Bill Ward Rants About Sabbath Contract, May Not Be Involved With Reunion

As Shakespeare wrote, first thing, let's kill all the lawyers. Ha ha ha. But not so fast.

Sabbath drummer Bill Ward has posted a very public decree on his website that he is not going to be part of the Sabbath reunion until he gets a good deal.

At first it seems petty but who knows what Sharon Osbourne has put under his nose? Remember how Michael Anthony had to sign his rights away to all future Van Halen royalties when he signed up to do the Van Hagar tour?

For all we know, Ward is being presented with something equally bogus. Or he just isn't going to get paid enough, or as much as the other guys. We don't know.

What I do know is, they better sort it out. Iommi has cancer for God's sake. Bury the hatchet here, get Ward some reasonable deal and get on with it while you can.

Here is some of Ward's post:

At this time, I would love nothing more than to be able to proceed with the Black Sabbath album and tour. However, I am unable to continue unless a “signable” contract is drawn up; a contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band.

...Let me say that although this has put me in some kind of holding pattern, I am packed and ready to leave the U.S. for England. More importantly, I definitely want to play on the album, and I definitely want to tour with Black Sabbath.

...The place I’m in feels lousy and lonely because as much as I want to play and participate, I also have to stand for something and not sign on. If I sign as-is, I stand to lose my rights, dignity and respectability as a rock musician.

...If I’m replaced, I have to face you, the beloved Sabbath fans. I hope you will not hold me responsible for the failure of an original Black Sabbath lineup as promoted. Without fault finding, I want to assure everyone that my loyalty to Sabbath is intact.

...My position is not greed-driven. I’m not holding out for a “big piece” of the action (money) like some kind of blackmail deal. I’d like something that recognizes and is reflective of my contributions to the band, including the reunions that started fourteen years ago. After the last tour I vowed to never again sign on to an unreasonable contract. I want a contract that shows some respect to me and my family, a contract that will honor all that I’ve brought to Black Sabbath since its beginning.

Dang - OK now let's get this sorted out, people...

Van Halen Play Hollywood Surprise Gig

Noisecreep is reporting on another small Van Halen surprise gig, which happened in Hollywood last night at Henson Studios. Formerly A&M Studios, the complex was originally built by Charlie Chaplin, the silent film legend, in 1917.

The band showed off some new gear from the upcoming tour, including some large sized video screens behind the band.

Noisecreep wrote: As for Eddie Van Halen, wearing torn jeans and a weathered pink t-shirt, he was masterful. His trademark, youthful grin intact, he effortlessly recreated solos that have become so much a part of our consciousness that you hear them coming from miles away. His recent personal struggles seem to have been dealt with. He looks a little heavier, but a lot healthier, and he played with the joy of a teenager, losing himself in the music while ripping off one ferocious solo after another. His trademark red and white guitar elicited all sorts of spacey moans, shrieks and rumbles. It was like seeing Eddie in one of those Van Halen's classic '80s videos all over again.

And course here is the obligatory YouTube video. Dave has foregone his conductor outfit from New York with something a little shinier. But the real star of this video is Eddie, who still has the chops it appears!

Ghost Interviews Shed Light on Band Mission

OK yes I am still obsessed with Ghost. The combination of a KISS-like mystique and damn it a bunch of great songs is still totally turning my crank, and driving my wife and kids crazy as I stroll around the house singing "Death Knell!!!" Ha ha ha.

And this drives me to the Web where I am trying to learn more about this band.

In recent interviews I find some of the answers and as expected, this group is about putting on a great show, not selling your soul to the Devil. These guys are smart and know exactly what they are doing.

One of the guitarists was interviewed by the SF Weekly. I encourage you to read the whole article, called Swedish Metal Sensation Ghost on Anonymity, the Coming Apocalypse, and Sounding Like a Million Bucks in 1978 but here are the parts that grabbed me:

What Ghost has in common with that old black metal scene beyond the imagery and message, it goes back to the fact that when you read about bands like Mayhem, or Emperor, or Marduk, or whatever band from that time, there was no Internet. There wasn't anything except fanzines. Obviously when the shit hit the fan, the bigger magazines wrote about these things. But there weren't a lot of pictures. There were a lot of rumors. And that lack of access made things much more mystical and interesting. I think that has played a major role in what we're trying to achieve...

Where most bands nowadays try to raise their profile and their band's as much as possible because they don't want to miss out on anything, we're trying to do the opposite. Meanwhile, we're still trying to go forward in terms of getting better known. I know it's a bit of a paradox...But that's why we're trying to have Papa Emeritus be the star. Him. The old codger. The old pope. He's supposed to be the star. Not us as individuals. It's sort of like Eddie for Iron Maiden, except we have our Eddie singing.

