The Music News Update

[JediMindTrick]

Am I wrong in thinking that these singers are probably mega-divas?

In some cases yes. The band I'm best qualified to talk in this regards is Nightwish as they are by far my current favorite and are on their third (and by far best) lead singer. I could give the whole details but it would be long, I started to do so and realized that no one except a Nightwish fan would want to read the novel I had started. Tarja, the first singer, was fired for being a diva who thought she was bigger than the band and being too limited vocally as she could only do operatic. Anette, the second lead singer, was fired for thinking she was bigger than the band when she threw a fit about the band using the backup singers from the opening acts to sing lead on a night when Anette was rushed the hospital just as Nightwish was set to take the stage. Nightwish was faced with a difficult choice that night - cancel and send thousands of fans already in the venue home angry or give the best show they could letting Elize Ryd (current lead singer of Amaranthe and backup singer for Kamelot who opened for Nightwish that night) do what amounted to karaoke as she had to read off a lyrics sheets. They chose the latter and Anette was apoplectic over it. Nightwish's current lead singer, Floor Jansen, is by far the best of the three in talent and attitude. Floor can sing anything from opera to death metal grunts and can shift back and forth with ease and she understands and accepts that Nightwish isn't "her" band that she gets to control and dictate too. She like the rest of the band understands that Nightwish is Tuomas Holopainen, the keyboardist who writes and scores all their music. Its not much different than a group like Nine Inch Nails which is really Trent Reznor and session musicians only unlike Trent, Tuomas doesn't sing.

[Deathstroke]

According to Blaze Bayley, ex-Iron Maiden singer Paul Di'Anno has cancer. Article Link

Paul Di'Anno says he doesn't have cancer.

[Deathstroke]

AC/DC's Cliff Williams has announced he will retire from touring and recording after the band's current tour.

Here's an interview with ex-Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson.

The new Alter Bridge album will be called The Last Hero. It is due out in October via Napalm Records.


From Classic Rock Revisited:

GERRY BECKLEY--co-founding member of the legendary Grammy Award-winning rock band America--will release a solo album CAROUSEL Friday, September 9 via the Los Angeles-based indie label Blue Élan Records. Recorded at his Los Angeles studio Human Nature, the shimmering 12-track album plays to all of BECKLEY's strengths; the singer, songwriter and musician played most instruments on the album.

"With a solo project I'm really a committee of one," says BECKLEY. "There's only myself to please. Having said that, it's not always easy. Each project is a snapshot in time. The material on Carousel came from a wide scope of inspiration."

CAROUSEL contains original standouts such as the deeply personal "Lifeline," "No Way I'm Gonna Lose You" (co-written with Dan Wilson who won an award for his work with Adele) and "Tokyo," of which BECKLEY says: "The song actually came to me while I was waiting to board a flight home from Japan. I seem to remember I lost track of time and almost missed the flight." There are also three covers on which BECKLEY puts his distinctive spin: Spirit's "Nature's Way," Gerry Rafferty's "To Each and Everyone" and Gerry and The Pacemakers' "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying."

"I've fortunately never been short on inspiration for my original material but I do love to record a cover every so often," says BECKLEY. "These three are of course from my long list of fave songs. I've been singing 'Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying' virtually since it came out in the 60's for example. The Gerry Rafferty song is from his first solo album Can I Have My Money Back?--I love the entire album. It was recorded between the breakup of The Humblebums, his first duo, and his later Steelers Wheel stuff."

[Deathstroke]

The new Airbourne CD, Breakin' Outta Hell, is due out this fall from Spinefarm.

You can check out the title track for the album HERE.

