Good morning Radicals! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Here’s what’s happening in the world of rock and roll:
Bad Wolves have released another new track, “Crying Game,” from their forthcoming sophomore album, N.A.T.I.O.N. The follow-up to 2018’s Disobey is due out on Friday, October 25th.
“Crying Game” is the fourth song to be released from N.A.T.I.O.N. and one of the first cuts the band wrote for the new record. Singer Tommy Vext said the track is about how “we all have people that are prone to self-destruct and literally make it everyone else’s fault but their own.”
The new song follows “Sober,” “Killing Me Slowly” and “I’ll Be There” as tracks previewed from N.A.T.I.O.N. The band will set out on a North American tour with Five Finger Death Punch, Three Days Grace and Fire From The Gods starting November 1st in Las Vegas.
Disobey came out in May 2018 and featured a massive breakout hit with a cover of the 1993 Cranberries classic “Zombie.” The song was originally scheduled to feature a guest appearance from Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan, but she was found dead in her London hotel room the morning of her recording session.
Also, today is guitarist Doc Coyle’s Birthday! Happy birthday Doc!
Godsmack singer Sully Erna and drummer Shannon Larkin voiced their support in a new interview with Loudwire for Metallica frontman James Hetfield. The latter recently checked himself into rehab for the second time in his life to deal with addiction issues.
Larkin remarked, “I’m an alcoholic, sober for three and a half years now. Just the day before yesterday, I even texted (Erna), ‘A shot of Jack would be nice’ . . . Every day you gotta check yourself if you’re an alcoholic, and James is. I know he has admitted it, so I feel for him right now, man.”
Both Larkin and Erna acknowledged that the rock lifestyle was not the best environment in which to stay sober, with Erna saying, “I’m sure (James is) like, ‘Man I gotta go through this again now.’ He’s a good dude man, unfortunately he has a bad disease. We all believe in him and all love him, he’s been an inspiration, icon and mentor to all of us over the years and we send out our best love and wishes that he gets well soon, and gets back on track for himself, his band and his family.”
Godsmack toured with Metallica for a year back in 2004, and Erna told us a while back that the experience had been everything he could have hoped for. “When we first got the call about touring with Metallica, it was overwhelming for me. I grew up listening to these guys, and I’ve always respected them, and I’ve always loved them. They’ve always been one of my favorite bands. So it was really an honor.”
Godsmack has spent more than a year on the road, both in North America and Europe, in support of last year’s When Legends Rise LP. The band’s current round of North American dates wraps on October 20th in Saint Charles, Missouri.
Dope singer Edsel Dope has denied a report that he is the masked mystery vocalist known as Xer0 who is fronting Static-X on the band’s current reunion tour, which is also serving as a tribute to the band’s late founder and frontman Wayne Static.
Static-X has been touring in celebration of the 20th anniversary of its debut album, Wisconsin Death Trip, with Dope along as support. A Danish music site called Metal A Day posted a concert photo of Xer0, along with a a side-by-side comparison with Edsel Dope that seemed to show both men with a similar neck tattoo.
Edsel issued a lengthy statement on Friday (October 11th) that slammed the report, while also sharing a photo of himself watching Static-X from the side of the stage, with Xer0 in the background.
After saying, “Let me remind you how easy it is to slap a little tribal neck tattoo onto someone in Photoshop,” Edsel added, “It’s one thing to go on a Scooby-Doo scavenger hunt, or to use Photoshop to attempt to prove whatever you are trying to spin, but it’s entirely different when trolls, masquerading as journalists, spew their ignorant, hateful words towards something that is so incredibly personal.”
In addition to the photo of him standing side stage during a Static-X gig, Edsel also included a collage of famous figures with the same neck tattoo Photoshopped on them, plus a photo of drummer Ken Jay hugging Wayne Static’s father.
Static-X kicks off the second leg of the tour in November. A new album called Project Regeneration, featuring previously unreleased vocal tracks from Wayne Static, will arrive next year.
