METALLICA TO RECEIVE PRESTIGIOUS POLAR MUSIC PRIZE
Metallica will receive the Polar Music Prize, a musical equivalent to the Nobel Prize, this spring. The award, which recognizes international excellence in music, will bestow the metal legends with a cash prize of one million Swedish kronor, roughly equivalent to $126,000. The band will donate the money to its own All Within My Hands organization, which aids communities in need with workforce education, food-bank donations and other local services.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said, "It puts us in very distinguished company. It's a great validation of everything that Metallica has done over the last 35 years. At the same time, we feel like we're in our prime with a lot of good years ahead of us." Frontman James Hetfield added, "As myself and as Metallica I'm grateful to have this as part of our legacy, our history."
- A statement on the Polar Music Prize website said, "Not since Wagner's emotional turmoil and Tchaikovsky's cannons has anyone created music that is so physical and furious, and yet still so accessible. Through virtuoso ensemble playing and its use of extremely accelerated tempos, Metallica has taken rock music to places it had never been before. In Metallica's world, both a teenage bedroom and a concert hall can be transformed into a Valhalla. The strength of the band's uncompromising albums has helped millions of listeners to transform their sense of alienation into a superpower."
- The prize was founded in 1989 by former Abba manager Stig Anderson and named after Anderson's Polar Music label.
Story source: Rolling Stone
THREE DAYS GRACE SINGER WEIGHS IN ON DEBATE OVER PHONES AT CONCERTS
Three Days Grace singer Matt Walst has weighed in on the debate over whether smartphones and other recording devices have become a nuisance at concerts. Walst told Loudwire, "People want to see it later on, I get it. I also post: 'I was there, I saw this.' But after a while, I don't take a lot of photos . . . I feel the experience at the time and I feel like it's the moment that's special. It's not going to be as special looking as it was from at your pictures in your phone."
Asked whether Three Days Grace would ever consider banning phones at its shows like A Perfect Circle and Jack White are doing, Walst replied, "I don’t think we'll ever get to that point." But he added, "You should experience it in the moment instead of having a little screen in front of your face filming it."
- Outsider, Three Days Grace's sixth full-length album, will arrive on March 9th.
- The band recently shared the video for its first single from the new LP, "The Mountain."
Story source: Loudwire
FAST FACTS:
- The clip for "The Mountain" was filmed at a UFC octagon and features a cameo by UFC fighter Misha Cirkunov.
- Outsider is the second Three Days Grace effort to feature Matt Walst on lead vocals, following the departure of original frontman Adam Gontier in late 2012.
- Matt's debut with the group, Human, debuted at Number 16 on the Billboard 200 album chart and yielded two chart-topping singles in "Painkiller" and "I Am Machine."
COREY TAYLOR SAYS NEXT SLIPKNOT RECORD WILL BE MOST 'AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL'
Although he's still on the road with Stone Sour, singer Corey Taylor said that he has already begun working on lyrics for Slipknot's next album, adding that the material will see him at his "most autobiographical" that he has "been in years." Taylor's latest comments come six months after Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed that the band had "about 27 pieces of work" written for follow-up to 2014's .5: The Gray Chapter.
Asked by Musik Universe if he has heard any of the music Crahan has been composing with the other instrumental members of Slipknot, Taylor replied, "Yeah, I have. It's awesome. That's all I'm gonna say about it. It's everything I wanted it to be." As for the lyrics, Taylor explained, "It's really dark. It's probably the most autobiographical I've been in years. Just for the fact that I've been through a lot the last few years and I've been sitting on a lot."
- Slipknot's touring cycle in support of its latest disc ended in November 2016, with Taylor returning to his other band Stone Sour last year.
- The singer said that the new Slipknot LP will "absolutely" arrive next year. He remarked, "2019, sometime in that year we will definitely be recording it. We'll finish writing it, record it and be ready to go on the road."
- Taylor and Stone Sour just finished a string of North American dates in support of that band's sixth studio effort, Hydrograd.
Story source: Blabbermouth
SIDE NOTES:
- Taylor was also asked about Crahan's recent suggestion that the percussionist might leave Slipknot after the band's next album. Taylor replied, "We all kind of say that. I've said it in the past. We've always said -- and this is not in a negative way -- we've always said that when we get to the point where we physically can't do Slipknot the way we want to do it, we'll stop."
- Taylor added, "Honestly, if that was (Crahan's) decision, I wouldn't do Slipknot without him -- absolutely not . . . There's a certain mentality that goes into Slipknot, and he started it. He's always been the vision for this band, for Slipknot, and without that, it crumbles. So, yeah, if he left, that would be it for me as well."