Evey year, usually right around this time of year, I do the Immortal Music Awards. Generally, the planning for it starts in July, and then from October to the middle to end of December I ask you guys to vote on your favorites for the year. Well, this year, things are going to be a bit different. After doing all I did for Fort Rock, changing jobs, and having a lot of life thrown at me, I completely forgot to do the planning. Which means I had nothing to back it up. I thought I could sort of quickly throw something together and get you guys to vote, but I wasn't sure if it would even work. With the luck I've had with social media in the last year or so, I wasn't sure if people would see anything. I tried to ask on Facebook if you guys wanted me to even bother, and surprisingly did get some answers. They were pretty positive, and surprisingly on my level. That level was wanting to, but not being postive if it would work. So we came to the conclusion as a group to skip the 2016 Immortal Music Awards. However, I didn't feel right skipping them entirely. The first year I did them -in 2011!- I didn't ask for anyone's input. Just made up 'awards' based on my own thoughts. While getting all of your input is way more fun, like I said -I couldn't just leave it alone. So, this is what we're getting this year. Next year, I promise to do it properly again. With the planning, and the voting and then the final proper reveal. I promise I won't drop the ball next year....or at least, I promise to try to not let it fall through the cracks. I'm sorry I did this year. It was a pretty massive year, some of which I will explain when I do the 2016 recap. Anyways, without further adue, let's get into the best of 2016 (in my opinion, of course!) Please feel free to answer with your own awards! I would love to see who you think is the best. Every year, I ask a few questions, and they mostly look forward to the coming year. I wanted to get those out of the way first before I get into the categories. ⦁ Who would you like to see release more content in 2017? ⦁ Who would you like to see tour more in 2017? ⦁ Which album are you most excited about for 2017? ⦁ What was your best moment from 2016? I would like to see more content from All Time Low, Bring Me The Horizon, Saint Asonia, and Shinedown. The only one that I really think will release an album in 2017 is Saint Asonia, and that's only because I know they've been writing new music. I just would like more content from All Time Low, BMTH and Shinedown, but I'm not really expecting too much. Though I vaguely remember something about BMTH writing new music already? That's The Spirit is only a little over a year old, and is doing fantastic, but if the creative juices are flowing, then its possible! I could be completely wrong on hearing that though. As for the touring, I would really like to see All Time Low tour more, as well as Art of Dying -as its been 5 years since I last saw them! They haven't come to Florida in five years -do they not realize that's too long? Also on my list is Falling In Reverse, Papa Roach, Asking Alexandria or We Are Harlot. And I wouldn't mind seeing Neck Deep come around a bit more either. I'm pretty much open to anyone touring more. For the albums I'm really excited about, at the top of my list is Papa Roach's new one! I'm so excited for them to release new music. I absolutely loved their F.E.A.R album, but I admit I'm not overly thrilled with the single, "Crooked Teeth." Its okay, but its definitely not their best work. None the less, I'm quite excited to see what they have in store for us. I'm also curious about As It Is' Okay album which comes out January 20. Then there's my best moment of 2016.... That's a tough one. I have a lot more to say that will just be put into the 2016 Recap blog, but I'll go ahead and say one thing. Which I will surely repeat in more detail in the recap. That was meeting Brent Smith of Shinedown, very briefly while covering their set. That was the funniest way I have ever met someone, and it just amuses me how 20 photographers can get into such a zone that they don't notice a singer crouched down wanting their attention. Go read the recap, I'll tell the story (and many, many more) over there. Enough with the questions....let's get into those categories. I tend to keep the categories fairly basic. and they don't really ever change. I'll try to keep this brief, since this is by far not a brief post. Once again I would like to state that these are just my opinions, and I would love to hear your favorites as well! Best Guitarist: Zach Myers of Shinedown There's a lot of choices, but I decided to choose Zach because I saw Shinedown for the forth time earlier this year, and they never fail to impress me. Plus, I am almost certain he remembered me from when I interviewed him in 2014. Runners up included; Tony Perry of Pierce The Veil, DJ Ashba from Sixx:AM, and Lee Malia from Bring Me The Horizon. Best Bassist: Nikki Sixx of Sixx:AM I decided to pick him because I saw Sixx:AM at Fort Rock this year and honestly wasn't expecting much. I've never been a massive fan of their music, but their stage presence blew me away. Nikki himself is a performer, and then you add the rest of the band to it. That gives you one hell of a show. I did not think of any runners up for this category. Best Singer: Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon. I chose Oli because seeing BMTH at Fort Rock this year was one of the biggest highlights of my year. I find him to be quite talented, and a lot of fun to watch. My only complaint really is how much he encourages mosh pits and crowd surfing. It was fun to watch from the safety of the VIP section, but I had never witnessed so many people come out of a crowd unconcious before. Its simply dangerous. Runners up; Adam Gontier of Saint Asonia, Brent Smith of Shinedown, James Michael of Sixx:AM, and Dennis Stoff formerly of Asking Alexandria. Best Screamer: Austin Carlile from Of Mice And Men Austin has had an incredibly hard year, and he pushed on for a very long time. He's now finally taking some time to recover, which is much needed. He's one of the strongest people I know of, and I for one have all the respect in the world