, Speedy Wunderground now has 24 new friends.”
Carey’s label plans to celebrate the release of the compilation with a launch party in London on August 29. The gig, at The Social, will feature performances from Hot Face and Morn, plus a secret headliner act and DJs. Tickets are on sale now, here.
The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
“I don’t want to say that I have sacrificed the band or the music for The Truth, but I’ve held them both very close.” Serj Tankian reflects on a life of truth, activism and System Of A Down
(Image credit: Travis Shinn)
Serj Tankian was at work in his home studio last night, immersed in composing a score for an upcoming Hollywood movie, when he suddenly realised he was not alone. Taking off his headphones, and pausing the action on screen, Serj walked over to join his nine-year-old son on the couch, and asked his boy what he’d been drawing in the sketchbook on his lap. Young Rumi, however, was much more interested in what his father had been watching.
“He was like, ‘There was a gun, some girls, and some sexy stuff happening there, what is that?’” Serj says, laughing. “I said, ‘Um, it’s inappropriate for you, so you can’t watch it. But it’s a Hollywood film, it’s not real, the gun’s not real’ – you know, kinda explaining it. And he’s like, ‘Oh, OK’, and off he goes again, happy. It’s funny, you don’t lay out plans to explain how the world works to a kid, but questions come when you least expect them, so then you have to deal with it.”
It’s a cute anecdote that illustrates that, beyond the public profile of Serj Tankian – identified on his Wikipedia page as a singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and political activist – there exists a father, a husband, a human being. ‘I am large, I contain multitudes’, the great American poet and essayist Walt Whitman once wrote, an acknowledgment that we are all more complex than the persona that others see.
And over the past couple of years, System Of A Down’s frontman has been doing some self-analysis of his own, seeking to find out who he really is by drilling down into his family history, and his own life journey, in order to write what he calls an “accidentally hatched philosophical memoir”, Down With The System.
Unfortunately, and somewhat unusually, the book’s publishers were unable to send us a copy ahead of our conversation with the 56-year-old musician – the author puts this down to the fact that their lawyers are still poring over the manuscript, pre-publication – but Serj tells us that it’s about “lessons learned, the intersection of justice and spirituality, and moral implications”, and says that writing it provided him with “incredible free therapy sessions”.
“If the book never comes out,” he says serenely, “I’m already grateful, because I’ve already benefited greatly from it.”
Serj Tankian – Justice Will Shine On – Official Music Video – YouTube
One story that you won’t find included in Down With The System involves Serj Tankian and his System Of A Down bandmates – guitarist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan – hanging out in the world’s oldest toy shop, Hamleys in London, in November 1998.
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The band were in the capital to play their first ever UK gigs, opening for Slayer and Sepultura across three consecutive nights at the 2,000-capacity London Astoria, and this writer was tasked with taking the quartet Christmas shopping, for a magazine feature. Wide-eyed, excitable, loud and friendly, the four young musicians rampaged around the huge, multi-floor shop wearing Santa hats and reindeer antler deely boppers until, after dissolving into fits of laughter when Daron swiped hundreds of vibrating furry toys onto the floor, security politely requested we vacate the premises.
I mention this because, within three years, System Of A Down had a No.1 album on the US Billboard 200 chart (2001’s Toxicity) and were receiving death threats for their political views – an indication of just how fast things move, and how quickly one can lose one’s innocence working in the music industry. This subject matter is, unsurprisingly, included in Down With The System.
As Serj recalls, the shit first hit the fan for his band when, days after the terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001, he published an essay online titled Understanding Oil, which sought to offer some perspective on Al-Qaida’s motivations.
“Terror is not a spontaneous human action without credence,” Serj wrote. “People just don’t hijack planes and commit harikari (suicide) without any weight of thought to the action. No one in the media seems to ask WHY DID THESE PEOPLE DO THIS HORRIFIC ACT OF VIOLENCE AND DESTRUCTION?”
With the scars of 9/11 still raw, not everyone was ready to receive such insight, and the backlash against the singer’s essay continued long after he appeared on The Howard Stern Show to add greater context to his words. As System Of A Down received credible threats that venues on their US tour for Toxicity would be bombed, Serj’s bandmates asked him, “Are you trying to get us killed?”
