Death metal outfit Inferi have announced their new album, Heaven Wept, set for release on April 10 via The Artisan Era. Leading the charge is the track “The Rapture Of Dead Light,” which arrives online alongside an official music video, both of which now available for streaming via YouTube and Spotify for you below.
The album comes… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
Paul McCartney has paid tribute to the late Grateful Dead musician Bob Weir.
On January 10, news emerged that the legendary rhythm guitarist had died after succumbing to “underlying lung issues” following a battle with cancer.
“He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could,” a statement on Weir’s official social media accounts read, triggering an outpouring of tributes from across the music world.
Now, McCartney has paid tribute to Weir in an Instagram post shared yesterday (January 15).
“Bob Weir was a great musician who inspired many people of many generations,” he wrote, alongside a photo of the two of them at McCartney’s 2016 Boston concert.
He goes on to write about their last meeting: “I last saw Bob when we went to the Sphere in Las Vegas to watch Dead and Co,” he said. “He was very welcoming, and during the interval in the show he invited us into his trailer, and it was a special moment to meet his family and friends.
“Bob showed me the recording set up that he had in the back of the bus so even though he was on tour he could make and record music; I offered to play the bass on one of the tracks he played me but unfortunately that never came to pass.”
McCartney went on to say that he found Weir’s sense of humour, friendship, and musicianship inspiring, and he sent condolences to Weir’s family.
Other previous performances revisited by fans since Weir’s death include the Dead & Company shows held August, in celebration of the Dead’s 60th anniversary.
Weir was diagnosed with cancer in July 2025, and, as reflected in the statement announcing his death, “began treatment only weeks before returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park”.
Those shows marked Weir’s final public performances – and you can check out what he played here.
Nodding to Weir’s wide-ranging influence on contemporary music, Mark Beaumont wrote for NME: “Weir’s impact on subsequent generations of American rock music was perhaps best evinced by a 2015 Dead tribute box set compiled by The National’s Bryce brothers, ‘Day Of The Dead’.
“The set featured contributions from a vast array of intergenerational acolytes including The Flaming Lips, Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Stephen Malkmus, The War On Drugs and Perfume Genius.
“Freak flags are flying at half mast across rock music tonight.”
The Empire State Building also honoured the late musician with a tie-dye light display last week.
The post Paul McCartney pays tribute to Bob Weir: “A great musician who inspired many people” appeared first on NME.
North Carolina prog-metal pioneers Between The Buried And Me have released a live video for their track “God Terror.” The song appears on their latest album, The Blue Nowhere, and the performance was captured by Randy Edwards during the band’s October 24, 2025 show at the Summit Music Hall in Denver, CO.
Frontman Tommy Rogers shared … Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
Masked metaller Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan has spent 30 years helping to make Slipknot one of the biggest bands around. But away from bashing drums on stadium stages, delighting hordes of teenagers and generally horrifying parents around the world, he’s been busy working on a very different project.
Last year, Clown released his first fully playable game. Vernearth, a twisted, surreal extension of blocky cyber-sandpit Minecraft, went live in December and will expand over the coming months. In it, you can do everything you can do in the original – team up with friends to build impressive creations, engage strangers in pixelated combat and take on a variety of quests.
“It might seem weird that this big metal dude is messing around with Minecraft but I just love games,” Clown says over Zoom. Growing up, heand his friends played Dungeons & Dragons before moving into the local arcade for early classics such as Astrosmash, Robotron: 2084, Defender, Stargate, Bonk’s Adventure, Moon Patrol and Gorf. A pivot to consoles soon followed.
“It was Doom that really changed my life,” he says of the iconic 1993 first-person shooter. “There was this darkness to it that spoke to my soul.” Its spiritual successor Quake, released in 1996 with a soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and permission for players to modify maps and create their own levels, was even more influential. “That’s when I really started thinking about what kind of game I would make.”