for him. He's recently spoken out about Marfan Syndrome, and stated he will never get better. I can only imagine the battle he's dealing with, not only pyschically but mentally. He deserves a lot more credit than he's given, just for his strength alone. His talents are simply a bonus. The world needs more people as grateful and humble as Austin Carlile and I felt it was worth expressing, despite the announcement of his departure yesterday. Runner ups; Ivan Moody of Five Finger Death Punch. I went back and forth on if he was a singer or screamer, but regardless felt he needed mentioning. Much like Austin, he's been dealing with his own battles. His this year have come in the forms of addiction, and mental health issues. He's showing a lot of strength by helping himself out, and too many fans are not supporting him in this. I for one, commorate such strength. I also wanted to mention David Draiman because won last year, and while I wouldn't exactly call him a screamer, he does put on one hell of performance. Much like Sixx:AM, I did not know what to expect when I saw them live, but what completely blown away. Best Drummer: Barry Kerch of Shinedown I don't have a full reason for this, except for the fact that I enjoy Shinedown as a hole. I only attended two shows this year, which was Fort Rock and Lacey Sturm in a bar in Winter Park, FL. At Fort Rock, I couldn't really see any of the drummers very well, but I did manage to get a picture of a few of them. Barry being one of them. As said earlier, this was my forth time seeing Shinedown live, and I can't say as though I've ever shed light on him, so now I am doing so! Runners Up: Dustin Steinke -touring drummer for Sixx:AM, Rian Dawson of All Time Low, Mike Wengren of Disturbed, and Jeremy Spencer of Five Finger Death Punch Favorite Band: I Prevail I had enjoyed I Prevail's cover of "Blank Space" for all of 2015, and all of this year, but for some reason didn't actually sit down and listen to their original music until later in the year. Where have they been all my life? They're so good, lyrically and musically. I've been missing out on their music, and am very glad I got around to listening to them. Runners Up: Bring Me The Horizon, Shinedown, Papa Roach, Five Finger Death Punch. Best Music video: Follow You -Bring Me The Horizon Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of too many music videos I've even watched this year. Which makes absolutely no sense because I know there's been tons of them. But then this one came to my mind and its totally different from my usual taste. I don't tend to do the zombie thing, but yet it completely worked for Follow You. Best Song: Stuck In Your Head -I Prevail I have been absolutely loving this song. I was extremely late on listening to I Prevail, as I said a few categories above. Their debut album, Lifelines came out in October of this year, and I honestly only listened to it a couple weeks ago. BUT Stuck In Your Head has been stuck in my head (how ironic) ever since. So I decided to pick this one as the best song. Runner Up: Heathens by Twenty One Pilots; Why is it the second you get asked a question you draw a blank on every new song? I suddenly started questioning if anything I listen to all the time came out this year or if it was last year or later. Perhaps its because I was working on this at 5 o'clock in the morning, but Heathens was all that would come to my mind. Funny thing is, I work at a movie theater and since it plays at the end of Suicide Squad, you'd think we would all be sick of it at the theater. Somehow that's not the case, we all happily would listen to it 5 times a day while cleaning the theater, and still to this day talk about it. Just the other day I had to tell one of my managers who it was by again. This was my original answer before remembering Stuck In Your Head which also came out this year and is something I've been loving. Best Album of 2016: Bad Vibrations from A Day To Remember Much like with the best song...I completely drew a blank for a moment on every new album! Then a quick look through my iTunes reminded me of Bad Vibrations. This album had to grow on me because at first, I didn't really know if I liked more than a couple of songs. After listening to it a few times, I realized the album feels quite personal to Jeremy McKinnon which makes it very special. Hottest Female in Music: Melanie Martinez I know that sounds completely out of character for Immortal Music, but honestly she's the first solo artist I've liked in I'm not sure how long. I very rarely like solo artists to begin with, let alone ones that are basically pop. There's something about her that's very attention grabbing, and different. I chose her mostly because of her unique sound and surprisingly dark lyrics, but she's also very pretty. Runners Up: Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, Hayley Williams of Paramore, Lindsay Gunn of Pvris, Jenna McDougal of Tonight Alive. Hottest Male in Music: James Michael of Sixx:AM. I was tempted to give this to any of the boys in Bring Me The Horizon, just because of how much I've been listening to them this year, but I decided to go with James Michael instead because he really impressed me when I saw them live. This is not based on looks at all, though I will say one of my favorite pictures from the year is of him. You'll see it again, I'll probably include it in the year's recap. Runners Up: All of Bring Me The Horizon, Jack Barakat of All Time Low (who was the winner for two years in a row), Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach, Brent Smith of Shinedown (who is just classy), Zach Myers of Shinedown, and Dennis Stoff formerly of Asking Alexandria. I think that about covers it....I hppe you guys enjoyed reading my thoughts on some of the music world talents. I honestly couldn't just leave the Awards alone, but didn't have time to get you guys to vote on everything as throughly and fairly as I have in past years. So, going back to the 2011 roots of the awards felt like the only way to go. I really want to hear your thoughts on each category as well! Who would you have chosen for each? Let me know! Thank you very much for reading, and sticking by me all year. Its highly appreciated, more than words can really express. Stay tuned because I am hoping to be more active in 2017. The fun actually begins January 7, as we will begin posting an album review every single day! All of this is for the 2017 Fort Rock festival, and we're hoping to keep the fun going long after the festival. We shall see what happens! Thank you for all your love and support, and here's hoping 2017 is way better to the world than 2016 was. Look back the Immortal Music Awards! 2011 - 2012 -2013 -2014 -2015
