The Great Rock News Report 08.27.08

Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 08.27.2008

Fall Out Boy announces new album, Led Zeppelin writing new material, Skynyrd to work on new album, AC/DC's Black Ice info, Muse working on Black Holes... follow up and more news and release info in the latest Great Rock News Report!

Intro

Good morning one and all and welcome to another rocktacular edition of The Great Rock News Report, brought to you by yours truly, obviously.

It's Wednesday and this is The Great Rock News Report and that can only mean one thing: great rock news aplenty!

There's some pretty big news coming out in the last few days featuring the likes of Muse, Fall Out Boy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC and Killswitch Engage. And there's something about brand new Led Zeppelin material too.

It's a pretty good week to be a rock fan as both Slipknot and Dragonforce released kick ass albums yesterday. The 'Force may be devoid of creativity but they've managed to put out a damn good effort with Ultra Beatdown, but the Slipknot effort trumps it and is a ROTYC (Record of the Year Candidate).

So with all that great rock releases this week, you may have missed the two new Metallica tracks that have found their way online, and if you have, no worries, I'll be providing linkage to those beasts. I think it's safe to say that with Death Magnetic, Metallica are fucking back!

But that's the future, and this is the present, so let's get right to it.

And oh yeah, The Great Rock News Report is rocking another new layout. Originally I was frequently changing the layout because I was looking for something that I really like to stick, but nothing has so perhaps it'll just be a Great Rock Tradition to rotate formats every now and then.

On with the show!


Fall Out Boy have suprised fans by announcing that they will release a new record this November.

Check out a youtube clip of the band making the announcement here. The album, the follow up to 2007's Infinity On High, will be titled Folie A Deux and see a US release on November 4. The album title translates as "a madness shared by two" but is also used to describe a rare psychiatric syndrome in which a symptom of psychosis (particularly a paranoid or delusional belief) is transmitted from one individual to another.

The announcement comes as a surprise because according to rumours, the new album was being postponed due to bassist and frontman Pete Wentz spending time with his family, wife Ashlee Simpson-Wentz who is due to give birth to the couple's first child later this year.

Folie A Deux was recorded in California and produced by Neal Avron. Wentz played a clip of one of the tracks, entitled "I Don't Care" on his MTV music video show FNMTV.

Here are a few tracks that may appear on the album;

- ALPHAdog and OMEGAlomaniac
- Lake Effect Kid
- I Don't Care
- Catch Me If You Can/Proclamation of Emancipation [featuring Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes]
- America's Sweethearts

Their 2007 platinum album Infinity On High featured a track produced by Babyface and a guest appearance by Jay-Z, but Wentz stated in an interview earlier this summer that this album would be much more rock-orientated and that he wanted the songs to be recognized by their opening riffs a la AC/DC.

The album has been promoted by a viral campaign titled Citizens For Our Betterment. The band have released a new mixtape on Wentz's site friendsorenemies.com. The mix features tracks and remixes by labelmates Gym Class Heroes, The Hush Sound, Cobra Starhip, The Academy Is... and others. Speaking owhich, The Academy Is... have recently released their third album Fast Times At Barrington High while Gym Class Heroes are preparing to release their new album The Quilt on September 9.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd are preparing to release a new album in 2009.

After spending the last year or so working with former Marilyn Manson/current Rob Zombie guitarist John 5, Lynyrd Skynyrd is close to finishing its next studio album.

"We've been doing quite a bit of writing with John 5," group member Rickey Medlocke said. "While everybody thought, 'My god, you are going to write with this guy? How is that ever going to work?' But this guy came in and is really multitalented in all genres. I was surprised that this guy could sit down and play Glen Campbell and Roy Clark better than they do, and it blew my mind. And then he loves southern rock, the blues and country. It really blew us away."

While Medlocke says the band has dozens of song ideas, two new tracks that have the act excited are the dark, anthemic "Floyd" and the uptempo "Bang, Bang." Current plans call for Skynyrd to hit the studio this fall and finish recording by the end of the year. An early 2009 street date is planned on a label to be announced.

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AC/DC prepare for Black Ice release, reveal three different artworks.

AC/DC's Black Ice will be released in October across the globe and AC/DC News has unveiled the three different collectible covers fans can choose from when purchasing the CD. Right away, you'll notice you have the choice of yellow, red, or white AC/DC logos but a closer study of each design reveals they're all somewhat different with the exception of Angus appearing at the top center inside a circle. The album will be released on October 21st in the US, a day earlier in Europe and the UK and October 18th in Australia, the band's home country. AC/DC is made up of Brian Johnson (vocals), Angus Young (guitar), Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), Cliff Williams (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Phil Rudd on drums.