Over the years, Clown pitched a number of different ideas to developers but was knocked back. “Most won’t even talk to you unless you’ve got $25million to put into it,” he explains. One was inspired by fantastical role-playing card games Vampire: The Masquerade and Rage: The Apocalypse, while another took inspiration from D&D.
There was also a straight up rock and roll game. Clown spent three years working on it but couldn’t get it greenlit. “That still pisses me off because it’s such a no-brainer [coming from a member of a huge rock band]. I reckon it would be as [influential] as Grand Theft Auto.” He might revisit the idea in the future but for now, he’s all in on Vernearth. “Building this world has opened my mind so much. It’s some of the best art I’ve made in my life.”
Clown discovered Minecraft through his four kids, who all sunk a lot of time into the 3D metaverse. “I didn’t really understand it at first,” he admits, but that soon changed when – in late 2021 – he got involved with NFT Minecraft project Critterz. Players could earn cryptocurrency and cash for playing in their privately-hosted environment. “I started building and I’ve not stopped. Something just hit,” he says, often playing for up to 18 hours a day. Critterz shut down in 2022 when Minecraft bosses banned NFT and crypto tech due to concerns about fraud and profiteering that might “detract” from the family-friendly nature of the game.
Undeterred, Clown bought his own Minecraft server and has spent four years creating Vernearth alongside daughter Alexandria and drum tech Sean Kane. “We’d work on stuff together during the day, then go and do the show at night.”
Clown’s version of Minecraft is, as you’d expect, a much altered prospect. “I wanted to create something people hadn’t seen before, with all the weird twists that you’d expect from me.”
Among other changes, Clown has dialled up the creeping dread of Minecraft‘s hellish Nether level to create Vernearth’s more-dangerous Mare area – and the desolate expanse of The End biome has been turned into the even creepier Over Over. The game’s surreal universe will still feel familiar to veterans – but this time they’ll be coming together to build structures in The Oblivion or fighting to the death in The Arena. There are also custom-made blocks, original AI-driven NPCs known as Mobs and hulking bosses to battle. It’s not gory, but there is an increased sense of unease throughout the pixelated world. “Minecraft was already brilliant but we have our own way of doing things,” says Clown.
“People might question how helpful escaping into a digital realm can be, but it’s really helped me work through some of my grief”
After years of work behind-the-scenes, Vernearth went public on December 1 – the birthday of Clown’s dad, who died in 2005 – and the lore for the game is inspired by a science fiction book his mother wrote for him before she passed away in 2009.
“Vernearth is a place where I can handle some of my grieving,” says Clown. “My kids will log on and we’ll build stuff for my daughter [Gabrielle, who passed away in 2019 following struggles with addiction]. I’m able to go there and be around a community. It’s just such a wonderful space for my brain. People might question how helpful escaping into a digital realm can be, but it’s really helped me work through some of my grief.”
He’s not the only one either. Several days ago, a Vernearth user named Amy invited Clown to explore her build, which includes blockified gravestones for former Slipknot members Paul Gray and Joey Jordison – as well as a sign asking fans to “leave flowers in memory” of his masked brethren. Hundreds of beautifully rendered digital flowers surround the memorial. “I really wasn’t expecting that,” says Clown. “I caught a tear, man.” It’s early days, but he’s pleased that “it already feels like we’re all here for each other. ”
Just like with Slipknot, the goal of Vernearth is to offer people a place for self-expression. “I’m always trying to create something that feels good, using the things that make me feel good.” One of the things the band currently working on is a system that will give users access to online therapy. “I really believe in the mental health benefits of gaming, so I want to push that aspect as much as possible.”
It’s not the only extra content Clown has planned. Earlier this week, The Auction House went live, allowing users to buy, trade and sell their loot and homemade creations. He’s also been working on an original soundtrack. “I’m in the studio almost every week making music without any of the usual pressures or expectations, which is very fulfilling,” he says, before teasing both dark and light ambient music that wouldn’t sound out of place in a horror film. “I’ve also gotten back into drums in a big way to make sure I’m ready for what’s up next [with Slipknot]. I’m really trying to take things to that next level,” says Clown. “Music is dead important to gaming.”