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Hello, readers, friends, family, fans -whoever you happen to be! I really hope you've had a great holiday, and are looking forward to 2017. I'm hopeful that its going to bring bigger, better and greater things to the entire world, and am doing my best to start off the new year with a bunch of content. Which actually brings me to something I wanted to address with all of you. As you may have been aware, a few weeks ago we announced the 2017 Fort Rock Project, which was going to contain news, reviews, biographies and the occasional blog post here and there. All of which was going to be for Fort Rock artists. This is the second annual Fort Rock Project here on Immortal Music, and I am still going to do this with the help of Coby Andrews, who joined us earlier this year. The project is going to still be in effect, however, I am going to make a slight change. Originally the plan was to post a review basically every single day, news as often as possible and a biography every week. We still are going to do the reviews, and of course the news is a must, but I've been doing a lot of thinking about the biographies. I think I am going to opt out of them this year, for the most part. There's a few reasons for this, and hppefully they make sense to anyone besides me. The main reason is the fact that hardly anyone seems to read them, which makes sense. A quick Google search will tell you the band's back history, and since its all right there on the internet anyways, it felt sort of redundant to transcribe them all into my own words. Especially given the fact that stats have shown that they are often over looked, despite all forms of promotion. The other reasons go hand in hand with that. They take forever to transcribe, depending on how long the band's history is. I easily can spend an entire week working on one, because I can't dedicate a very long amount of time to write it all in one setting. With my day job, the holidays, or just other content that needs worked on, all the biographies get worked on in segments. Plus, I find them boring to write. As I said before, all the information is easily found online, so it began to feel like a waste of time. Its not that the bands are not interesting, because they most definitely are, it just felt like an improper use of time. I'm not saying there won't be any biographies -you're still more than likely going to get one here and there. Just do not expect to see them every week. However, I strongly urge you to come back to Immortal Music every single day because beginning January 7, there will be a review posted every single day! Also in just a few more days -on New Years Eve-, I will be posting the 2016 Immortal Music Awards, and there may be a 2016 Recap blog. So definitely stick around, because you don't want to miss a thing. If you've been around for awhile, you might remember us doing a little thing called the Fort Rock project last year. The Fort Rock project was where we posted news, biographies, reviews, and the occasional blog post for artists performing at Southwest Florida's biggest and best event -Fort Rock.
This year, is quite similar. Last year over 23,000 people gathered to see bands like Disturbed, Shinedown, Bring Me The Horizon, Five Finger Death Punch, Rob Zombie, Bullet For My Valentine, Megadeth, and many, many more. In promotion for this, we posted a total of 228 articles, most of which were reviews. This year fans will be gathering to see bands like Def Leppard, Soundgarden, A Perfect Circle, The Offspring, Seether, Papa Roach, In Flames, I Prevail, and many, many more. We have already begun working on content for this year's festival and below are all the links. If you'd like to see what all we did last year please click here. December 2016 News: All That Remain's Phil Labonte joins 5FDP (12/1/16) Fort Rock Lineup (12/5/16) I Prevail Goes Acoustic with Linkin Park Cover (12/15/16) Alter Bridge 2017 tour w/ Nonpoint (12/15/16) Mastodon's original singer passed away (12/28/16) Blog posts: Fort Rock Predictions (11/29/16) Thoughts on the Fort Rock lineup (12/7/16) Fort Rock Project 2017 Announcement (12/8/16) Def Leppard Biography (Fort Rock Project #1) (12/12/16) Changes To The Fort Rock Project (12/28/16) January 2017: News: I Prevail Announces tour (1/3/17) Rocklahoma 2017 (1/10/17) Josh Balz leaves Motionless In White (1/10/17) Def Leppard Announces tour w/ Tesla and Poison (1/12/17) A Perfect Circle Tickets on sale now! (1/13/17) Motionless In White -"Eternally Yours" (1/13/17) Album Reviews: Three Days Grace- Three Days Grace (1/7/17) Dinosaur Pile-Up -Eleven Eleven (1/8/17) One-X- Three Days Grace (1/9/17) Karma And Effect -Seether (1/10/17) Lifelines -I Prevail (1/11/17) Light Me Up -The Pretty Reckless (1/12/17) The Paramour Sessions -Papa Roach (1/13/17) The Few Not Fleeting -Nothing More (1/14/17) Disclaimer II -Seether (1/15/17) Behind Silence And Solitude-All That Remains (1/16/17) The Taken EP -Cover Your Tracks (1/17/17) Point #1 -Chevelle (1/18/17 One Day Remains- Alter Bridge (1/19/17) Human -Three Days Grace (1/20/17) Creatures -Motionless In White (1/21/17) Aggressive -Beartooth (1/22/17) Metamorphosis -Papa Roach (1/23/17) Blood -In This Moment (1/24/17) On Through The Night -Def Leppard (1/25/17) Americana -The Offspring (1/26/17) Louder Than Love -Soundgarden (1/28/17) Danger In The Morning EP -Goodbye June (1/29/17) February 2017: Blog posts: Thoughts on Seether's "Let You Down" (2/24/17) News: New All That Remains new singles! (2/3/17) In This Moment and Motionless In White tour! (2/6/17) New Papa Roach song- Help! (2/16/17) I Prevail Forced to Reschedule Shows (2/18/17) New Seether music on the