“Guys, I’m so sorry, I love you all,” Serj answered. “And of course I don’t want any harm to come to any of us, but I’m telling the truth.”
“We know it’s the truth,” came the reply, “but you don’t have to always say it!”
The singer is adamant that, whatever the consequences, he will continue to speak truth to power. Prompted today, he’ll touch upon Israel’s war on Gaza (“the number of women and children killed is unforgivable… whether it’s called genocide or ethnic cleansing is for the courts ultimately to decide’) and US politics (“Donald Trump is an absolute maniac… very dangerous”), fully aware that such comments will alienate millions.
“It’s who I am,” he says simply. “I’ve been an activist before becoming an artist, and for me, without the truth we are lost. I state in the book that there are times where the guys would say, ‘You care more about Armenia, or politics, or justice, than you do about the band’, and I would say, ‘No’, but maybe they were right, in a way. I don’t want to say that I have sacrificed the band or the music for The Truth, but I’ve held them both very close.
“And I don’t think that we should live in a world where one is competing with the other, I don’t think we should live in a world where the truth has to be compromised for entertainment’s purpose. That’s a fucked-up world, and I don’t want to be in that world. “At the time I wrote that essay, I was naive enough to believe that in a democracy, the truth will stand on its own, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t.”
(Image credit: Travis Shinn)
Today, Serj is speaking to us from his home in Los Angeles. And frankly, given the length of the ‘to do’ list he casually rolls off – the singer is currently scoring two films and a documentary series; he’s got an EP, Foundations, coming out in September, and another record of covers and collaborations in the works; he’s opening an art gallery/cafe here in LA; and is making plans to expand his AVAT (pronounced ‘Kah-vaught’) coffee line – we’re surprised he has the time.
“Sometimes it can be overwhelming, sure, but mostly, it’s incredibly fun,” he says. “I don’t overthink it, I wake up every morning and I’m excited about the opportunities and options that I have to be creative.”
You may notice here that there’s no mention of System Of A Down on Serj’s current itinerary, but by the time you read this, the singer will have re-grouped with his bandmates to co-headline the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas – alongside Slipknot – for the second consecutive year, and the quartet also have a huge co-headline show with Deftones lined up on August 17 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
“I really enjoyed Sick New World last year, so when the opportunity came up this year again, I said I’d love to do it,” he says. “And everyone was shocked. They were like, ‘Wait, the guy who doesn’t want to tour wants to play that show again?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s one show, it’s not the fucking Groundhog Day of touring.’ I’m not discounting the band touring again, by the way, but it’s got to be right for everyone.”
“And making new music together,” he adds with a rueful smile, “is another conversation.”
The smile that accompanies that last comment is indicative of the fact that System Of A Down’s relationship status remains ‘complicated’. Serj Tankian is many things, but he is not a stupid man, and he is fully aware that for fans of the band, and indeed members of the band, this is a source of some irritation.
The subject is not off-limits at all – Serj doesn’t duck a single question thrown at him today, and his pride in his band is evident in the numerous RIAA multi-platinum certification awards for SOAD’s albums that hang on the white walls behind him. But when he says, “all of this is handled in the book, not that I’m trying to advertise it on the basis”, it’s an acknowledgment that there is a lot to untangle here.
When we mention an interview that John Dolmayan gave last year with the Battleline Podcast, in which he said that the singer “hasn’t really wanted to be in the band for a long time”, and bluntly stated “we probably should have parted ways around 2006”, there’s the mildest flash of anger in Serj’s eyes.
“John means the world to me, he’s my brother-in-law, I love him, and I saw him just yesterday, but there are times he’s got mad and said fucking shit,” he says. “And look, there’s times I’ve gotten mad and said fucking shit, too. The option has always been there for the band to move on without me, and John knows that.
“In the end, to me System Of A Down is beyond the band, it’s our relationship together. And it means more to me than the band itself, or even the music itself. And that is hard for other people, maybe even other people in the band, to understand. But, as I saw from the stage at Sick New World last year, the multi-generational appeal of the music we have made is mind-blowing, bro. Our music is more timeless than we ever imagined, and that is the hugest compliment for any artist.”
Oh, and there is new System Of A Down music coming, in a way. Serj’s upcoming Foundations EP will include at least one song written for the band in their early days, but never previously released, and a brace of tracks left off Serj’s first solo album, 2007’s Elect The Dead. They’re being released this year, he says, because revisiting his past for his memoir led him to dig into his song vaults, too.
