Korn - Narcissistic Cannibal (LIVE)

So Korn released a live video of their new single "Narcissistic Cannibal", live from New York City (Nov. 4, 2011).  Badass!!

Music News for Movember 30th, 2011

Happy Movember 30th everyone!  As most of you know, a lot of fellow Canadians, plus a large support of men & women worldwide, have taken part in Movember this past month.  On a personal note, thanks to everyone who supported the cause, it was a great worldwide success!

Anyways, here is what has been making [AFGM] headlines today:

Sister Sin went ahead and paid tribute to a great Motorhead classic, "Rock N Roll", and is also featuring long time musician Doro:

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WACKEN 2012 IS SOLD OUT!

In case you didn't get a ticket for Germany's (possibly the world) greatest metal festival, here is what you (and I) will be missing:

AMON AMARTH, BROILERS CORONER, CRADLE OF FILTH, DARK FUNERAL, DIMMU BORGIR (with orchestra), ENDSTILLE, FORBIDDEN, GAMMA RAY, HAMMERFALL, IN EXTREMO, IN FLAMES, DANKO JONES (Spoken Word), MACHINE HEAD, MINISTRY, MOONSPELL (with orchestra), NAPALM DEATH, OPETH, PARADISE LOST, AXEL RUDI PELL, HENRY ROLLINS (spoken work engagement), SATURNIAN, SCORPIONS, SICK OF IT ALL, SIX FEET UNDER, SUICIDE SILENCE, U.D.O. (Birthday Party), VOLBEAT, WATAIN, WINTERFYLLETH.

Organizers for the annual festival were extremely happy to announce the good news:

"Amazing! Wacken is sold out for the seventh time in a row! For the seventh time in a row Wacken Open Air is sold out and never before in such a short time! All 75,000 tickets are sold. Thanx for your support, metalheads! A huge part of the billing is already announced including several special and exclusive shows as well as high-class acts. As every year we have made every effort to provide a terrific billing! And the announcements don´t stop. Via our online advent calendar at least one band will be announced every day during December. Together we will turn the 23. Wacken Open Air into a mega party!"

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Echoes of Eternity have also dropped their new music video for their track "Ten of Swords", which comes from their sophomore album "As Shadows Burn", which was released on September 22, 2009 va Nuclear Blast Records:

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"The Lord Came Down" is the brand new music video for Syracuse's Brand New Sin.  The track is taken from their last album "United State", which was released on October 24, 2011 via Goomba Music:

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Dee Snider and the boys from Twisted Sister have announced their plans for a Christmas holiday concerts in Huntington, NY and New York, NY.


Snider shared some humour on the upcoming shows:

"If you told me 30 years ago that one day I would be playing Christmas songs, with Twisted Sister, for families in concert- and be happy about it-I would have punched you right in the nose. Funny how life changes you. Now I'm actually looking forward to it!"

Jay Jay French (guitarist) also commented: "There is no better way to blow your Christmas bonus than by seeing A Twisted Christmas on Broadway. It's so good, even atheists love it!"

$52 to $74 are the prices for the Huntington show and can be found here.  For those in NYC, tickets are $35 and can be found here.

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Seems like a different POV for a music video but I like it!  In light of Demon Hunter re-releasing their "World Is A Thorn" album (Deluxe Edition), the band has created a short music video for their track "LifeWar":

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Tune into the Grammy nominations tonight in LA, Cali for the following:

Way to give it away jerks! haha

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Korn has given fans and critics alike a preview of their entire upcoming release "Path To Totality", which will be released on December 6th, 2011 via Roadrunner Records:

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And as always, check out AFGM Facebook for other articles, videos, pictures, etc.  Cheers and have a great day!

Holiday Metal Bash @ VDS

Anyone in the Chicago area going to this?

Check out the official VDS site for details, or follow them at VDS Facebook!

Music Releases for November 29, 2011

Hey everyone!  So this week turned out to be a bust for releases in the music world.  Now I'm sure there are plenty of albums that I've missed you might consider important, but from a buzz perspective, here is what came out today in North America:

(Demon Hunter - The World Is A Thorn [Deluxe Edition])

On a another note, if you feel something should have been/should be included in my articles and releases, hit me up with an email at 'afgallaghermusic@gmail.com' for your thoughts, questions, comments, etc.  I'll do whatever I can to keep you an avid reader :-)

Music News for Monday, November 28, 2011

Good morning fellow rockers!  I trust and hope the weekend was relaxing for all of you.  Today has proven to be a busy day in the music world.  Here is what has been making [AFGM] headlines over the past few days.