horizon??? (2/22/17) Rise Above Fest 2017 Announced (2/22/17) I Prevail and Starset tour (2/23/17) Seether -Poison The Parish (Album Announcement!) (2/24/17) Album reviews: Once More 'Round The Sun -Mastodon (2/1/17) March 2017: News: Motionless In White -Loud (3/2/17) Seether -Poison The Parish tour! (3/3/17) Total: 51 Other relevant content......All of the following are for artists that will be at the 2017 Fort Rock festival, but was written prior to this. Fun fact! One of the reviews was actually the very first review to ever be written for Immortal Music. Dating all the way back to 2010 -which was just before Immortal Music as it is today began.) Reviews: Life Starts Now- Three Days Grace (1/10/10) Holding Onto Strings Much Better Left To Fray -Seether (9/12/2011) Transit Of Venus- Three Days Grace (10/14/12) Isolate And Medicate- Seether (7/26/14) Reincarnate -Motionless In White (1/6/15) Disgusting -Beartooth (5/25/15) Black Widow -In This Moment (8/12/15) Heart Vs Mind EP - I Prevail (7/30/16) Nothing More -Nothing More (8/18/16) F.E.A.R -Papa Roach (1/28/16) Getting Away With Murder -Papa Roach (6/11/16) Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces- Seether (6/14/16) Infest -Papa Roach (6/16/16) Time For Annihilation -Papa Roach (6/20/16) Infamous -Motionless In White (7/2/16) The Connection- Papa Roach (8/12-16) Biographies: Seether Biography (6/20/16) Interviews: John Humphrey of Seether (1/15/15) Def Leppard is a name that just about everyone knows. Even if they don't, they definitely have heard a song or two from them. They originally formed in 1977 and were a big part of the new wave of British heavy metal. Now I'm not sure if you'd call them 'heavy metal' today, I've heard everything from grunge rock, hard rock, or glam metal. Whatever you choose to call them, they're inevitablly a legendary band. They originally were formed when Rick Savage, Tony Kenning, and Pete Willis all met at Tapton School in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. They filmed a band called Atomic Mass, originally, which had quite the different lineup. When it first started, they had Rick Savage on guitar, but then he switched to bass. Pete Willis took up the guitar, and Tony Kenny was their drummer. They then welcomed Joe Elliot as a guitarist, and it was supposedly all because Pete missed a bus to practice. During the audition, they actually decided he would be a great singer, so they decided to place him there. Here's some proof that all bands start small -their first show was in the dining hall of Westfield School in Mosborough, Sheffield. The name Def Leppard didn't come fully for a while, though they did adopt 'Deaf Leopard", which was something Joe Elliot thought of. He apparently thought of it while he was in English class, working on reviews for imaginary rock bands. As someone who writes reviews frequently, that's much appreciated. Upon hearing it, Tony suggested that they change the spelling a bit, because it felt too much like a punk band name to him. Thus 'Def Leppard' was born. Here's where their lineup changes began fully. In January 1978, Steve Clark joined the band In November, just as they were about to record their first EP, Tony left the band suddenly. He was replaced for the recording sessions by Frank Noon. By the end of the month, they also welcomed a full time drummer , RIck Allen, who was only fifteen at the time. He however, joined just after the recording of what would later be called The Def Leppard EP. The three song EP was released in January 1979 and had great sales after "Getcha Rocks Off" was played on BBC Radio 1 frequently. Then throughout 1979, their following began to grow around the British heavy metal and hard rock community. This lead them to become one of the leaders in the new wave of British heavy metal, despite their young age. All of this success lead to them getting a record deal through Phonogram/ Vertigo (also known as Mercury Records in the US). Upon getting signed and getting a new management team, they were booked to go on tour with AC/DC. Def Leppard finally released their debut album, On Through The Night the following year. The album came out on March 14, 1980.The album reached numbre 15 on the UK album charts and reached 51 on the Billboard 200 here in the US. By November 18, 1983, the ablum was certified Gold by the RIAA, and platinum by May of 1989. The album featured re-recorded verisons of early demos, and two tracks from their EP. Those two tracks were "Rocks Off" and "Overture." Over all, the album recieved positive reviews, and many highlighted the fact that they were one of the leads on the new wave of heavy metal in England. The songs from this album were performed live for a few years, but were mostly dropped after 1983. Only two that remained for a longer period were, "Rock Brigade" and "Wasted", but even those didn't get played life again until after 2000. With this album, not only came some great fame, but also some displeasure. On the album is a song called "Hello America", which was percieved to be 'trying too hard to appeal to American fans.' People reacted so badly that when they performed at the Reading Festival in Reading and Leeds in England, that fans supposedly threw beer cans and bottles filled with urine at the band. Journalists accused them of "Selling out", and frankly, it was all about too much. Luckily, the band shut down what all was said about the Reading incident and said that all of the bands that performed that day recieved similar treatment. Sounds like a shitty festival experience, if you ask me. Luckily none of this backlash effected them too harshly. In fact, by this time AC/DC's producer decided to approach them. They then worked together on what would be come the band's second album, High N' Dry. This album too recieved some good reviews, and ratings. It hit 26 on UK album charts, and 38 on the Billboard 200. It even made a comeback on charts the following yaear, after the release of their third album, Pyromania. We'll get back to that album shortly, but when High N' Dry made its come back, it popped back up to number 72 on the US charts. This album also held the song that would become the very first metal video to ever be