[Don C]

In some cases yes. The band I'm best qualified to talk in this regards is Nightwish as they are by far my current favorite and are on their third (and by far best) lead singer. I could give the whole details but it would be long, I started to do so and realized that no one except a Nightwish fan would want to read the novel I had started. Tarja, the first singer, was fired for being a diva who thought she was bigger than the band and being too limited vocally as she could only do operatic. Anette, the second lead singer, was fired for thinking she was bigger than the band when she threw a fit about the band using the backup singers from the opening acts to sing lead on a night when Anette was rushed the hospital just as Nightwish was set to take the stage. Nightwish was faced with a difficult choice that night - cancel and send thousands of fans already in the venue home angry or give the best show they could letting Elize Ryd (current lead singer of Amaranthe and backup singer for Kamelot who opened for Nightwish that night) do what amounted to karaoke as she had to read off a lyrics sheets. They chose the latter and Anette was apoplectic over it. Nightwish's current lead singer, Floor Jansen, is by far the best of the three in talent and attitude. Floor can sing anything from opera to death metal grunts and can shift back and forth with ease and she understands and accepts that Nightwish isn't "her" band that she gets to control and dictate too. She like the rest of the band understands that Nightwish is Tuomas Holopainen, the keyboardist who writes and scores all their music. Its not much different than a group like Nine Inch Nails which is really Trent Reznor and session musicians only unlike Trent, Tuomas doesn't sing.

We talked about this back when it was happening, I think Anette Olzon was already on the way out when everything went down with her. She had hired her own agent and was looking for endorsements and things like that, on her own. The band doing a show without her was just the last straw.

[Deathstroke]

The new Kenny Chesney album will be released October 28th. It will be entitled Cosmic Hallelujah.

The new Michael Sweet solo album will be called One Sided War. It will be released via Rat Pak Records on August 26th.

01. Bizarre
02. One Sided War
03. Can't Take This Life
04. Radio
05. Golden Age
06. Only You
07. I Am
08. Who Am I
09. You Make Me Wanna
10. Comfort Zone
11. One Way Up
12. Can't Take This Life (bonus track; feat; Moriah Formica)

[Hiromi]

Ronnie James Dio's birthday today, we still miss him

[Deathstroke]

Ronnie James Dio's birthday today, we still miss him

I completely agree with this sentiment.

[Deathstroke]

The first full length album from Ghost Season, Like Stars In a Neon Sky, is due out September 15th. Details

[Deathstroke]

The new Alter Bridge album will be called The Last Hero. It is due out in October via Napalm Records.

Here's the artwork:

[Deathstroke]

Toto has a new live CD/DVD coming out. Check out this Melodicrock.com article for all the details.

The new Jaded Past CD will be called Believe. It is due out August 19th on MelodicRock Records. Full Details

01. Tattered (YouTube link)
02. Don’t Judge
03. Believe
04. Good Bad Innocent
05. Whiskey Dreams
06. Be My Lady
07. Dashboard Jesus
08. Hurt
09. Scratch The Itch
10. Traces
11. Taken

[Deathstroke]

Seven will release their new album, Shattered, on September 23rd via Escape Music. Details

[JediMindTrick]

We talked about this back when it was happening, I think Anette Olzon was already on the way out when everything went down with her. She had hired her own agent and was looking for endorsements and things like that, on her own. The band doing a show without her was just the last straw.

Did you ever watch the documentary "You have 48 hrs to learn the setlist?" Its about Nightwish and how Floor became the lead singer and goes into great detail about what happened that night, albeit from the viewpoints of the rest of the band. Anette refused to be interviewed or even let her image be seen in the documentary so the parts of the documentary leading up to that night in Denver are a bit weird as the concert sections are all instrumental or Marco parts singing. There are a lot of clips from the Denver concert with Elize. Its pretty interesting and on youtube if your a Nightwish fan though most of it is in Finnish so you have to read subtitles. Neither Floor nor Elize speak Finnish so their parts are in English.

