Snow flurries/sleet/rain in NYC on Nov 12th! Of course! I have to move some CD racks I bought to the office today. Crap!….Pulse of Radio reports Five Finger Death Punch is mulling over a 2014 edition of the Trespass America tour, which the band first launched in summer 2012. The group is asking for fan input on which acts should appear on next summer’s trek. The band is already trying to gauge fan interest in certain acts by posting their names on Facebook, including Volbeat, Demon Hunter, Ghost BC, Gemini Syndrome and Scar Symmetry, as well as non-metal possibilities like the Prodigy and Tech N9ne. (I vote for Volbeat, Ghost BC and Gemini Syndrome.) You are encourage to post your suggestions at the tour’s Facebook page. The 2012 edition of the festival trek included Killswitch Engage, Pop Evil,Trivium, God Forbid, Emmure and Battlecross in addition to the headliners. Five Finger Death Punch’s new album, The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell, Volume 2, will be available next Tuesday, Nov 19th. The band is currently on a European tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Avatar. (Maybe after touring with Avatar, they might invite them!) Meanwhile, drummer Jeremy Spencer is the cut-up of 5FDP. Here he is “bustin’ a move” with his drum tech Bobby “Rockshow” Watson at a recent 5FDP tour stop. And where they got that song from, I will never know!… In This Moment announced they have signed with Atlantic Records. Their first 4 albums, Beautiful Tragedy, The Dream, A Star-Crossed Wasteland and Blood, were all released on Century Media. Atlantic begins their task with the band in promoting the new single, “Whore,” which Maria Brink has said stands for “Women Helping One another Rise Eternally.” (Love you Maria, but that’s stretching it!) Anyhow, here is a lyric video for the song. And the band just announced a new string of headlining dates for January and you can find them in Road Rage….My friends over at Fret12 told me they are releasing a new “The Sound and The Story” DVD, this time spotlighting Slipknot and Stone Sour guitarist Jim Root. (They recently did one on Stone Sour’s other guitarist, Josh Rand, that our friend Lou Brutus makes a behind the scenes appearance in!) “The Sound And The Story” DVD series is quickly becoming known for featuring comprehensive guitar lessons taught by the artist — featuring fan-favorite songs. In this DVD, Jim teaches exactly how he plays some of his most memorable and challenging solos from both bands. He also teaches you how to play 11 complete songs: covering riffs, leads/overlays, effects-usage, and more! Paired with an artist-approved tab book, fans will get access to tutorials on guitar techniques and methods; backstage rig tours, live concert footage, and a private behind-the-scenes look at the life of Jim Root. Corey Taylor and Jim’s long-time guitar tech Martin Connors also share stories and personal experiences they’ve had with Jim Root in a series of never-before-seen interviews! To pre-order the DVD, go to Fret12’s site at this location. The DVD drops Dec. 2nd. And stay tuned for a cool contest where we’ll give you a guitar and the DVD so you can learn yourself! So be sure to be a hardDriveRadio Radical, yo, so you can enter!….Pulse of Radio also reports Alter Bridge will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Jan 6th with the release of Alter Bridge X, a massive, 27-disc boxed set that will be limited to just 3,000 copies worldwide (1,000 for the U.S.) The set will include all four Alter Bridge studio albums, along with DVD, Blu-ray, and vinyl audio copies of Live From Amsterdam and Live At Wembley, including a 3D version of the latter. Also in the box will be every webisode to date, hours of unreleased interviews and documentary footage, a coffee table book, a signed poster, and much more. Alter Bridge was started by the three instrumental members of Creed (including bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott “Flip” Phillips) and guitarist Mark Tremonti told us how ex-Mayfield Four singer Myles Kennedy became the final piece of the puzzle: “When we first started the band, we were desperately looking for a singer, and my buddy had brought me a Mayfield Four CD and, you know, hearing the CD, I was blown away — this guy’s, you know, not doing anything right now and he’s this good? I made demos and sent ’em his way, and he sang over them and he seemed to be into the songs and we loved what he did and he flew down January 2nd, 2004, and we’ve been a band ever since.” The complete set will contain 16 DVDs/Blu-rays, seven CDs and four vinyl discs. The hardcover coffee table book will contain more than 100 pages of exclusive photos spanning the group’s decade-long career. Cool stuff… Loudwire reports Metallica frontman James Hetfield was recently honored with the “Livin’ The Dream Award” by Little Kids Rock, an organization which provides music instruction and instruments to public schools. Hetfield was given the award at the organization’s annual Rockin’ the Bay Benefit Concertin Menlo Park, California over the weekend, where he performed “Enter Sandman” with some of the kids during the event….Birthday shout outs today to Neil Young (68) and Megadeth’s Dave Ellefson (49).
