“Mr. Tony Rombola killin’ it in the studio!!” was the headline of the tweet on the Godsmack Official page. Godsmack is “almost done” recording its follow-up to 2014’s 1000 Horsepower album. The group’s seventh studio disc will arrive in 2018 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Godsmack’s debut album. The band’s Twitter account was updated on Monday (Dec 11th) with a short video featuring a clip of a new song. The group wrote in a caption, “Mr. Tony Rombola (guitarist) killin’ it in the studio!! The new album is ALMOST done . . . who is ready!? #gs2018.”
Godsmack frontman Sully Erna told FaceCulture in September the band was “hoping to have the first single on the radio by January and the record in everyone’s hands across the world by April.” The group’s seventh studio disc is being produced by Erik Ron (Panic! At The Disco, Saosin) and will arrive in 2018 to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of Godsmack‘s debut album. (Which I recall well! I was one of the first outside of their label folks to see the band after they were signed up at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT!)
Sully noted that the band’s new songs have “a lot more of a commercial aspect to ’em . . . from this point forward, we’re gonna try to reinvent a little bit more of our sound, our look, our stage show, and come out with a brand new Godsmack.”
Godsmack’s last release was a song called “Inside Yourself”, which was made available in October 2015 as a free download at the band’s official web site.
How’d you like to live here??? You can for $13 million! And it’s a steal, down from $16 million! Yep, this house is currently owned by Kirk Hammett of Metallica! The 4,140-square-foot residence, located in the Sea Cliff neighborhood, is back on the market for a second time. Hammett first put it up for sale last year and got no takers. He also owns the house next door, which has also been on the market for $16 million and for which Hammett paid $5.7 million back in 2005.
The house is a three-story, four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom Neo-Classical house built in 1922. The home also offers “majestic” views of China Beach, the Pacific Ocean and the Marin Headlands, according to the listing, as well as a “family room, large kitchen with breakfast nook, bonus room, grand spiral staircase, lovely manicured garden, cliffside ocean view garden and more.”
Metallica recently made Forbes magazine’s Highest-Paid Musicians Of 2017 list, pocketing $66.5 million to land in the 10th position on the survey. The band will resume touring behind its Hardwired…To Self-Destruct LP in February.
Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has revealed the British trio has nearly finished a new track called “Thought Contagion,” which he expects to surface within the next two months. The song will follow up last May’s “Dig Down,” with Bellamy adding that the band is considering a full LP release in late 2018 or early 2019. Bellamy described “Thought Contagion” as “a great track — rocking, heavy.”
He explained, “I think next year we’ll do like two or three more songs like this, and then the album might be like later next year or early ’19, something like that.” He told us a while back that it’s always difficult to describe what the band’s new music sounds like: “It really is difficult to answer, for us, I think, because there’s so many varied, extremely different types of influences that creep in there and I think that’s always been there on all the albums. And it sounds, I suppose, a little over the top to say what the different influences are, ’cause they’re so random.” (Thanks, The Pulse Of Radio)
A new 17-second clip of a song from Wolfgang Van Halen‘s upcoming debut solo album is available below. The snippet was posted by Eddie Van Halen‘s son earlier this week on his Facebook page.
It was reported earlier this year by Van Halen News Desk that Wolfgang Van Halen was “doing it all” on his upcoming disc. The Van Halen bassist is playing all the drums, bass, guitars and keyboards himself, in addition to handling all the vocal tracks. The web site spoke directly with a pair of people who had heard portions of the record, saying they “totally loved it.”
He told hardDriveRadio a while back that his ability to play different instruments gave him the freedom to do what he wanted on a solo project. “I mean, I feel like it’s just kind of open-ended,” he said. “I feel like since I can play drums, bass, guitar and kind of sing, I guess, I can kind of just decide whatever I want to do. I mean, I’ve always loved the whole Dave Grohl story of how he started Foo Fighters — just did a whole demo album by himself.” (Thanks Blabbermouth)
Finally today, Korn’s Ray Luzier told Metal Wani Korn has begun writing music for the follow-up to 2016’s The Serenity Of Suffering album. “We’re definitely talking about it. We’re always writing stuff — I mean, it’s a non-stop machine. Even on the road, we have three tour buses that are always in progress. Jonathan [Davis, vocals] always has his studio on his bus; you can’t eat on his table on his bus, because there’s speakers and several laptops and things going on — he’s always creating. So there’s always ideas. I know the beginning of next year, we’re definitely gonna start getting together and [working on new music as a band].
“On ‘The Serenity Of Suffering’, Head [guitarist Brian Welch], Munky [guitarist James Shaffer] and I got together first and got probably 20 riffs and grooves and ideas going, and then once we start everybody involved, it’s time to get a producer,” he continued. “Nick Raskulinecz did such a great job on ‘The Serenity Of Suffering’, and I’d love to use him again, but I’m sure we’ll have that meeting soon, talking about another producer and possibly Nick again.
“Korn‘s a really difficult band to mix too, and Josh Wilbur, who mixed ‘The Serenity Of Suffering’ is just really on his game. Let’s face it — we can play our balls off and do a great performance, but if it’s not heard in the right way, then it doesn’t really get across to the audience. So it takes a really special guy to mix this band. I think Josh definitely nailed it on our last record.”
Asked if he thinks Korn‘s next album will follow a similar musical direction to “The Serenity Of Suffering”, Ray said: “It’s funny, ’cause even the dubstep, kind of experimental record we did [2011’s ‘The Path Of Totality’], at the end of the day, it still sounds like KORN. It’s funny, ’cause Head and I are always the metalheads of the band — we always want it to be heavier; I think we all do. KORN has such a unique sound that I think that it’s inevitable it’s gonna be towards the heavy side. But there’s been talks about doing different things and that, but I think, depending on who the producer is and where everyone’s heads are at, I think it’s gonna be an even heavier record than ‘The Serenity Of Suffering’ — I’m hoping, anyway.”