He’s quick to point out that he’s not currently working on material for the follow-up to 2022 Slipknot album ‘The End, So Far’ and, despite reports, nor are any of the other members of Slipknot.
“We’re doing the biggest thing we can do right now, which is taking a much-needed break,” he says. The gruelling back-to-back cycles for ‘The End, So Far’ and 2019’s ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ left Clown feeling burnt out and he reckons he’s not the only one either. “We’re taking some real human time. Everybody is writing all the time, but we have not got into a place to work on what’s been written.” There are tentative plans to get together later this month but only if everyone is up for it: “It feels very positive and everyone is looking forward to getting back at it.”
The post Slipknot’s Clown built a dark fantasy ‘Minecraft’ realm to help him grieve appeared first on NME.
As promised, Richmond, VA groove metal titans Lamb Of God have announced the details for their twelfth studio album, “Into Oblivion“. The group have a March 13th release date set for that outing through Epic Records. They also have just launched a music video for its title track that was co-directed by Tom Flynn and Mike Watts.
This new 10-s… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
The hard rock of the late 1960s was a scene containing elements of the later psychedelic era, at the very dawn of what became heavy metal. The links between the two are often celebrated in the work of bands like Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf, but today we turn our attention to a formidable outfit that can also lay claim to being the prototype metal band, and one of the key power trios: Blue Cheer, who released their debut album Vincebus Eruptum on January 16, 1968.
Formed in Boston, and featuring vocalist/bassist Dickie Peterson with guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Paul Whaley, Blue Cheer later became part of the expanding San Francisco music scene. Signing to Philips, they set to work on their debut record in that staging post year of 1967, developing a sound that combined the primal, acid-fuelled experimentalism of the day with a devotion to the blues.
Vincebus Eruptum was the result, and when it emerged early in 1968, it showcased both the original band compositions (“Doctor Please,” “Out Of Focus,” and “Second Time Around”), blues favorites, and a retooled rock’n’roller as a first course. This was Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” a cover that emerged as The Who were also championing the song, notably in their Monterey Pop Festival performance in June 1967.
The Blue Cheer take on “Summertime Blues,” released as a single from Vincebus Eruptum, charted the week before the album and went on to reach No.14. It’s widely regarded as the first heavy metal hit. The blues numbers brought into their orbit, meanwhile, were B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby” and the Mose Allison song “Parchman Farm,” here misspelled, as so often, as “Parchment.”
Vincebus entered the Billboard album chart at No. 104, in the same week that Iron Butterfly took their bow with “Heavy,” and Steppenwolf theirs, with their self-titled debut. The Blue Cheer set went on to a No. 11 peak, the first of four chart albums over the next two and a half years.
Buy or stream Vincebus Eruptum.
Chess Records is synonymous with the Chicago electric blues scene of the 50s, when iconic names such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry came to prominence, helping to establish Leonard and Phil Chess’ Windy City indie label as one of America’s leading proponents of R&B music. But it’s often forgotten that a jazz pianist called Ahmad Jamal played a major role in filling up the label’s coffers and widening its audience.
At 89, Jamal is one of the last giants from jazz’s golden age of the 50s who’s still active musically. Though he’s semi-retired, the veteran pianist still pops up now and then for one-off concerts and continues to record on a fairly regular basis (his 67th album, Ballades, a collection of solo and duo pieces, was released in September 2019).
Talking to uDiscover Music from his home in New England, Jamal casts his mind back many decades to reminisce about a special event he performed at. “It was a historic concert in Carnegie Hall that entrepreneur Morris Levy presented for Duke Ellington’s 25th anniversary,” he explains. “On the bill was Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz… and me.” Jamal still has the poster from that 1952 concert – “They spelt my name wrong, A-M-A-D,” he laughs – which he treasures, saying he’s looking at it as he speaks.