played on MTV. That song was "Bringin' On The Heartbreak", and the video was played in 1982. High N' Dry was originally released on July 11, 1981, and then was re-released on May 21, 1984 with two more bonus tracks. The two tracks were remixes of "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" and "Me & My Wine." They made videos for both of these songs, and both videos featured Phil Collen who was actually not yet in the band, but soon joined when Pete Willis departed from the band in 1982. Pete departed exactly a year after the album was released, due to excessive alcohol consumption while working. He didn't stay out of the music scene forever though, he did go on to have two other bands, Gogmagog and Roadhouse. Now with Phil Collen in the band, they released their third album, Pyromania. See, I told you we would get back to this one? Pyromania was released on June 20, 1983. This is where they really hit a turning point in their career. The lead single, "Photograph" is what helped make them a household name. According to Wikipedia, it even beat out Michael Jackson's "Beat It" as the most requested video on MTV and became a massive part of radio in the rock world. It also topped the US charts for six whole weeks, and brought them the chance to do a headlining tour around the US. After the success of "Photograph", they decided to release two other singles, "Rock of Ages" and "Follin'." All of this helped them sell over six million copies of the album, and broke into some new charts. Never before had they reached charts in Sweden, Canada or New Zealand but here they did. Pyromania reached number 4 in Canada, number 26 in New Zealand and 23 in Sweden. It also reached number 18 on UK charts, and number 2 in the US. This album brought them the most success they had had yet. By 2004, Pyromania was actually given a diamond certification, for selling over 10 million copies in the US. So clearly, this was quite the impressive album. After the success of that album, the band relocated to Finland, supposedly for tax purposes to begin writing their next album. Then suddenly, on New years eve of 1984, their drummer, Rick allen was in a bad car accident back home in Sheffield. He was out with his girlriend and swerved off the road and went through a drystone wall. This accident resulted in him losing his arm, yet Rick remained very determined to keep going with the band. His dedication is highly impressive, and admirable. He realized he could use his legs to do some of the drumming, and taught himself to do that. He also then worked with the brand Simmons to design an electric drum kit to help him out. Def Leppard supported their friend and never once looked for a replacement. Within a matter of months, he was back drumming, and once said the moment he was able to drum one of their songs again, was quite emotional. Even if you're not a Def Leppard fan, you really have to respect that. That's a massive challenge, that some couldn't cover come. He didn't let that get him down, and that's a very inspiring feat. He made his comeback officially at the 1986 Monsters of Rock festival and recieved an ovation from the audience. Probably partly due to his accident, there was a bit longer of a gap in between albums for Def Leppard. Finally though, they released their fourth studio album, Hysteria on August 3, 1987. This one managed to beat out the success even o their last album, selling over 25 million copies, and charting number one in both the US and UK. The album's title actually in a way is a tribute to Rick, who thought of it. He was refering to the accident and the coverage the media produced surrounding the situation. This album features the one song that I am certain just about everyone has heard. That one is "Pour Some Sugar On Me." Many would say they have much better songs, and they definitely have tons of other hits, but that song is one I am confident just about everyone has heard at least once in their life. This album literally exploded with success. Since its release, its gone 12x platinum here in the US, 10x Platinum in the US, 2x platinum in the UK and 4x platinum in Australia. It remained in the US Top 40 charts for 96 weeks straight, had three singles break into the top ten here in the US, and still sits as the 51st Best Selling album of all time here in the US. This is the kind of success that bands dream of, so I can just imagine how completely thrilled they must be with everything they've done. "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was the fourth single from the almost, reached number 3 on the Billboard 200, and was named by VH1 to be number two in the list of "100 Great Songs of the 80s'." They just kept getting hits with this album, having "Love Bites" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, "Armageddon It" hit the Top 5, and "Rocket" was in the Top 20. Adter all of that excitment, surely they felt on top of the world and wanted to give fans even more. So, they then performed "Tear It Down", which was B-Side for Hysteria at the MTV Music Awards in 1989. After the fans gave extreme postive feed back, they decided to rework it some to put it on their next album, Adrenalize. They were eager to record the fifth album, because the last album was so successful but also came after quite a long gap. However, there was quite the setback. Steve Clark, the band's guitarist was struggling quite a bit with alcoholism, and it had gotten worse somewhat recently. He took a six month leave from the band, after being in and out of rehabb for quite some time. Then unfortunately, on January 8, 1991, he died in his house in London from alcohol and perscription medications. The rest of the band decided to contiune and recorded the album as a four pierce band. Phil Collen tried his best to imitate the style Steve would have produced on the guitar for the album. They then released Adrenalize on March 31, 1992. The album reached number one in the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia, and has gone gold in the UK, 3x Platinum in the US and 4x Platinum in Canada. From the first single, "Let's Get Rocked", it was a massive hit. That song alone was nominated for the Best Song Of The Year at the 1992 