...a lot of doom and bands that are in the scene that we're usually connected with are probably a bit more influenced by the harder stuff of Black Sabbath. Usually they sound like "Symptom of the Universe" or "Children of the Grave." That's all they wanted to sound like. And most doom bands are trying to sound like a less-produced version of the '70s, whereas I think in connection with Black Sabbath, we try to be as bold as they were when they did their ballads or their orchestral songs. We want our record to sound like a million-dollar production, but from 1978.

It's weird, because a lot of these really hardcore metal guys always refer to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath as being a miracle, groundbreaking proto-black metal album, where it's actually one of the softest Black Sabbath records. [It's] very mournful and openhearted. That same boldness is something we try to ... I'm not saying mimic, but we encourage ourselves to be very playful in the music that we're doing. We're not trying to fit in or think too much about what's cool or not. It's supposed to be passionate. I think you are really dead on that Black Sabbath and Mercyful Fate are necessary bands to have a band like Ghost.

As of right now, the next album is so far ahead in time. I mean, it's going to be out this year, but later this year. Nowadays you can't really play new material before the promotional period starts for the album, because once you play a song, it's on YouTube. It's everywhere. With the new album comes, not a new image, but a new show. Sort of like the next film [laughs]. So we're not going to incorporate any new material until the next album cycle starts. There's going to be a lot of changes, and the show is going to evolve drastically at that point. We're saving those goodies.

And from Portland's Willamette Week, we have Giving Up the Ghost: Don’t fear the Reaper—even if it’s a really convincing-looking Reaper. Some good stuff here:

“A lot of black-metal bands have an agenda where they actually say, ‘We want you to kill yourself,’” bemoans Ghost’s frontman. “We don’t have an agenda. Our uppermost goal is not to make people change anything. We want to change people into attenders of our concerts.” For an anonymous Swedish rock frontman who goes by the cryptic nomer “A Ghoul With No Name,” he’s pretty sincere.

“We as a group, we don’t have a militant agenda,” says the Ghoul, via telephone, when asked how serious his band is about the Devil. “We are entertainers. We are here to entertain everybody with a very horrid mind. Obviously, we’re six dudes playing in unison. So we’re a rock band. But we are drawn to create something that has more in common with theater or going to see The Omen at the cinema. Traditionally everything that’s remotely rock is devilish, and basically the first transparently really blasphemous artist was probably Elvis, with his sexually pulsating rock.”

I am trying to work out how to see the band when they open for Mastadon and Opeth this Spring, as they are skipping Portland. Maybe by then I'll have moved on to some other obsession, but I doubt it!

Concert Review - Ghost

So, I made it back alive. And it's only 11:30 PM.

Caught Ghost tonight on the 11th show of its 13 Dates of Doom tour, the Swedish band's first ever tour of the U.S.

As I said in my CD review yesterday, I was turned on to this band by a colleague who loves the darkest crevices of metal.

But in this case his advice to check the band out was right on. I got the band's CD Opus Eponymous and was hooked right away. The fact that they had a super theatrical show complete with Peter Gabriel-esque singer in full costume and makeup just sort of shoved it over the cliff for me.

The band packed the Hawthorne Theater in Portland on a Tuesday night no less, and like with seeing Them Crooked Vultures at the Roseland, I imagine this is the smallest venue where I will ever see this band. They are on their way to big things.

Maybe it's the KISS-like mystique, or the catchy music or the Sabbath meets Genesis tunes, but this band has something special. They only played about 50 minutes - their whole CD plus an oddly gorgeous cover of Here Comes The Sun. And no encore. Certainly left us wanting more.

Part of the fun was bringing my friend Dave to the show and not telling him what he was going to see. I broke out the CD in the car on the way there and as expected he dug the music. But as the smoke filled the Theater, I turned to him and said, "Oh by the way, these guys are kind of theatrical."

Turned out to be the understatement of the year.

The band as expected was completely shrouded. There was a notable absence of front lights and no spotlights so for much of the show the band was backlit, meaning you could see their silhouettes but not their fronts. The amount of fog would have made Pink Floyd envious.

Interesting musical notes - there was for sure a backing vocal track a la Rush, because the singer was the only guy with a mic, yet the backing vocals from the CD were very present. Also, the whole band used Orange amps (see photos), which is a very cool deal. They also had a sweet tour bus - I mean nicer than I have seen at shows a couple of levels above this one. Someone is funding these guys to tour in comfort or they made a deal with...oh wait...

