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Ghost’s Phantomime EP: the devil still has the best tunes, even when they’re someone else’s

Posted on by Web Rock Radio News Dept

Ghost’s success is built on theatrical blasphemy, winking provocation and some blockbusting tunes. The masked Swedes’ third covers EP ticks all three boxes, even if the tunes belong to someone else.

As always, singer and conceptual mastermind Tobias Forge has chosen five songs that fit his band’s worldview while fusing their musical DNA with his own. 

Genesis’ anti-televangelist broadside Jesus He Knows Me becomes a high-camp retro-metal anthem, Forge amplifies the Easter-based gag in The Stranglers’ Hanging Around, and his epic update of Tina Turner’s We Don’t Need Another Hero is crying out for someone to remake Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome so it can appear on the soundtrack. 

It doesn’t always work (their take on Television’s See No Evil is heavy-handed, while Iron Maiden’s Phantom Of The Opera is too respectful), but mostly it’s devilishly good fun. 

ALTER BRIDGE Forced To Cancel Welcome To Rockville 2023 Appearance Due To Illness – “There Is No Way We Can Give You The Show That You All Deserve”

Posted on by Logan Rocker

ALTER BRIDGE Forced To Cancel Welcome To Rockville 2023 Appearance Due To Illness -

Alter Bridge were forced to cancel their May 20th appearance at Welcome To Rockville 2023 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida due to frontman Myles Kennedy coming down with a respiratory infection. They issued the following statement:

With the recent completion of their successful 30-city North American Pawns & Kings Tour, rockers Alter Bridge are announcing the next leg of dates in the NA market.

Keeping the family vibe going from the last tour, longtime friends Sevendust and recent tour mates Mammoth WVH will be joining Alter Bridge on this run.

The tour kicks off August 1 in Buffalo, NY and end August 31 in Council Bluffs, IA. The tour will make stops in Asbury Park, NJ; Richmond, VA; Quebec City, QC and San Antonio, TX to name a few markets. MJT – the Long Island trio of brothers – will join the last seven stops of the tour.

Tickets are available now. Complete individual routing, ticket information and VIP experiences for each band for the shows can be found on each band’s website: Alter Bridge, Sevendust, Mammoth WVH.

Tour dates:

August
1 – Buffalo, NY – Outer Harbor Event Complex ^
2 – Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony Summer Stage ^
4 – Charlestown, WV – The Event Center at Hollywood Casino *^
5 – Grantville, PA – Hollywood Casino Outdoors ^
7 – Richmond, VA – Virginia Credit Union LIVE! ^
8 – Cleveland, OH – Jacobs Pavilion ^
10 – Quebec City, QC – Agora Port de Québec ^
12 – Mashantucket, CT – The Premier Theater (at Foxwoods Resort Casino) ^
13 – Johnstown, PA – 1st Summit Arena ^
16 – Springfield, IL – Illinois State Fair #^
17 – Fayetteville, AR – JJ’s Live *^
19 – Corpus Christi, TX – Concrete Street Amphitheater ^
20 – San Antonio, TX – Boeing Center at Tech Port ^
22 – Memphis, TN – Orpheum Theatre *
23 – Cincinnati, OH – Andrew J Brady Music Center *
25 – Grand Rapids, MI – GLC Live at 20 Monroe *
26 – Milwaukee, WI – The Eagles Ballroom *
28 – Fargo, ND – Outdoors at Fargo Brewing *
29 – Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore *
31 – Council Bluffs, IA – Harrah’s Stir Concert Cove *

* No Mammoth WVH
# No Sevendust
^ No MJT

Corey Taylor heaps praise on Sleep Token, say they remind him of “early Slipknot”

Posted on by Web Rock Radio News Dept

Corey Taylor has heaped praise on Sleep Token, comparing the enigmatic UK band to early Slipknot.

Speaking on the Allison Hagendorf show, the Slipknot singer said the masked alt-metal outfit tapped into the same kind of mystery as his own did when they first arrived on the scene.

“When I first heard Sleep Token I was like, ‘What the hell is this, man?’” said Corey. “They, to me are one of the few new… I’ll call them metal, but there’re so many different levels and layers. There’s pop elements, there’s jazz elements… I love the fact that nobody really knows who they are. I love the fact that they don’t want to be known.

