Today's Top Stories

Metallica Considered Making Lars Lead Singer

Blackmore says in a new interview that he has no plans to continue the project beyond their three special concerts in June and he remains committed to his Renaissance-themed band Blackmore's Night.

His comments come after Rainbow bassist Bob Curiano said the band were ready to record any time they were asked, and former singer Joe Lynn Turner said the band's legacy would be tarnished if no studio work was undertaken.

The band hired Guns N' Roses frontman Rose as their guest vocalist after Brian Johnson was ordered to stop touring or risk going deaf. Rose will sing with Angus Young and co on the remainder of their Rock Or Bust tour dates.

Last week, ticket retailers contacted fans saying they could request a refund on those dates if they wish - a move the band say was their call. A spokesman for AC/DC tells TeamRock: "The band made a decision to offer this. As they care about their fans and wanted to do right by them, they instructed local promoters to offer refunds."

The latest installment of the surprise hit series, "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens." will include returning stars Ian Ziering, Tara Reid and David Hasselhoff and Taylor reportedly plays a Shark World hotel security guard in the film, which is set five years after the previous film in the series.

Taylor confirmed his involvement in an interview with Loudwire but refused to share many details. He said, "I shot a weird cameo for Sharknado 4 which is awesome. The thing is, I don't get eaten by a shark. That's all I can tell you about it."

In a Facebook post earlier this week, DeLonge, who split with the band last year, insisted he still had a future with Blink and claimed he had spoken with Hoppus over the last few days.

But Hoppus says he actually hasn't had contact with DeLonge in 18 months. The bassist tells Kevin Kline Live (via Rolling Stone): "I haven't even spoken to Tom in a year and a half."

Los Angeles federal judge Gary Klausner ruled on the date change on Tuesday, according to MyNewsLA.com. The suit - brought by Randy California's estate and members of Spirit by trustee Michael Skidmore - claims the acoustic introduction to 1971's "Stairway" was lifted from their 1968 instrumental "Taurus."

Klausner previously ruled that the jury trial would last less than a week and attorneys would have no more than 10 hours per side to present evidence. Led Zeppelin's lawyers said in court papers that defendants Jimmy Page and Robert Plant would probably not attend the trial, with video depositions filmed in the United Kingdom to be shown to the jury instead.

Tyler rocked a version of the Janis Joplin classic "Piece of My Heart" during his show at the David Geffen Hall at New York City's Lincoln Center for Performing arts on Monday night (May 2nd).

Mustaine is no stranger to online trolls or negative attacks and false claims online. He spoke about the subject with Fox Action News: "The thing with social media is there's so much dishonesty and anonymity. People will say they've met us, they know us.

"There's something going round that the singer from Paramore is my niece or something. When they said her name I was like, 'I don't know who that is.' Then I looked it up and I went, 'Come on!' Real bright comparison there."

Definitely not your typical rock star, wild-eyed Englishman, Ian Anderson literally leaped onto the London music scene in 1968 at the front of Jethro Tull. His Elizabethan madman look, standing on one leg complete with striped tights and sashes, made him a standout, not to mention his musical weapon of choice being a flute instead of a guitar.

After three critically and moderately successful Jethro Tull albums, in 1971 Ian wrote the songs for Aqualung which include timeless fan favorites "Cross-Eyed Mary", "Locomotive Breath", "Mother Goose", "Hymn #43", the title song "Aqualung" and "My God". Pitting the familiar struggle of spiritual faith with sometimes hypocritical worldly religion (a topic popularized then in other mediums like the musicals Jesus Christ Superstar & Godspell), Aqualung may very well have been the headiest record of its day. Ian Anderson elaborates to InTheStudio host Redbeard.

The Euro tour is set to kick off on October 19th in Berlin at Columbiahalle and will conclude on November 6th at the famed Hammersmith Apollo in London.

