Pred časom smo že poročali, da so melodični death metalci The Agonist iz Kanade odpovedali nastop na letošnji ediciji festivala MetalDays. Sedaj pa je iz tabora zasedbe tudi odjeknila vest, da je uradno prenehala z delovanjem. Več si lahko preberete v spodnji izjavi:

Dear friends, it's time to make a very difficult but necessary announcement.
We have decided that The Agonist as a band, has come to an end. Much deliberation and care has been put into making this decision, and unfortunately, given the circumstances, this is the conclusion that makes the most sense for the band and us as individuals.
There are many factors that led to this decision. It is a mix of personal, financial and industry related issues, but in the end the 5 of us are no longer able to agree on a way forward that would benefit The Agonist business as a whole, while respecting each member's personal lives and wishes.
We want to express our deepest gratitude to the fans for coming out to the shows, buying our merch, and supporting us over the years. Nothing is more satisfying than connecting with our fellow human beings via the gift of music. It is the number one factor that has always driven us- to make you, the listener, feel something. In the end, we know that we've accomplished this together.
Some members of the band will continue to work on music in various ways, others will focus on personal projects and family. We kindly ask you to respect their privacy on this particular matter and encourage you to follow them on their individual social media accounts to support their future endeavors.
Vicky Psarakis will be carrying on with her band, Sicksense. They have a new EP coming out this summer and she will be playing 2 live shows with them in Montreal, in June.
You can also directly support her by following her on Patreon and Twitch.
Simon McKay is currently looking to join a new band full-time, while offering session work for studio and live gigs. Also, keep an eye out for new music coming soon from his solo project.
Chris Kells will be focusing on his career as a videographer. Since 2015, he has directed all of The Agonist's music videos, as well as many other established bands.
Danny Marino is currently writing music for 2 new projects.
Pascal "Paco" Jobin will be releasing new music with his project Leading the betrayed.
Our US-based merch store with Sound Escape Agency will remain open. We have also put together an EU-based store for our European fans. Inventory is final and there will be no restocks. Proceeds will go directly to the band to help us pay off our remaining debt.
Once again, we thank you and we love you.
»We will survive. At the end of the tunnel there's always a light.« - The Agonist

Po tem, ko so pred kratkim turnejo odpovedali White Ward, je ista usoda doletela blackened death metalce 1914 iz Ukrajine. Upamo, da se stvari umirijo in nas bo zasedba lahko obiskala letos poleti na festivalu Črna Loka. Sledi bandova izjava za medije:

»Many of you could have been noticing a recent wave of European tours cancellations by UA bands. Unfortunately, 1914 is not an exception here. With heavy hearts we must inform you that we cannot play for our fans this April and have to cancel our upcoming tour.

Just to make it clear, it is still a 'wartime' on the territory of our land, and this specific time makes it impossible to leave the borders by the men of a conscript age. How could we travel last year? It was possible to get a special permission from the state authorities for the artists to leave the country and do shows and other activities in order to aid the country and spead the truth about unprovoked and brutal war started by russia. There were some irresponsible people who used such permissions to leave the country and never come back, and after it became public and went through a media - the state authorities stopped granting the special permissions for the artists by artificially overcomplicating the process of getting all the necessary documents, by enlarging the list of the documents and making it impossible for bands to obtain what is needed. This affected a lot of different bands in UA.

Last couple of weeks for us were in a constant fight with that new stupid system trying to show that we had a positive experience of returning back home after foreign tours, trying to display the value of such tours for our country benefit, but no matter how hard we tried - we couldn't break that system and it made impossible for us to go and play this time. We want to apologize to our fans, other bands, promoters, but currently we are powerless here. We will work hard to be able to get to our other shows this year, maybe the ice will melt and we will see some easement in the future, but currently we just did everything we could.

Міністерство культури та інформаційної політики України - Thank you for nothing!«

Ameriški komični glam metalci Steel Panther so objavili video za komad Friends With Benefits. Pesem je del albuma On The Prowl.

Foghound predstavljajo novo skladbo Keep On Shoveling, ki bo del posebnega dobrodelnega split 7" singla, posvečenega nedavno umorjenemu basistu skupine Jimu Forresterju. Ves izkupiček od donacij bo založba Ripple Music namenila njegovi družini.