MTV Music Video Awards. Being the glam metal that it was, it stood out quite a bit. At this point in time, pop-metal and grunge were quite popular so they drew a ton of attention. In October of 1993, they released a collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks that spanned anywhere from 1984 all the way to 1993, and called it Retro Active. Also in this time, as a reflective sort of states, Def Leppard released their first greatest hits album. This one was called Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995). That one came out on October 23, 1995, and had alternate track listings in North America, the UK, and Japan. All of the albums issues though featured a new track, which was a power ballad called, "When Love & Hate Collide." This song actually became their biggest hit ever in the UK, as it hit number 2 on the UK Singles charts. Also on that day, the band got placed in the Guiness Book Of World records by performing three concerts, on three continents in one day. Starting at midnight, in Africa, they began a marathon tour and finished late that night in Canada. They made a stop in England along the way for good measure. Then in May 1996, they released their sixth studio album, Slang. This album was a massive difference for the band musically, as it featured darker lyrics than ever before, and a stripped down, more alternative rock feel to it. Something else that was a bit different for this album, was the band recorded it all together, rather than recording each part seperately. This gave the album a bit of a live feel to it, and had quite the response. The album hit number 5 in the UK and number 14 in the US. It also has been certified platinum in Canada and gold in the US and UK. This was also the first album to be recorded with Rick Allen using a semi acoustic drum set since his accident. Prior to this, he used his electric set. They did revive their classic sound though on June 8, 1999 with Euphoria. This one too was recieved very well -its beginning to feel like Def Leppard could release the sound of a rock dropping to the floor and it would still do well on charts. This one hit number 11 in both the UK, and US, and had a number one hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts. That song was the lead single, "Promises." After all the success they had over the years, Def Leppard were induced into the Rock Walk Of Fame on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard by Brian May of Queen. Thne in 2001, VH1 released a biopic docudrama called Hysteria- The Def Leppard Story. This played dramatic restorations of the band's history, ranging from 1977 through 1986. They did include the struggles and overcomings of Rick Allen and Steve Clark. They said this gave them some of their highest ratings ever, and you can get the documentary on DVD. Now it came time for Def Leppard's tenth album, which was simply titled X. X was released on July 31, 2002. This album has a vastly new direction for the band, as it leaned a bit more toward pop. When obviously their sound was always more on the hard rock side, this album is seen as one of the lesser successful albums. However, it still had a decent reaction. Strong crowds still showed up to the tour supporting it, and the album reached number 11 on the Billboard 200, and 14 in the UK. However, it did not spark any number one hits, nor has it gotten certified at all. This is where they slowed down a bit on the recording, but still were doing other things. They released an expanded and updated version of their Best hits in October 2004, switched their management team from Q-Team to HK Management, and releaased a cover album titled Yeah! Yeah! Came out on May 23, 2006, and were covers of many childhood songs for them from bands like Blondie, The Kinks, Sweet, ELO, Bad Finger and many others. This album also broke into the top 20 in the US, reaching 16, making it the tenth consecutive Top 20 hit. They were also the inagural indutees of the VH1 Rock Honors, along side Queen, Kiss and Judas Priest on May 31, 2006. They also got to hear All American Rejects do a cover of their song "Photograph." Following this show was a tou with Journey, and they re-released Hysteria in a two- disco deluxe edition that gave the original album in a remastered format. Included with this were b-sides, bonus tracks and remixes. To support this, they went on toru with Foreigner and Styx. Finally on April 28, 2008, Def Leppard released their first studio album in six years. This one was called Songs From The Sparkle Lounge and clearly fans were extremely excited for this new release. The album debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, 7 in Canada, 8 in the over all world chart, and broke the top 50 in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Fermany, New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK. The first single, "Nine Lives" actually featured Tim McGraw and was a joint effort written by Joe Elliot, Phil Collen and Rick Savage. They then set out on tour with a few different bands over the course of 2008/ 2009. These bands included Styx, REO Speedwagon, Black Stone Cherry, Thunder, White Snake, and more. In this time as well, they got to play the Download festival! Oddly enough, they actually performed with Taylor Swift in October 2008, and it was for CMT Crossroads: Taylor Swift and Def Leppard. It was released on DVD June 16 the following year, and was sold exclusively through Walmart. They also unfortunately had to cancel the final leg of the 2009 North American tour, due to unseen personal reasons. Of course, people assumed they were breaking up, which the band instantly shut down. No idea what really caused it, but honestly touring can kick your ass. Sometimes you get sick, run down, and its just simply too much. People tend to forget that. After that happened, the band decided to take all of 2010 off of touring, but to somewhat make up for it released their first live album. The album was called Mirror Ball- Live & More and was a two disc live album that feautred three new recorded songs. For some erason they chose to release it in parts of Europe on June 3, then the rest of Europe on June 6, and finally the US on June 7. It