And, having put out a doom metal single, Deconstruction, with Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi last year, Serj says he’s open to future collaborations, naming Tom Waits and Eminem as just two of the artists he’d love to work with.
“Making music for me isn’t heavy lifting,” he says. “When I have downtime, and I’m not watching a movie, or painting, or playing with my son, or our beautiful Bernedoodle, I’ll mic up my piano and just play some free unselfconscious music. I relax through music too, this is what I do.”
“Deconstruction” featuring Serj Tankian, Tony Iommi & Cesar Gueikian (Official Lyric Video) – YouTube
Before parting, we feel compelled to ask if there’s anything that Serj Tankian can’t do. And it turns out that there is. “I had a failed dream of becoming a farmer,” he laughs.
“We have a farm in New Zealand, but my neighbour out there tells me [puts on convincing Kiwi accent], ‘You’re the shittiest farmer I’ve ever seen, mate!’ He tells me everything that needs to be done – ‘Those trees need cut, mate, and those fences need fixed’ – and I’ll get in people to do it. My wife laughs at me, because she’s a great landscape gardener and I’m useless. New Zealand is a great escape from the fucking LA rat race, everything is so clean compared to in The Big Smoke, but man, it’s no holiday when I’m there, no Club Med beach break!”
By his own admission, Serj has never been afraid of work, and his enthusiasm and passion for every aspect of his creative life is a joy to observe. So too is his obvious devotion to family life. “I was very much an animal person ’til I had a kid,” he admits, “then focusing on having a child meant that the animals became second-class citizens, to be honest.”
When he reflects upon the fulfilment that his creative endeavours bring him in 2024, he draws an analogy with the simple pleasures that he sees lighting up his little boy’s days.
“Rumi is at an age where he’s absorbing information all the time, and we try to encourage him to see education, and culture, and growth, as a form of a strength to overcome whatever life throws at you. But equally important is the pure joy of care-free play, and the opportunity to explore whatever makes you happy. “The beauty of being an artist is being able to play without being told how to play and in which box to play,” he adds with a smile. “That’s the freedom every artist desires – the freedom with which a child plays.”
Down With The System is out now via Headline (UK) and Hachette Books (US). Foundations is due in September.
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
Time marches on, and with that comes the reality that people come and go.
For bands that are able to stay together for an extended period of time — which is often far more challenging that it sounds — keeping the exact same original lineup of people is close to impossible.
On the one hand, musicians who started their careers five or six decades ago have now reached ages in which physical health can sometimes be a concern. Not everyone can be Willie Nelson, who still tours in his ’90s.
“It’s so awful,” David Coverdale, the last remaining original member of Whitesnake, said in a 2023 interview on Sirius XM (via Blabbermouth), “getting older and having this burden of responsibility to try to be as good as you can so you don’t disappoint anybody.”
Dave Mustaine of Megadeth is another frontman who now finds himself the last man standing from the band’s original lineup.
“[S]ome people have called me a ‘perpetual badass,'” he told VW Music in 2022. “I remember the first time I heard that, and I thought, ‘Wow, that sounds like a Kid Rock album title.’ [Laughs]. But I understand it because when you’re not willing to give up, that’s when a lot of people can start to draw strength from you.”
There are a number of other people in the same boat as Coverdale and Mustaine. Below, we’ve rounded up 30 Bands With One Original Member Left. In some cases, the person happens to be the only one still touring with their group, and in others they’re literally the last person alive from the initial incarnation.
30 Bands With One Original Member Left
It’s down to the last man standing in these groups.
The pair, born a little more than a month apart in 1947, rose to prominence on 1977’s Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf’s multiplatinum debut album that was written and conceived by Steinman as a rock ‘n’ roll musical based on Peter Pan.
Even though the album was produced by Todd Rundgren, it was Steinman who called the shots, from its conceptual center to the Phil Spector-influenced sense of musical grandeur. But where Spector constructed his multi-instrumentalist visions as radio-friendly two-and-a-half-minute pop songs, Steinman took advantage of the boundless FM radio format in the mid-’70s and often pushed his songs to seven, eight or even more minutes.