Circle of Contempt has dropped some new material in the form of a lyric video entitled "Entwine The Threads":

Circle of Contempt - Entwine The Threads (Lyric Video)

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Bassist and vocalist of Rush, Geddy Lee, now has a wine scholarship added in his name to Niagara College.

For a lucky and enthusiastic student, Grapes for Humanity Canada has committed $26,500 towards the wine scholarship, which will be matched by the Ontario provincial government ("The income will be used to provide an annual scholarship for a student in the second year of Niagara College’s Wine and Viticulture Technician programme who intends to pursue a career path in winemaking after graduation.")

For a little bit of a hisory lesson, Lee put together two trips for wine lovers to Tawse Winery in Niagara in September, 2009 and to Huff Estate Winery in Prince Edward County last September.  These trips (along with the sale of Rush memorabilia) have raised over CAN$350,000 for Grapes for Humanity Canada.

You can read the rest of the article here.

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Todd Kearns and the Sin City Sinners have also released their first Christmas video, "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree".  Cool piece of info, the video was made entirely on an iPad2:

Sin City Sinners - Rockin Around The Christmas Tree

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Mike Skinner & The Streets said their final goodbyes at The BIG Reunion festival in Skegness, Lincolnshire, UK.  The group had a farewell crowd of just over 7,500 fans as thy played their last tunes of the decade.

The band's front man, Mike Skinner also celebrated his birthday on the same day. It was an emotional farewell as the band and their production team enjoyed a drink on stage with their fans!  Cheers to a decade long career, ending on a high note.

(Dry Your Eyes)

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POD (Payable on Death) is back on the map again with their upcoming LP release, and now a new music video from the track "On Fire":

POD - On Fire

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A great chuckle on a Monday morning here.  Last week, Chris Martin and Coldplay had to stop their song "The Scientist" (during their performance at Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions) when a female fan in the audience decided to join in and play tambourine.  Martin, unfortunately, had to halt the song as the tambourine started to interfere with the performance.

With big as polite as he could, Martin told the female fan, 'I don't mean to be rude, this is not a tambourine song'.

He added, 'don't take this to be some kind of anti-tambourine rally or rant against the tambourine. It's one of my favourite instruments.'

The show continued nonetheless without tambourine.  You can read the full review of the show here.

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So have you heard who will be a headliner for the (possibly) the world's best metal festival?

(drum roll...)

None other than Sweden's own IN FLAMES!

You can head over to WoA's website for all the juicy details, but here is who is set to play alongside In Flames this year:

AMON AMARTH, CORONER, CRADLE OF FILTH, DARK FUNERAL, DIMMU BORGIR (with orchestra), ENDSTILLE, FORBIDDEN, GAMMA RAY, HAMMERFALL, IN EXTREMO, DANKO JONES (*SPOKEN WORD), MACHINE HEAD, MINISTRY, MOONSPELL (with orchestra), NAPALM DEATH, OPETH, PARADISE LOST, AXEL RUDI PELL, HENRY ROLLINS (spoken work engagement), SATURNIAN, SCORPIONS, SICK OF IT ALL, SIX FEET UNDER, SUICIDE SILENCE, U.D.O. (Birthday Party), VOLBEAT, WATAIN, WINTERFYLLETH.

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And as always folks, you can head over to AFGM Facebook for even more news, video, photos, etc.  Cheers!

Friday Night @ The Annex Wreckroom

Inertia Entertainment has got your night covered for music fellow readers (well, at least in Toronto).  The 3tards will be live at the Annex Wreckroom tonight with support from Epeleptic Brain Surgeons and Fatality.

No minors for this evening though folks, unless of course you visit one of our fine souvenir gift shops in Toronto.  Not that we encourage underage drinking here at AFGM, but lets face it, it happens. ;-)

Now, head over to their websites (linked above) and check out what the night has to offer.  Cheers!

Tonight @ The MOD Club

Grab a viking helmet and a beer tonight folks and head down to the Mod Club this evening for Korpiklaani, hosted by none other than Inertia Entertainment.

As you can see, all the details have been posted by Inertia as to ticket prices, door times and supporting acts.

Here is what to expect for the evening from Korpiklaani:







Polkadot Cadaver:



Forged In Flame:



Cheers and hope to see you there tonight fellow rockers!

