New live photos of Guns N’ Roses in New Jersey

Check out some of these classic picks from the Guns N’ Roses New Jersey show. IZOD Center, Nov 17, 2011. Photos by Frank White

Check out the set list too by clicking here. (BTW, why is AXL performing so many covers?)

New Anthrax, Testament, Death Angel photos on Powerline site

Frank White was in Philadelphia when Anthrax brought their Worship Music headlining tour to the Electric Factory on November 10. Go check the photos here.

Live photos of ‘the one true Mayhem’ in NYC

Whoever remembers Mayhem — the notorious Norwegian Black Metal band — this is what’s left of them (above). On Powerline’s main site we posted photos of Mayhem’s appearance in New York City on November 3 (at Gramercy Theater). For a band that is perfectly suited for Halloween, they were a few days late in NYC, but still giving out their ghoulish atmosphere. Check out the photos by clicking here.

Also included are photo galleries of the support acts: Abigail Williams from Arizona, Hate and Keep of Kalessin from Europe.

Vintage interview with Sebastian Bach posted on main Powerline site

An interview of Sebastian Back from the Powerline’s newsstand edition back in March 1990 is posted on the main Powerline site: www.powerlinemag.com

Here’s a little snippet:

“You know what I think about? I think about all the teachers and people that tried to tell me what to do with my life. And I said ‘f*ck you.’ And now I’m doing what they want to do. And their daughters are in line to f*ckin buy my album. All these f*ckin’ assholes who told me I could never do anything — screw you! I’m f*ckin’ doing it!”

Click here to read the entire Powerline interview/article

If Megadeth burps, it’s news

Sometimes it seems Megadeth can burp and it will be reported as news on most Metal news sites.

Today, the legendary Blabbermouth reported that bassist Dave Ellefson felt welcome upon returning to the band. Seems a bit obvious, no? Of course he was! He was invited back!

They pulled the quote from an interview with Lambgoat.com:

Ellefson: Interestingly enough, when I came back it was not walking on eggshells. It was actually very open arms, hugs, big smiles. Just, “Man, let’s go out and do this. Let’s blow everybody’s minds!” And it’s still that, which is great, because I get to bring a new perspective to Dave from the outside in. And Dave can also continue to bring a new perspective to me because of all the years that he has been running MEGADETH during my time away.

It was a good interview but it seems that everyone is waiting for controversial things to be said about Mustaine. What he thinks, what he does … will he explode?! But this is not the Mustaine of the 80s or even the 90s anymore. Mustaine may say some controversial things here and there but he’s a pretty stable individual nowadays. He’s not going to wring your neck if you meet him. And there is a high probability that there will be no news about him wringing necks or having a nervous breakdown in the near future.

In other words, time to relax on reporting Megadeth news.

Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘no cowbell’ Reaper

Listened to Sony Legacy’s 2001 re-release of Blue Oyster Cult’s Agents of Fortune and I thought I’d blog about it.

The demo version of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” is worth the price of the reissue alone. Off of guitarist Buck Dharma’s home demo, the “no cowbell version” has an almost Neil Youngian quality to it. And the lyrics are more pronounced without the added vocal harmonies. The line about Romeo and Juliet comes together in a creepier outcome while maintaining the beautiful essence of the vocal:

Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity
We can be like they are

“We can be like they are.” A sense of togetherness in not love, not life, but death.

Overall, the demo version of the song — even though inferior to the studio version— is still a very strong song. It gave me more appreciation to a song that I have heard a million times on the radio — a great song, but a played-out song.

Check it out. the demo version is worth a download. Or even worth the price of the tangible CD itself.

Hookers For Jesus?

Annie Lobert, wife of Stryper guitarist Oz Fox, founded Hookers for Jesus, which is an international, faith-based organization that addresses human sex trafficking, sexual violence, and exploitation linked to pornography and the sex industry.

Hookers for Jesus sounds like an extreme title but Annie Lobert was a hooker herself:

“Don’t get me wrong, the first couple of years I was doing it, I loved it. I loved having sex and the money that came with it. I loved the attention that I got too. So there was definitely a honeymoon phase that I went through. But it then became a nightmare. I was also afraid to leave because all of the other pimps in the so-called “working circuit” would find out and I would be in danger. I knew girls working in that world – personal friends of mine – that were murdered or never heard from again,” the 44-year-old Lobert told Noisecreep.

“I started working outside of the sex industry and when that business failed, I got depressed and overdosed on drugs. After 16 years of working in and out of the sex industry I had reached the bottom. My background was going to church as a little girl, so I basically prayed to God and asked him to rescue me because I had a mess of my life [laughs].

“So that’s when things changed for me and I got clean. I’ve been off drugs for eight years now. About two years after I got clean, I started reaching out to women in the sex industry and that’s how ‘Hookers for Jesus’ began. It’s been an organic thing. I just show these women how I got out of that life.”

She met Oz Fox via MySpace. She says this about the guitarist/ husband:

“I’m so proud of him and Stryper. Like me, they’re not about preaching or anything like that. They’re just nice people. I love being around them and their families. Even the wives all get along [laughs]. The band is going to be doing this cruise in February and I cannot wait to see everyone together again. I also want to see all of the other bands playing. When I was still a stripper, all I danced to was hard rock music. I’m obviously not doing that anymore, but I’m still a rock chick.”

Go to Hookers For Jesus Web site for more info.

Remember, kids, it’s not a porn site.

Black Metal Christmas ornaments are back

As much as I would relish a “Death By Misadventure” christmas ornament, the Black Metal” Christmas Tree Ornaments put out by CM DISTRO are pretty fun.

According to Century Media, the “Black Metal” Christmas Tree Ornaments were “extremely popular ” last year. In fact, they were sold out within a few hours. So this year they are back with a vengeance —  in a number of different designs and colors.

Pentagram Santa Hats and Stockings are also available, and you can wrap all your gifts and deliver them with our “Metal” Gift Tag Stickers.

Don’t be so tightly wound this Christmas, add a little surprise to your stocking stuffers. Check them out at cmdistro 

 

 

James Hetfield defends Metallica’s role in ‘Lulu’

Anytime an artist starts coming up with excuses for an album they were a part of … well, it doesn’t hold promise for the reputation of that album.

In a recent interview with The Pulse Of Radio, Metallica’s frontman James Hetfield defended his role in the “Lulu’ project with Lou Reed. In fact, Hetfield claimed that he had no interest in learning the storyline of “Lulu” and simply followed Reed’s lead.

“We saw his vision through him. I didn’t want to look at the play, I didn’t want to read anything, look at the movies, ‘Pandora’s Box’, or read any of the books. I wanted to just feel it through Lou because he basically digested all of that information and it seemed pretty convoluted. There was about three or four different versions of it, and he put together his modern poet version of it.”

That doesn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement.

Lou Reed and Metallica

According to Blabbermouth, the two plays that “Lulu” is based on are called “Earth Spirit” and “Pandora’s Box”. The latter was made into a silent movie in 1929.

The collaboration between METALLICA and Reed was sparked by their performance together of Reed’s “Sweet Jane” and “White Light/White Heat” at the 25th anniversary of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at Madison Square Garden in October of 2009.

The songs were all written by Reed with extensive arrangement contributions by METALLICA.

Only two songs on the album are under five minutes in length, while two are more than 11 minutes long and the closing cut, “Junior Dad”, clocks in at 19 minutes.

Reed and METALLICA will perform selections from the album on several European TV programs but has yet to announce any live dates or U.S. appearances.