Between that and some interviews I've read with Anette and the others I think that it was Anette's insecurities that drove her out more than anything. She was absolutely treated horribly by Tarja fans to the point of being mercilessly booed on stage at many concerts. It utterly destroyed her self confidence and it showed on stage as she wasn't good live and lacked any presence. Then she got pregnant and had discussions with the band about a replacement singer for a while so they could continue touring. Anette has said she was open to to it so long as it wasn't Floor Jansen. Apparently Floor was the band's #1 choice back in the Anette days but they didn't want to cause the breakup of her then band, After Forever, as they were friends with the band and that band was seemingly on the way up. So they went with Anette. Now Floor was available but Anette feared that fans would love Floor and continue to hate her since Floor is a metal singer and she is a pop singer (almost exactly Anette's words in an interview she did). The band though wanted Floor and when Anette threw her diva fit over the Denver concert the band fired her. Anette was right though, Floor was well accepted by fans as she has incredible range and versatility and can do everything both Tarja and Anette could do only better. My three favorite studio songs are all Anette songs (Poet, Song of Myself, and Last Ride of the Day) but Floor blows Anette out of the water on these songs when done live just Floor blows Tarja out of the water on everything live, the new unofficial name of the song is Ghost Love Floor as she completely owns that song now.

[Deathstroke]

You can check out the new Kansas song "With This Heart" via this Soundcloud link.

Vivian Campbell has resurrected Riverdogs.

The new Dark Tranquillity album will be called Atoma. It will be out November 4th via Century Media Records.

[Don C]

Did you ever watch the documentary "You have 48 hrs to learn the setlist?" Its about Nightwish and how Floor became the lead singer and goes into great detail about what happened that night, albeit from the viewpoints of the rest of the band. Anette refused to be interviewed or even let her image be seen in the documentary so the parts of the documentary leading up to that night in Denver are a bit weird as the concert sections are all instrumental or Marco parts singing. There are a lot of clips from the Denver concert with Elize. Its pretty interesting and on youtube if your a Nightwish fan though most of it is in Finnish so you have to read subtitles. Neither Floor nor Elize speak Finnish so their parts are in English.

Between that and some interviews I've read with Anette and the others I think that it was Anette's insecurities that drove her out more than anything. She was absolutely treated horribly by Tarja fans to the point of being mercilessly booed on stage at many concerts. It utterly destroyed her self confidence and it showed on stage as she wasn't good live and lacked any presence. Then she got pregnant and had discussions with the band about a replacement singer for a while so they could continue touring. Anette has said she was open to to it so long as it wasn't Floor Jansen. Apparently Floor was the band's #1 choice back in the Anette days but they didn't want to cause the breakup of her then band, After Forever, as they were friends with the band and that band was seemingly on the way up. So they went with Anette. Now Floor was available but Anette feared that fans would love Floor and continue to hate her since Floor is a metal singer and she is a pop singer (almost exactly Anette's words in an interview she did). The band though wanted Floor and when Anette threw her diva fit over the Denver concert the band fired her. Anette was right though, Floor was well accepted by fans as she has incredible range and versatility and can do everything both Tarja and Anette could do only better. My three favorite studio songs are all Anette songs (Poet, Song of Myself, and Last Ride of the Day) but Floor blows Anette out of the water on these songs when done live just Floor blows Tarja out of the water on everything live, the new unofficial name of the song is Ghost Love Floor as she completely owns that song now.

I think that documentary is on the Waken Open Air Blu Ray I have. I didn't know the band had wanted Floor before they hired Anette. I've seen both of them live and, to be honest, I think the band played with more energy with Anette, When I saw them with Floor it was a very workman-like show. They went out, they played, but it lacked energy. I get that playing music is their job, but when you're at a concert, you don't want it to seem like the band is just going through the motions. With Anette, they went out and rocked. It seemed like they were having fun. They were bantering with the crowd, moving around on stage. That sort of thing.

Granted, this was only three shows. Friends of mine saw Nightwish in Atlanta maybe a week or two before Anette was fired and they said the band lacked energy then, too.

Still, Floor is without a doubt the better fit for Nightwish. Hopefully this break they're going to go on re-energizes them.