Anyway, it was certainly a show I will remember for a very long time, and was pretty much exactly as exciting as I expected. They head to San Francisco tomorrow and I wish I could see them again.

And actually, just today a U.S. tour was announced with Ghost, Mastondon and Opeth, so there will be another chance for you all to see these guys. Like KISS opening for Fleetwood Mac, I expect Ghost will steal the show on this tour.

The merch guy said this tour had exceeded everyone's expectations across the board and I think they can log the Portland show in with this assessment. The show was epic.

Sorry for the disjointed review - I am still buzzing from the show. Below are some of my terrible iPhone photos, plus a YouTube of Here Comes The Sun. Wow.

CD Review - Ghost - Opus Eponymous

Now and again a band comes around that truly defies classification. Or at least goes so counter to what you expect that you are taken for a loop.

The Swedish group Ghost is one of those bands.

A colleague at work tried for literally weeks to get me to buy the band’s first (and only) album, Opus Eponymous and I resisted.

While I love this guy, his taste in music is far more hardcore than mine. Put it this way – I don’t have the new Disfigured Prostitute album but I am pretty sure he does.

I have told him a million times that I like melody with my metal. No screamo cookie monster stuff for me. Well, he must have been paying attention because Ghost is the most catchy devil music I have ever heard.

Yes – the band promotes itself as devil music, a la Mercyful Fate and the like. But I have to think it’s a ruse. The five-piece band dresses in black capes and cowls, with their faces obscured so you can’t see them. They don’t even have names – they are all called Faceless Ghouls in interviews and on promotional material.

The lead singer, Papa Emeritus, is like 70s-era Peter Gabriel from Hell. He wears religious vestments complete with huge bishop hat and his face painted with a black and white skull.

All of this raised the chuckle factor for me, but then I got a free offer for Spotify and really had no excuse but to stream up the Ghost album to pacify my friend. That was about a month and a half ago and now I own the album and will see the band tomorrow evening in Portland on its first ever U.S. tour.

If I were to publish a recipe for this band, I’d say blend 50 percent pure Black Sabbath with 25 percent Metallica, 15 percent Genesis, 5 percent Blue Oyster Cult and 5 percent Randy Rhodes-era Ozzy. Does that equal 100 percent? I dunno - math sucks.

The Sabbath and Metallica-infused dark riffage and speedy moments permeate the music, but it’s when they hit that prog-rock percentage that my ears really perk up.

The fifth track, Stand By Him, is a great example of this. Part-way through this very catchy rock song, the band busts into weird time signatures with spooky organ and Steve Hackett-esque hammer-ons and then goes into some very Metallica-inspired heaviness. The song winds its way back to the catchy chorus that sounds like a BOC outtake and ends with some great melodic guitar a la 70s Maiden. What the hell…

The closing instrumental number, Genesis (aptly named) sounds like an outtake from that band’s Foxtrot album. Ending a dark-assed CD like this with a gorgeous dual-acoustic passage is flipping genius.

Or take track two, Con Clavi Con Dio, which is pretty heavy overall but ends with dark-sounding Gregorian chants. Still, you feel like you know where the album is going at this point. Until track three, Ritual, starts up and sounds like 70s radio rock with chunky guitars and tasty arpeggios, giving way to the catchiest chorus I have ever heard promoting human sacrifice. I could not get it out of my head and had to look up the lyrics, which are “This chapel of ritual smells of dead human sacrifices from the altar bed.” Not Katy Perry-level pop but damn it’s just as catchy!

So – catchy music, kooky Devil lyrics, mysterious image, chameleon-like musical style. What’s not to like about Ghost? I will drop a full concert review if I make it back alive. Until then, here is a live version of Ritual from some sludge rock show in Europe. Enjoy!

Rush Photographer Andrew MacNaughtan Dies, Neil Peart Remembers

Last week, Canadian photographer Andrew MacNaughtan passed away while on assignment with Rush. Reports said that he had a heart attack the day after the photo shoot.

MacNaughtan worked with Rush since the mid-80s around the Power Windows tour, and had become their quasi-exclusive photographer.

This morning drummer Neil Peart posted some thoughts on his website. I won't paraphrase here but suffice it to say that MacNaughtan helped Peart through his dark days of personal tragedy, and also introduced him to his current spouse.

As jarring it is when a famous and influential musician dies, it's equally sad when a key member of the 'camp' goes to shoot that great gig in the sky.

