Saw an early press screening of Metallica: Through The Never yesterday afternoon in Times Square and I gotta tell ya, it is really well done! Director Nimrod Antal has captured an incredible 3-D performance from America’s most successful rock band. They built a one-time-use-only stage set especially for the film, replete with an LED stage floor, huge lighting rigs (I mean, HUGE, like on CRANES) and elements like multiple huge flames, a giant electric chair that comes down from the ceiling, a gigantic “And Justice For All” statue and giant white crosses that pop up. Not to mention you see each band member very up close and personal, including hands strumming, or in the case of Trujillo, striking, the strings, the unexplainable faces Lars makes and the close ups of Kirk‘s most famous guitars, the Boris Karloff and White Zombie models. (Oh and the sweat, did I mention the sweat?) And I loved when James‘ mic stopped working and he gets a little testy with a crew member. All feels exactly like you would imagine if you ever have seen the mighty Metallica live in concert. At one point, it even felt like someone’s fist was coming right towards my nose! (I ducked.) And then there is the story-line. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say they sort of take what happens on stage to outside of the venue and the transition of the scenes are pretty seamless. I give it 4 devil horns up! Opens in IMAX theaters Sep 27th and everywhere Oct 4th. Try to see it in 3-D for sure! Meanwhile, I felt like a boob when I didn’t recall the song “Orion” being played by the band during the credits and turned to one of the band’s manager and executive producer Cliff Burnstein and asked if it was something new! DOH! My bad. But the great news for YOU, our listeners, is you will be able to enter a contest to go to the film’s premiere in San Francisco where you will meet the band, see the film, spend 2 nights in the City by the Bay and get roundtrip airfare for you and a friend. Be SURE you are a hardDriveRadio Radical. Contest starts August 26th. Don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity!…Congrats to our longtime pals! The members of Stone Temple Pilots must be feeling pretty good about their recent decision to move on without singer Scott Weiland, as their new song “Out Of Time” has hit Number One on the Active and Mainstream rock charts. The band issued a statement saying, “We’re really thankful to all the people listening to our music that made this happen. It feels great on so many levels.” “Out Of Time” is the first STP song to feature new frontman Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who began working with the group earlier this year after they dismissed Weiland and filed a lawsuit against him. Guitarist Dean DeLeo told us how the group approached Bennington: “We were very, very, very forthcoming and it was nothing like, ‘Hey, let’s get together and try this first.’ We were very, very focused and blunt and said, ‘We want you to sing for this band.’ We all know that Chester’s affiliated with another huge band, Linkin Park, and we in no way wanted this to interfere with that or the livelihood of his Linkin Park bandmates.” STP will release a five-song EP this fall, in conjunction with a North American tour that kicks off on September 4th in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with Filter and winds down on September 27th in Las Vegas. STP fired Weiland in February and sued him in May, accusing him of using the band’s name to advance his solo career, while claiming that his poor performances, late arrivals, and addiction struggles harmed the band’s career….Avenged Sevenfold is teaming up with online entertainment site Machinima to bring fans brand new original content in the form of a six-episode animated series that will tell the fictional story of the “Death Bat” (aka “Fluffy”), the band’s longtime trademark and mascot. Directed by Metalocalypse producer Jon Schnepp, the series will air this fall on Machinima’s HappyHour channel and will feature music from Avenged Sevenfold’s new album, Hail To The King, which is set to arrive on August 27th. Lead singer M. Shadows revealed that the series will go “hand-in-hand” with a new mobile Avenged Sevenfold game that the band has been developing for 18 months. He explained, “Without revealing too much, I will just say that it is an action-adventure game. It has been written and developed by the band and with our friends in Subscience Studios. It’s turning out awesome. We can’t wait to show you more when it’s ready . . . The game and the series will go hand in hand with each other. We hope you enjoy them both, because I know we have had a great time developing them.” Check this trailer out…Korn posted a lyric video for “Never Never” yesterday on USA Today’s website. (LOVE IT!) It was directed by Montreal-based animator Olivier Ferland. Watch it here…..Pulse of Radio reports a previously unheard song will be among the 70 tracks included on the three-disc deluxe 20th anniversary reissue of Nirvana‘s final studio album, In Utero, which is set for release on September 24th. The song, called “Forgotten Tune,” is an instrumental that was recently unearthed and has never been released in any form before. The rest of the material on the jam-packed set will consist of remastered, remixed, rare and unreleased demos, B-sides, alternate takes and live recordings. According to Rolling Stone, the set will feature two versions of the 12-song album: one will be a remastered version of the original disc, while the other will a newly remixed edition. It is not clear whether producer Steve Albini‘s more raw mix of the record will be included, but mixes he did of at least two songs — “Heart Shaped Box” and “All Apologies” — will be officially released as part of the set after years of bootlegging. Other rarities, non-album tracks and B-sides that will appear include “Marigold,” “Moist Vagina,” “Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip,” “I Hate Myself And Want To Die” and “Sappy.” The second of the three discs will feature demo versions of at least eight songs from In Utero, as well as Dave Grohl‘s 1990 demo of “Marigold,” which was his first-ever solo recording….Have a great day!
