Scott Ian Relives Metallica Drama In Excerpt From Memoir

The Jamaica, Queens-based band were one of the seminal groups in the early U.S. thrash metal scene, along with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer (nowadays, they're known as "The Big Four"). In this excerpt, Ian tells the story of future Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine's unceremonious firing from Metallica, and he recalls picking up his replacement - former Exodus guitarist Kirk Hammett - from the airport.

It was New Year's Eve 1980, and we had a big party at my friend Richie Herman's house. He lived on the first floor of our building, and his dad was always out of town, so we had fifty or sixty people at his house to celebrate my birthday. I went nuts. I'd been drinking before, but now I was almost legal. I was seventeen, and I drank so many screwdrivers made with that ultrapremium vodka, Popov. It's right up there with Grey Goose and Tito's, if they tasted like used Russian bleach. I must have had twelve. I have vague memories of making out with this girl, and we stopped kissing because I was getting queasy. I felt the vomit come up my esophagus, and I pulled away and puked all over her and then proceeded to puke all over Richie's bathroom.

I crawled up the stairs one flight back to my mom's apartment, crashed out, and woke up the next day still throwing up. I was sick for two or three days. Just the smell of booze nauseated me for years after that. Looking back, that was an advantage because I didn't drink much during all the formative years of Anthrax, and that helped me maintain focus. I'd go to bars and have a beer or two, but I was not part of the Alcoholica team. Looking at Metallica now, they had a totally different dynamic. Their music was strong enough to hold up even when they were sloppy drunk, and even when Dave Mustaine was in the band they really were the Four Horsemen. They just all had very strong, different personalities. James Hetfield was actually the wallflower. He was quiet like [Anthrax drummer] Charlie [Benante] with a good sense of humor and hadn't developed his rock star persona yet. He looked awkward around people, but when he was holding his guitar and screaming into the mike he was right at home. That was where he belonged, even though he never said anything onstage. That was all Dave.

Mustaine was the real front man of the band. He did all the talking onstage and he had that rock star personality. He was also an out-of-control, mean drunk, but he had a sharp sense of humor. Lars could be funny, too, and he could talk a ton of s-t. He actually couldn't really play when they started. He learned by jamming along with James's songs and just got better as they went. It would be hard to imagine Lars in any other band, but he's the right drummer for Metallica. He was also the voice of the band from day one.

If I were to single any of them out as someone who looked like he didn't belong, it would be Cliff. Anthrax and Metallica had a certain look: tight jeans, high-top Nike or Converse sneakers, metal T-shirt, leather jacket, or denim over leather. And then there was Cliff in his bell bottoms, cowboy boots, R.E.M. T-shirt, and jean jacket decorated with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Misfits pins. He was definitely an oddball, but in his own way, he was the most metal of all of us because he flew his own flag and he was the most talented musician-possibly the best I had ever met-even better than [original Anthrax bassist Dan] Lilker. He was a virtuoso bassist, and he understood music and theory. Compared to him, we were cavemen. He was very aloof but not standoffish. He was cool, laconic. He almost resembled a character from the '50s, like the Fonz from Happy Days, if the Fonz played in Molly Hatchet. Cliff would stand there with a cigarette, give you a squint-eyed Clint Eastwood grin and say, "What's up?"

Read the rest here.

Queen Release Alternate Version of Freddie Mercury's Love Kills

The original song was the first solo track recorded by the late Queen legend in 1984; it was featured in producer Giorgio Moroder's 1984 restoration and edit of the 1927 silent film "Metropolis", as part of the project's new soundtrack.

Due November 10 (Nov. 11 in North America), "Queen Forever" presents a mix of Queen's hits and classic tracks, including three previously unreleased songs featuring Mercury.

The package include a long anticipated track from Queen and Michael Jackson, "There Must Be More to Life Than This", a previously unfinished Mercury-Queen track "Let Me In Your Heart Again" originating from the band's "The Works" album recording sessions, and the new stripped-down take on "Love Kills."

Check out audio of new ballad version and video of original video by Freddie here.

Alice Cooper Goes Behind The Scenes of Paul McCartney Project

Due November 17 (Nov 18 in North America), the project features a variety of artists joining McCartney's long time band to perform songs from the bassist's legendary songwriting catalog.

Guests include Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, The Cure, The Who's Roger Daltrey, Brian Wilson, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, Dr John, Yusuf, Barry Gibb, Jamie Cullum, KISS, Chrissie Hynde, ELO's Jeff Lynne, and many more.

Watch the behind the scenes with Alice and listen to the full version of his cover of Eleanor Rigby here.

Rancid Releases Video For Three New Songs

Of the album's 14 tracks, the new video features the band's signature sound on "Collision Course," title track "Honor Is All We Know" and the ska-inspired "Evil's My Friend."

Shot in black and white, the Bay Area punk band chose to stay far away from fancy visual effects in favor of a stripped-down performance on a David Letterman-esque sound stage, surrounded by stacks of amps.

Produced by Epitaph Records founder and Bad Religion member Brett Gurewitz, the new album was recorded in Los Angeles at Red Star Studios and The Boat, a studio owned by Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, known for its resemblance to beached double-decker houseboat with its porthole-style windows.