Black Ice is the band's first studio album since 2000's Stiff Upper Lip and was produced by Brendan O'Brien, the man behind work by Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against The Machine, Papa Roach, Bruce Springsteen, The Offspring, Audioslave, Velvet Revolver and more. The album was recorded in March and April of this year and will be released exclusively at Walmart. It was reported last week that the band recently flew over to London, England to shoot the video for "Rock 'n Roll Train". The single will make its first appearance on radio tomorrow, August 28th, but you can catch a 30-second sneak peak of the track exclusively through the band's MySpace, or by clicking here.

Last week, Rolling Stone gave its appraisal of the new album, stating that "Brian wails about skies on fire, blood in his eyes, storms raging, lightning flashes, hard rain and pretty women...Angus Young shreds throughout...Malcom Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd — are solid as a rock." Columbia Records will release No Bull: The Directors Cut, a newly edited, comprehensive DVD of the band's famed July 1996 Plaza De Toros De Las Ventas concert in Madrid, Spain, on September 9, 2008. The set will also be available on Blu-ray, with over 2 hours of AC/DC in concert and bonus features including "Angus-cam" songs and 2 rare performances from the "Ballbreaker" tour.

The band also revealed the official tracklisting for Black Ice last week;

1. Rock 'n Roll Train
2. Skies on Fire
3. Big Jack
4. Anything Goes
5. War Machine
6. Smash 'n' Grab
7. Spoilin' For a Fight
8. Wheels
9. Decibel
10. Stormy May Day
11. She Likes Rock 'n' Roll
12. Money Made
13. Rock 'n' Roll Dream
14. Rocking All the Way
15. Black Ice

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Muse are hard at work on their fifth studio album, the follow up to 2006's Black Holes and Revelations.

Muse have been busy in the studio and already have a several tracks written for their next record.

As previously reported, Muse had tentatively started work on album number five, the follow up to 2006's Black Holes And Revelations, earlier this year. Drummer Dominic Howard has now explained that the band wrote a few tracks ahead of their headline V Festival slots (August 16-17) and are set to head back to their studio near Lake Cuomo in Italy soon.

Speaking to BBC 6music Howard said: "We're working on new stuff and we're gonna have a couple of weeks off and then in about two weeks time we're back out to Italy to start writing again."

He added: "We've already done a few tracks and it sounds great, so we're just working towards the future."

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"Bombtrack" - Rage Against The Machine

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Brian "Head" Welch has said that his upcoming solo album has brought him back to Korn -- the sound, rather than the band.

"I was getting away from our sound, the Korn sound, as far as my writing. The last couple Korn records I just didn't feel like I was doing what I wanted. I feel like I was trying to please the industry or management or whatever more than myself. I got to get back to that (sound) on this record. You can tell that it's Korn. You can hear some of the old Korn stuff in there. That's what I love, and I wanted to do that."

Welch left the band in 2005 in order to dedicate his life to worshipping Jesus Christ. Welch has been working on the album for the past three and a half years, and it will finally be released on September 9th. The album, titled Save Me From Myself, was produced by Welch and Steve Delaportas.
The tracklisting for the effort runs as follows;
01. L.O.V.E.
02. Flush
03. Loyalty
04. Re-bel
05. Home
06. Save Me From Myself
07. Die Religion Die
08. Adonai
09. Money
10. Shake
11. Washed By Blood

Click here to check out the first single from the effort, Flush.

And though he left Korn to follow a Christian path, Welch says the album isn't intended as musical ministry.

"I'm just sharing my experiences," he explains. "I don't want to be preachy. I just want to be real, and the songs are real. The purpose and the intent of the album was just to tell my story and things that happened to me and share what I went through. I went through a lot of positive changes, so you're going to get a lot of positive feelings from that."

Despite a public feud with Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, it has been reported that Head would be welcomed back into the band by all of its members, Davis included. While Head was said to be "honored" by the thought, he dismissed a return to the band any time in the near future.

"I don't see it happening right now. Right now I just want to help people, so if (Korn) had the same drive and wanted to do a project or something ... But I don't know what the future holds. For right now I'm just gonna do my own thing and see what happens."

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Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Jason Bonham have been writing new material for a potential new album.

Drummer Jason Bonham told Detroit radio station 94.7 WCSX that writing new material had always been "on the cards" since the band's one-off reunion show in London last December. However, singer Robert Plant has not been involved in the sessions yet.

