Following the news that Slayer had rescheduled their planned 2024 reunion show to take place at this year’s festival instead, Louder Than Life have officially unveiled their bill for 2025, and true to form, it is absolutely stacked. Alongside Slayer, headlining the four-day rock and metal spectacular, which takes place September 18-21 at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky will be Avenged Sevenfold, Deftones and Bring Me The Horizon.
Joining them will be the likes of Lamb Of God, Breaking Benjamin, A Perfect Circle, Evanescence, Mudvayne, Stone Temple Pilots, A Perfect Circle, Knocked Loose, Rob Zombie, Sleep Token, Bad Omens, Trivium, Cypress Hill, Bruce Dickinson and many, many more.
“Louder Than Life has always been about showcasing the future of rock and heavy music while honoring the legends who paved the way,” says Danny Wimmer of Danny Wimmer Presents. “Bands like Bring Me The Horizon, Sleep Token, Bad Omens, $uicideboy$, Motionless In White, Spiritbox, I Prevail, Slaughter To Prevail, Lorna Shore, Wage War, Dayseeker, and Knocked Loose aren’t just performing—they’re defining the next generation of headliners. At the same time, pioneers like Slayer, Deftones, A Perfect Circle, and Avenged Sevenfold have set the standard, proving that this music is always evolving. This is where the past, present, and future of heavy music collide.”
“We’re coming back to Louder Than Life in Louisville. Get ready f*ckers!” adds Slayer frontman Tom Araya.
Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes says: “We are very thrilled to finally be returning to America. We have missed our fans dearly and Louder Than Life is one of our favorite festivals to play.”
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
Merlin moved into his role as Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has previously written for the likes of Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N’ Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.
Steve Rapport / Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG / Hulton Archive / Chris Walter, Getty Images
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s history with ‘80s new wave acts has been inconsistent and, at times, downright head-scratching.
Several of the genre’s biggest artists have now been inducted, but there’s seemingly been no rhyme or reason as to how long they’ve had to wait. Talking Heads got the Hall call in the first year they were eligible, while it took the Cure 15 years to receive enshrinement. Depeche Mode needed three nominations to finally garner induction, while Duran Duran only required one nom to secure their place in the Hall (albeit, 15 years after they were first eligible).
Though the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has (eventually) done right by these artists — including other new wave greats like the Police, Blondie, Elvis Costello and the Cars — many other deserving new wave greats remain on the outside looking in. We’ve highlighted the five most egregious omissions in the gallery below.
Our list includes Grammy winners, multi-platinum stars, era-defining groups and some of the biggest hitmakers in music history. A couple of these artists have received Hall of Fame nominations in the past, only to fall short of induction. The others remain confoundingly out of the conversation entirely, much to the chagrin of their fans.
We start with a band – really bands (plural), if you want to get technical – that may not be on this list for long, considering they’re a nominee for this year’s class.
New Wave Bands That Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Killswitch Engage, Parkway Drive, I Prevail and Beartooth will co-headline the Summer Of Loud festival from June to July.
The travelling festival will spread metalcore noise across the US and Canada with The Amity Affliction, The Devil Wears Prada and Alpha Wolf supporting.
The opening act will vary by region, with TX2 playing from June 22 to July 2, Kingdom Of Giants playing from July 5 to July 15 and Dark Divine playing from July 16 to July 27. Tickets are now available, with $1 of each one sold going to Living The Dream Foundation, a non-profit that supports children and young adults living with life-threatening illnesses.
The full list of dates can be seen below.
Killswitch Engage singer Jesse Leach comments: “This summer tour has shaped up to be a huge and exciting lineup. I am honoured and stoked to be able to share the stage with such solid and killer bands. I feel a deep sense of purpose with this new album [this year’s This Consequence] and to be able to play some of these songs on stages across the US and Canada. This is the tour of the summer!”
Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall adds: “Summer Of Loud, yep that sounds correct. This is the literal definition of a stacked lineup, it’s straight-up insane. Nothing but power from top to bottom, this is going to be a summer to remember. So stoked to be part of it, so psyched to bring the carnage and chaos. Let’s fucking GO!!!”
I Prevail’s Eric Vanlerberghe says: “The Summer of Loud tour is about to be the best metal tour of the year! Where else can you see some of the best modern metal bands all on the same stage? It’s going to be a tour you don’t wanna miss.”
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
Last but not least, Caleb Shomo from Beartooth says: “Summer Of Loud is gonna be a clinic in metalcore ass-whoopery, and it’s an absolute honor to be a part of this epic tour with such good company. Strap in for one of the most fun summer shows of your life!”
Killswitch Engage released This Consequence last week and have already announced a host of dates to promote the album. A headlining North American run kicks off on March 5 and will last through to May 18. Head to their website for full details.
Parkway Drive released latest album Darker Still in 2022 and recently completed a 20th-anniversary Australian headline tour. The tour will pick up again with a European leg, starting on September 19 in Leipzig, Germany. See dates and details.
I Prevail, who put out True Power in 2022, will precede the Summer Of Loud shows with a handful of North and South American festival slots. See details.
As for Beartooth, the band released The Surface in 2023 and will tour North America with Shinedown in the spring. Some headline dates are also scheduled. See more.