Watch the video here.

Three Days Grace Reveal New Song 'I Am Machine'

The track features new frontman Matt Walst, who took over vocal duties following the departure of Adam Gontier in 2013. Walst joined from My Darkest Hour.

Drummer Neil Sanderson tells Loudwire: "As far as the record, it's almost done. It's turning out to be pretty heavy musically - a lot like our first couple of albums. I Am The Machine is hot off the press - we filmed ourselves during the recording process for the song."

Check out the video here.

Original Judas Priest Singer Streams New Atkins May Project Song

Atkins May Project features original Judas Priest singer Al Atkins. He is joined by guitarist and artist Paul May. May says: "Our first album, Serpents Kiss, set the benchmark for the second, Valley Of Shadows, a mature classic metal affair. That in turn set a much higher new benchmark for Empire Of Destruction, which has evolved into something I believe will stand the test of time, an to be album to proud of."

The first 1000 CDs comes with a limited-edition DVD. The version of Here Comes The Rain that has been made available for streaming is shorter than that which appears on the album.

Listen to the song here.

Lady Antebellum Launch 747

"We unanimously knew that our album title had to be 747," Lady A vocalist Hillary Scott said in a press statement when the album was announced. "The track itself has this pushing, driving spirit about it that sums up our attitude right now. We are pushing ourselves as a band and as songwriters�taking ourselves out of our comfort zone and not taking ourselves too seriously. There's an urgency and an energy to it that we've never released before."

Fans got a real taste of that "urgency" and new level of "energy" in the album's lead single "Bartender," which recently became the band's ninth No. 1.

"Bartender" was written by the three bandmates along with veteran Nashville songwriter Rodney Clawson. Lyrically it's about drinking in the wake of a romantic split - familiar territory for Lady A, yet the song's attitude and spirit are vastly different than the group's best-known breakup song, "Need You Now." As Scott told Radio.com, in "Bartender," the female protagonist is "not going to drown in her tears. She's going to go have fun with her friends, experience life, and make a new memory. And I love that."

The song marked a new creative direction for the band, one with a decidedly more uptempo beat. And that move was deliberate. "If we're trying to be a successful touring act for years to come we need to have these high-energy moments throughout our show�and coming out of the radio," Scott explained.

Read more here.

Paul McCartney Releases New Wings Video

The next releases in the reissue series will be Wings' 1975 album Venus and Mars and 1976's At the Speed of Sound, and McCartney has just released a video for "Call Me Back Again" from the former album.

It's really more of a lyric video, with the words popping up on the screen alongside animation and archival photos of McCartney. Watch the new video here.

Enchant Streaming Title Track From First Album in 10 Years

Guitarist Douglass Ott's latest lineup features singer Ted Leonard (Spock's Beard), bassist Ed Platt, keyboardist Bill Jenkins (Sound Of Contact) and drummer Sean Flanegan (Cynthesis).

Ott says: "There was a time I was unsure of Enchant's future - but fear not. We're very excited and proud of this endeavour. It's classic Enchant, but with a bunch of new twists and turns. It's been a long time in the making, but it's surely worth the wait."

Listen to the new song here.

Prog Supergroup Soen Release New Video

Soen guitarist Kim Platbarzdis says: "It is finally time for the first video from our forthcoming second album Tellurian to surface. The video features the song Tabula Rasa, and gives a glimpse into our common frustrations with the world, the way it's run today and how the effects of it exclude no one."

Tellurian, which is the successor to 2012's debut offering Cognitive FIN #32, is scheduled for release on November 3 via Spinefarm Records. Check out the new video here.

Mark Lanegan Band Streaming New Song

Harvest Home is one of the 10 tracks that will appear on the group's upcoming new album Phantom Radio, due out on October 20 via Vagrant Recordings.

Former Screaming Trees frontman and long-time Queens Of The Stone Age collaborator Lanegan will bring his band to the UK and Ireland in January next year for 11 gigs as part of a wider European tour.

Check out the tour dates and stream the new song here.

Singled Out: A is for Atom's Song For You

"Song for You" is a song that that came about during the breakup of my marriage. It was one of the dramatic moments, I had never written a song for her was one of the reasons for her leaving. I usually get around to things in my own time, so I guess better late than never. It's not really meant as a cut down on her-more a meditation on my own procrastination and bad patterns in my past relationships. I really like the kind of smart-ass-ness of the song-"well take that, here's a song for you�and you're gone." I though it was a good title track for this EP because most of the songs are about difficult topics from my past disguised with deceivingly mundane titles, (and the line reappears at the end of "The White Dress")

I wrote it in my during my studies at NYU where it went through a lot of critiques, revisions, lyric changes, etc. Music school gave me more of a thick skin when it came to songwriting, and that song was maybe a little too personal, but it was really good that I did it.

That's where I met Julian Cassia, who produced the song and the EP. It was on the shelf for a while and we revised it again into its current version, funky bass line, swirling synths and kind of bare vocals. The guitar work from Julian is very good on the track, I like the Middle Eastern vibe of the first solo. The song is different live, where we've added more vocal harmonies and simplified some of the bass lines. It is a very fun song to play (and hopefully hear) live!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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