Tonight @ The Phoenix

AFGM will be hitting up the Hey Rosetta show this evening!

As you can see in the details, its a 19+ show folks (sorry minors).  For those of you unaware of the group:







FYI, they are playing again tomorrow night in case you miss this evening's performance ;-)

Iced Earth In Bucharest

So how much more of an insight can you get about Iced Earth?  The band recently performed at The Silver Church Club in Bucharest, Romania on November 22, 2011 in support of their latest album "Dystopia".  Thanks to "Rockstage.ro" for posting some amazing photos of the highly anticipated show!

Iced Earth's setlist for the evening: 

-Dystopia

-Angel's Holocaust

-Slave To The Dark

-V

-Stand Alone

-When The Night Falls

-Damien

-Dark City 

-The Hunter

-Anthem

-Declaration Day

-Watching Over Me

Encore: 

-Dante's Inferno

-Iced Earth

You can head over to Rockstage.ro for the rest of the photo gallery.  As for video, YouTube is loaded with clips and songs from the show.  Enjoy!

Universal/EMI Music Deal

Great read I found today from Rolling Stone Magazine.  Basically, it's outlining Universal Music's purchase/merge with EMI records and their plans for the future:

How the Universal-EMI Deal Will Change the Music Industry
by Steve Knopper (November 23, 2011)

A little more than a decade ago, there were six powerful major labels. Now, with the sale of EMI's recorded-music division – home to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Coldplay and Katy Perry – to Universal Music Group for $1.9 billion, the record industry will be reduced to just three. The deal is pending regulatory approval from both U.S. and European agencies – but if it is approved, just one label, Universal, would control more than a third of overall sales, leaving many in the industry nervous about its clout. "It's going to be damaging in the end," says a veteran major-label executive. "There's going to be another whack-down of artist rosters. It happens again and again. How can artists and their managers fight for priority attention? It's tough."



EMI is the latest victim of a decade of severe record-industry contraction. Labels peaked in 2000, selling more than 785 million albums, but Internet piracy and the shift from high-profit CDs to low-profit digital singles have forced thousands of label layoffs and drastic artist-roster cuts. At the same time, new power centers have emerged in the music business, including Live Nation, the concert behemoth that merged with Ticketmaster last year; Apple, which has grown into the biggest music retailer; and a new generation of do-it-yourself artists, from Radiohead to Wilco, who have left the majors behind.

The purchase by Universal, the group that controls labels including Interscope and Def Jam, will make the planet's largest label more dominant than ever. The company's market share is set to expand from roughly 27 percent of worldwide music sales to 36 percent, compared to Sony's 23 percent and Warner's 15 percent. Proponents argue that Universal's powerful distribution network will give EMI artists greater international reach, while EMI's Nashville label, whose artists include Keith Urban and Brad Paisley, will help Universal address its weakness in country music. "It'll give artists signed to EMI an opportunity for growth while at the same time allowing Universal to put out more music than ever before," says a source with knowledge of the sale.

"It's a big deal," adds former Sony and Warner executive Steve Greenberg, now chief executive of independent label S-Curve Records. "If fewer players have the ability to be strong companies, that just may be the only system that's viable for the time being."

Sony has been making aggressive moves as well. Doug Morris, who grew Universal into the top major, took over the label in July after 15 years at Universal. Notoriously competitive, Morris recently signed producer Dr. Luke to run a new imprint, Kemosabe. In addition to locking up Luke's hitmaking talents, the deal prevents him from working with non-Sony artists (including his main collaborator, EMI's Katy Perry). Sony has also offered $2.2 billion to buy EMI's publishing division, which owns the copyrights to 1.3 million songs, by Rihanna, the White Stripes, Sting and others – and may end up being more lucrative than the labels Universal bought. "He's taking out his proven playbook and going at it again with a real fervor," a source says of Morris' deals. "It's classic Doug Morris."

Despite competitors' fears, the deal at least gives EMI a future, which had been uncertain for a decade. Private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners bought it in 2007, but when it defaulted on a $5.4 billion loan, Citigroup took over the company earlier this year. "How effective was EMI in signing new artists the last few years?" says the source with knowledge of the sale. "They said in their own statements they've slashed A&R."