Check out MacNaughtan's work at http://www.andrewmacnaughtan.com/home.html.

New Neil Young & Crazy Horse Album Completed

I have said it before and I'll say it again - Neil Young is at his best with Crazy Horse. This is when he rocks out the hardest, and improvises the most.

Neil seems to space out the Crazy Horse albums, like he needs to store up the energy to make them happen. But reports from Thrasher's Wheat, and confirmed by Rolling Stone, indicate that Neil and The Horse have finished recording a new album and are in the midst of another one.

Neil broke this news at the Slamdance Film Festival during a sit-down with Jonathan Demme, who has worked on various films with Neil including the recent Heart of Gold film. You can see a video of the conversation between Neil and Demme at Thrasher's Wheat.

Neil's stuff is always touch and go - you never know what you are going to get. His last album, Le Noise, was great - well, I liked it. But it got mixed reviews. I thought it was sonically really interesting and with Neil and just an electric, it was something he had never done before.

From Rolling Stone:

Neil Young is recording a new album with Crazy Horse, according to a post on Young's fansite Thrasher's Wheat – and now confirmed by Rolling Stone: "It's looking good," a representative for Young says. According to the fansite report, Young shared the news over the weekend at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, at an event with Jonathan Demme to promote their new movie Journeys. The audience "erupted in applause" when Young said that he was working with Crazy Horse again. Multiple fans subsequently posted on Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina's Facebook wall to ask if the news was true. His response: "Yes!"

Young began playing with the garage rock band in 1968 and they back him on many of his greatest albums, including Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Zuma, Rust Never Sleeps and Ragged Glory. Their last album was the 2003 rock opera Greendale, though it didn't feature guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro. The band (including Poncho) toured with Young in 2003 and 2004 to support the disc, though they haven't played together since the tour ended March 21st, 2004 at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. This has been the longest time Young has gone without performing with the group since their formation, though Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina played with Young on his 2007 disc Chrome Dreams II and the first few legs of the supporting tour. He was replaced by drummer Chad Cromwell in the summer of 2008 for unknown reasons.

The full line-up of Crazy Horse hasn't backed Young on an album since Broken Arrow in 1996, though they did record an LP in 2000 called Toast that Neil opted to shelf. "It's great rock & roll, very moody, kind of jazzy," Young told Rolling Stone in 2008, who was then contemplating a release of the disc. "It's really dark. It's got everything that the best Crazy Horse albums have had. It won't be the most commercial Crazy Horse album ever out."

In that same interview, we asked Neil if he had any desire to work with Crazy Horse again. "I'm not thinking about that right now," he said. "We'll just see what happens. Something might happen. You never know. Or something else we don't even know about could happen, and that would be really good, rather than go back. But if the vibe's right to go back and grab what's back there and yank it into the future, that's a big job."

According to the report on Thrasher's Wheat, Young said that he's already recorded one album with Crazy Horse and another is in the works. It's unclear if Toast is the finished album. There's word of a spring release for the album, but don't get your hopes up too high. Things change very quickly in the world of Neil Young. Remember that 30-date Buffalo Springfield that was supposedly happening this year?

That last point is the truth, and you never know when Neil is going to have a whole, finished album in the can and then never put it out. Well, whatever happens, I will always have my favorite Neil Young & Crazy Horse album, Ragged Glory:

Book Review - Tony Iommi - Iron Man

I have been meaning to post a review of Tony Iommi's autobiography Iron Man for a while now. I read it in November, right after Ace Frehley's book, which I did review. But the Iommi book got away from me.

Many people beat me to it, including my friend and co-worker Justin Norton, who reviewed the book for the Invisible Oranges website.

I also made the mistake of actually reading Justin's review, which sealed the deal that I would never write my own, because I agreed with 95 percent of his review and mine would be a copy.

So I asked Justin if I could just re-post his (lazy, I know), so I am doing so. But first let me say that I enjoyed the book and learned an awful lot about Iommi. The story about how he crafted the prosthetic fingertips after his factory injury is fascinating. In fact the detail in which he describes what he has to do to this day to keep his fingers in shape for playing is really amazing.

Overall the book is entertaining but a little dry. The stories of how they used to haze Bill Ward are pretty awesome. The Born Again era is well-documented, but the reunion with Dio is almost an afterthought despite the great success of those last few years.

Anyway, if you dig Sabbath, get the book. Oh and be ready to want to break out your old Sabbath LPs and really dig into them. I was inspired to do so and now feel that Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is my favorite Ozzy-era album by far.