“There are hints of early, early Slipknot there. At first we were like, ‘Nope. You get nothing. This is what you get, you figure it out. We’ll let the music speak for ourselves.’

The singer added that he was introduced to the band by his wife, Alicia. 

“When Alicia was like, ‘You have to check this out,’ I can remember sitting down and just going, ‘Jesus, this is really good.‘ It’s stuff like [Sleep Token] that gives me hope for the future.”

Sleep Token’s new album, Take Me Back To Eden, is out now. Corey releaseS his second solo album, CMFT2, later this year.

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DIRE STRAITS’ MARK KNOPFLER Turned A Retail Worker’s Rant Into An ’80s Hit; PROFESSOR OF ROCK Investigates (Video)

Posted on by Logan Rocker

May 21, 2023, an hour ago

news dire straits mark knopfler classic rock

DIRE STRAITS' MARK KNOPFLER Turned A Retail Worker's Rant Into An '80s Hit; PROFESSOR OF ROCK Investigates (Video)

Professor Of Rock has released the new video below, along with the following message:

“One day, Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler was shopping in a retail store and he happened to eavesdrop on two meathead workers ranting about rock stars and how easy they have it. It was such an interesting conversation that he borrowed a piece of paper and wrote down what they said verbatim. He turned it into one of the biggest hits ever. Yet this frontman got lambasted by critics for using their exact conversation. It was controversial, for sure, but it was also meant to be satire. Later, the song was banned. Earlier, a happy accident in the studio created the iconic guitar sound that’s become a part of our culture, and then the band had an idea to get Sting to sing on the song. He happened to be in town windsurfing and was able to record an iconic line, ‘I Want My MTV’, that would make it very simple to market especially on MTV. Later, Weird Al Yankovic would parody it with Knopfler playing the guitar. It would be the defining track on Dire Straits 1985 masterpiece blockbuster, Brothers In Arms. The story is next on Professor of Rock.”

Night one of NOFX’s last ever European tour perfectly illustrates why Fat Mike’s crew will be treasured forever as true punk rock rebels

Posted on by Logan Rocker

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When any band announces a final tour nowadays, we take such declarations with a mountain of salt. Black Sabbath. Kiss. Mötley Crüe. All bands who’ve rinsed the whole “final tour” concept for every last dime. Even Texan pop-punkers Bowling For Soup got in on the action back in 2013 – only to return to the live music scene in 2016. Just last week, Sum 41 declared their retirement from touring with a final run of shows planned for the not-too-distant future. I guess this is growing up. 

So when legendary So-Cal punk rockers NOFX declared last year that they were calling time on their acclaimed 40 year career, the news was met with a certain amount of scepticism. Presumably this was another of punk rock provocateur Fat Mike’s little jokes? But no, when this writer spoke with NOFX’s band leader hot off the heels of said surprise announcement, he assured me of his group’s intentions.

“I need it to end,” he told me. “I’m tired of being Fat Mike on stage. There’s so many other things I want to do in life. Every show on this last tour will be completely different. I’m so excited to play them. It’s going to be really special. And we’re not doing the whole Black Sabbath/Mötley Crüe thing. On October 6, 2024 in LA, that will be the last time NOFX ever plays.”  

Time will tell. But one thing remains undisputed at this stage in the game: if this is indeed the end, NOFX are going out on the highest of all highs – drug-related puns aside. 

This writer has been lucky enough to have seen the band (rounded out by guitarists Eric Melvin and El Hefe and drummer Erik “Smelly” Sandin, plus touring keyboardist Karina Denike) live on countless occasions over the last 25 years. During that time, their performances have ranged from sublime to shitty. NOFX themselves would be the first to tell you that professionalism and consistency have never been high on the agenda. This, after all, is the band who called their first live album, I Heard They Suck Live. And as Fat Mike sings on the opening track to Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing, 60%, a song that’s become something of an overall mission statement for the band, “I’m not here to entertain you, I’m here to meet my friend the Russian, the Irish, the German, the Colombian. I don’t care how bad I fuck up, I care about how fucked up I get. I’m not your clown, I’m your dealer.”

So imagine the crowd’s surprise when NOFX take to the stage at Poble Espanyol in Barcelona for the first of their final European shows, and we’re greeted by a well-oiled, finely tuned, actually in-tune machine. 

