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Mikael
Åkerfeldt of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH has recorded some vocals in
collaboration with legendary GENESIS guitarist Steve Hackett. Mikael is
featured on a re-recording of the classic GENESIS mega-epos "Supper's
Ready" from 1972's "Foxtrot" album. More information about the
upcoming release will be released soon.
In other news, due to popular demand,Mikael has recorded a further eight shows
for Swedish national radio. "De Bortglömda Mästerverken" (The
Forgotten Masterpieces) is a series of shows where Mikael flips vinyl on air,
playing mostly obscure progressive and psychedelic rock. The show is being
produced by Andreas Matz for radio P4 and will start airing on July 15. You can
also catch it online at www.sr.se.
OPETH recently completed a North America co-headlining tour with MASTODON. The
trek kicked off on April 4 in Portland, Maine, and visited more
than 30 cities in the U.S. and Canada before wrapping up at Atlanta's
Masquerade on May 12.
OPETH's new album, "Heritage", sold 19,000 copies in the United
States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 19 on The
Billboard 200 chart. The band's
previous studio CD, 2008's "Watershed", opened with more than 19,000
units to land at No. 23.
"Watershed" was the follow-up to the band's acclaimed "Ghost
Reveries" CD, which debuted at No. 64 on the Billboard chart back in
September 2005 with first-week sales of just under 15,000.
OPETH's 2003 album, "Damnation", premiered with a little over 5,000
copies.
Former DEEP PURPLE/RAINBOW and current
BLACKMORE'S NIGHT guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (a.k.a. Richard Hugh) and his
wife, BLACKMORE'S NIGHT singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Candice Night
(a.k.a. Candice Lauren), welcomed their second child, Rory Dartanyan, on
February 7. The couple have a two-year old daughter, Autumn Esmerelda.
Ritchie, 67, and Candice, 41, were married on October 5, 2008 at a small
gathering of friends and family at Castle on the Hudson in Tarrytown, New York.
The third BLACKMORE'S NIGHT DVD release, "A Knight In York", will be
made available on DVD, Blu-ray, CD and 3-LP set (limited edtion) in late
June/early July.
"A Knight In York" was filmed and recorded during BLACKMORE'S NIGHT's
British tour at York Opera House on September 30, 2011.
BLACKMORE'S NIGHT's latest album, "Autumn Sky", came out in 2010.
Cleopatra Records has released the
following statement:
"With great sadness we wish to announce that John Harrison, founding
bassist for legendary space rock band HAWKWIND, passed away in his sleep on May
26, 2012. John had been suffering from Huntington disease, having been
diagnosed with it in 2005. At the time of his death, John was being cared for
at Garden Crest clinic in Los Angeles. His
caregivers there reported that he passed peacefully at approximately 8
p.m. John would have been 70 on May 28.
"John's throbbing and inventive bass parts on the band's self-titled 1970
release laid the foundation for HAWKWIND's influential sound, both then and
now. After his departure from the band, John also worked successfully as a
producer and staff engineer at Village Recorders in Los Angeles."
Former HAWKWIND guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton said in a statement: "John was
an integral part of HAWKWIND's formation and eventual success. His honest,
solid character and playing held the whole thing together in that first year of
the group's
existence (in more ways than one)! All who worked with him and have
followed in his footsteps, i.e. Lemmy :) and all Hawkfans, old and young,
wherever you are, owe him big-time! May he rock in peace wherever he is
now!"
Huw recently guested on several Cleopatra releases, including a highly
acclaimed BLACK KEYS tribute on a track with THE KINKS founding guitarist Dave
Davies (Huw plays guitar, Dave sings lead vocals), and on "Love Reign O'er
Me" for the eagerly awaited THE WHO tribute album that also features rock
legends Rick Wakeman, Carmine Appice and DEF LEPPARD lead vocalist Joe Elliott.
In a brand new interview with
RollingStone.com, guitarist Alex Lifeson of Canadian rock legends RUSH was
asked how he feels about having yet to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall
Of Fame. "Honestly, we really, really don't care about it," he
replied. "It's
someone's thing, and they can do whatever they want with it. They can
have whomever they like. It's their thing." He added, "It's a little
bit different here in Canada. We've received awards that mean an awful lot
more to us than being in the Hall Of Fame. We got the Governor General's
Performing Arts Award a couple weeks ago. That's really the highest accolade
you can get in
this country for the performing arts, and it's recognized nationally,
and I felt so proud as a Canadian to be in this esteemed group of
artists that have been there for the last 20 years."
When asked if he and his bandmates would show up at the ceremony if they were
eventually chosen to be inducted into the Rock Hall, Lifeson said, "I
think we'd consider it at the time and just see where we're
at. I mean, you don't want to be rude, and we're Canadians, and we find
it very difficult to be rude as much as we'd really like to. [Laughs] So we'd
probably have to look at that one, if it ever came. I know there
must be pressure from their end. We keep going on and getting more
popular…
"Look, there are a lot of other bands that should be in there before we
should be in there... If the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame doesn't want us in
there, that's fine. I don't care. It really, really
doesn't matter at the end of the day. It's probably better left the way
it is. There's more controversy for them and for us."
Swedish progressive metallers OPETH
will embark on the "Swedish Heritage Tour 2012" in November. The
dates are as follows:
Nov. 29 - KB - Malmo, Sweden
Nov. 30 - Katalin - Stockholm, Sweden
Dec. 01 - Club 700 - Örebro, Sweden
Dec. 02 - Nefertiti - Gothenburg, Sweden
Dec. 03 - Nefertiti - Gothenburg, Sweden
Dec. 04 - Sodra Teatern - Stockholm, Sweden
Dec. 05 - Sodra Teatern - Stockholm, Sweden
Dec. 06 - Maxim - Gävle, Sweden
Dec. 07 - Skandiateatern - Norrköping, Sweden
Metal Hammer TV conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt
of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH at this year's Download festival, which
was held June 8-10 at Donington Park in Leicestershire, United Kingdom. You can
now watch the chat below.
OPETH recently completed a North America co-headlining tour with MASTODON. The
trek kicked off on April 4 in Portland, Maine, and visited more
than 30 cities in the U.S. and Canada before wrapping up at Atlanta's
Masquerade on May 12.
OPETH's new album, "Heritage", sold 19,000 copies in the United
States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 19 on The
Billboard 200 chart. The band's
previous studio CD, 2008's "Watershed", opened with more than 19,000
units to land at No. 23.
"Watershed" was the follow-up to the band's acclaimed "Ghost
Reveries" CD, which debuted at No. 64 on the Billboard chart back in
September 2005 with first-week sales of just under 15,000.
OPETH's 2003 album, "Damnation", premiered with a little over 5,000
copies.
When asked how OPETH planned to deliver the more technical songs from
"Heritage" in the live show, vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt said
in a 2011 interview, "I thought that might be a problem. But it's
not been difficult at all. The live versions of the new songs sound
closer to the originals than many of the other songs. We have a new
keyboard player who's really into the different sounds we create and
he's got lots of kit. When he plays, it's like he has four arms. He's
doing a lot to make sure the current live show is something very
special. But we'd never record anything that we didn't think we could
pull off live."