Here is Justin's review, also posted at Invisible Oranges. Go there to read the comments - they are interesting.

Oh, and Thanks Justin for letting me steal your work.

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Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell With Black Sabbath By Tony Iommi (with T.J. Lammers)

“My role was to come up with the music, with the riffs,” Tony Iommi writes early on in his memoir Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath. “That probably stopped the others from writing music. If I didn’t come up with anything, we wouldn’t do anything.” Iommi says it in such a deadpan voice that you’d think he was talking about a day in a Birmingham plant rather than creating a genre of music that’s been around for nearly a half-century.

Considering how circumspect and low-key Iommi has been despite his achievements, it’s not a surprise that writing the building blocks of heavy metal seems like another day at work. Iron Man, co-written with T.J. Lammers, does a good job of telling Iommi’s story from Birmingham troublemaker and novice gangbanger to rock legend. Iommi’s bandmate Ozzy Osbourne has long been over-covered in print and on television; in the past two years there’s been an Ozzy autobiography, a book of humorous medical advice and a documentary helmed by his son, Jack. During Ozzy’s peak popularity in the early ’00s there were enough books on the Osbournes to fill a small shelf. Part of this is unsurprising; Ozzy’s antics and his public persona beg for stories and tabloid coverage. Meanwhile Iommi – the man who created the musical universe that propelled Ozzy to stardom – spoke through music. Who needs words when you wrote the riff for “Paranoid”?

Nonetheless, there’s been an unrelenting curiosity about Iommi’s past because time has proven him to be the cornerstone of metal. While Ozzy courts television cameras, Iommi hides behind sunglasses and often painfully generic interviews. Iron Man does a good job of answering questions. Iommi takes us back to his earliest years, when he played with also-rans like The Rockin’ Chevrolets and famously crafted part of a finger after an accident to continue playing guitar, all the way to recent passing of Ronnie James Dio.

Iommi found his muse with Sabbath; he quickly took to the road, and never stopped. The tour stories are hilarious and often horrifying; how Ozzy showed up for an early tour with just one shirt and a pair of jeans; how Iommi and one-time manager Patrick Meehan thought a wasted groupie was dead and considered throwing her off a balcony before she woke up, and how drummer Bill Ward was nearly killed when he was set on fire as a joke.

There are a number of interesting detours, including Iommi’s revelation that he experimented with astral projection but today can’t “leave his body”. Along the way there are worldwide travels; countless lines of cocaine – they really were snowblind – and musical partnerships with unlikely collaborators like Body Count’s Ernie C. Iron Man offers insights into many relationships, including Iommi’s close friendship with Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Iommi’s relationship with Lita Ford gets a bit of a brush off; perhaps he views it as insignificant in retrospect.

There are no huge revelations or exposés in Iron Man, and that’s what makes it a strong record of Iommi’s life. Despite fame, riches and influence, Iommi never views himself as more than a talented and determined English guy who wanted to make music. Iron Man is a story about the power of creativity paired with drive and, ultimately, about a life well-lived.

By Justin M. Norton

PS - Justin turned me on to the band Ghost and I will be reviewing their tremendous new album soon. And no, I won't be reading Justin's first!!!!

New 1970-Era Doors Tune Released

It's always fun to have bands open the archives so fans and fanatics alike can enjoy outtakes, first mixes and even tunes that hit the cutting room floor. Witness the excitement over the recent 'new' Van Halen song that was really from the band's first demo in 1976.

The Doors have followed suit, releasing a song that was recorded during sessions for 1970's L.A. Woman album.

There are some real gems on L.A. Woman and I like it best out of all their albums, if not for the songs but for the sound. The older Doors albums sound great but also have that late 60s dated sound to my ears. Mainly due to keyboards and drums.

But much like the Abbey Road album (same year, almost), the mics, studio techniques and mixing technology finally hit a real sweet spot and the recordings shine and still sound modern. The drums sound punchy and Ray Manzarek's keyboards don't sound all hurdy-gurdy.

So anyway, the band is putting out a 40th anniversary issue of L.A. Woman and have dug up a new song called She Smells So Nice. It's a blues, a la Crawling King Snake and Been Down So Long, which are my least favorite songs on that album. But I know Morrison was really into singing the blues at that time so I am pretty sure the band humored him.

She Smells So Nice is a 'fast blues' shuffle. Morrison's vocals are distorted, which probably means this is a first take that they never went back and fixed. And now of course, they can't. It's cool to hear a new song, though. Check it out below. What do you think?

She Smells So Nice by The Doors Official