By Fat Mike’s own admission, the band have been rehearsing. As a result, they’re remarkably well prepared for the occasion. It’s evident that they care about putting on a great show, too. And there’s an overriding sense of humility, commitment and gratitude on display throughout the band’s epic two-and-a-half hour set that’s been hitherto hidden beneath a sea of self-deprecating humour and schtick. 

All of that’s still here in abundance, of course. Topped up with a healthy dose of bad taste banter and politically incorrect jokes. Some things never change. Nor would we ever want them to. But NOFX are clearly intent on giving their fans nothing short of 110% tonight, and this evening’s show is by far and away the best this writer has ever seen them play.

With three gigs across the weekend and different records scheduled to be performed in their entirety alongside sample selections from the greatest songs ever written (by them), tonight’s crowd is treated to a haphazard hybrid of two all-time classic albums – So Long & Thanks For All The Shoes and White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean – and an additional assortment of nuggets from one of the best back catalogues in punk rock. 

The setlist alone is enough to lay claim to the fact that NOFX are indeed the greatest and most important punk band of their generation, the likes of which we will never see again. And if the scenes from tonight’s sold out crowd confirm anything, it’s that this band mean an awful lot to an awful lot of people. There’s going to be a great big NOFX-shaped hole in our hearts once they’re gone. So long, fellas. And thanks for all the shoes. 

Barcelona: Night One set list

Intro/ Stickin In My Eye
Murder in C
Bob
Punk Rock Elite
K-hole
All Outta Angst
Soul Doubt
You’re Bleeding
Straight Edge
Liza and Louise
The Bag
Eat the Meek
Kill Rockstars
Dads Bad News
Fuck the Kids
Hobophobic
Monosylabic
I’m Telling Tim
Cant Get the Stink Out
Please Play This Song
6 Years On Dope
Days n Daze
Green Corn
Six Pack Girls
Quart in Session
180 Degrees
Flossing a Dead Horse
All His Suits
Falling in Love
Champs Elysee
Desperations Gone
Johnny Appleseed
I Wanna Be Your Baby
She’s gone
Buggley
Church and Skate
Kill All the White Man

DJ, presenter, writer, photographer and podcaster Matt Stocks was a presenter on Kerrang! Radio before a year’s stint on the breakfast show at Team Rock Radio, where he also hosted a punk show and a talk show called Soundtrack Apocalypse. He then moved over to television, presenting on the Sony-owned UK channel Scuzz TV for three years, whilst writing regular features and reviews for Metal Hammer and Classic Rock magazine. He also wrote, produced and directed a feature-length documentary on Australian hard rock band Airbourne called It’s All For Rock ‘N’ Roll, and in 2017 launched his own podcast: Life in the Stocks. His first book, also called Life In The Stocks, was published in 2020. A second volume was published in April 2022. 

Watch fans explore Metallica pop-up store in Paris

Posted on by Web Rock Radio News Dept
A picture of the outside of Metallica's pop-up store in Paris, France

(Image credit: Cremerie de Paris/YouTube)

Fans taking in one of Metallica‘s two shows in Paris, France, this week have also been enjoying a pop-up shop filled with the iconic thrash band’s merch.

The pop-up store was hosted by Cremerie De Paris and footage showing fans lining up outside and also exploring the store can be viewed below.

Posting the video on their YouTube channel, Cremerie De Paris say: “At the occasion of the Metallica M72 World Tour Concerts given in Paris at the Stade de France, Cremerie de Paris had the honour to host a really cool pop-up store for music lovers.

“The video shows Metallica fans walking from the Stade de France to Cremerie de Paris, taking the RER B direct 12min train connection. Every day there was a major waiting line all along the main exit of Chatelet les Halles.”

Metallica’s M72 tour features a new in-the-round stage set, with the band’s iconic “snake pit” relocated to the centre of the stage, giving fans a 360-degree view of the performance.

They are playing two show sin each city on the tour, with completely different setlists each night. The tour is in support of the band’s latest album, 72 Seasons.

May 26: Hamburg Volksparkstadion, Germany
May 28: Hamburg Volksparkstadion, Germany
Jun 08: Download Festival, UK
Jun 10: Download Festival, UK
Jun 16: Gothenburg Ullevi Stadium, Sweden
Jun 18: Gothenburg Ullevi Stadium, Sweden
Aug 04: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NJ, USA
Aug 06: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NJ, USA
Aug 11: Montreal Stade Olympique, Canada
Aug 13: Montreal Stade Olympique, Canada
Aug 18: Arlington AT&T Stadium, TX, USA
Aug 20: Arlington AT&T Stadium, TX, USA
Aug 25: Inglewood SoFi Stadium, CA, USA
Aug 27: Inglewood SoFi Stadium, CA, USA
Sep 01: Glendale State Farm Stadium, AZ, USA
Sep 03: Glendale State Farm Stadium, AZ, USA
Nov 03: St. Louis The Dome at America’s Center, MO, USA
Nov 05: St. Louis, The Dome at America’s Center, MO, USA
Nov 10: Detroit Ford Field, MI, USA
Nov 12: Detroit Ford Field, MI, USA

May 24: Munich Olympiastadion, Germany
May 26: Munich Olympiastadion, Germany
Jun 07: Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Finland
Jun 09: Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Finland
Jun 14: Copenhagen Parken Stadium, Denmark
Jun 16: Copenhagen Parken Stadium, Denmark
Jul 05: Warsaw PGE Narodowy, Poland
Jul 07: Warsaw PGE Narodowy, Poland
Jul 12: Madrid Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Spain
Jul 14: Madrid Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Spain
Aug 02: Foxborough Gillette Stadium, MA, USA
Aug 04: Foxborough Gillette Stadium, MA, USA
Aug 09: Chicago Soldier Field, IL, USA
Aug 11: Chicago Soldier Field, IL, USA
Aug 16: Minneapolis US Bank Stadium, MN, USA
Aug 18: Minneapolis US Bank Stadium, MN, USA
Aug 23: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, Canada
Aug 25: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, Canada
Aug 30: Seattle Lumen Field, WA, USA
Sep 01: Seattle Lumen Field, WA, USA
Sep 20: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 22: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 27: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 29: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock’n’roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022. 

How Sammy Hagar made Van Halen even better, according to Sammy Hagar

Posted on by Web Rock Radio News Dept
Portrait of Rock musicians Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Eddie Van Halen (1955 - 2020), and Alex Van Halen, all of the group Van Halen, backstage at the Metro Center, Rockford, Illinois, March 16, 1986

(Image credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

After Van Halen parted ways with David Lee Roth in the mid ‘80s, Sammy Hagar stepped in to fill the void. The Californian singer doesn’t look at it like he merely steadied the ship, though – the comically unflappable Hagar is of the opinion that he dramatically improved Eddie Van Halen’s group.

“I had more experience under my belt when I joined Van Halen in 1985 than they had,” he told Classic Rock, which is true because Hagar had already made waves as the frontman in Montrose in the mid-70s, but perhaps overlooks the fact that his moment appeared to have passed at that point – his joining the group all being down to Eddie Van Halen’s car mechanic for recommending they audition him. Anyway, sorry for interrupting Sammy, you carry on: “They’d been together for seven years making records. I had been around for ten years before that.” 

Hagar says that the band were in awe of their new recruit, thinking, “Wow, here’s a professional”. “I knew how to sing, I knew what Eddie was playing, I knew which keys things were in, and the arrangement of the music. Eddie really got off on that, because he never had a musical partner with Dave.” He recalls that their fandom of him spread throughout the extended family, with Eddie’s dad Jan Van Halen telling his son, “This guy sings like I play clarinet”. 

The stats, of course, back up Sammy’s bragging – apart from whether he sung like Jan Van Halen played clarinet, we have no stats on that – as the next four Hagar-fronted Van Halen records all became huge hits, going to Number One and becoming multi-platinum successes. 

It couldn’t last, though. “The ninth year, it got really rough,” Hagar told Classic Rock. “The tenth year there was no more, and the 2004 reunion was a mess. We never got back to that beginning that I loved so much.”

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Niall Doherty is a writer for The Guardian, Variety and Classic Rock, and co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former editors of Q magazine Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. Niall has written for NME, X-Ray Magazine and XFM Online and interviewed some of music’s biggest stars, including Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, St Vincent, The 1975, Depeche Mode, Radiohead and many more.

Asia’s “reunion” album Phoenix to be reissued as lavish double vinyl set

Posted on by Web Rock Radio News Dept
album artwork detail from Asia'a Phoenix album showing Roger Dean's colourful painting of a phoenix

(Image credit: Press)

Prog supergroup Asia are to reissue Phoenix as a 2LP vinyl set via BMG on May 26. First released in 2008, the album was the first studio recording to feature the band’s original line-up of John Wetton, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes and Carl Palmer since 1983’s Alpha. ELO cellist Hugh McDowell also guests on two tracks. 