“It was my first appearance at Carnegie Hall but I’m the only one of the headliners still living.” He says this with a tinge of wistfulness, adding, “So now, at 89 pushing 90, I value every moment because none of us are getting out of here alive.”
He follows this statement with a long, self-deprecating chuckle. But despite his apparent abundance of mirth, Jamal is a seriously talented musician. He’s originally from Pittsburgh: a child prodigy who started playing piano at three and, as a teen, caught the ear of jazz great Art Tatum. Then, after moving to Chicago, in 1948, he was eventually discovered by visionary record producer John Hammond, the patrician entrepreneur who had brought Billie Holiday to prominence and later helped to bring Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan to the attention of the wider world. Hammond gave Jamal his first shot at recording in 1951, but it was seven years later, when the pianist was signed to Chess Records, that his career truly skyrocketed.
Browse Ahmad Jamal’s music on vinyl here.
Recalling how he joined Chess in 1956, Jamal says, “I recorded short-term for a small company called Parrot, owned by a DJ and radio personality called Al Benson. He was attracted to my style, so I made some recordings for him and he then sold those masters to Leonard Chess. So that’s how I got with them.”
But it was two years later when Jamal hit the jackpot, and it was down to one definitive record: At The Pershing: But Not For Me, recorded for Chess’ jazz imprint, Argo. It captured Jamal’s then trio (with Israel Crosby on bass and Vernell Fournier on drums) during their residence at The Pershing Hotel in Chicago during January 1958.
At The Pershing: But Not For Me was much more than a record: it was a phenomenon. Its fame and popularity spread like wildfire. It topped America’s jazz charts for months and established a 107-week residence in Billboard’s album charts.
“That album sold over one million copies and is still selling.” There is a palpable sense of incredulity in Jamal’s voice, as if he still can’t comprehend the record’s success and astounding longevity. Musing on why it resonated with so many people, the pianist attributes it to the power of music: “It’s contagious. Music belongs to the world. So something that is of value, whether it’s Ravel’s Boléro or, specifically, At The Pershing, the world listens. And if it’s good, you’re going to get one or two listeners… and I got a few more than two!”
The record certainly changed Jamal’s life, transforming the then 28-year-old into a household name. “I could write volumes about that,” laughs Jamal. “Life changed and it’s constantly changing as a result. It’s been the thing that has paid the bills for the last 61 years. And it still lives on. It’s really amazing. That’s why I say there’s no such thing as old music. It’s either good or bad.”
Central to At The Pershing’s appeal was the song “Poinciana,” an exotic and haunting slow ballad written by Nat Simon and Buddy Bernier in 1936. “I was introduced to ‘Poinciana’ when I was a pianist for The Four Strings, a group founded by the late Joe Kennedy, Jr, who also was my conductor and friend for many years from Pittsburgh,” explains Jamal, who first recorded the tune for Epic Records in 1955. But it was the longer live version from At The Pershing that made Jamal’s name. Such was the song’s appeal that Chess released it as a single, and it soon rocketed up the US charts.
“Not often do we have instrumental hits, but ‘Poinciana’ is still being emulated,” says Jamal. “That particular record has been plagiarised and copied by many. It transcended all categories. And that’s very interesting because very rarely does an instrumentalist come up with a record like that. I can only think of Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, and myself. ‘Poinciana’ goes on and on and on… it was a gift to me.”
Just how important the song became for the pianist is reflected in the fact that it’s been an ever-present feature of his live performances for over 60 years. He’s also re-recorded it many times. “I don’t tire of playing ‘Poinciana,’” Jamal says. “I do some different things each time we play it, and it’s a wonderful challenge.”