was also announced around this time that Def Leppard would be performing at that year's Download festival. They also set out on a two month tour around the US that summer with Heart, and then also did seven shows in Australia in October with The Choirboys, and Heart as well. Two Japanese shows happened in November, and ssix happened in the UK in December with Steel Panther and Motley Crue. They also toured with Poison and Lita Ford in the US over the summer of 2012. In June 2013, Vivian Campbell announced that he had Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which is a malignant form of cancer that effects the Reed- Sternberg cells, all of which are locationed in the lymph nodes. He kept playined with Def Leppard, and never canceled or rescheduled a show. He said that performing was the best way to remain otimistic, so he refused to quit. He proudly annunced in November that he was in remission, but unfortunately it came back. Hey said once it goes back into remission, he can undergo a stem-cell transplant. They released another live album, Viva! Hysteria the following year, on October 22, 2013, and this was the first time they actually played an album in full from start to finish. In February 2014, the band decided to do yet another remastered verison of an album. This time it was Slang, and they relreased it with 30 tracks total, and included unreleased material, B-sides and demons. Following that, they went on tour with Kiss, and all ticket sales contributed to military chariteis such as the Wounded Warrior Project. They also contriubuted to the Paul McCartney tribute album, Art Of McCartney. Joe Elliot on his own also recorded another song for the album. In more recent time, they've done a decent amount of things, including some unique things such as having a cartoon and documentary in the works. However apparently these things were put aside, but hopefully at some point the world will see these. They toured quite a bit over the course of 2014 and 2015 with Kiss, Styx, Tesla and Whitesnake. Then they released their eleventh and most recent album, which was self titled. The album came out on October 30, 2015 and debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200. It ended up going up to number 5 on the Bollboard 200, but also hit number 1 on three other US charts. It hit 2 in Swizterland, and broke the top twenty in the UK, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Canada, Austria and Australia. This brings up to this year. They kicked off 2016 with the Hysteria On The High Seas Concert Cruise around the MSC Divina. It was supposed to be open just for concert goers, but the sales were a bit low, so cabins on the boat were opened up to others as well. The cruise apparently was something of a mess. First sales were low, then the boat could not dock at the island they were supposed to, due to terrible weather. Then Joe Elliot got laryngitis, and that lead to the band performing without him for the first time ever. Vivian and Phil took over on vocals, and shorted the set. When they got back to land, Joe was still sick. He worked to get through the first concert back on land, but then unfortunately they had to cancel the next night's show because the doctors told Joe that he would do serious damage if he kept trying. Luckily, it didn't take too much longer for him to recover, and by July they were able to go back out on tour and completed all 48 concerts. As the year comes to a close, things are really looking good for Def Leppard. They will be performing at a few big festivals, starting with Fort Rock on April 29, then they will be playing Welcome To Rockville on April 30, Carolina Rebellion on May 6 and River City Rockfest on May 27! They also have yet another live DVD out for pre-order right now. This one is called Def Leppard Live from Detrot, and will be out on Feburary 2017. You can pre-order it now through PledgeMusic, and get several pre-order bundles! Be sure to stay up to date with Def Leppard by liking their Facebook page and checking out their official website. We're bringing the Fort Rock project back! Last year we announced a project that lasted for technically four months where we posted album reviews, news, biographies and the occasional blog post for all the Fort Rock artists. Last year, 24 bands performed at the 2016 Fort Rock festival, and between them all there were 124 albums, all of which got reviewed. We also wrote 22 biographies, one for almost all of the bands. Two of the smaller bands got excluded, not because we didn't care, but because we could not find enough information and did not hear back from the bands to get further information. This year, we're deciding to do just that all over again! This year, there's still 24 bands, but there are only 109 reviews left for us to do. Some of the artists have already been worked on, though we think we may revisit some of the albums. That is because some of the reviews are extremely old, so old in fact one of them was the very first review to ever be written on Immortal Music. So we have lots to do, and here is our plan! The reviews will begin on January 7, and then will go consistently every day until just a few days before the festival. Fort Rock is on April 29, and our goal is to have every album posted by the 26th. That gives us enough time to post one review a day up until the festival. We also are going to try to post a biography once a week for the most part. There's only 20 weeks til Fort Rock, however, so we're going to double up at some point and give you two a week. That won't last very long though, that'll only be for about two weeks. There's currently no plan on when that will happen, and it actually may not. If things follow suit, I'll have a hard time finding information on a couple smaller bands, so we may not have to double up at all. We shall look into it and get back to you at a later date! So try to get excited for the reviews to start, and expect the biographies to start very shortly! We're not going to tell you when they're going to start exactly, just expect them very soon! Get excited, a lot is coming your way. Who do you think we're going to start with? Let us know and see if you're right soon. Two days ago