Pod okriljen Noiz Promotions in APF Records je nastala dobrodelna kompilacija 22/05 - A Benefit, posvečena žrtvam in preživelim nedavnega terorističnega napada v Manchestru. Pozivu se je odzvalo kar 94 izvajalcev z Otoka, kot so Alunah (na fotografiji), Prophets Of Saturn, Elder Druid, Pist, Stubb, Old Man Lizard, Bright Curse, Space Witch in številni drugi. Kompleten izkupiček nameravajo podarilti lokalnim dobrodelnim organizacijam v Manchestru.

Orto Bar danes gosti dobrodelni koncert za Železne Stopinje, prvi dokumentarni film o razvoju slovenske heavy metal scene. Celotni dobiček od zbranih sredstev bo namenjen produkciji filma.

Koncert bo potekal na dveh odrih, vstopnice pa bodo na voljo na blagajni od 19h naprej. Po koncertu sledi še afterparty, na katerem bo vrtel DJ Rope. Vabljeni!

Razpored:

PLC je ime zaklonišča v Kranju, ki je dom sedmim bendom, neformalni šoli programerstva ter številnim drugim kreativnim dejavnostim. Kolektiv, ki šteje približno 30 različno poraščenih glav, se konstantno trudi, da bi izboljšal svoje delovne prostore in dvignil nivo kvalitete današnje gorenjske alter scene. V letu 2016 je kolektiv ustanovil društvo, KUD Denktimes, preko katerega sta najstarejša benda Placa, Didge in Armaroth, izdala albuma, v letu 2017 pa lahko pričakujete nove izdaje nekaterih mlajših bendov in veliko število koncertov.

Ampak ustvarjanje, produciranje in hkrati še krepitev delovnih prostorov in opreme ni poceni, zimska britvica in posledična potreba po ogrevanju pa samo še bolj stiska denarnice teh ustvarjalnih fantov in deklet - zato so se odločili organizirati benefit koncert z imenom PLC Fest, ki bo jutri zvečer v klubu Trainstation SubArt. Na dogodku vam bodo predstavljeni skoraj vsi glasbeni projekti Placa, denar iz vstopnic pa bo šel za zimski poračun, ter za krepitev vadbenih in delovnih prostorov.

Na dobrodelnem koncertu bodo tako nastopili Armaroth (na fotografiji), Didge, Nature, Amalgam, Sen, Mutism in Noč, za zaključek pa sledi še pustni after s hišnimi didžeji in največjimi uspešnicami 80-ih in 90-ih let.

Časovnica:
19.00 - vrata
19.20–19.50 – Noč
20.00–20.30 – Mutism
20.40–21.10 – Sen
21.20–22.00 – Amalgam
22.10–22.30 – Nature
22.40–23.30 – Didge
23.40–00.30 – Armaroth
00.30–03.00 – pustni after

Veseli dihurčki bodo 16. marca v Orto Baru organizirali benefit koncert v podporo projektu Železne stopinje, prvemu slovenskemu dokumentarcu o razvoju slovenske metal glasbe.

Metal in hard rock bandi, stari in mladi, ki bi želeli sodelovati pri projektu, pišite Mateju Ahlinu (pošljite zasebno sporočilo na Facebooku ali na mail). Prijave zbira do konca meseca.

Kot morda že veste, je tonski mojster Boban Bursač pred nedavnim izgubil boj z zahrbtno boleznijo. Njegovi sodelavci in dobri prijatelji jutri v Kinu Šiška organizirajo dobrodelni koncert, na katerem bodo zbirali sredstva za njegovo družino, na odru pa se mu bodo poklonili številni domači glasbeniki in glasbenice, s katerimi je Boban večkrat sodeloval v svoji dolgoletni karieri. Začel jo je leta 1982 v ljubljanskem FV-ju in že v prvih dveh letih prispeval k uresničitvi vsaj 150 koncertov različnih alternativnih skupin, čez nekaj let pa se je na Radiu Študent izpopolnil tudi za radijskega tonskega mojstra. Posnel je tudi več koncertov, med drugim skupin Via Ofenziva, O’Kult in Orkester Titanic, skrbel za ozvočenje tako klubskih koncertov na Metelkovi, Klubu K4 in Orto Baru kot tudi na najrazličnejših prireditvah, kot so Druga Godba, Ljubljanski Jazz Festival, Novi Rock, Trnfest, Lent in Poletje v Stari Ljubljani, Rock Otočec, Punk Rock Holiday, Schengenfest in drugih festivalih. Večkrat je sodeloval s številnimi vidnimi domačimi zasedbami, kot so Niet, Laibach, Borghesia, Dan D, Siddharta, Buldožerji, Srečna Mladina, Društvom mrtvih pesnikov, itn. Nekatere izmed njih lahko vidite na jutrišnjem dobrodelnem koncertu.