Though he fell under the spell of several virtuoso pianists – he names Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, and Nat “King” Cole as key influences – Ahmad Jamal patented a unique and distinctive style. Its defining characteristic was his supremely delicate touch, resulting in crystalline, right-hand filigrees. Also, he found a very savvy way of using space for dramatic effect, which allowed his music to breathe. Unlike some jazz pianists, Jamal didn’t feel the urge to create a gushing, uninterrupted torrent of notes; he opted for a more conversational style with natural pauses between phrases.
From his very first records, released in the early 50s, Jamal soon acquired a rapt audience among the jazz community. Miles Davis was a big fan and covered several of Jamal’s tunes, including “Ahmad’s Blues” and “The Surrey With The Fringe On Top” (on the Workin’ and Steamin’ albums, respectively), and “New Rhumba,” recorded on the trumpeter’s Gil Evans-arranged orchestral album Miles Ahead, in 1957. “Miles was a great supporter of mine,” says Jamal. “We were both contemporaries, even though he was a little bit older. We were also neighbors. There was an attempt to get Cannonball, Miles, and I on record but it was not successful. When we were at The Pershing, he was downstairs in another room they built for music, so he was able to come upstairs and see my group.”
The idea to record a live album in the lounge of the Pershing Hotel was Jamal’s own. He remembers approaching Chess Records’ boss, Leonard Chess, about it. “I went to his office on 2120 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago and said, ‘Len, I want to do an on-location recording.’ I never had any problems with him and had absolutely free rein with everything I did, so he said, ‘Go ahead, no problem.’”
Recorded across January 16 and 17, 1958, Jamal’s trio were captured playing 43 different songs. The pianist admits it was a mammoth task whittling several hours of music down to the 30 minutes or so required for a single album release. “It took me weeks,” he says, “but I chose the eight tracks very diligently.” Interestingly, Jamal didn’t include any of his own compositions. “I was very naive,” he laughs. “But, you know, I can’t argue with the American songbook. I neglected to put in my compositions, but the result was beyond my wildest dreams. It became one of the biggest records in the history of Chess.”
Jamal is keen to spotlight the contributions that bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernell Fournier made to the album. “They were two monumental players and were sought after by many,” he says. “I finally got them to join my group in the late 50s. Vernell Fournier was originally from New Orleans and became one of the most popular drummers in Chicago at the time. The way he played, people thought we had two drummers. It was a combination of what I did and what the two of them did which made At The Pershing a success.”
Such was their intuition that, on stage, the three musicians seemed to be communicating on a higher, almost telepathic level. Jamal puts it down to the long residence they enjoyed at The Pershing. “We were there for many, many months,” he says, “which led to a certain togetherness that can’t be captured, in my opinion, in any other manner. When you’re working together doing five sets night after night, you develop a cohesiveness and a musical cement that’s unequaled.”
Though At The Pershing: But Not For Me was undoubtedly the pinnacle of Jamal’s time with Chess, his tenure with the label yielded other gems, including an orchestral album, 1959’s Jamal At The Penthouse, and a Latin American-themed ensemble piece, Macanudo, in 1962. Aiming to capitalize on the popularity of At The Pershing, Chess released a second album sourced from the original tapes, Jamal At The Pershing Vol.2, in 1961. There was also a plethora of other live recordings for the label, among them Portfolio Of Ahmad Jamal, recorded at Washington, DC’s Spotlite Club; Ahmad Jamal’s Alhambra (where the pianist was captured at a Chicago restaurant that he owned in the early 60s); and Ahmad Jamal At The Blackhawk, featuring a performance from a popular San Francisco jazz haven.
Between 1956 and 1968, Ahmad Jamal recorded 21 albums for Chess via their Argo and Cadet imprints. He then signed to Impulse!, where he made four albums before joining the roster at 20th Century Records for seven years. There he gravitated to the electric piano and became an adherent of jazz-funk, with some of his tunes from that period being sampled by hip-hop producers.