Summer Of Loud 2025 tour dates:
Jun 21: West Palm Beach iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, FL Jun 22: Tampa Midflorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, FL Jun 24: Atlanta Lakewood Amphitheatre, GA Jun 26: Dallas Dos Equis Pavillion, TX Jun 27: Austin Germania Insurance Amphitheater, TX Jun 28: Houston The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, TX Jul 01: Phoenix Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, AZ Jul 02: San Diego Gallagher Square at Petco Park, CA Jul 05: Irvine Great Park Live, CA Jul 06: ConcordToyota Pavilion at Concord, CA Jul 08: Salt Lake City Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre, UT Jul 09: Denver The Junkyard, CO Jul 11: Somerset Amphitheater, WI Jul 12: Green Bay Capital Credit Union Park, WI Jul 13: Tinley Park Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre, IL Jul 15: Toronto Budweiser Stage, Canada Jul 16: Clarkston Pine Knob Music Theatre, MI Jul 18: Mansfield, OH Inkcarceration Jul 19: York State Fair, PA Jul 20: Wantagh Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, NY Jul 22: Mansfield Xfinity Center, MA Jul 23: Camden Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, NJ Jul 24: Holmdel PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ Jul 26: Bristow Jiffy Lube Live, VA Jul 27: Charlotte PNC Music Pavilion, NC
Chris Jasper — singer, songwriter and keyboardist in the Isley Brothers and Isley-Jasper-Isley — died on Sunday at the age of 73 following a cancer diagnosis in December.
Jasper’s family confirmed the news in a statement shared on his official Facebook page, which you can read below.
Born on Dec. 30, 1951, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Jasper began studying classical music as a child and attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York for music composition. Jasper’s family lived in the same Cincinnati apartment complex as the Isley family, and his sister, Elaine, married Rudolph Isley.
Jasper formed the Jazzman Trio with Marvin and Ernie Isley, and in 1973 they officially joined the Isley Brothers, transforming the group from a vocal trio into a self-contained R&B and funk sextet. This expanded lineup enjoyed greater success beginning with 1973’s 3+3, which reached the Top 10 and went platinum. A string of Top 10 albums followed, including 1975’s chart-topping The Heat Is On. Jasper contributed to these albums as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, claiming a writing credit on the band’s Top 5 hit “Fight the Power” among others.
When the Isley Brothers disbanded in 1984, Jasper continued with Marvin and Ernie Isley under the moniker Isley-Jasper-Isley. The group released three albums between 1984 and 1987 and scored a No. 1 hit on the R&B chart with 1985’s “Caravan of Love.”
Jasper embarked on a solo career after Isley-Jasper-Isley disbanded in 1987. He formed his own independent label, Gold City Records, and released 14 solo albums. His 1988 solo debut, Superbad, spawned a No. 1 R&B hit in its title track. Jasper was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Isley Brothers in 1992, and he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2022. Jasper’s music was sampled by a myriad of artists including Whitney Houston, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar and more.
Throughout his life and career, Jasper remained a staunch supporter and proprietor of soul music. “I believe soul music is music that will always be played. It’s just, who’s gonna play it?” he asked R&B Junkie. “Soul music has a certain thing to it that reaches inside you. That’s why it’s called soul music and that’s where it gets its name from, so it’s gonna always be there. I just wish more people were producing it. I’m gonna always produce it because that’s what I am. I’m a soul / R&B artist so it’s not gonna go anywhere as long as I’m here.”
Daryl Hall has been writing songs for more than 50 years, so it makes sense that he’s stockpiled quite a few ideas along the way.
In fact, as he detailed during an episode of his popular web series, Live From Daryl’s House, he found a box of cassettes of demos and various song fragments going back to 1972. “I don’t know how you wrote, but any idea I’d ever have, I’d put it on a cassette,” he told Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, his guest. “I found them all. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Everything. Every idea I’ve had since 1972.”
The songwriter is in the process of having all of the audio transferred, but as he tells UCR in the conversation below, he hasn’t really had a chance to fully dig into the contents yet, though in interesting ways, he’s already finding new inspirations from those treasured analog sources. In the meantime, fans can enjoy his newest solo album, 2024’s D, his latest collaboration with his friend and former Eurythmic, Dave Stewart.
In a recent Zoom conversation he discussed what he loves about Tilbrook’s songwriting, how his own process has changed over the years and numerous other topics.
How did you first meet Glenn? Well, we didn’t really meet that long ago, to tell you the truth. I knew Paul Carrack [who had been in Squeeze] and I knew Jools Holland. You know, I’ve known these guys. But I didn’t really known Glenn until he toured with Hall & Oates. We got to know each other a little bit on that tour and it went from there. He came on the show, Live From Daryl’s House, we hit it off and here we are doing it together.
The two of you seem so well-matched, it seems, both as songwriters and music fans, there’s a lot of common ground there. I do see that. There’s a certain…I’m not necessarily going to put myself in this, but I think his music, there’s a certain sense of intelligence within the pop area, right? Which is few and far between, really, with songwriters. I certainly relate to that. I think I share that to some degree and I bond with him in that way. I really think his music, he has smart music. I like his chord choices and his lyrics, everything, they stick with you in an unusual way.
The last time we spoke, your latest album, D, was still taking shape. It’s a really fascinating listen now that we’re on the other side of that, hearing what you and Dave Stewart emerged with. How much did you go into the process of working with Dave, as far as the album that you had in mind? Dave and I didn’t really have an idea. We’re friends — we start with that. We’re very close friends. I was at his house in the Bahamas — and since then, I bought a house down there, so we’re neighbors and the whole thing. He has a really nice studio down there. We just said, “Let’s try. Let’s just go for it.” I had a lot of my phrases and titles. You know, little snippets of things in my notebooks. We would both sit there with our guitars or whatever and just throw out things. They became songs [with that process]. I think there’s two or three songs on the album I’d brought to the table. But other than that, we created everything from scratch. We didn’t know what we were doing, we just did it.