"I've been working with Jimmy and John Paul and trying [out] some new material," he said. "I don't know what it will be, but it will be something. At the moment, all I know is I have the great pleasure to go and jam with the two guys and start work on some material. When I get there [in the studio] I never ask any questions. If I get a phone call to go and play, I enjoy every moment of it. Whatever it ends up as, to ever get a chance to jam with two people like that, it is a phenomenal thing for me. It's my life. It's what I've dreamed about doing."

"[The] possibility of doing something [like an album] is on the cards. I really felt it was on the cards from the moment we walked offstage at the O2 [Arena]. Lots of politics [would need to] get ironed out [before an album could be made]."

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All That Remains have revealed the track listing for their upcoming new album, as well as releasing a new video.

Overcome is the band's fourth full-length studio album and will see a release date of September 16th through Prosthetic Records. Produced by Jason Suecof (Trivium, Bury Your Dead, Devildriver), the album is supposedly the band's heaviest work to date.

Here's the full tacklisting for Overcome;

1. Before The Damned
2. Two Weeks
3. Undone
4. Forever In Your Hands
5. Chiron
6. Days Without
7. A Song For The Hopeless
8. Do Not Obey
9. Relinquish
10. Overcome
11. Believe In Nothing

The first single from the album is Chiron, and the video for it can be seen here, as well as the a special behind the scenes look here.

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Killswitch Engage are set to enter the studio in October to work on their new album, to be released next year

Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D'Antonio has revealed that the band is scheduled to enter the studio in October to begin work on its new album for a tentative spring 2009 release via Roadrunner Records. A headlining run is also in the works for March.

"I'm one of those dudes who needs to write constantly, because I really suck at writing music with a deadline. My brain gets fried, and I can't do anything, I just shut down completely. When we start on this next one, we'll just bring our demos to practice, and we'll listen to them, judge them and start rearranging the parts that need to be rearranged — or we just start jamming on what sounds cool."

He added that so far, the material is sounding "fast" and everything he's written for the LP "has at least one blast beat and very fast drumming, with really slow riffs."

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The Cure have set a release date for their forthcoming album.

The Cure have revealed the title and release date for their long-awaited new studio album. The record is titled 4:13 Dream and is set for release on October 13, 2008. The band accompanied the announcement with minimalist artwork that may or may not be the art on the release. You can check that out here.

The release follows four singles and an upcoming EP. The band released new material on the 13th of every month leading up to the release of their new record. This included "The Only One" in May, "Freakshow" in June and "Sleep When I'm Dead" in July and "The Perfect Boy" in August. An EP of remixes titled Hypnagogic States will be released in September.

The record will be released by Suretone/Geffen and follows up 2004's The Cure.

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My Bloody Valentine have given in to the times by reissuing their catalog digitally. Their first two albums, Isn't Anything and Loveless, along with their Tremelo EP are all available for download in their entirety. Additonally, four classic music videos will also be getting the digital treatment and be commercially released to fans.

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"Die For Metal" - Manowar

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In one of the more depressing news pieces of the week, the results from the 2008 Kerrang! Awards are in. Here's a quick run down.

Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album beat out In Flames' A Sense of Purpose, Cancer Bats' Hail Destroyer, Bullet For My Valentine's Screa, Aim, Fire and Mindless Self Indulgence's If to scoop the Best Album Award. BFMV's second album was utter shit and didn't deserve the nomination, and the same can be said for Cancer Bats. The In Flames album is solid but again, not really worthy of this list. Avenged Sevenfold was about a million times worse than all of the band's other material and is a joke of a winner. Mindless Self Indulgence's If is the only decent nomination here but was never going to have the backing of the bias judges, despite bassit Lyn-Z being married to Kerrang! favourite Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance.

30 Second's To Mars scooped two awards. Their track "From Yesterday" won the prize for Best Single, contrary to reports that thir track "The Kill" took the award. The error was due to a mistake made on the Kerrang! blog of the awards, and "The Kill" was in fact last year's winner of Best Single Award, meaning 30 Seconds To Mars took the award two years in a row, and deservedly so. The band also earned the award for Best International Band, which is ridiculous considering they haven't done anything significant in the last year or so. No new album, just a few small tours and a couple of new singles from A Beautiful Lie, released in 2005. One award they should have won is Best Live Band. Having seen them twice live this year, I can safely say that they are a stunning live band. Still, if it didn't go them, Machine Head make for worthy winners, producing a consistantly amazing live show every time they take to the stage. 30STM should also have won Best Video Award for "Beautiful Lie", especially considering how week the other nominees were; Coheed and Cambria's "Feathers" took that award.

Elsewhere, Black Tide deservedly took the Best International Newcomer Award, while Slaves To Gravity robbed Elliot Minor of the Best British Newcomer Award. Slipknot were awarded the K! Icon Award, while The Dillenger Escape Plan took the Spirit of Independance Award. Metallica were inducted into the Kerrang! Hall of Fame and Def Leppard were acknowledged as Classic Songwriters.