In more recent years, he’s come full circle, returning to his beloved Steinway acoustic piano. And it was with that instrument that Ahmad Jamal made his name with At The Pershing: But Not For Me. It was a hugely significant recording that represented not only an important milestone in the pianist’s career, but also in the history of Chess Records and jazz in general.
This article was first published in 2019. We are re-publishing it again, today, on the anniversary of its recording. Listen to At The Pershing: But Not For Me on Apple Music and Spotify.
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Here is a trailer for this Friday night’s zarzuela performance of El barberillo de Lavapiés brought to Slippedisc readers courtesy of OperaVision. Zarzuela is Spain’s special fusion of spoken dialogue, operatic arias, popular songs and dance.
El barberillo de Lavapiés from 1874 is a zarzuela masterpiece by Francisco Barbieri. This cheerful game of cat and mouse with the authorities is fueled by irresistible Spanish dance rhythms and music reminiscent of Rossini and Verdi. In this classic 19th-century zarzuela, still relatively unknown outside Spain, social and political tensions are vented through folklore and humour. For his acclaimed new production for Theater Basel, Christof Loy devotes himself to the best-known work of this genre and brings it to the stage with a Spanish cast and in the original language. The zarzuela celebrates the cleverness of common people who triumph over powerful elites through wit rather than force, with lashings of charm, irresistible dance numbers and gentle social commentary.
The Plot: Madrid in turmoil. In the lively working-class neighborhood of Lavapiés during the 18th century reign of Charles III, meet Lamparilla, a quick-witted barber, factotum, dentist and street singer. Lamparilla has no interest in politics but he is in love and becomes embroiled in an intrigue that reaches all the way to the Spanish royal family. Will his charm, network and cunning disguises help him outsmart the scheming aristocrats and political conspirators?
Streamed on Friday 16th January 2026 at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 New York
The post Zarzuela tonight appeared first on Slippedisc.
Devout ABBA fans may know the name, but not every pop connoisseur will know the relevance to the group of the character “Rosalita.” But it’s part of the story behind the song that launched the Voulez-Vous album and was released by the Swedish quartet on January 16, 1979, “Chiquitita.”
The song, credited to ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, had several working titles, most notably “In The Arms Of Rosalita.” But while that phrase was a good fit for the metre of the melody, and the group recorded a version with a full, original lyric on that theme, something wasn’t feeling right. They reworked the number extensively, keeping some of the original lyrical references as the song assumed the title “Chiquitita,” which means “little girl” in Spanish.
Browse ABBA’s music on limited edition vinyl and CDs here.
Completed at the end of 1978 at their Polar Music Studios, the track soon emerged as the favorite to be the first single from Voulez-Vous. With a sensitive lead vocal by Agnetha Fältskog, it got the nod ahead of the much more upbeat “Does Your Mother Know,” which duly became the follow-up. That decision was vindicated as “Chiquitita” turned into a massive single, topping the charts in Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland.
In the UK, ABBA had by now achieved no fewer than seven No.1 singles, but were in a run of releases that fell short of that benchmark. Indeed, it would be the summer of 1980 before they reclaimed the British chart summit, with “The Winner Takes It All.” After debuting at No.8, “Chiquitita” nearly made the top, spending two weeks at No.2 behind Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass.” In the US, where ABBA’s singles form was always somewhat patchy, it peaked at No.29.
Listen to the best of ABBA on Apple Music and Spotify.
The song received a huge global launch when ABBA performed it on January 9, a week before its release, at the Music For UNICEF charity concert, which also featured the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, and other stars. ABBA went on to donate half of all royalties from the single’s sales to UNICEF.
The group also recorded a version phonetically in Spanish, which sold half a million copies in Argentina alone. That features on the Spanish language version of the multi-platinum ABBA Gold compilation, now titled Oro: Grandes Éxitos, and which has been reissued on 180g heavyweight black vinyl.