You two worked together on Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine in the ’80s and prior to that, you’d done the Sacred Songs album with Robert Fripp. It seems like working with Dave must have unlocked some interesting things for you creatively. Yeah, I mean, I love collaboration. That goes without saying with me. My whole career has been working with different people and I like the result of it. If you work with somebody who is really gifted, something comes out of [the experience] that’s not like working with anybody else. My experience with Robert Fripp and the Sacred Songs album showed me how easy it is to do that kind of thing. It was my first real experience working with somebody from outside of my Philadelphia [roots]. Dave came along and I realized I’d found another person, that he’s a real artistic kindred spirit. We just fit together and it’s just effortless. We just create without thinking about it.
You mentioned your phrases and your notebooks. Every songwriter has their process. How much would you say that yours has changed over the years? The only thing that’s changed is I don’t write constantly anymore. I used to just sit and constantly be writing, guitar, piano, coming up with ideas, completing them and doing all that. I don’t really do that so much anymore. I come up with ideas, little phrases and thoughts and then when it comes time to put it together, I just pull them all out and see what the result is going to be. So that’s the difference. And there’s a lot of spontaneity, depending on who I work with. With Dave, we were writing a song the other day and he said, “Just give me a word.” I said a word and he gave me a word back. It was one of those kind of things and it can start in any way.
During the dinner with Glenn on the Daryl’s House episode, you spoke about how you found a box In recent times with every songwriting demo and idea you’ve put to tape since 1972. At that time, it was all in the process of being digitized. Now that we’re down the road a bit here in 2025, I wondered what sort of fun things you’ve gotten to revisit as the tapes are being transferred? Well, they’re still be digitized, believe it or not. I have thousands and thousands of things, so I’ve yet to delve into it. I’ve been saving it and I wasn’t going to do that before I started working on this new album with Dave. But then, I just decided to forget about the stuff I’d already come up with and just go [into the studio] without thinking about it. But the other day, when we were writing the song, I realized the melody that I was coming up with was one of those old melodies that’s on those tapes. It might have been years ago, but it just kind of came to me. I think, unconsciously and subconsciously, I’m using those things without actually even reviewing them yet.
It seems pretty fascinating that you can have something like that emerge in that way. Yeah, one of the songs from the album, “Break It Down to the Real Thing,” I wrote the melody to the verse in 1988. It came to me when I was rewriting it with Dave, so there’s another version of that.
Listen to Daryl Hall’s ‘Break It Down to the Real Thing’
What do you think the end game is, once you get done with the audio transfers? I will go through it. I’m sure there’s some little gem of an idea I can use, that’s for sure. I don’t know! I don’t know what I’m going to hear. But I have listened to some of it and I remember every single thing, that’s the weird part. It’s not like, “Oh, did I do that?” No, I remember everything about it. So that’s a little strange too.
Going back to the D album, you were opening your shows last fall with “The Whole World’s Better,” which is a cool tune. What are the origins of that song? I had the chorus and basics of that song. Then Dave and I fleshed it out. The songs are all personal in their own way. That one started because the person I was in a relationship with was a very difficult person and I knew when she was singing, everything was okay, so the whole world suddenly got better.
You’ve been having a lot of fun with the Daryl’s House vibe of the touring that you’ve been doing recently. It made me wonder if any of these tours give you the chance to write with any of the folks you’re out with. Not really, no. Because if I’m touring, I’m totally in a separate world. When I’m doing the show, I just don’t have the time to sit with people. But you never know. Something could change and I could call somebody up and say, “You know, we had a good time together, let’s get together.” It’s not something I’ve pursued to tell you the truth.
The tour with Glenn is going to be a lot of fun. The whole concept finds you jamming on songs like you’ve done with Howard Jones and Todd Rundgren for past outings. Hearing you and Glenn sing things like “Black Coffee in Bed” and “Hourglass” on the Daryl’s House episode, as I mentioned, his songwriting is really well-suited for what you do. As a listener, it felt pretty natural hearing you tackle some of those songs. But how did it feel for you to sing those, from your perspective? They’re complex. I mean, they’re complex in that, you don’t just open your mouth and sing. You have to really work it out. I had to figure out how I was going to sing it. What harmonies was I going to do with him? All kinds of things like that. “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell),” that’s an interesting song in every way.
Watch Daryl Hall and Glenn Tilbrook Perform ‘Black Coffee in Bed’
You mentioned that you’ve been continuing to write with Dave. Is there a record starting to take shape? I just came back from hanging out with him for a few weeks and we wrote three songs, so let’s see.
You were also going to do some work with Robert Fripp when we spoke ih 2022. What did you come away with? Well, Robert and I have remained in contact. But it’s proximity really more than anything. I have a studio house and Robert has left his equipment there, so that speaks volumes.
What’s on tap for the rest of the year besides these tour dates? Just more of the same, really. I’m going to be touring and doing more Daryl’s House episodes. That’s about it, going to the Bahamas and hanging out here in Connecticut, doing whatever.
Who’s the guest you’re trying to get for Daryl’s House that you still haven’t gotten yet? You know, I don’t have one. Truly, I don’t have a wish list. It all happens by chance. It’s [about] who is available. Do I like that person? Is he or she available? That kind of thing.
I love what you guys are doing with the show. The dinner segments seem like they’re a really great way to exchange and just be at one with these people as far as the creative process. Yeah, the dinner segments are amazing. You know, we have to edit a lot of this stuff down, because we’re there for hours and hours. One of these days, I’m going to put together a different edit of just the dinner segments, because so many interesting stories come up.
The new EP which takes its title from the old English word for Bard, the will feature five demos from the Bard recording sessions plus The Sundial. This latter song was written and demoed in 2001 but has been newly recorded by three members of the band’s current line-up – Alberto Bravin (lead vocals), Gregory Spawton (guitars, keyboards, bass) and Nick D’Virgilio (drums) – and mixed by the band’s longstanding engineer Rob Aubrey.