the 2017 Fort Rock lineup was announced! Unfortunately, due to work, I was unable to write about this the day of. Its only two days later, so its still completely relevent. Now I was actually at work when it was opened at noon, and instantly had people IMing me and texting me all excited about their favorites. Which made my excitement for the lineup take over, and I admit, I caved and looked at it right in the lobby of my work. Which could get me in trouble, but luckily my work was a ghost town yesterday, so it didn't matter at all. As soon as I saw the lineup, I had mixed reactions. Part of me was like, "YES!" and then another part of me was like, "What?" Its a very mixed lineup, with several you would expect to play, and several you would not. Then as I was looking at it, I realized I once again did nail some of the lineup! I guessed that Soundgarden, Papa Roach, The Pretty Reckless, Alter Bridge, Motionless In White, Starset, Nothing More, Seether,The Offspring, In Flames, Chevelle, Three Days Grace, In This Moment, and Beartooth would all be there. If you want to read the post where I put out my guesses, and explained the speculations, please feel free to click here. Some of the bands, I'm completely thrilled about. This will be my third time seeing Papa Roach, and Seether, and I'm hopeful to actually get to watch Starset and Motionless In White this year. Chevelle intrigues me because I have only seen them once before, and due to a crappy sound guy that night, they sounded awful. So I'm excited to give them a second chance -seven years later. But the headliners?? I may sound a little bit unprofessional here, or just completely out of the loop, but they kind of suck! Admittedly, I don't think I've ever listened to A Perfect Circle, so I cannot judge them, but The Offspring, Def Leppard and Soundgarden? Not interested...I've never really gotten into any of them, and to be honest, I didn't think Def Leppard were still active. I know that's probably kind of bad of me, but I honestly had no idea! I've never really gotten into any of those bands, so somehow they slipped through the cracks. In fact, sadly, I thought Def Leppard hadn't released anything in my life time. One quick Google search taugh me that they have released five more albums since I was born. Which isn't a ton, when you think about the fact that I am 23 years old. I'd like to know how others feel about the headliners, because they really don't strike my attention at all. The Offspring has headlined before, but that was the year I did not try to attend. So I personally have never seen them, but I didn't hear a ton of people express excitment when they performed in 2014. Not for any particular reason, and it could have just been simply by the time they got on stage, the people I talked to were tired and ready to go home. I had heard Fort Rock was trying to be 'bigger and better' this year, and judging by the lineup, I can see their effort. There are some big names in the list, from the headliners to Papa Roach, Seether, All That Remains, but I really don't think they topped this year. There was 23,000 people there, all to see Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Bring Me The Horizon, Bullet For My Valentine, Saint Asonia, Asking Alexandria, Trivium and a ton more. Maybe it just drew my attention more, but I'm sure someone out there completely disagrees with me. I am geniunely excited to see some of the lineup though! I Prevail is an exciting one because I've recently really gotten into their music, and was going to cover them in the summer when they toured with Pierce The Veil. Unfortunately, due to a hurricane, I was unable to travel to them, so I'm excited to get a second chance there. I've already mentioned that I'm excited to see Papa Roach, Seether, Starset, Motionless In White and Chevelle. I also have interest in actually watching In This Moment, The Pretty Reckless and Beartooth. There's funny reasons for some of them. I've seen Motionless In White before, and interviewed Starset, but yet have never watched them. When I saw Motionless In White, I think they only had their Creatures album out, and at the time, it wasn't my cup of tea at all. Over the years, they've evolved and grown on me a lot. So I have wanted to give them a second chance for a while. They performed at the 2015 Fort Rock festival, but I missed their set entirely because I was interviewing Starset. I missed Starset's performance at that same festival due to another interview, with Young Guns. Do you know how weird is it to admit that to a band? I was sitting there with two of the members and they expressed interest in if I had watched their set. I felt bad having to tell them no, I missed their set entirely but they didn't seem too phased. I think its because bands know how hectic a festival is, especially behind the scenes. Plus they probably miss performances they want to see all the time. So, this year, I am determined to check them out. I also am very excited to try to get some interviews! I tend to ask for way too many interviews, and get lucky if four answer. I am hoping to finally get my Papa Roach interview, and would love to do follow up interviews with Seether and Starset. I also would like to speak to I Prevail, Dinosaure Pile Up (I currently know nothing about them, but their name is highly amusing to me so I'm intrigued), Beartooth, Nothing More, In Flames, Alter Bridge, In This Moment, The Pretty Reckless, Motionless In White, Chevelle, Alter Bridge, and All That Remains. So basically I want to talk to most of the lineup, so I'll be happy with whoever is willing to speak with me. We shall see what happens! Let me know your thoughts on the lineup and stay tuned because we are going to do be doing the Fort Rock project again this year! That is something we did last year, where we did 124 album reviews, 22 biographies, and posted a ton of news articles. Over 200 articles got posted in regards of the 2016 Fort Rock festival and this year we are planning similar endeavours. Stay tuned for the game plan and then all the content! Its all coming soon. |
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January 2022
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