Author: Badlands Classic Rock

METALLICA has posted another video as part of its new concert series, “#MetallicaMondays”, where the band is streaming a complete live show for fans on the group’s YouTube channel and on Facebook every week. The latest concert to be shared was recorded on May 2, 1999 at at Parque Simón Bolívar in Bogotá, Colombia.

Says the band: “We dug through the dusty, old VHS tapes in Lars‘ [Ulrich, drums] vault to uncover this show, which was not only the first time we played in Bogotá, but anywhere in Colombia.”

METALLICA has been largely out of the public eye since last fall when the band canceled an Australian tour and announced that frontman James Hetfield was returning to rehab for the first time since 2002 to battle his addictions.

Hetfield made his first major public appearance since entering rehab on January 30, when an exhibit featuring 10 of his classic custom cars opened at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

In March, METALLICA announced that its South American tour, which was originally planned for April, has been postponed until December. In addition, the band’s appearances at four Danny Wimmer Presents-produced festivals in May and September have been canceled: Epicenter in Charlotte, Welcome To Rockville in Daytona, Sonic Temple in Columbus and Louder Than Life in Louisville.

Guitarist Kirk Hammett told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago that METALLICA has to be in better than average shape to play its music live. “There’s a physicality to our music that we cannot ignore, so we just kind of have to keep ourselves in a certain sort of physical sort of state where that we can’t let ourselves get to a point where we can’t play these songs,” he said. “That’s just not allowed. When we write this music, we have to make sure that we can play it and play it when we need to play it.”

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station, former TYPE O NEGATIVE and current DANZIG drummer Johnny Kelly remembered TYPE O‘s late frontman frontman Peter Steele who passed away in April 2010 from heart failure at the age of 48.

“Peter, for the most part, he was a clown,” Johnny said. “He was always joking around — sarcastic, very self-deprecating humor. Just the opposite of what the music portrayed. When we were working on music and stuff, the end result, he was very serious about what he wanted, how he wanted something to sound. Other times, he was a clown.

“I always said that he wanted to be a normal person, but because he was Peter, that was just not in the cards for him; it was completely impossible,” he continued. “I bet he would love to just be able to hang out, go to the bar, have a few drinks. And we would try to do that, and the minute he would come out to the bar, everybody gravitated towards him. He couldn’t go to the store by his house without something happening to him.”

Asked if that was because of Peter‘s size, Johnny said: “I think so. He just had this very striking look. He didn’t look normal. And he had fangs. [Laughs] He was six and a half feet tall, [had] long black hair and fangs. You’re not gonna get the normal reponse when you’re going grocery shopping.”

Steele was born Petrus T. Ratajczyk on January 4, 1962 in Brooklyn, New York. He stood 6′ 7″ (201 cm) tall, and had a low, bass-heavy voice, which was one of the most recognizable features in TYPE O NEGATIVE‘s music.

Before forming TYPE O NEGATIVE, Steele played for the metal group FALLOUT and the thrash band CARNIVORE.

“Going through a midlife crisis and having many things change very quickly made me realize my mortality,” Steele told Decibel magazine in 2007. “And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what’s after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it’s a frightening thought to go nowhere. I also can’t believe that people like Stalin and Hitler are gonna go to the same place as Mother Teresa.”

TOURNIQUET drummer Ted Kirkpatrick has joined forces with singer Tim “Ripper” Owens (ex-JUDAS PRIEST) and keyboardist Bruno Sa (GEOFF TATE) to record a cover of the iconic song “Gethsemane” from Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s 1970 smash hit musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”. The demanding vocals and range required for the tune have previously been tackled by Ian Gillan, Ted Neeley (1973 film version), Gary Cherone, Sebastian Bach and, most recently, John Legend.

Kirkpatrick says: “‘Gethsemane’ has been a favorite of mine from the very first time I heard it in the early ’70s. I’ve wanted to cover it for years — and Tim was the first person that came to mind who I knew could truly do it justice. So with the additional talents of Bruno Sa, who layed down the awesome keys and piano, and Aaron Pace (mixing/mastering), here it is — on the 50-year anniversary of its release in 1970. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.”

Owens had previously worked with Kirkpatrick and TOURNIQUET, handling the vocals on the band’s last album “Gazing At Medusa”, which also featured Chris Poland (ex-MEGADETH) on lead guitar.

Owens joined PRIEST in 1996 and recorded two studio albums with the band — 1997’s “Jugulator” and 2001’s “Demolition” — before PRIEST reunited with Rob Halford in 2003.

TOURNIQUET is currently working on a new album, due out sometime next year.

POWERMAN 5000 frontman Spider One says “selfish, entitled and stupid” people are to blame for the rise in new coronavirus cases across the U.S.

The United States has the most cases of any country in the world, and 36 states have reported rises in new coronavirus cases compared to last week.

Earlier today, Spider One took to his Twitter to write: “The never ending upward Covid numbers in the US is not because of more testing or protests. It’s because people are selfish, entitled and stupid. We have proven as a nation that we don’t have what it takes. Plus zero leadership to teach, inspire and galvanize.”

More than 2.5 million people have tested positive for the new coronavirus and more than 125,000 have died from COVID-19, the respiratory illness it causes, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed increased testing for a spike in COVID-19 cases despite mounting evidence that the virus is spreading widely throughout some communities. He also claimed at a Tulsa rally that he asked to slow down testing because it results in a higher confirmed case count. A week earlier, Trump called testing “overrated” and said it “makes us look bad.”

“Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding,” Trump tweeted less than a week ago. “With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!”

On June 23, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the federal government is trying to expand coronavirus testing, not slow it down.

You might recognize Malcolm Brickhouse (a.k.a. Malxolm Brixkhouse) as the frontman (and lead shredder) of teenage metal sensations UNLOCKING THE TRUTH — which, among other accolades, was the youngest band to ever perform at Coachella and have an entire documentary, “Breaking A Monster”, dedicated to its meteoric rise to fame in the metal world.

Well, it’s been a few years, and UNLOCKING THE TRUTH is now a thing of the past.

The band appears together one final time supporting the newly solo Brickhouse on a ripping new single and video “Phantom”. The track blends a catchy trap vocal in the verse with a booming chorus that highlights Malcolm‘s ability to perform like a menacing metal frontman even when singing radio-ready clean vocals. A mix of 808s and huge guitars beg to be blasted as loudly as possible through your speakers; with a perfect contrast of thrash and hip-hop elements keeping the song interesting and fresh.

The glitchy VHS-style video accompanying the track is directed by i7Eight and gives us a behind the scenes look at Malcolm‘s undoubtedly rockstar-lifestyle along with visually arresting performance shots that underscore the power of the track.

The transition from frontman to solo artist hasn’t deterred Malcolm’s creativity; if anything, its helped it shine even brighter. His latest offering, along with his singles “Bussdown” and “Eeyore” (released earlier this year), show a transition from UNLOCKING THE TRUTH‘s more standard-issue metal fare into a unique original style that incorporates trap, electronic and hip-hop elements alongside classic thrash metal, industrial and punk. Fans of Lil Uzi Vert, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Trippie Redd will be equally at home with his new music as fans of SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, MEGADETH and LINKIN PARK will.

Expect more singles and videos from Malcolm Brickhouse this summer, with a debut album coming later this year.