Four of the five Scop demos – The Last English King, Her Words, This Isn’t Rocket Science and Blacksmithing – are being made available for the very first time, while the demo of British Racing Green was originally released to members of the band’s Passengers Club in 2021.
Bard, which has been unavailable for many years, has been completely remixed by Aubrey. It was the band’s third album, recorded by a line-up of Martin Read (vocals), Tony Müller (keyboards and vocals), Phil Hogg (drums), Ian Cooper (keyboards), Andy Poole (bass) and Greg Spawton (guitar, keyboards).
All four demos on Scop feature Read on lead vocals, while the Bard studio versions of The Last English King and Blacksmithing were sung by keyboardist Tony Müller. Her Words does not feature on Bard, while This Isn’t Rocket Science went on to become a section of the song For Winter on the album. Finally, British Racing Green did not emerge until the band’s 2010 Far Skies Deep Time EP and was sung by the late David Longdon.
Scop will be released exclusively as a digital download only via the Big Big Train Bandcamp page.
Neil Young onstage at Farm Aid in 2024(Image credit: Gary Miller/Getty Images)
Neil Young has announced a run of European and North American Love Earth World Tour dates with his new band, the Chrome Hearts.
The European schedule begins at Dalhalla in Rättvik, Sweden, on June 18, and wraps up at Cannstatter Wasen in Stuttgart, Germany, on July 8. The band will play in Ireland at Dublin’s Malahide Castle on June 26 in addition to the previously announced on/off/on-again booking at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
North American dates begin on August 8 at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, NC, with the final date set for September 15 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA..
Tickets for the shows announced today will go on sale this Friday (February 28), with a pre-sale for members of the Neil Young Archives beginning tomorrow. It is understood that further dates will be added to the schedule.
“Music unites!” writes Young on his official website. “We will be there with you! Join us as we celebrate the Summer of Democracy. Old songs and new songs. Old words and new words. Long jams! We will come together this summer. The Chrome Hearts and I are ready for you! LOVE and Democracy reigns in the USA and the world.”
Young introduced the Chrome Hearts at last year’s Farm Aid show at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York. The band includes guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormick, drummer Anthony LoGerfo and organist Spooner Oldham. A debut LP, Talkin’ To The Trees, will arrive later this year.
Neil Young: Love Earth World Tour 2025
Jun 18: Rättvik Dalhalla, Sweden Jun 20: Bergen Bergenhus Fortress, Norway Jun 22: Copenhagen Tiøren, Denmark Jun 25-29: Glastonbury Festival, UK Jun 26: Dublin Malahide Castle, Ireland Jun 30: Brussels Palace Open Air, Palace Square, Belgium Jul 01: Groningen Drafbaan Stedpark, Netherlands Jul 03: Berlin Waldbühne, Germany Jul 04: Mönchengladbach, Germany Sparkassenpark Jul 08: Stuttgart Cannstatter Wasen, Germany
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
Aug 08: Charlotte PNC Music Pavilion, NC Aug 10: Richmond Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront, VA Aug 13: Clarkston Pine Knob Music Theatre, MI Aug 15: Cuyahoga Falls Blossom Music Center, OH Aug 17: Toronto Budweiser Stage, ON Aug 21: Gilford BankNH Pavilion, NH Aug 23: Wantagh Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, NY Aug 24: Bethel Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, NY Aug 27: Chicago Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, IL Sep 01: Denver Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, CO Sep 05: George The Gorge, WA Sep 06: Vancouver Deer Lake Park, BC Sep 10: Bend Hayden Homes Amphitheater, OR Sep 12: Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheater, CA Sep 15: Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl, CA
Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazinesince 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.
One of the great lost treasures in the current musical landscape is the band who were great at B-sides. It was an art form that just doesn’t exist anymore – “they’re such a great Bonus Tracks band!” just doesn’t cut it. Some groups were such masters of the format that albums collating their B-sides are up there with their best – think Oasis’s The Masterplan, Suede’s Sci-Fi Lullabies, The Smith’s Hatful Of Hollow, Nirvana’s Incesticide.
That’s a list for another day, though. Here we are honing in on the best Smashing Pumpkins B-sides with a few outtakes thrown in for good measure. The Pumpkins, of course, had their own imperious B-sides album in 1994’s Pisces Iscariot but were on such a profusely creative run during that decade that they could’ve had a few more. To avoid repeating what is already regarded as a classic, I’ll avoid anything that features on Pisces Iscariot on this list of the ten best Pumpkins B-sides and outtakes (songs included on the Mellon Collie…-era B-sides collection The Aeroplane Flies High are available for inclusion, I don’t want to snooker myself too drastically).
The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)
The period around their sprawling 1995 masterpiece Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness was an insanely fruitful time for the Pumpkins. This slow-building rock stomper took a leftover riff from the album sessions and added a Pumpkins first in the spoken-word vocals, neatly dovetailing Corgan’s anguished delivery on the chorus.
The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right) – YouTube
One of the James Iha-written efforts out of the handful his domineering bandmate would allow to be recorded, 1979 flip-side Believe is the sort of melancholic alt-country gem that Iha would more fully explore on his 1998 solo album Let It Come Down.
Let Me Give The World To You
The decision to leave this soaring, Rick Rubin-produced effort off of 1998’s underwhelming Adore is one of the most baffling in Pumpkins history. It was even played live during the Adore tour but Corgan apparently nixed it because he didn’t want it released as a single and it wasn’t in-keeping with Adore’s no-catchy-songs aesthetic, so onto the shelf it went, eventually surfacing as an extra on Adore’s 2014 reissue.
Let Me Give The World To You (Adore Outtake) – YouTube
Hey – I was just joking that there were no catchy songs on Adore, OK? But it is true that there was a lot of Pumpkins material floating round at the time that was better than some of the songs that made it onto that record. Take this effort which wound up on the Trent Reznor-produced soundtrack to David Lynch’s Lost Highway, a moody electronic-pop number injected with a menace much-missed on Adore.
Cash Car Star
Not to say Corgan wasn’t stashing away his rockier songs at the time. This pulverising cracker was recorded during the Adore era only to be scrapped, a different version eventually emerging on the band’s free, internet-only 2000 album Machine II/The Friends & Enemies Of Modern Music. Once again, Corgan has gone wonky with his album choices – if this was included on a tighter-edited version of sister album Machina/The Machines Of God, that record would’ve been so much better.
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
The band’s rampaging The End Is The Beginning Is The End was the only good thing about the 1997 horror show that was Batman & Robin and this slowed-down, inside-out eerie take on the track from its B-sides got its own moment in the spotlight when it was used in a trailer for the 2009 film Watchmen. The Pumpkins have had a few goes at evoking the gothic, sinister expanse of Disintegration-era The Cure and this is the best of them.
The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning (Batman & Robin Soundtrack Version) – YouTube
One of the best things about Pumpkins B-sides is that sometimes you get a song that’s just delightfully in the moment whereas perhaps some of their album tracks were a little over-thought. This snarling, new wave-y little cut from the Thirty-Three single is one of those, a brilliantly throwaway rock tune capturing a band having their moment.
Set The Ray To Jerry
A intra-band favourite, this dreamy, minimalist mid-tempo track was originally written during the Gish era with Corgan planning for it to feature on Mellon Collie... That was until producer Flood deemed it not good enough, his opinion holding huge sway with the frontman. It eventually surfaced on The Aeroplane Flies High compilation and works as a sort of parallel universe version of the Pumpkins where they never bought any distortion pedals.
Lucky 13
They’ve got all the distortion pedals on this coruscating Machina II outtake, though, a barbed riff-centric song that sounds like the feistier cousin of Mellon Collie’s Tales Of A Scorched Earth. Again, its inclusion on Machina (over, perhaps, the plodding Heavy Metal Machine?) would’ve made all the difference.
The band’s 2007 return Zeitgeist had some decent moments without ever hitting the heights of their early days. But it could’ve been better if Corgan hadn’t had another case of tracklistingitis, relegating this yearning acoustic-rock entry to the low-level and mostly-ignored American Gothic EP.
“Once you heard death metal, there was no turning back. Thrash was out of the window. It seemed silly, music for wimps”: The chaotic story of Nihilist, Unleashed, Entombed and the bloody birth of Swedish death metal
(Image credit: Earache/Press)
Death metal as we know it began crawling from the swamps of Florida in the mid-80s, but at the end of the decade a mutant variation emerged on the other side of the Atlantic – specifically in Sweden, thanks to bands such as Nihilist, Unleashed, Grave and Entombed. In 2008, members of the Swedish scene looked back on the beginnings of a movement that would twist metal into gnarly new shapes.
Remember when death metal was about big ugly riffs and spine-chilling leads rather than an attempt to cram as many notes and beats into a song as possible with the aid of Pro Tools? When albums were filled with memorable tunes and atmosphere instead of monotonous blastfests, one barely distinguishable from another?
In Sweden they never forgot. Indeed, during the 20 years since that distinctly dirty, punishing sound first crawled from the depths of Stockholm, the beast has remained alive, kept in fighting fitness by the pioneers who first brought it to life. And let’s be clear, we’re really talking about the original, Stockholm-originated style rather than the ‘Gothenburg sound’ that arose somewhat later.
In contrast to the melodic and technical flourishes found there, the original Swedish sound – made famous by the likes of Dismember, Entombed, Grave and Unleashed – is characterised by big, dirty and generally downtuned guitars, pounding drum beats, a taste for morbid groove and relatively straightforward song structures. The fact that most of the bands central to its creation stuck to their guns enabled it to forge a clear identity, one which stands in welcome contrast to the cold, technical direction US bands – and those inspired by US bands – have tended to follow.
It’s ironic that in many ways the Swedish death metal sound was actually spawned via attempts to copy the early American death metal bands. Equally interesting is the degree to which the explosion of the genre in Sweden can be attributed to one individual – namely Nicke Anderson. Now an ex-drummer of Entombed and guitarist/vocalist for garage rock heroes The Hellacopters, back in 1987 young Nicke was still at school and playing in both a hardcore band, Brainwarp, and a nameless thrash-orientated metal band.
One of the few people to have accessed the early death metal recordings from America via tape trades, Nicke introduced them to his bandmates and made a move that proved to be more significant than he could ever have imagined at the time. Combining the projects to form the now-legendary Nihilist, Nicke created a band that would directly inspire an entire movement. Taking influence from USDM, English grind such as Napalm Death, and the punk scene he had grown up with, Nicke and his bandmates began to create something new.
Nihilist in the late 80s (Image credit: Press)
“Once you hear a good thing you want your friends to listen to it,” laughs Nicke. “We were at least amongst the first to pick up on that underground American scene with Death, Possessed, Repulsion and Autopsy. Prior to that we listened to any fast music, really, from Slayer to DRI, and bought albums by Kreator, Sodom, Testament. But when we got into this death metal underground we felt nothing could top that. If you were into heavy music, once you heard it, there was no turning back. We’re talking weeks or months of evolution, everything happened quickly, but thrash metal was out the window for us. It seemed silly music, for wimps.”
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
Still scrawling the name Nihilist on his schoolbooks “to see how it would look amongst my favourite bands”, Anderson’s ambitions at the time were only to pay homage to the bands he had discovered from the States, and certainly neither he nor his bandmates considered themselves pioneers.
This feature originally appeared in Metal Hammer issue 178 (April 2008) (Image credit: Future)
“People talk about ‘Swedish death metal’,” he explains, “but all that was really just us trying to copy the underground American scene. It sounds pretty much like early Autopsy, Repulsion, Death… I would say it’s a really naïve copy. We were trying to copy it and we couldn’t and that’s what became the sound of Swedish death metal. In America it quite quickly became technical and we couldn’t follow that. The simple stuff, that’s the Swedish thing.”
While proto-thrash/death bands Merciless and Morbid already existed in Sweden, the real birth of Swedish death was Nihilist’s second demo, Only Shreds Remain, recorded in the iconic Sunlight Studios, soon to be used by every band in the scene. Shreds… introduced a gritty, chunky, mid-range heavy sound throughout, especially in the guitars, a simple move attributed both to producer Tomas Skogsberg and guitarist Leif ‘Leffe’ Cuzner (who sadly died in 2006), and would become the norm amongst bands in the country.
“Boss had a pedal called Heavy Metal,” explains Nicke. “I don’t think they do it any more, the closest is Metal Zone, but the ‘mid-knob’ was very useful for the guitar sound. We should have got sponsored,” he laughs, “and even more Dismember – they took it even further.”
Several other influential elements were present in this morbid blueprint, not least the drum patterns which – perhaps influenced by Nicke’s hardcore past – were notably less complex and more organic than the constant blasting common in the genre.
Nihilist certainly made an impact, but the life of the band would soon come to an end only two years after its inception. Disagreements regarding direction were arising between Nicke and Johnny Hedlund – a slightly older musician who had joined the band after the first demo – and Nicke took the decision to finish the project, mainly as a way of parting company with Johnny.
“We basically didn’t get along with Johnny, or maybe I didn’t get along with Johnny,” he admits. “I had songs fully produced in my head before I even showed any riffs to anyone and that didn’t work ’cos he really wanted to write stuff. And he’d show us his stuff and we didn’t like it. I mean, we were young, we could probably have done this a better way, but we split the band up, called Johnny to say the band was no more, then, like three days later, started rehearsing again. I mean, if Johnny was pissed off, I fully understand it.”
Reforming Nihilist under the name Entombed (but with essentially the same logo) the band began to work on new material, recording a demo the same year (1989) before signing to Earache and releasing their indisputably classic debut, Left Hand Path. And if the departed Johnny was pissed off he certainly didn’t let it slow him down, quickly forming a new band, Unleashed, who after three demos in 1990, signed to Century Media and released the acclaimed Where No Life Dwells the following year.
“With Unleashed we had a vision,” explains Johnny. “We knew that the band was obviously going to develop, but we agreed that we would always play this type of death metal. If we wanted to change style then we had to form another band with another name.”
Unleashed in the late 80s (Image credit: Press)
Unleashed was clearly a more serious band for Johnny, who explains that the Nihilist years were more about a ‘party vibe’, and are notable for introducing Viking themes to the scene, a subject picked up in later years by Amon Amarth amongst others.
“Obviously Bathory was an influence, but even at school I was pissed off that we had to learn about everyone else’s beliefs but there was nothing about the Viking traditions. In our very early days it was positive and people were interested. There were years when the right wing movement was stronger and those bands wanted to sing about it as well, but eventually people realised that there were other bands who could speak about Thor’s hammer other than a bunch of low-rate Nazis.”
By 1991 the Swedish scene was becoming internationally recognised. As well as Unleashed’s debut came debuts by Grave (Into The Grave) and Dismember (Like An Ever Flowing Stream), the latter band formed from the ashes of Carnage, another seminal act operating from 1989 until 1991, when their guitarist, one Michael Amott, joined Carcass.
1991 would be a peak, however, and the momentum was beginning to slow. A few notable efforts appeared in the years that followed by bands such as Desultory, Necrophobic and Carbonized (a band featuring, amongst other things, future members of Therion) but great demo bands such as Grotesque, Interment and Evocation were calling it a day.
Around this time, generally in the city of Gothenburg, bands were beginning to inject more melody into their death metal. Primarily created by Dissection and At The Gates, as well as bands such as Dark Tranquillity, Eucharist and Unanimated, this style of melodic death metal was probably made most famous by In Flames and it is they, along with ATG, whose influence can be seen widely in heavy music today, not least in the metalcore scene.
In the mid-90s, however, it was still Entombed who were most successful, riding high on death metal’s brief major label wave, signing to Columbia in America and appearing on MTV following their killer rock’n’roll-tinged third album, Wolverine Blues. In fact, strange as it seems now, when Max left Sepultura, Entombed genuinely looked set to fill the gap. Almost overnight, however, the nu-metal scene appeared and bands like Entombed were suddenly yesterday’s news. For his part, Nicke was somewhat uncomfortable with the success anyway and was beginning to tire of the music he had help create.
“It was almost like we were outside, looking in,” he ponders. “We got to got to ride in limos to those Columbia meetings, which we enjoyed, but it wasn’t really us. We were just touring and touring and we didn’t really ask ourselves why. Did we really enjoy it? I don’t think so. I mean it’s great to play live but it just went on and on. People also started comparing us to bands like Pantera and I never really cared for them at all… I dunno, maybe I’m just picky. I guess I didn’t feel like I had any more songs like that in me. It turns out I did… but it took a while.”
A decade after leaving Entombed, Nicke has returned to the death metal fold. with Death Breath, a new two-man project that has seen live guests including members of Merciless and Repulsion. Former contemporaries Entombed, Grave Dismember and Unleashed are all still releasing records.
“I think we stayed true to our word,” says Johnny Hedlund. “We still play the same style 20 years later. It’s great ’cos we’ve been growing up with each other but we haven’t treated each other as competitors, it’s more like a friendship, we share the same destiny. We can sit round the table with a beer and say, ‘Well, in 10 years we’ll all be a bit older but we’re gonna be here anyway, playing the same music and in probably the same bands!”
Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 178, April 2008
“All anyone wanted to hear was awful new wave garbage like Elvis Costello and The Police. Rock groups like ours were strangled us to death”: The rise and fall of Starz, the 70s rockers who should been the next Kiss
(Image credit: Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Starz were the great lost American hard rock band of the 1970s, beloved by everyone from Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx to Metallica’s Lars Ulrich. In 2008, guitarist Richie Ranno, drummer Joe X Dubé and singer Michael Lee Smith looked back on a band who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
For some bands, success and all its trappings seems almost preordained; Rolls Royces and groupies drop into their hands like sweeties from a benevolent parent. Others, even ones blessed with equal or superior talent, endure perpetual struggle with little to show for their efforts or fall off the radar entirely. Whether due to ill fortune, being shafted by the men in suits, unfortunate timing, sheer self-destructive behaviour or a combination of things, some bands never have the huge sales they genuinely deserve.
Somehow, Starz are one such band. During the New York heavy rock four-piece’s four-album run, they were managed by Bill Aucoin (of Kiss fame), signed to a major label, fronted by a pin-up singer who oozed charisma, and received rave responses while opening for some of the biggest bands of the 70s. A-listers like Jon Bon Jovi, Nikki Sixx and Lars Ulrich still cite Starz as an influence; Ginger from The Wildhearts even name-checked Starz in his song 29 X ThePain. And yet mention Starz to most rock fans under the age of 30 – and many over – and all you’ll get back from them is blank looks.
An illogical journalistic cliché that is sometimes trotted out in the group’s defence is that they were just too gifted for mainstream success. “I hear that a lot,” nods former Starz guitarist Richie Ranno. “But the truth’s a lot simpler: Capitol Records sucked.”
Bassist Pieter Sweval and drummer Jeffrey Grob gave Starz its backbone. Both had played in Looking Glass, who had topped the US chart in 1972 with Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl). The single was distinctly unrepresentative of that band, and three years later the Glass looked cracked. The pair hooked up with guitarist Brendan Harkin and frontman Michael Lee Smith (the latter a former Shakespearian actor and elder brother of US teen star Rex). With his big-lipped pout and swagger, Smith might have cut a Mick Jagger/Steven Tyler/ David Johansen-type figure, but he denies being influenced by The New York Dolls. “We were young and beautiful, and make-up only enhanced what we were trying to do,” he explains.
Starz in the late 70s: (from left) Michael Lee Smith, Joe X Dube, Brendan Harkin (back), Pieter Sweval (front), Richie Ranno (Image credit: Fin Costello/Redferns)
Looking Glass morphed into Fallen Angels, and after the indignity of the band being signed and dropped by Arista Records, ex-Stories lead guitarist Richie Ranno (who had also topped the US chart, with a cover of Hot Chocolate’s Brother Louie) came on board. All five band members were in their mid-20s and seasoned performers.
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock issue 103 (February 2007) (Image credit: Future)
Fallen Angels’ first lucky break came when Bill Aucoin of Rock Steady management, the heavyweights who represented Kiss, signed them up. A final name change, plus the ousting of keyboard player Larry Gonsky, gave the newly monikered Starz a much-needed final push.
“After success as singles artists, most of us had gone through our drinking, taking drugs and wild living phases,” Ranno reminisces. “We were called Starz in the astrological sense, not because we were potential celebrities. Other people might’ve thought that way, and I guess it could’ve worked against us.”
Grob, too, was reborn in another guise. Joe Dubé was someone he’d seen failing spectacularly in a televised weightlifting competition, and to add extra intrigue he also dropped in the middle initial ‘X’. Mostly he was referred to simply as Dubé.
As an unsigned band, Starz had already opened for Peter Frampton and ZZ Top. Twenty years later they attribute most of the blame for what went wrong to a simple business decision: after a stampede to sign them, in January 1976 Aucoin paired Starz with California-based Capitol Records.
“Those jerk-offs,” fumes Ranno. “They were on the other side of the country. And by the time the first album came out, which wasn’t long afterwards, all the executives responsible for signing us had left. Michael was such an amazing frontman, we could win over an arena of 20,000 people who’d never heard of us. But Capitol had no vision for a hard rock band like Starz.”
The flip-side of being associated with someone as high-profile as Aucoin was that many people automatically (but quite wrongly) assumed Starz were a baby Kiss. “In that sense the association was extremely detrimental,” Ranno agrees.
The band’s 1976 self-titled debut album, produced by Jack Douglas (Aerosmith/Alice Cooper), juxtaposed radio-friendly anthems like Detroit Girls and (She’s Just A) Fallen Angel with the creepier, serial killer-inspired NightCrawler, and Pull The Plug, which was about switching off the life-support machine of a dying girlfriend. Reviewers purred with approval, but Starz stalled at No.123.
The band took consolation by making new fans on the road. In a hectic period they gigged supporting Kiss (naturally), Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foghat and Blue Öyster Cult, and also headlined some 2,500-capacity theatres.
“We’d be blowing everyone away on a nightly basis, but Capitol’s inability to get product into the stores put us in a very precarious place,” Dubé reflects. On stage, Starz were indeed a tour de force. They didn’t exactly mess around off stage, either. “In the afternoons I’d hang around in shopping malls looking for schoolgirls,” Michael Lee Smith beams, adding: “Female company was my main motivation in life.”
The following year’s Violation (again produced by Douglas) produced a Top 40 hit in Cherry Baby, but despite Capitol’s prediction that the album would shift half a million copies it reached only No.89. Nobody knew it, but Starz had already peaked.
After a mismatched tour with label-mate Bob Seger, the group were asked to produce their third album, AttentionShoppers!, themselves due to Douglas having overrun recording Night In The Ruts with Aerosmith.
“We were disgusted with our management and record company,” Ranno snaps. “Kiss had become so big that Aucoin was off on another cloud. He couldn’t devote enough time to Starz, and consequently started making bad decisions. Besides our inexperience at producing, we were forced to work at some crappy studio instead of the Record Plant where we’d made the first two albums.”
Starz singer Michael Lee Smith onstage in the late 1970s (Image credit: Fin Costello/Redferns)
“Kiss were making so much money, our management were starting to see Starz almost as this thing on the side,” Smith says. “If we were to take off, then that would be great, but if not then we could just be a tax write-off.”
With great reluctance the band sacked Peter Sweval, who was becoming musically and socially remote. Brendan Harkin followed him out the door. Starz hired bassist Orville Davis and guitarist Bobby Messano as replacements.
By 1978’s Coliseum Rock Capitol Records representatives had been banned from going backstage at the band’s concerts – “We were so pissed off, the roadies were told to throw those idiots out if they dared to show up,” Ranno laughs – which included a two-month run of shows with Rush opening for them.
Starz were rightly proud of Coliseum Rock, despite the unfortunate timing of the album. “America’s so bent on musical brainwashing, it’s the worst country in the world – period,” Ranno scowls. “All that anyone wanted to hear back then was that awful new wave crap – garbage like Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello and The Police; rock groups like ours were strangled us to death.”
When Coliseum Rock failed to chart, Starz fought to get away from Capitol Records – “They actually begged us to stay, claiming to have spent a fortune investing in our career so far,” marvels Ranno. (Aucoin tells it differently, however; see ‘Aucoin on Starz’ side-bar below.) But after finally extracting themselves from the label, Starz realised they had a bigger problem still. Ranno: “The climate was so bad, nobody was signing hard rock bands.”
Smith’s actress wife had relocated to California, which meant the principal members of the band were based on separate coasts.
After a year-long hiatus, Ranno, Smith, Dubé, Davis and a returning Harkin regrouped for a tour, but it didn’t last.
“The music business is a war of attrition where he who lasts the longest wins,” Dubé sums up. “What we should’ve done was take another breather and stay true to our vision. Instead, Starz imploded [in 1980] and that was it. Another rotting carcass on the bone-heap of rock dreams.”
Ranno and Smith stayed together in The Hellcats, who did pick up a deal. Signed to the Atlantic offshoot Radio Records, they released an eponymously titled mini-album in 1982. Then, just five weeks later, Radio Records went bankrupt. It took 10 years to issue an independent, full-length debut (also self-titled, on King Klassic Records), which featured Brendan Harkin but did not include Michael Lee Smith.
The 1989 live double album Live In Action kept the Starz name alive, and a new generation of rock heroes began mentioning them in interviews. In one of his earliest groups, Jon Bon Jovi had apparently encouraged his drummer to paint the Starz logo on the front of his kit. Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx, Tom Keifer of Cinderella and ex-Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach have all dropped the band’s name, as have members of WASP, Poison and Keel. When Lars Ulrich met Ranno in a Long Island rock club around 1991, the Metallica drummer fell to his knees in awe. “He was hugging my leg saying: ‘You guys don’t know what you mean to me. Coliseum Rock is the coolest album,’” Ranno chuckles.
“But if we were such a big influence on those bands, how about they cover a tune or two?” Dubé muses aloud. “Or would it kill them to maybe allow us to open for them on a tour?”
More than 10 years later, Starz did indeed regroup following interest from a concert promoter in the UK. This was ironic for two reasons: firstly, Starz never performed here the first time around (although, curiously, Smith was flown in to watch a Starz-sponsored Formula 3 car in a race at Brand’s Hatch in 1977), and secondly because the offer of the shows evaporated.
“I’d been in complete denial about Starz since the band split up,” Smith admits. “People would ask if I was that guy and I’d tell them absolutely not.
“But the four of us [Sweval had died of complications from Aids in 1990] did some warm-up shows,” Ranno continues, “and we had so much fun that there’s since been around 15 dates.”
One is documented by Sony Records’ recent Live In Cleveland 2004 album, which might even give Starz a second lease of life. This time around it’s strictly for fun. “I’m satisfied with life, and in some ways I’m glad that I didn’t become famous,” Ranno says. “Most celebrities are absolutely insane. Being in the public eye for too long just does that to you.”
“We’re ready to rock and we’ll play as often as possible for whoever wants us,” says Joe X Dubé, who now works as a landscape architect. “A new Starz album is somewhat overdue, don’t you think?”
Originally published in Classic Rock issue 103, February 2007
Dave Ling was a co-founder of Classic Rock magazine. His words have appeared in a variety of music publications, including RAW, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Prog, Rock Candy, Fireworks and Sounds. Dave’s life was shaped in 1974 through the purchase of a copy of Sweet’s album ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’, along with early gig experiences from Status Quo, Rush, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Yes and Queen. As a lifelong season ticket holder of Crystal Palace FC, he is completely incapable of uttering the word ‘Br***ton’.
