Good morning hardDriveRadio fans! Here’s a fresh dose of music news to start your day:
Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory has said in a new video from the band’s current recording sessions that its eighth studio album, due out later this year, is sounding “nasty.”
Bathory explained in the clip, “”Man, so far, this record is gonna be . . . It’s nasty — some nasty riffs. The vocals are great. Kind of like (2009 LP) War Is The Answer, (2007 album) The Way Of The Fist a little bit. For some reason, the music is kind of shifting back to that heavier side. And, man, I’m really, really curious to see how it’s gonna turn out, because, wow, I’m very, very happy with what’s happening.”
The Way Of The Fist was Five Finger Death Punch’s first LP and Bathory told us a while back how it came together: “We pretty much recorded the first record on our own. Like, the band got together the money and we recorded this album without a label. We didn’t even have a management, we didn’t have any of that, you know. And basically put a couple of songs on the Internet and, you know, it was just leaking out and people were grabbing onto it, and we gained a big, big fan base without the label. And that’s how the labels started to come, like, hey, who the hell is this band, you know?”
Five Finger Death Punch is recording its eighth album with its regular producer, Kevin Churko, the Canadian record producer/engineer and songwriter who works out of his private Las Vegas facility, The Hideout Recording Studio.
Ghost leader Tobias Forge says he can see himself at some point playing guitar with the band live while he leaves the lead vocals to someone else. Asked by Chicago radio station 101 WKQX if he’d like to play guitar onstage with Ghost, Forge replied, “Obviously, I’m conditioned into being the singer guy, but if I had my way and definitely in an alternative future, if whatever happens, I could definitely picture myself sort of getting someone else to sing and I just play guitar.”
Forge, who writes all the material for Ghost and plays guitar in the studio, added, “I love playing those songs myself. Obviously, I don’t do it very often and if I’m just given a guitar, I have to refresh my memory and the more time I spend jumping around doing other things, the less I play guitar . . . as soon as I go in the studio again, I have to really get my chops up again.”
The singer, who performs as Cardinal Copia, told us that when he started Ghost in 2006 he never imagined getting this far: “Originally there was just one album. I started writing the first album in 2006, and then I was done in early 2010 with it. And at that point, I knew the image and I knew what the show was gonna be like. But I didn’t know that we would achieve some sort of success. I never in my wildest dreams thought we were gonna come this far.”
Tobias Forge recently confirmed to Revolver that he will return to the studio in January 2020 to begin work on the follow-up to 2018’s Prequelle album. Prequelle debuted last June at Number Three on the Billboard 200 chart. It has yielded the chart-topping “Rats” and “Dance Macabre.”
Disturbed singer David Draiman has slammed Roger Waters and other artists, calling them “Nazi comrades,” for their campaign to boycott performing in Israel as a way to pressure the Jewish nation over the ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands and other issues.
Asked by the Bring Disturbed To Israel Facebook page for his view on the Israel boycott by certain artists, Draiman said “Regardless of whether it’s Israel or anywhere else, boycotting an entire society and an entire people based on the actions of its government is absolutely ridiculous . . . There’s a special hatred that exists for the Jewish people in this world, and it unfortunately can’t be explained.”
Draiman continued, “The very notion that Waters and the rest of his Nazi comrades decide that this is the way to go ahead and foster change is absolute lunacy and idiocy — absolute. It makes no sense whatsoever.” The singer added, “You wanna be able to bring people together? You wanna effect social change on a real level? Bring them together for a concert. It’s the perfect way.”
Waters and other artists have been vocal in their support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which calls for economic pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian land, grant Arab citizens equal rights and recognize the right of return to Palestinian refugees.
Disturbed will perform in Israel for the first time on July 2nd. Although Draiman has visited the country many times, this will be the first Disturbed concert in the Jewish state.
Slash has once again praised Greta Van Fleet, the popular young act who have nevertheless been criticized for sounding too similar to Led Zeppelin. Asked for his opinion of Greta Van Fleet by Guitar Interactive, Slash replied, “I can’t say that I listen to ’em, but I love the fact that they’re sort of coming from a pure place. I have to admit the stuff I heard does sound very reminiscent of Zeppelin, and I’ve heard some stories about how they were raised on that. And it’s all good.”
The Guns N’ Roses guitarist added, “When they put out their next record, we’ll see if they can branch away from that and become their own band. But at the same time, the fact that they’re having success is opening up doors for a lot of other kids.”
Earlier this year, Slash said that the young Michigan outfit was opening the door for other up-and-coming rock artists. He believes there is a “wave” of new rock bands coming, saying, “There’s a thing happening, bubbling under the surface with kids right now that are going in rock and roll for what I would call all the right reasons, as opposed to trying to be celebrities before they can put together five chords.”
Slash is continuing to tour with his solo band, Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, in support of his latest album, Living The Dream. He’ll return to the road with Guns N’ Roses for a brief tour this fall, after which that band will reportedly begin recording a new LP.
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Black Stone Cherry singer Chris Robertson and former Bullet for My Valentine drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas! Have a great day everyone!