Frontman Brad Arnold had the following to say about the new dates in support of their latest album 'Us and The Night', "Chris and I had a great time setting up the record in the UK, Paris and Germany this past March and have been looking forward to getting back to Europe for some time now.

"Our European fans have always welcomed us with open arms and been big supporters of our music. We can't wait to be back rocking and playing songs from our newest album 'Us And The Night' for them!"

The show will feature interpretative dance performances by The Center For Contemporary Dance, cinematic imagery and photo collections. The event is planned as part of ELP drummer Palmer's Remembering Keith - The Music Of Emerson Lake & Palmer Tour.

The singer previously said that the album was inspired by a series of tragedies that led him into a cycle of substance abuse. He added: "Writing this album has helped me face and overcome so many wounds I had inside me that I was always too scared to even acknowledge.

"This creative process was the best therapy I could have hoped for and I can't wait to share the end product with the world. See you on the other side."

And frontman Rodgers says the release - along with last year's reissues of the first two Bad Company albums - have got him thinking about recording new music with the band.

He adds that he and guitarist Mick Ralphs have been writing songs. Rodgers tells UCR: "I didn't have any plans for recording with Bad Company, but the re-releases have made me think again a little bit because it is such a creative outfit.

"I'm writing songs, and I'm sure Mick has some songs, when he decides to come and play with us. 'Who knows,' I think would be the answer to that. And, 'Maybe.'"

A final tracklist will be made available in due course - but the band have issued the cover art, which was created by the Swedish outfit's long-term collaborator Peter Sallai.

Bassist Par Sundstrom says: "We had the idea to make an image reflecting soldiers of different times representing the different historical battles we sing about on the new album. This only reveals a small part of the album topics though.

"We always have several ideas for albums to work with. Since there are countless different views and angles of war, we will unfortunately never run out of ideas.

Destruction bassist Marcel Schmier says: "We really took our time for this album. After the summer festivals, we went into the studio every couple of weeks to record brand new songs and ideas in between all the touring activities.

"We took several studio sessions instead of one long one, to keep the ideas fresh and have time later before the mix to change bits and pieces that we did not like. Maybe this was the most effective writing we did in the last years.

"Circus Maximus" is about how the 24/7 media plays us against each other and poisons us by feeding us the very worst things in society on a daily basis. We wanted the song to be angry and reflect the frustration that many people are feeling today.

The song itself actually came to me as music first. I had the opening guitar riff and I thought it was powerful, so I jumped into my home studio and got all the parts down before I forgot the idea. It all came to me pretty quickly. I went right to the chords for the chorus and shouted out the first few lines, "We lit the fire. Calling the masses, for the world to see." I worked up a quick demo that night and sent it over to Robert Wright our bass player/producer. He responded with "Well, hell yeah!"

After that, the song just kind of sat there for a few months in my archives of other unfinished tunes.

When it came time to pick out songs for the STW album, I am immediately wanted to put this on the record. I thought it was strong, so I started working on refining the lyrics. Nothing was coming at first, and I'm not one to just force things. It's always better for me personally when it just comes out. When it's real, when it's right, you know it. So with that said, my wife of 26 years leaned on me pretty hard one day and said, "Aren't you done with that song yet? I love that tune. Get to work!" Then she took me for a ride way out into the country. Just us two. No radio on. Cruising through the tobacco fields of Tennessee, and boom! It all came rushing out. After that, we headed in to record it. Jon gave it some balls, Robert did his production magic, and it was sent off to the amazing Billy Decker for mixing.

It's worth noting that Robert is an award winning producer and gifted multi-musician. His hands are all over this record. I feel blessed to have someone I can co-create with in a totally egoless situation. It's about the material. The song.

Next up were the visuals to help sell it. Filming the video for this tune was a blast. We had just finished shooting a big budget video (with a jaw dropper ending) for our song "Bleed" a few months earlier. It was long hot days in multiple locations for 14 hrs a day. Conversely, the approach for "Circus Maximus" was to make something great for only a few hundred bucks, and we purposely forced ourselves to shoot it in under 6 hours. The result is a hilarious parody of the media, ala Dumb & Dumber. Our director John Campolo did an amazing job editing. Although it's an amusing observation into today's media, in the end, I think it delivers a powerful message.

