The Rockefeller Christmas Tree will be lit tonight and the city is all abuzz! Hey, that’s a good Word With Friends word!….Lou Brutus was on the hotLine last night with Stone Sour/Slipknot guitarist Jim Root on his decision to stay home to write Slipknot music rather than tour with the next round of Stone Sour dates. He said Slipknot was finally going to get down to business: “It’s looking like we’re probably gonna be doing some random touring throughout the next year, but we’re also gonna really try to get an album going, you know. I mean, I know I want to. I know it’s past time. I know we need to for ourselves, we need to for the fans and most importantly, for the legacy of Paul Gray. I mean, he would be looking at us right now going, ‘What are you idiots doing? Get in the studio. Start writing.’” A post at Stone Sour’s Facebook page yesterday (Dec 3rd) stated, “With an impending Slipknot album on the horizon, Jim will not be touring with Stone Sour this winter . . . It was a difficult decision, but as the fans have wanted another Stone Sour tour and Jim had responsibilities to the writing process with Slipknot, we feel this is the best decision where everyone wins.” Slipknot’s long-awaited fifth album will be its first since 2008’s All Hope Is Gone and first since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray. Christian Martucci, an LA based guitarist and friend of the band, will fill in for Jim on the January-February run. (Thanks to our UK reader Ed for sending in the tip!) Meanwhile, Blabbermouth reports Corey Taylor has joined the cast of the feature film “Fear Clinic” from Dry County Entertainment, founded by director Robert Green Hall (MTV‘s “Teen Wolf”, “Laid To Rest”, “Lightning Bug”), and Fear Chamber LLC. “Fear Clinic” began as a 2009 horror series for FearNet that consisted of five episodes starring up-and-coming talent like Lucas Till (“X-Men: First Class”) and Kate Nauta (“Transporter 2”) as well as horror icons Danielle Harris (“Halloween 4”), Lisa Wilcox (“A Nightmare On Elm Street 4”) and Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees). The series and upcoming film stars Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger in the “Nightmare On Elm Street” franchise) as Dr. Andover, a fear doctor who treats patients afflicted with crippling phobias by inducing hallucinations inside his exposure therapy invention; The Fear Chamber. The series, which focused on a different phobia every episode, received critical acclaim including two 2010 Streamy Awards (“Best Sound Design” and “Best Visual FX” for Hall’s company Almost Human) and reached over five million hits on FearNet.com. It has since been added to On Demand and mainstream channels YouTube and Hulu, making it the most-watched horror web series in history. The project has been in active development for a feature film, written by Hall and Aaron Drane. The story has seen a shift from the series, however; instead of the episodic nature of the original show, the film will focus on a variety of phobias that all stem from one traumatic event. “Fear Clinic” will see Taylor in the role of Bauer, one of the employees of the clinic who struggles to keep things under control when all Hell breaks loose. Felisha Terrell (“Days of Our Lives”), who wowed viewers with her recurring role as Kali on MTV’s “Teen Wolf”, will reunite with director Robert Hall as she joins “Fear Clinic” to take on the role of Osborn, a therapist at the clinic and second-in-command to Dr. Andover (Robert Englund). The film may be a more mature realization of the concept from the series, but at the heart of the story it focuses on the cerebral nature of fear itself and the manifestations it can take for different people. “Fear Clinic” is currently filming for a Halloween 2014 release. …. Now here’s a birthday party I think I can crash! Singer Maynard James Keenan is throwing himself a 50th birthday party on May 14th, 2014, and he’ll celebrate by performing with two of his three bands: A Perfect Circle and Puscifer. Also on the bill will be reunited early ’90s alternative act Failure. The birthday party will take place at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and so far Keenan’s other act, Tool, does not seem to be on the guest list. Keenan said, “Making it to the half century mark can be equal parts daunting and relieving. I figured I would remove the sting of officially being referred to as ‘Gramps’ by throwing a party and outlasting all of my rude friends.” I have heard Failure (Ken Andrews’ band) was reuniting. So that will be a cool show. Never have seen Puscifer before either!….My friends in Bullet For My Valentine have posted the music video for their new tune, “Raising Hell.” It is designed to give fans a taste of the new heavier and thrashier direction the band is taking for their 5th album they plan to record next year. Me likie…..Randy Blythe of Lamb of God has announced the release of his Da Capo Press recount of his nearly year long manslaughter trial held in Czech Republic last year.. The book is aptly titled “Dark Days: My Tribulations and Trials.” It is centered around the accidental death of a Lamb of God fan at a show back in 2010 when an overzealous fan jumped onto the stage and Randy pushed him back into the audience, where he accidently hit his head and suffered a fatal injury. With the differences in language and the bias against and misunderstanding of heavy metal, the trial lasted nearly a year and Randy was very close to losing everything and spending his life behind bars in that country. He and his manager had to mortgage their homes and borrow money to help fund this legal nightmare. Thankfully, Randy and his attorneys convinced the judge and jury Randy was not at fault, that the fault was with the promoter and the lack of security, along with the misunderstanding of a gesture to evoke more audience response vs inviting fans leap on to the stage. I’m looking forward to reading this one…..Happy 44th to Jay Z.