Če se koncerta ne morete udeležiti, a bi kljub temu želeli pomagati Bobanovi družini, se zbirajo donacije na:

Rdeči križ Slovenjia - Območno združenje Idrija
TRR: SI56 0510 0801 0754 188 
Sklic: 03 - 2016
Namen: Finančna pomoč za Bobana

Časovnica koncerta v Kinu Šiška:

18.20–18.35 Jacuzzy  
18.40–18.55 Golliwog  
19.00–19.15 Katarina Avbar + Peter Dekleva 
19.25–19.40 Zoran Čalić Band 
19.50–20.05 Sausages 
20.15–20.30 Gušti 
20.40–20.55 Čao Portorož 
21.10–21.25 Jardier 
21.35–21.50 Srečna mladina 
22.00–22.15 Društvo mrtvih pesnikov 
22.25–22.40 Tribute 2 Love 
22.50–23.05 Big Foot Mama 
23.10–23.25 Noctiferia 
23.35–23.50 Niet 
23.50–00.05 Laibach (Video) 

Ekipa KC Mostovna bo v soboto, 10. 5. 2014, priredila poseben dobrodelni koncert z imenom In Tomo We Trust in ob tej priložnost podaja naslednjo izjavo: »"Že je masa skupno zbrana..." so v devetdesetih prepevali goriških lokalni heroji Scuffy Dogs. Konec leta 2013 so pevcu in obrazu skupine postavili diagnozo za težko bolezen in ker je po naravi borec, se je odločil, da se bo z vsemi močmi boril tudi tokrat. In prav v teh težkih trenutkih nas Tomo potrebuje, da stopimo skupaj in mu pomagamo, saj so stroški zdravljenja zelo visoki. Ekipa KC Mostovne in njegovi najbližji prijatelji smo se odločili, da mu priskočimo na pomoč in priredimo dobrodelni - benefit glasbeni večer "In Tomo We Trust", od katerega bo izkupiček vseh prodanih vstopnic v celoti odšel v roke Tomota in njegove družine. Na samem dogodku se bodo zbirali tudi prostovoljni prispevki, vstopnina pa bo sicer 10 €. Prve potrjene skupine, ki so se odzvale pozivu, so Veto, Harry in Iamdisease.« /B.B./

Gifts From Enola so na svojem Bandcamp profilu objavili skladbo The Benefits Of Failure s prihajajoče plošče A Healthy Fear, ki bo 13. novembra izšla pri založbi The Mylene Sheath. Tracklista je naslednja:
Long Weakend
Robespierre
Cherry
Honne Tatemae
The Benefits Of Failure
Jade
Steady Diet
Clawmarks
/B.B./

Pri založbi Sevared Records je izšel drugi album nemških death metal ekstremistov Provocation z naslovom Forging The Gods, ki prinaša naslednje skladbe:
Acts Of Vigilantism
Overkill
Hazardous Error
Aiming A Crushing Blow
For The Benefit Of Mankind
Superior Entity Rising
Total Extinction
Uniform The Masses
Interrupted Cadence
Forging The Gods
/B.B./

Christgrinder so na svojem Reverbnation profilu objavili priredbo The Beatles z naslovom Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite. /B.B./

Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour) je k sodelovanju povabil kopico prijateljev, s katerimi so prejšnji teden v Los Angelesu nastopili na dobrodelnem koncertu Drop In The Bucket. Na odru so se mu tako pridružili bobnar Dave Lombardo (Slayer), kitaristi Scott Ian (Anthrax), Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction) in John 5 (Rob Zombie), basist Scott Shriner (Weezer) in drugi. Pod imenom "Corey Taylor And Friends" pa so odigrali naslednje priredbe:
Calling Dr. Love (Kiss)
Fairies Wear Boots (Black Sabbath)
Everlong (Foo Fighters)
You Really Got Me (The Kinks)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (AC/DC)
Walk All Over You (AC/DC)
Unchained (Van Halen)
Would? (Alice In Chains)
Heading Out To The Highway (Judas Priest)
Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)
Ain’t Talkin ‘Bout Love (Van Halen).
Spodaj si lahko ogledate priredbo Alice In Chains, več posnetkov pa je na voljo na tej lokaciji. /B.B./

Umrl je Jonas R. Christiansen, frontman skupine Slavia. Za danes napovedan benefit koncert v norveškem Bergnu bo tako koncert v spomin nanj. /P.G./