Illustrator Roger Dean – whose artwork has long been associated with Yes – designed the cover, which depicts the colourful mythical bird of the title with its wings outstretched in front of his Asia logo.

Asia formed in 1981 and soon enjoyed chart success on both sides of the Atlantic with the rock anthem, Heat Of The Moment. Their 1982 self-titled debut has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, although follow-up Alpha failed to reach the same heights leading to Wetton’s departure from the band. After a series of live shows with Greg Lake at the helm – which can be heard on the recently reissued Asia In Asia live package – Wetton returned for 1985’s Astra, which saw Howe replaced by Krokus guitarist Mandy Meyer. Wetton left the band again in 1991 and was replaced by John Payne. For the next decade, Asia enjoyed modest success with alternating line-ups until the original team officially reunited in 2006.

The 2023 reissue of Phoenix finds the album presented on double vinyl for the very first time.

Listen to a stream of the epic Sleeping Giant / No Way Back / Reprise below and scroll down for the vinyl tracklisting.

Tracklisting

Side A

1. Never Again
2. Nothing’s Forever
3. Heroine

Side B

1. Sleeping Giant / No Way Back / Reprise
2. Alibis
3. I Will Remember You

Side C

1. Shadow Of A Doubt
2. Parallel Worlds / Vortex / Déyà
3. Wish I’d Known All Along

Side D

1. Orchard Of Mines
2. Over And Over
3. An Extraordinary Life

exploding packshot of Asia's vinyl reissue for Phoenix showing four records and album artwork featuring Roger Dean's colourful Phoenix illustration

(Image credit: Press)

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Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.

“The police should all retire. They’re disgusting. England is falling to pieces.” Mick Jagger’s 1972 state-of-the-nation anarchist rant was quite something

Posted on by Logan Rocker
Mick Jagger, in 1972

(Image credit: Michael Putland/Getty Images)

“My slogan is: ‘Good Government is No Government’. England doesn’t need a government.”

It’s March 1972, and sitting in Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is on a roll. NME journalist Roy Carr had been invited to the studio to hear an early preview of the Stones’ then-still-unreleased Exile On Main St. album and conduct an interview with Jagger about what fans could expect, but a mention of the Conservative government’s controversial Night Assemblies Bill has set the conversation on a different tangent. 

The Bill had received its second reading in Parliament on January 21, 1972. David Crouch, the MP for Canterbury, told the House of Commons:

“I believe that the whole House appreciates the need for such legislation as I am proposing to deal with a new phenomenon in modern society. I refer to the “pop” festival, a new sporting or musical event which has taken and is taking place regularly during the season. Such events are on the scale of the Derby race meeting, but they take place without proper proportions being instituted for very large assemblies of people. The Bill is being introduced not to prohibit pop festivals but to make them more acceptable to all concerned and, in particular, more enjoyable for those who go to them to hear the music and entertainment.”

The bill proposed to make it a criminal offence to hold a gathering of 1000 people or more outside between midnight and 6 a.m. without applying to a local authority four months beforehand and without financial guarantees being made. And Mick Jagger saw it as an attempt to crush civil liberties, as the scope of the original bill could have seen it extended beyond pop festivals.

As Turd On The Run played in the background, the singer embarked upon a state-of-the-nation address which makes his distaste for Edward Heath’s government all too clear.

“It’s disgusting,” Jagger told Carr. “The British public should openly flout the Tory government. And voting is no good because it never works… The best thing would be for a load of our top bands to turn up somewhere and assemble a large crowd and do a gigantic free gig. If they did, then you be sure, I’d be there.”

“I honestly believe Britain would be better off with no government than the present Tory one,”Jagger continued.”And as far as the police – they should all retire. I mean they’re all disgusting… England is just falling to pieces.”

“If they get away with this bill,” Jagger warned, “then they’re really going to try and enforce other measures to restrict people’s freedom. If they banned football matches then they’d see some trouble. Just let them start that -and see what happens.”

“England has always had a malaise of not caring,” Jagger concluded. “People take everything lying down.They are content to let the country be run by a load of misguided right-wingers.”

