Metal Edge Presents
Highlights
READER POLL: THE 5 BEST ALICE IN CHAINS SONGS OF ALL TIME
Metal Edge readers rank the five greatest Alice in Chains songs of all time.
TOM MORELLO ANNOUNCES FIRST SOLO ROCK ALBUM 'EVERYONE GETS EVERYTHING THEY WANT,' SHARES NEW SINGLE "DATE NIGHT"
Photo: Danny Clinch Tom Morello has spent three decades turning a guitar into a weapon. On September 25th, he'll aim it again with Everyone Gets Everything They Want, his first full-length solo rock record, out via Mom + Pop Music. The album finds the Rage Against the Machine architect swinging at fascism, anti-immigrant hysteria, and a world that keeps handing him fresh material. The lead single, "Date Night," out today, digs into one of World War II's most astonishing true stories: Dutch sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen and their friend Hannie Schaft, teenage girls who spied, sabotaged rail lines, smuggled weapons, ferried Jewish children to safety — and lured Nazi officers into the woods on phony dates, where the evening ended with a bullet. Schaft was eventually captured, tortured, and executed. She gave up no one. "I make anti-racist songs for anti-racists. I make anti-fascist songs for anti-fascists. And I make anti-Nazi songs for anti-Nazis," Morello says. "'Date Night' is really a 'which side are you on?' song. If any of that offends you, do the math. Oh, and Roman Morello wrote the killer riff in this tune." About that. Roman Morello, Tom's teenage son, has been detonating jaws on tour with his father for three years and shares writing credits on five of the album's tracks, supplying riffs heavy enough to make dad's day job look hereditary. The guest list runs deep elsewhere too: System of a Down's Serj Tankian, Belfast agitators Kneecap, and Beartooth all show up, while production duties rotate among Tyler Smyth, Carl Restivo, Zakk Cervini, Dan Carey, and Sam Nelson Harris. Tankian and Roman both appear on the previously released "Adjourn It," a broadside against the rising tide of racism and anti-immigrant bigotry. Its video splices in footage from Salt of the Earth, the blacklisted 1954 labor drama, drawing a straight line from mid-century resistance to the present moment — the kind of homework assignment only Morello would sneak into a rock video. The man himself remains in perpetual motion. He just wrapped another stretch with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on the "Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour," tore through Newport Folk Festival last weekend, and hits Louder Than Life in Louisville on September 19th. Then comes the main event: the sold-out Power To The People Festival, October 3rd at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. Curated by Morello as a celebration of peace, justice, solidarity, and community action, the one-day bill reads like a fantasy draft of the righteous: Foo Fighters, Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Public Enemy, Killer Mike, Brittany Howard, Dropkick Murphys, Serj Tankian, The Linda Lindas, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, a Shepard Fairey DJ set, and Jack Black fronting a kid supergroup featuring Roman Morello, Revel Ian, Yoyoka Soma, and Hugo Weiss. We've teamed up with Tom Morello to bring you an exclusive pressing of Everyone Gets Everything They Want: red-and-black stripe vinyl, limited to just 300 copies and up for pre-order now.
KING DIAMOND PART WAYS WITH ANDY LA ROCQUE AFTER 40 YEARS, NAME GUS G AS NEW GUITARIST
Photo: Miikka Skaffari/FilmMagic King Diamond and guitarist Andy La Rocque have parted ways after forty years together, bringing one of heavy metal's longest-running creative partnerships to a close. Firewind founder Gus G will take over the role. The band announced Friday that the two had "mutually decided to part ways," looking back on the run with pride and gratitude and emphasizing that the friendship and respect between them remain unchanged. No reason was given for the split. La Rocque's tenure stretches back further than almost anything else in the band. He joined in 1985 during the recording of Fatal Portrait and became, alongside King Diamond himself, one of only two fixed points in a lineup that more than fifteen musicians have moved through. His fluid, neoclassical lead work defined the sound of Abigail, Them and Conspiracy, and stayed central to every King Diamond record that followed. He earned a Grammy nomination in 2007 while building a parallel career as a producer at his own Sonic Train Studios in Varberg, Sweden. ORDER THE EYE Welcoming Gus G to the lineup, King said the guitarist will be involved in writing, recording and touring, adding that his commitments to Firewind and his solo career will continue alongside the band through careful scheduling. Work with the new lineup is already underway. Gus G founded Firewind in the late 1990s and spent 2009 through 2017 as Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist, playing on the Grammy-nominated Scream. He released his fifth solo album, Steel Burner, in April, with Firewind's eleventh studio record slated for this year. The change lands at a delicate moment for Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920, the horror concept album that would be King Diamond's first since 2007's Give Me Your Soul... Please. La Rocque said in March that he had sent King eight songs, three of which were selected, and reported in May that instrumental tracks were largely finished with final takes planned for the summer. Whether his playing and writing credits survive to the finished record is unresolved. La Rocque launched a new band, Lex Legion, earlier this year with Pete Blakk, Hal Patino, Mikkey Dee and vocalist Nils K. Rue, releasing its self-titled debut in June.