Both the label and publishing sales are expected to be approved in eight to 10 months. In the meantime, EMI executives have said they plan no short-term layoffs – although eventual staff cuts are all but inevitable, as the combined companies eliminate redundancies. "We've been assured that the commitment and investment will remain," says Caroline Prothero, manager of EMI dance-music star David Guetta. "I want this situation to allow new artists to come through, and I want the people that have worked with us to keep their jobs."

The Beatles will sell millions no matter which label owns their catalog, and Perry and Coldplay have nothing to worry about. The fate of smaller artists is more uncertain – several managers of well-known EMI artists tell Rolling Stone they are concerned about what will happen to their clients' upcoming records. "There's going to be nothing left of EMI," says one music-business source. "Which means smaller rosters, less artist development."

But given the reduced power of the majors, many in the business are surprisingly unfazed. "It's just another merger,"says Bob McLynn, who manages acts from Train to Hole. "You have to work with your artist and soldier on and not worry about the surroundings."

Thoughts anyone?

Tonight!

Can you guess where AFGM will be tonight?

Still guessing?

Hells yeah!  Judas Priest, Black Label Society and Thin Lizzy will be gracing Toronto with their presence tonight at The Air Canada Centre.  I for one am excited and sad that this will be my first and potentially last time to see Halford, Tipton and the rest of the boys.  Either way, its going to be one hell of a show!

And to rev myself and any other fans going tonight:






(As I Lay Dying - Electric Eye [cover])

BLS:

Music News of November 22, 2011

Good morning/afternoon/evening folks, wherever you are in the world today.  Here is what made [AFGM] headlines this morning:

Living Sacrifice have been making music for well over 20 years now and have decided to show fans and enthusiasts alike what they are made of.  "In Finite Live" shows Living Sacrifice from a professionally shot and recorded multi-camera performance.  Filmed in Pomona, Southern California, the shows's set list spans their massive catalog.

Bonus features on the DVD includes:

- Behind-the-scenes mini-documentaries from the making of the two music videos for the band's 2010 "comeback" album

- The Infinite Order, as well as six more tracks from another live show in the group's original home area of Little Rock, Arkansas.

Below is a sample of the DVD, featuring the track "Bloodwork":

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 Fear Factory/session drummer Gene Hoglan is now offering online drum lessons to co-inside with his instructional DVD "The Atomic Clock".

The online lessons are being hosted by Reallesson.com, and with good reason after reading this description of the website:

"RealLesson.com is your outlet for taking live, interactive lessons online or in person. During the site's pre-launch phase, we are having great success in attracting and securing a wide variety of teachers! There is no limit to the style/genre of the teacher, so you will have no shortage of qualified teachers to learn from. We will not only be providing lessons with musicians, but also sound engineers, tour managers, lighting/stage professionals and other relative categories of instruction."

With that being said, you can check out some interview footage between Gene himself and Mitch Gallagher from Sweetwater Minute:

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Piggy D (Rob Zombie bassist) has announced he will be selling three pieces of artwork that he created via eBay.  These three pieces were inspired by Piggy's personal collection of vintage Halloween masks as well as different nightmares.  Each of the three auctions ends November 27th. His paintings have never been seen before by the public, and have never been for sale.  

As is stands, one of the paintings is bidding at $305US, but there's still 5 days left on the auction.  Check out the bid wars here.

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Dokken's back!  Frontiers Records has announced the signing of Dokken for the release of the band's upcomingcoming studio album in the spring of 2012.

Lead singer Don Dokken shared some insight to the new album and how far along they are:

"So far we have written 10 songs in only eight weeks. Usually we spend a year or more on our music. I can't explain why this time it came so fast; it just happened. So far the music is very uptempo and heavy. Of course we know our fans like the classic Dokken sound and this is where our new music is headed. It's been a band of brothers doing what we love: 'music.'  In a perfect world, we would like to release the new album before the summer and then play the festivals in Europe. Then hopefully we can jump on a package tour in the U.S.  We want to give everyone a great CD that will keep all music fans 'rokkin'' during these troubled times!"

And for a flashback...

(Breaking The Chains)

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Fieldy (bassist for Korn) and his side project Stillwell have released their self titled music video for their EP "Surrounded By Liars":

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And as a standard folks, you can head over to AFGM Facebook for extra news, articles, photos, video, etc.  Cheers!

Music Releases for November 21/22, 2011

As you can see (below), there are a ton of CD's being released today.  So head to you local music store or online (Amazon or iTunes) to pick up a copy: