We've Reached Peak Campaign

Apparently this is a thing now. The Internet thinks Ted Cruz is the singer of Stryper. Or rather, the Internet thinks Ted Cruz is really Michael Sweet. I mean, the photos of the two guys look sort of similar, but come on. Insanity. What's worse is that CNN even had Sweet on to discuss last night! Peak election. The scary thing is that we still have about eight more months of this crap!

Rock A Hello Kitty Guitar

Zakk Wylde recorded himself playing "Autumn Changes" on a Hello Kitty mini-guitar. Seriously. I've got nothing except amusement. I also kind of want that little guitar. It's very glam.

Ted Poley Releases Music Video

Our boy Ted Poley from Danger Danger has just released a video for his song "Higher." The song is from the album Beyond The Fade due out on May 13. Ted has always been one of my favorite Glam singers. What do you think?

Thrashing About - Havok Interview

I recently inerviewed Colorado thrash-metal band Havok for the Dayton City Paper. The band played Dayton last night. They are not Glam, but I thought you might enjoy learning about them anyway. 

“Being on the road can be creatively prohibitive,” Havok rhythm guitarist and vocalist David Sanchez tells the Dayton City Paper. “There are a lot of other things to do. We don’t have techs, so we do everything ourselves, and that means we don’t have tons of down time. I imagine bands that have written great road songs probably have techs setting up their gear and changing their guitar strings … the ultimate dream is to have someone else tune my guitar!”

Sanchez is bringing his Colorado-based thrash quartet to Dayton on March 14 for a show at Rockstar Pro Arena. While the band doesn’t have a team of roadies or guitar techs yet, they are well on their way.

Currently touring America with Children of Bodom and Megadeth, Havok are starting to make their mark on the metal world. Sanchez started the band 12 years ago when he was just 15. Now 27, he’s proud to say the band is finally getting its due and working hard on a new album that he hopes will put them on the map.

“The new music on our upcoming album is the best we’ve ever written,” he says, proudly. “It will be the one that helps us break through.”

Not wanting to give away too much, Sanchez does admit the album is very dark, aggressive and melodic. The world melodic often strikes fear in the heart of true thrash fans, but it’s not what you think: there won’t be any David Coverdale-like wails or Def Leppard-style guitar solos.

“A lot of the melodies in our bands are not in the vocals,” Sanchez quickly explains. “I don’t sing like Bruce Dickinson [of Iron Maiden]. A lot of the melody is in the guitar line. We’re using our instruments to their fullest potential on this record.”

Sanchez is also using his composition skills on their upcoming album as well. The new release, still unnamed, will be the band’s first with renowned metal label Century Media. A bigger label means bigger pressure, but the four guys are ready.

“I feel like on this new album, my love and appreciation of classical music has come forward more,” Sanchez admits. “I don’t have classical training, but I feel like composition is my strong point. I’m not the greatest guitarist or singer. When I listen to bands, I’m listening to the entire composition. That’s how I take influence and that’s how I get ideas for cool things that Havok can do.”

Taking influence, finding new roads and forging ahead are helping the guys in Havok make plans for the future, both immediate and long-term. The band will head overseas during the summer for a string of European festivals including Download and Hellfest. Then it is back to the states, touring off and on and getting slots to open for bigger name metal acts. It’s all part of Sanchez’s plan to carry the metal torch forward. The thought of carrying the burden of metal into the future for a new generation of fans doesn’t come lightly to Sanchez.

“I think 10 years from now the musical landscape will be barren as far as this genre that we play. A lot of the bands that we look up to will retire in the next 10 years. We want to take the torch and pass it. All the bands we look up to, someone needs to be there to carry on. That’s why I started Havok. The old school bands will disappear.”

Those old school bands, or the “goods” as Sanchez calls them, are the big guys: Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, Iron Maiden. These established acts have been around for decades. It would be unrealistic to expect them to all continue to tour and record forever.

“The legends, they are all getting older,” Sanchez adds. “I’m not a prophet but I’m not so sure Slayer will still be doing what they do 10 years from now.”

If things go the way Havok has planned, they will still be rocking a decade from now. As for Dayton, the Rockstar Pro Arena gig will mark the second time the thrashers have played the Gem city. Havok played the same venue just a few months ago to a rowdy crowd.

“We hope to send everyone home with a sore neck and some laryngitis from yelling so much. Have some ibuprofen ready for the next day!” Sanchez says, looking forward to the Dayton show.

Is Cinderella Over?

So Eric Brittingham just did a podcast interview. He basically said he thinks Cinderella is done because he doesn't believe Tom Keifer is coming back to the band. Doesn't look good - this news makes me sad. I didn't realize it's been four years since Cinderella has played live together. Unreal.

Rival Sons Release New Single

Rival Sons, an amazing young band with a great classic rock groove, has a new single streaming online now. The song is called "Hollow Bones Pt. 1." The song is from the upcoming album Hollow Bones. Good stuff.

'There But For The Grace...'

Today's post is by our friend HIM. 

I know this is a glam-centric site. I also know that most of us have very little scratch left to our discretion. But hear me out. No. Hear this out:

And this:

A younger buck would describe either as brutal. I prefer to suggest that Bad Brains are criminally overlooked in the mainstream. That first song is off their more commercially-minded (for them) 1995 release of the same name. The second song is off their more classic 1986 album of the same name. But what a corrosively poignant musical tranche! Sure, singer H. R. is about as predictable as Axl Rose, and about as reliable as Comcast. When you think, “Sure, let’s replace him with Chuck Mosley,” you can get a sense of the sort of key in which Bad Brains operates. 

But Dr. Know (Gary Miller) is a constant in the Bad Brains maelstrom. And thus the pitch equal to the title of this post. In 2015, he suffered a heart attack that led to a series of horrible health-related setbacks. Like many musicians, he wasn’t in the best of shape beforehand. And, like many, he wasn’t set up for premium health care coverage.

So this is the pitch: https://www.gofundme.com/drknowbadbrains I generally loathe this sort of thing. Though, full disclosure, I have donated to a few versions of the same. And this strikes me as significant. Many of you might not know Bad Brains. And most of you might not know the role they played in making hardcore and punk vital. In fact, they pre-date the importance of bands like Living Colour and make the Anthrax/Run D.M.C. mash-up see quaint. They put D.C. hardcore/punk on the map and showed how to blend the same with countless other musical variations. Yes, I think they are that important. So, more pitch: donate a buck, or two, or more. How it is spent doesn’t matter to me. I am not going to check on the specifics. But I know that a person like Dr. Know deserves the help, and the thanks, of people who tilt towards music that makes you think, and feel, something. 

That's us. That's metal. This is what we do.