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Reading Festival chaos ensues as fans hope for secret Foo Fighters gig

Fans hoping to see Foo Fighters play a surprise gig at the Reading Festival this weekend were met with a performance from an unsigned band - who were subsequently bottled by an unhappy audience.

The group named The FF'ers appeared on the BBC Introducing Stage on Sunday (August 24) to play live to around 3,000 fans.

As many members of the audience believed it was a pseudonym for the Foos, they proceeded to boo and bottle the British punk band.

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Josh Homme is set to meet up with The Artic Monkeys to work on a number of new tracks.

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme will produce some songs for British act Arctic Monkeys. Homme did not say what the tracks would be used for, but he did confirm that the quartet would travel to his studio near Palm Springs, California next month to "submerge themselves in something else and do some tracks." The recordings could be part of a new Desert Sessions CD, a continuing series on which Homme gets a number of different musicians together to improvise and create new music in a relaxed atmosphere.

Homme said, "That's the sort of pressure-free 'Lets do something cool'environment that really pays musical dividends at the end...they're a talented bunch of guys, it's gonna be a lot of fun."

Arctic Monkeys have been working on material for their third album, the follow-up to 2007's Favorite Worst Nightmare. Queens of the Stone Age meanwhile, have been on the road for months in support of the band's fifth studio effort, 2007's Era Vulgaris.

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Hatebreed will release a covers album in 2009, a product that was only intended to be a bit of fun.

Hatebreed's upcoming covers album started "just for the fun of it," according to guitarist Frank Novinec, but is now on track for a 2009 release.

"At first we were kind of just screwing around for the hell of it, recording other band's songs," Novinec said.. "It wasn't intended to be released. But the more that we got into it, it was like, 'Hey, let's roll with it' and became something we wanted to do."

Novinec says the album, recorded with producer Zeuss as Planet-Z Recording studio in Hadley, Mass., features "Hatebreed-ized" versions of songs originally done by Metallica, Sepultura, the Misfits, Agnostic Front, Sick Of It All and Marauder, among others.

"It's bands that influenced us, not only metal but from the hardcore scene as well," he explains. "We thought the timing was right. Our band's been together for over a decade now, so we're able to pull off something like this, something different than the same old record you put out. People who are fans of the band can enjoy it, and it gives people who don't know our band and our influences a little taste of it."

Hatebreed hasn't decided on a title for the album yet but plans to have it out next year, following the Sept. 2 release of the group's first concert DVD, Live Dominance, which was filmed in March at a concert in Detroit and is the first produced in the band's new multi-tiered, worldwide deal with KOCH Records. A live CD recorded in Dallas and produced by former Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul is due out before the end of this year as well.

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And finally, Dark Tranquility have parted ways with their bassist, Michael Nicklasson

Here is a statement issued by the band;

"D.T. has parted ways with longtime bass player Michael Nicklasson. All booked shows will go on as scheduled with a session bassist. We thank Michael for his time in the band and wish him the best of luck in future endeavours."

In addition, here is a statement from Nicklasson;

"After almost 10 years and tons of tours and festivals, I chose to leave D.T. for personal reasons. It's been so cool all this time to meet all the people and the tons of fans around the world, and all the friends that I got during this amazing journey - crew, fans and all the people I (we) worked with. I can't name everyone, as the list would take up all the space on the web site, but I'm going to miss all of you that worked and supported us (me) during these years, but this is the right thing to do, I really need a break."

"There are no hard feelings in the band, it's a thing that we all felt was the best for D.T.. Now I'm going to kick back for a while, and then I'll see what's in the future for me. I wish the best for the rest off the boys in my old crew, and to all: I'm coming back in one way or another......thanx to all off you! Cheers!"

Dark Tranquility are one of the pioneers of melodic death metal and have spent the last year touring the UK and US. The band are currently preparing for the release of a live DVD. The band's live show in Milan, Italy on October 31st will be filmed for the DVD, set to be released before the end of the year.

Outro

Holy Metallica! Check out THE DAY THAT NEVER COMES and MY APOCALYPSE.

It doesn't get much better than that, folks. What is it, 16 days 'til Death Magnetic drops? That is all kinds of awesome. And then the new Queen album is out the week after? Insane. And of course, then the countdown begins for Fall Out Boy's Folie A Deux!

Allow me to leave you with a (relatively) new video from Welsh rockers Funeral For A Friend.


"Waterfront Dance Club" - Funeral For A Friend