Ultimately, support for the Night Assembles Bill fell away: whether or not Mick Jagger’s opposition to the bill swayed any MPs in their intentions is not recorded in Hansard, the official report of all Parliamentary debates.

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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. Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

Greta Van Fleet share a majestic ode to their love of wearing jumpsuits with new single Sacred The Thread

Posted on by Logan Rocker
Greta Van Fleet

(Image credit: Neil Krug)

Greta Van Fleet have released a majestic new single, Sacred The Thread, lifted from their forthcoming third studio album Starcatcher.

The new track is the latest to arrive from the record – which is due out on July 21 on Lava/Republic/EMI Records – and follows on from last month’s Meeting The Master.

Sacred The Thread is an ode to frontman Josh Kiszka’s love of fashion, primarily his appreciation for wearing glamorous jumpsuits, with lyrics that read: ‘The sequins tripping on the light / Woah / I feel it hugging me so tight’ and I see me / Through colours gems and trim / Unraveled / The glow that was once dim’.

In an official press release for the track, the vocalist explains: “I always like to think that some people’s first impression of Greta Van Fleet in concert is, ‘Wow, these guys really like dressing to the left and blowing shit up, this song is particularly important to me because it’s about my jumpsuits.”

Upcoming album Starcatcher was recorded with Dave Cobb at his base at RCA Studios in Nashville, and finds the band exploring “the duality of fantasy versus reality and the contrast between light and darkness.”

“We had this idea that we wanted to tell these stories to build a universe,” says drummer Danny Wagner. “We wanted to introduce characters and motifs and these ideas that would come about here and there throughout our careers through this world.”

“When I imagine the world of Starcatcher, I think of the cosmos,” explains bassist and keyboard player Sam Kizska. “It makes me ask a lot of questions, like ‘Where did we come from?’ or ‘What are we doing here?’ But it’s also questions like, ‘What is this consciousness that we have, and where did it come from?’”

“We didn’t really have to force or be intense about writing, because everything that happened was very instinctual,” adds frontman Jake Kizska. “If anything, the record is our perspective, and sums up where we are as a group and individually as musicians.”

This summer, Greta Van Fleet will head out on their Starcatcher world tour, with the first show taking place on July 24 in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

View tour dates and listen to Sacred The Thread below:

Starcatcher tracklist:

  1. Fate Of The Faithful
  2. Waited All Your Life
  3. The Falling Sky
  4. Sacred The Thread
  5. Runway Blues
  6. The Indigo Streak
  7. Frozen Light
  8. The Archer
  9. Meeting The Master
  10. Farewell For No

Greta Van Fleet: Starcatcher World Tour 2023

Jul 24: Nashville Bridgestone Arena, TN
Jul 27: Fort Worth Dickies Arena, FX
Jul 28: Houston Toyota Center, TX
Jul 31: Denver Ball Arena, CO
Aug 02: Salt Lake City Vivint Arena, UT
Aug 04: Seattle Climate Pledge Arena, WA
Aug 05: Portland Veterans Memorial Coliseum, OR
Aug 08: Oakland Oakland Arena, CA
Aug 10: Los Angeles The Kia Forum, CA
Aug 12: Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena, NV
Sep 03: St. Paul Xcel Energy Center, MN
Sep 06: Chicago Allstate Arena, IL
Sep 08: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI
Sep 11: Washington Capital One Arena, DC
Sep 12: New York Madison Square Garden, NY
Sep 15: Boston TD Garden, MA
Sep 19: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA
Sep 22: Indianapolis Gainbridge Fieldhouse, IN
Sep 23: Cleveland Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, OH
Nov 06: Hamburg Sporthalle, Germany
Nov 08: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
Nov 09: Paris Accor Arena, France
Nov 12: Brussels Forest National, Belgium
Nov 14: London OVO Arena Wembley, UK
Nov 16: Dublin 3Arena, Ireland
Nov 19: Manchester AO Arena, UK
Nov 20: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Nov 26: Copenhagen Forum, Denmark
Nov 28: Munich Zenith, Germany
Nov 30: Bologna Unipol Arena, Italy
Dec 03: Barcelona Sant Jordi Club, Spain
Dec 04: Madrid WiZink Center, Spain
Dec 06: Lisbon Campo Pequeno, Portugal

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Liz works on keeping the Louder sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.