The bassist, who is focused on his other band Sixx: A.M. and their new album "Prayers For The Damned Vol. 1" tells Metal Hammer: In Residence on Spotify: "Some people were like, 'Were you sad, were you mad, were you glad?' I think I was just ready.

"We were at a place where we had decided about four or five years ago that we'd said most of what we'd wanted to say. We couldn't really produce music together anymore. We had somehow just ceased to be a creative animal and it had become a production animal.

"We were playing these songs that we were really proud of, but we weren't writing anything new. The band was all in different head spaces and different places.

The album, which is being released on 3 vinyl LPs with gatefold sleeve and includes a download code, was recorded at the band's first ever concert in Moscow, Russia, last summer.

The performance was described as: "Beyond everyone's expectations - extremely raw, punishingly loud, and ultimately transcendental. Capturing this intensity of this special show, the band's set was recorded direct from the soundboard as well as the audience.

The group revealed the initial dates for their U.S. trek on Wednesday (May 4th) which includes a number of shows that will also feature The English Beat for the first half of the tour.

The summer trek is scheduled to kick off on June 18th at the Weesner Family Amphitheater in Apple Valley, MN and they have announced dates that run through July 30th in Sterling Heights, MI.

The release features the Alan Parsons Symphonic Project's August 31, 2013 performance with Medellin's Philharmonic Orchestra at Medellin's Parque Pies Descalzos in Colombia.

The album comes 40 years since the release of the Alan Parsons Project's debut album "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination" in 1976. The 11-time Grammy nominated musician first gained recognition as a budding producer at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios, contributing to Pink Floyd's iconic 1974 work The Dark Side Of The Moon.

Parsons previously told TeamRock: "I just chose the right time to apply for the job, as the manager wanted to fire two people. I started and two people got fired, so I was little bit unpopular for the first little while, until people got to know me, because they were enormously popular guys.

He recorded the project at Applehead Studios in Saugerties, New York, which was the same place he recorded 2014's "The Ceaseless Light" and his series of live tracks called "The Woodstock Sessions".

"I love being in the recording studio," says Robinson in the album announcement. "It fuels the desire to create within me. I enjoy watching it unfold. Each development fires another idea and in the end, you have this organically created song that seemingly came out of nowhere. It brings me such joy and peace. It never ceases to amaze me."

The album features bassist Zak Gabbard, drummer Joe Magistro, keyboardists Matt Slocum, Marco Benevento and Danny Mitchell, as well as vocalists John Hogg and Danielia Cotton.

Singer Cristina Scabbia says they wanted to conjure a "disturbing, cold and weird" atmosphere throughout the record. Co-singer Andrea Ferro adds that each song is based around a different room in a sanitarium - each housing a patient suffering from a different kind of mental illness.

Ferro tells Mosh Planet: "Once we found the word, we thought about connecting the concept of the record, the concept of the mental illness with the smaller topic of everyday craziness - the craziness you experience personally every day in real life.

"Some of us went through some depression, some other people had some family problem that forced them to experience a different moment in their life.

Both will be available in bottles via Spar shops in the UK from May 18, while Dog Of Two Head will be available on draught at selected outlets from June.

Last month he described the idea of an Emperor record as "absolutely pointless," adding that it would be "a disappointment." Samoth - who's just launched The Wretched End album In These Woods, From These Mountains - tells Friedhof:

"The sound of Ihsahn and The Wretched End are different, as I'm more in the extreme metal genre while he's more on the progressive side. But we're still somehow in the same music landscape.

"The way Ihsahn makes music is how he would make metal music. For him to go back and compromise his progressive nature with a more metal focus would feel like a step backwards fro him as an artist, I think.