But there was more to the writer and producer than just Meat Loaf, as you will see in the below list of the Top 10 Jim Steinman Songs. In the ’80s and ’90s, he expanded his widescreen, operatic and often romantic theatrical rock to artists as diverse as Air Supply, Celine Dion, Barry Manilow, the Sisters of Mercy and Billy Squier, and continued to rack up hit songs.
Still, it was Meat Loaf who gave him his final No. 1 when they reunited in 1993 for the belated sequel Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell. Steinman and Meat Loaf died within a year of one another in 2021 and 2022, respectively, their lives inevitably connected until the end.
10. Bonnie Tyler, “Holding Out for a Hero” (1984)
Flush from the success of “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Steinman reunited with Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for a song from the Footloose soundtrack. One of the few Steinman-written and -produced tracks that restrains epic inclinations, if not its length (the single version clocks in at an economical four and a half minutes, but an extended cut runs more than six), “Holding Out for a Hero” is pumped-up mid-’80s synth-pop.
9. Jim Steinman, “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” (1981)
Steinman released only one solo album, 1981’s Bad for Good, which was intended as Meat Loaf’s second LP until the singer underwent vocal issues that temporarily sidelined his career. An uncredited Rory Dodd sings “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through,” a Top 40 hit for Steinman that was later revived for Meat Loaf’s 1993 comeback record, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell. The original is filled with hope.
8. Meat Loaf, “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)” (1977)
The first single from Meat Loaf’s debut album, like the other two songs pulled for release, was trimmed in length to meet radio limits. “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” lost a minute-long intro spoken by Steinman that doesn’t affect much – the track, by Steinman’s standards, is relatively short to begin with. Meat Loaf has said he asked the songwriter to pen a less sprawling song for him. The result: a pop-rock gem.
7. Air Supply, “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” (1983)
Steinman didn’t intend to be tied to just one artist, especially after the delay between Meat Loaf albums. So in 1983, he wrote and produced hit records for Bonnie Tyler and Air Supply, the Australian soft-rock duo that charted seven Top 5 singles since 1980. “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” appeared on their Greatest Hits LP and peaked at No. 2 for three weeks behind “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Another Spector-sized epic.
6. Meat Loaf, “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” (1977)
The breakthrough song from Bat Out of Hell was the last written for the album, a challenge to Steinman by a friend to write something less grandiloquent than most of his songs. While “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” still clocks in at five and a half minutes (the single edit cuts 90 seconds), the relative scaling-back proved to be a key ingredient. The power ballad just missed the Top 10, but its legacy endures.
5. Meat Loaf, “Bat Out of Hell” (1977)
Little surprise Bat Out of Hell sounds like a musical: Steinman pieced it together from a rock version of Peter Pan he wrote for the stage. The title track is the entryway to the album and, as a result, Steinman and Meat Loaf’s worldview. Stretching to nearly 10 minutes, “Bat Out of Hell” sounded unlike anything at the time: a piece of musical theater with rock ‘n’ roll at its core. The album made Meat Loaf a star; this is the start.
4. Celine Dion, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” (1996)
Celine Dion was one of the most commercially successful artists in the world, coming off her second No. 1, when she surprised fans with Steinman’s seven-and-a-half-minute “woman’s song.” “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” caused a rift between the songwriter and Meat Loaf, who wanted to sing it but was legally prevented by Steinman. Dion gives an epic performance, one of her all-time best; not a single note is out of place.
3. Meat Loaf, “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” (1993)
Sixteen years after Bat Out of Hell made Meat Loaf a star and Steinman a hit writer, the pair reconciled for a sequel. Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell was an immediate hit, giving them their only No. 1 LP. Its lead single topped the chart, too. “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” in its album version, runs more than 12 minutes; the single, trimmed by half, loses some of the intensity but none of its romantic propensities.
2. Meat Loaf, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (1977)
Bat Out of Hell‘s centerpiece requires four sections and eight and a half minutes to realize Steinman’s Phil Spector-like vision. A duet between Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley – who chart a couple’s romance from backseat courting to end-of-the-world-praying deliverance – “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” spotlights the LP’s nucleus, from the performers to producer Todd Rundgren to songwriter/conceptual mastermind Steinman.
1. Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (1983)
Meat Loaf’s second album, 1981’s Bad for Good, was a critical and commercial nonstarter, and Steinman’s relationship with his muse singer was waning following the wait between records. So Steinman retreated to work with Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, who hit No. 3 in 1977 with “It’s a Heartache.” He coproduced her 1983 album Faster Than the Speed of Night and wrote a couple of the songs, including “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” a seven-minute, multipiece work that recalled his best music with Meat Loaf. The song was a worldwide hit, reaching No. 1 in the U.S. and U.K., and resurrected the careers of Tyler and Steinman, who’d go on to work with other artists throughout the decade. But none sparked him the way Tyler did – “Total Eclipse” is one of the ’80s best songs and a Steinman crown jewel.
Todd Rundgren Albums Ranked
For more than half a century, the superstar producer has made some of the weirdest records to hit the charts.
In many ways, the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles represented a major change for the modern Games. The sporting event had long been noted for its financial losses, a lasting burden on the vast majority of host cities. In a move never seen before, Los Angeles brought corporate sponsors on board to help shoulder the Games’ costs. The decision proved profitable, as the ‘84 Olympics earned more than $200 million thanks largely to the influx of endorsements and advertising. However, one major promotion continues to live on in infamy and it belongs to McDonald’s.
The concept of the fast food giant’s campaign was simple; upon purchasing an item, a McDonald’s customer would receive a scratch-off card with an Olympic event on it. If the American team won gold in that event, the patron would get a free Big Mac. A silver earned the patron french fries, while bronze won a free soft drink. Pairing patriotism with capitalism, McDonald’s believed they had the recipe for a successful promotion. Commercials would sell customers on a simple phrase: “If the U.S. Wins, You Win.”
Surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time McDonald’s had built a promotion around free food and medal counts. The company embarked on a similar campaign for the 1976 Olympics, albeit with less publicity. That year’s Games, held in Montreal, saw the U.S.A. place third in the overall medal count. The two countries who finished ahead of them were the Soviet Union and East Germany.
It’s likely that McDonald’s looked at the ‘76 results when estimating the number of prizes they expected to give away via their ‘84 promotion. After all, America boycotted the 1980 Games held in Moscow, due to Soviet warfare in Afghanistan. As such, ‘76 represented the most recent Olympics to reference. What their number-crunchers clearly didn’t anticipate was another boycott.
Due in part to America’s actions four years prior, the Soviet Union, East Germany and many other communist nations boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics. With these sports powerhouse nations no longer participating, America’s competition was far less daunting.
The U.S. went on to dominate the watered-down field. The Americans took home 83 gold medals, 61 silver and 30 bronze for a whopping 174 total medals. For comparison’s sake, the U.S. won 34, 35 and 20, respectively, in Montreal for a total of 94.
McDonald’s catchphrase proved prophetic. As Team U.S.A. won, so did fast food patrons, and they did so at a staggering rate. A 1984 New York Times article described the number of prizes given away as “mindboggling.” The newspaper reported that some McDonald’s franchises even ran out of Big Macs due to the overwhelming amount of giveaways. While this claim was not verified by the company, a spokesperson admitted there was “a real gold rush at McDonald’s.”
“We may be giving away more product, but that means more customers for McDonald’s,” asserted Chuck Rubner, a representative for the company at the time. Though the fast food conglomerate never revealed how much money it lost on their Olympic promotion, guesses have been in the millions.
How ‘The Simpsons’ Parodied McDonald’s 1984 Olympics Promotion
Since 1984, the marketing campaign has become the butt of jokes. Most famously, a similar promotion appeared within The Simpsons. In the 1992 episode titled “Lisa’s First Word,” Krusty Burger offered a similar promotion based around Olympic events. The fictional burger chain banked heavily that team U.S.A. would lose to the Soviet and East German teams. When those countries boycotted, Krusty Burger, and its spokesperson clown, lost millions.
Watch ‘Krusty Loses the 1984 Olympics’
The Olympics will return to Los Angeles in 2028, giving some people hope that McDonald’s may revive their famous promotion. It appears, however, that such a move is not meant to be. In 2017 the company announced that it would no longer be an Olympic sponsor, ending the relationship more than four decades after it began.
Top 50 American Rock Albums
Even after you take out the Beatles, the Stones and other giants, there’s still a lot to love here.
