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Heaven and Hell Tour – U.S. return trip to feature Queensryche

Those of you who were upset that the Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell Tour missed your town on the tour’s first U.S. leg, may have a reason to smile now.

QUEENSRŸCHE will join HEAVEN AND HELL tour in the fall.

Although the U.S. leg of the HEAVEN AND HELL tour begins this Sunday, April 22, in Phoenix, Arizona, QUEENSRŸCHE will join the quartet of Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice in September after a few solo dates (including dates in Japan in late May/early June) scattered amongst rehearsals this summer.

Could this mean that you will see Ronnie James Dio performing The Chase live with Queensryche?! Time will tell……..

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The final artwork for OZZY OSBOURNE’s new album, “Black Rain”, is pictured to the left.

“Black Rain” track listing:

01. Not Going Away
02. I Don’t Wanna Stop
03. Black Rain
04. Lay Your World on Me
05. The Almighty Dollar
06. 11 Silver
07. Civilize the Universe
08. Here For You
09. Countdown’s Begun
10. Trap Door

A full-length audio stream of Ozzy’s new single, “I Don’t Wanna Stop”, is available at the following links: Windows Media, Quicktime, Shockwave Flash.

You can tell by looking at many of the song titles on “Black Rain” — Ozzy Osbourne’s first album with new studio material in six years — that the rock legend took a good look at his own life and the world around him. He also salutes his fans—among the most devoted in the world — with such songs as “Here For You” and “Lay Your World On Me”.

“Black Rain” finds the two-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee as vital, creative and evocative as ever. You also get the clear sense that he’s operating at the peak of powers, as a singer and songwriter.
Ozzy co-produced the album with Kevin Churko and recorded it with his touring band: Zakk Wylde (guitar), Mike Bordin (drums) and Blasko (bass). Ozzy says that he felt a new freedom while recording the album at his home studio in Los Angeles. The result: songs that are not only hard-hitting but adventurously arranged and sonically fresh. Explains Ozzy, “It’s a well-put together album. I think it’s evident that it hasn’t been just slapped out and put down. I took my time on the album and Zakk plays some amazing stuff as always”. Ozzy feels “Black Rain” is the true follow-up to his classic “No More Tears”, the 1991 album that also challenged the expectations of what an Ozzy Osbourne album should sound like.

Some of the songs on “Black Rain” are ominous in their emotional tone — they examine a world teeming with greed, war, deception, bad drugs (“11 Silver”, about crystal meth) and environmental havoc. Ozzy also zooms in on the overriding sense of fear and dread that define our times — perpetrated, he feels, by news programs that make “entertainment” out of terrible news events.

Says Ozzy: “I just thought there’s so much fucking bad news, the only way I can release it is to put it in a song”. On the other hand, the new track “Civilize The Universe” offers a sense of hope, as Ozzy sings: “I’m alive/Watching better turn to worse/One more time/Try to civilize the universe”.

Ozzy will support “Black Rain” with a world tour beginning in Moscow on May 27 which continues through July 6. Then starting July 12 in Seattle, he’ll headline the 12th annual Ozzfest tour throughout America.

The pioneer and trendsetter has pulled the plug on ticket prices in America and given the power back to the fans, calling this summer’s Ozzfest “FreeFest”. That’s right, this year’s Ozzfest is entirely free for fans, an unprecedented move for an artist and tour of this stature.

Ozzy is being honored in May on VH1’s “Rock Honors” telecast. He will perform three songs on the broadcast including a track from “Black Rain”. Premiering on Thursday, May 24 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, “VH1 Rock Honors” will be taped at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 12.

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New video available for Megadeth’s “A Tout Le Monde“

MEGADETH’s video for the new version of the song “A Tout Le Monde”, now retitled “A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)”, is available for viewing at Underground Video Television (Windows Media).

“A Tout Le Monde”, which originally appeared on the 1994 CD “Youthanasia”, has created controversy because the song was cited in an online post by Dawson College killer Kimveer Gill as one of his favorites before his Montreal shooting spree last September. MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine contends that he wanted to give the song a second shot at success, as the original video for it had been banned by MTV, and most radio stations followed suit. The track ended up featuring Cristina Scabbia from Italian alt-metal act LACUNA COIL. “The first singer didn’t work out,” Mustaine told Straight.com, “the second one didn’t work, and the third one was Lisa Marie Presley. She was on the way to the airport, and we had to call and say, ‘Sorry, we changed our minds.’ I would have loved to have heard what Lisa Marie Presley would have done, but because of the demographics of the LACUNA COIL fan base, and Cristina’s reign in the heavy-metal business, it was the right thing to do.”

A video clip of Cristina Scabbia talking about the video shoot for “A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)”, which took place March 8-9 in Los Angeles, has been posted online at this location.

Commented Cristina: “[Dave Mustaine] actually asked me to be part of this duet, and I was really surprised about it because ‘A Tout Le Monde’ is a song that I’ve always loved, even if it’s not like the new [version] because [the original song] [was released on] the album ‘Youthanasia’. It was a big surprise for me to get this invitation — I was really honored to be part of it. And seriously, when I heard the final result, I was awesomely surprised ’cause I think that the two voices are fitting incredibly [well together]. I think that the version of ‘A Tout le Monde’ 2007 has a stronger attitude. If the original version was for the mellow mood, this one is way more rock, way more powerful. I totally love it. I was surprised myself, and I think that a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised.

“It was recorded, like an hour from Birgmingham [England]. So I flew in and recorded my parts with Andy Sneap [producer]. He’s [Andy] an amazing guy — super professional — and the atmosphere in the studio was so relaxed. It was like a family vibe, and I think that’s the most amazing thing when you have to work. You can work and still smile, you know, and be relaxed.

“I tracked the entire song because we weren’t really sure what we had to do, so we just wanted to be totally sure, so we recorded all the parts that Dave sung with some improvisation with it, double vocals. We basically made anything possible, so they could pick up whatever they wanted to.”

“A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)” will appear on MEGADETH’s new album, “United Abominations”, due on May 15 via Roadrunner Records.